The Great Deluge

by Douglas Brinkley

  46. Ibid.

  47. Interview with Gambino.

  48. Ibid.

  49. Interview with Leftwich.

  50. Interview with Fredro Knight, January 9, 2006.

  51. Interview with Janet McQueen, November 21, 2005.

  52. “Hospital Manages to Keep Doors Open,” Houston Chronicle, September 3, 2005.

  53. “Hancock Medical Center Could Take Six Months to Fully Reopen,” The Jackson Channel.com, November 7, 2005.

  54. Tom Wilemon, “Biloxians Coping, Remembering,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, September 1, 2005.

  55. Brian MacQuarrie, “Storm Reduces Mississippi Coastal Resort Region to Rubble, Ruins,” Boston Globe, August 31, 2005.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Tonya Walker, interview with Renee Montaigne, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, September 27, 2005.

  58. Interview with Veglia, December 7, 2005.

  59. Ben Nelms, “TV Face of Katrina Tragedy Loses Wife, Finds Hope with His Palmetto Family,” The Citizen News (Fayetteville, Ga.), September 16, 2005.

  60. Shaila Dewan and Abby Goodnaugh, “Rotting Food, Dirty Water, and Heat Add to Problems,” New York Times, September 2, 2005.

  61. Robert Little, “Life and Death Make Everything Else Unimportant,” Baltimore Sun, August 21, 2005.

  62. Lewis Lapham, “Notebook: Hurricane Katrina,” Harper’s, November 1, 2005.

  63. Jerry Mitchell, Chris Joyner, and John Fusquay, “Flooding, Wreckage, Death Sweep Miss.,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, August 30, 2005.

  64. Gary Fineout, “Biloxi, Gulfport Resemble War-Torn Cities in Hurricane’s Wake,” Miami Herald, August 30, 2005.

  65. Richard Ford, “A City Beyond the Reach of Empathy,” New York Times, September 4, 2005.

  66. Interview with Greg Iverson, October 6, 2005.

  67. Mitchell, Joyner, and Fusquay, “Flooding, Wreckage, Death Sweep Miss.”

  68. Jim Butler, “War Zone: Scenes from the Day After Katrina,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, August 31, 2005.

  69. Interview with Frank Griffith, January 3, 2006.

  70. Interview with Charlie West, December 14, 2005.

  71. Robert Little, “Storm Turns Beachfront into Junkyard,” Baltimore Sun, August 31, 2005.

  72. Tim Reid, “Aquarium Dolphins Found Alive,” The Times (London), September 15, 2005.

  73. Coyt Bailey, interview with Melissa Block, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, August 30, 2005.

  74. Don Hammack, Anita Lee, and Scott Dodd, “Gulf Coast Begins to Assess Devastation from ‘Our Tsunami,’” Biloxi Sun-Herald, August 30, 2005.

  75. Tony Gnoffo, “In Pascagoula, Katrina Claims a Neighborhood,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 31, 2005.

  76. Interview with Trent Lott, November 29, 2005.

  77. Ibid.

  78. “Lott Sues to Collect for Katrina Damage,” Houston Chronicle, December 18, 2005.

  79. Pender and Newsome, “Katrina Wreaks Havoc on Mississippi.”

  80. Bobby Cleveland, “Fishing Boats Stuck in Back Bay,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 8, 2005.

  81. Interview with Favre, December 21, 2005.

  82. Chris Joyner, “Katrina: The Recovery,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, October 13, 2005.

  83. Interview with Favre, December 21, 2005.

  84. Chris Joyner, “Mountain of Debris Daunting Problem,” Jackson Clarion-Ledger, September 22, 2005.

  85. Stan Tiner, “Our Worst Fears…,” Biloxi Sun-Herald, August 30, 2005.

  86. Alex Leavy, “In Gulfport Evacuees Huddle at a School, out of Options” St. Petersburg Times, September 4, 2005.

  87. Scarborough Country, September 1, 2005, MSNBC transcript.

  Chapter 6: THE BUSTED LEVEE BLUES

  1. Interview with Jim Amoss, January 10, 2006.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid.

  4. Frank Harris, The Bomb (New York: Mitchell Kennedy, 1909), p. 63.

  5. Interview with Amoss, January 5, 2006.

  6. Interview with Doug MacCash, January 10, 2006.

  7. Interview with James O. Byrne, January 18, 2006.

  8. Interview with MacCash.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Matt Scallan, “For Yacht Club, the Race Must Go On,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 27, 2005.

  11. Interview with Byrne.

  12. Interviews with Byrne and MacCash.

  13. Interview with Byrne.

  14. Interview with MacCash.

  15. Interview with Byrne.

  16. Interview with Amoss, January 10, 2006.

  17. Intermediate Advisory 25B, National Hurricane Center, Miami, Fl., August 29, 2005, 2 A.M.

  18. “National Hurricane Center Report,” August 29, 2005.

  19. Mary Foster, “Katrina Rips Piece Off Superdome’s Roof,” Associated Press, August 29, 2005.

  20. Anne Bochell Konigsmark, “Storm Drain: What Next for Dome,” USA Today, December 29, 2005.

  21. Interview with Brian Williams, January 10, 2006.

  22. “Rumors of Death Greatly Exaggerated,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 26, 2005.

  23. Intermediate Advisory 26A, National Hurricane Center, August 29, 2005, 6 A.M.

  24. Interview with Byrne, January 13, 2006.

  25. Ann Carns, “Long Before Flood, New Orleans System Was Prime for Leaks,” Wall Street Journal, September 25, 2005.

  26. Ibid.

  27. “Residents Say Levee Leaked Months Before Katrina,” Morning Edition, National Public Radio, November 22, 2005.

  28. Bob Marshall, “Levee Leaks Reported to S & WB a Year Ago,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 18, 2005.

  29. Ibid.

  30. “Government’s Failures Doomed Many,” Seattle Times, September 11, 2005.

  31. John McQuaid, “Katrina Trapped City in Double Disasters,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 7, 2005.

  32. Raymond B. Seed, Testimony, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, November 2, 2005.

  33. Graham Bulton, “Like Santa Claus,” Forbes, October 9, 1995.

  34. Interview with Blaine Kern, November 6, 2005.

  35. Martin Miller, “A Long Road to Recovery,” Los Angeles Times, October 12, 2005.

  36. Interview with Kern, December 17, 2005.

  37. Interview with Joaquin Zumbado, October 23, 2005.

  38. Ibid.

  39. Interview with Josh Holm, November 16, 2005.

  40. Interview with Richard L. Stalder, December 30, 2005.

  41. Interview with Zumbado.

  42. Dan Baum, “Deluged; When Katrina Hit, Where Were the Police?” The New Yorker, January 1, 2006.

  43. Interview with Heather Allan, December 16, 2005.

  44. Anderson Cooper, CNN, September 2, 2005, transcript.

  45. Eric Boehlert, “Covering Katrina,” Rolling Stone, October 6, 2005, p. 45.

  46. Brett Martel, “Angry God Sent Storms, Mayor of New Orleans Says,” Chicago Tribune, January 17, 2006.

  47. Interview with Allan.

  48. Cormac McCarthy. No Country for Old Men (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), p. 216.

  49. Interview with Tim Bayard, December 22, 2005.

  50. Nik Cohn, “The Day the Music Died,” The Guardian, January 15, 2006.

  51. Interview with Warren Riley, December 7, 2005.

  52. Ibid.

  53. Interview with Jimmy Duckworth, November 21, 2005.

  54. Ibid.

  55. Press release, “Coast Guard Stages Resources for Post-Hurricane Response,” U.S. Coast Guard, August 28, 2005.

  56. Interview with Michael O’Dowd, December 18, 2005.

  57. Interview with Duckworth.

  58. Amanda Ripley, “How the Coast Guard Gets It Right,” Time, October 23, 2005.

  59. Stephen Barr, “Coast Guard’s Response to Katrina a Silver Lining in the Storm,” Washington Post, September 6, 2005.

  60. Ripley, “How the Coast Guard Gets It Right.”

  61. “Guardsman Recounter Storm’s Fu
ry and Reserves at Jackson Barracks,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, September 16, 2005.

  62. Interview with Terry Ebbert, March 7, 2005.

  63. George W. Bush, interview with Brian Williams, December 7, 2005.

  64. Interview with Boisie Bolinger, October 3, 2005.

  65. Interview with Renee Marcus, December 14, 2005.

  66. Interview with Ebbert, March 9, 2005.

  67. Maureen Dowd, “Sex, Envy, Proximity,” New York Times, October 15, 2005.

  68. Jeremy Manier and Michael Hawthorne, “Path Puts Off City’s Day of Reckoning,” Chicago Tribune, August 30, 2005.

  69. Interview with Ebbert, March 6, 2005.

  70. Raymond B. Seed et al., “Performance Preliminary Report on the New Orleans Levee Systems in Hurricane Katrina,” University of California at Berkeley, 2005, sections 1–4 to 1–6 (re August 29, 2005).

  71. Interview with Gene Alonzo.

  72. Laura Parker, “What Really Happened at St. Rita’s?” USA Today, November 28, 2005.

  73. Interview with Nita Hutter, December 16, 2005.

  74. Ibid.

  75. Dean E. Murphy, “Storm Puts Focus on Other Disasters in Waiting,” New York Times, November 15, 2005.

  76. Interview with Jimmy Deleray, October 17, 2005.

  77. Michael Barnett blog, August 30, 2005.

  78. Interview with Kathleen Blanco, December 21, 2005.

  79. Ibid.

  80. Interview with Byrne, January 18, 2006.

  Chapter 7: “I’VE BEEN FEMA-ED”

  1. Interview with Ralph Blumenthal, January 20, 2006.

  2. Penny Brown Roberts, Michelle Millhollon, and Joe Gyan Jr., “Big Blow,” Baton Rouge Advocate, August 30, 2005.

  3. Interview with Blumenthal.

  4. Interview with Jeremy Alford, January 24, 2006.

  5. Ralph Blumenthal, “First Priority: Signs of Life,” New York Times News Service, August 31, 2005.

  6. Ibid.

  7. Interview with Blumenthal.

  8. Daryl Lang, “This Is Not a Normal Assignment,” Photo District News, September 1, 2005.

  9. Marty J. Bahamonde, testimony, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, October 20, 2005.

  10. “Guam Storm Victims Are Housed in Hotels,” New York Times, September 1, 1992.

  11. Interview with Marty Bahamonde, November 7, 2005.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Marty Bahamonde, e-mail to David Passey, August 18, 2005, 4:46 P.M.

  14. Marty Bahamonde, e-mail to David Passey et al., Bahamonde testimony, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, October 20, 2005, exhibit 12.

  15. “High Winds Punch Holes in Superdome Roof,” Associated Press, August 30, 2005.

  16. Ibid.

  17. Brian Williams, “Three Months Later, a Return to the Superdome,” November 29, 2005, MSNBC transcript.

  18. John Burnett, “More Stories Emerge of Rapes in Post-Katrina Chaos,” National Public Radio, December 21, 2005.

  19. Interview with Judy Benitez, October 20, 2005.

  20. Natalie Rule, e-mail to Marty Bahamonde and David Passey, Bahamonde testimony, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, October 20, 2005, exhibit 10.

  21. Interview with Marty Bahamonde, January 22, 2006.

  22. Ibid.

  23. Ibid.

  24. Interview with Gordon Russell, January 23, 2006.

  25. Interview with Bahamonde.

  26. Interview with Alford.

  27. Late Show with David Letterman, CBS, September 13, 2005, transcript.

  28. Bahamonde testimony, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, October 20, 2005.

  29. Daren Fonda and Rita Healy, “How Reliable Is Brown’s Résumé?” Time, September 8, 2005.

  30. The Early Show, CBS, September 9, 2005.

  31. Fonda and Healy, “How Reliable Is Brown’s Résumé?”

  32. Molly Ivins, “Another Bungling by the Bushies,” Charleston Gazette, September 10, 2005.

  33. Fonda and Healy, “How Reliable Is Brown’s Résumé?”

  34. Jimmy Carter, Town Hall meeting, American University, September 19, 2005, transcript.

  35. Angie C. Mack, “A Crisis Agency in Crisis,” U.S. News & World Report, September 19, 2005, p. 36.

  36. Date from National Climatic Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

  37. South Florida Sun-Sentinel clippings, May 2004.

  38. Larry Eichel, “What Went Wrong,” Knight Ridder, September 11, 2005.

  39. Eric Boehlert, “The Politics of Hurricane Relief,” salon.com, September 5, 2005.

  40. A. J. Rodriguez, “wish list,” August 29, 2005, supplied by Mitch Landrieu.

  41. Leo Bosner, interview on Frontline, September 28, 2005, PBS transcript.

  42. Dru Orja Jay, “FEMA Turned Away Aid,” Français International News, September 6, 2005.

  43. Robert Block, Amy Schatz, Gary Fields, and Christopher Cooper, “Power Failure: Behind Poor Katrina Response, a Long Chain of Weak Links,” Wall Street Journal, September 6, 2005.

  44. Bosner, interview on Frontline.

  45. Interview with David A. Ross, December 3, 2005.

  46. Interview with Warren Riley, December 5, 2005.

  47. Bill Steigerwald, “Government Can Take Lesson from Wal-Mart,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 14, 2005.

  48. Interview with Eddie Favre, October 17, 2005.

  49. “Companies Pitch In,” CNN, September 15, 2005, transcript.

  50. Interview with Sarah Jaffe, January 30, 2006.

  51. Press release, “First Responders Urged Not to Respond to Hurricane Impact Areas,” FEMA, August 29, 2005.

  52. Aaron Broussard, Meet the Press, NBC, September 4, 2005.

  53. Interview with Keith Calhoun, November 16, 2005.

  54. Patricia J. Williams, “The View from Lott’s Porch,” The Nation, September 26, 2005.

  55. Thomas Frank, “Roots May Save Lower 9 Ward,” USA Today, December 6, 2005.

  56. “Fats Domino Found OK in New Orleans,” CNN, September 1, 2005, transcript.

  57. Rick Coleman, Blue Monday (New York: Da Capo, 2006), p. x.

  58. Interview with Diane Johnson, November 23, 2005.

  59. Interview with Diane Johnson, December 20, 2005.

  60. Interview with Charmaine Neville, December 20, 2005.

  61. “Anatomy of a Disaster,” U.S. News & World Report, September 26, 2005.

  62. Kathleen Blanco, interview with Anderson Cooper, January 19, 2006, CNN transcript.

  63. “Brown’s Claims Not Fully Supplanted by FEMA Hurricane Response Plan,” September 27, 2005, ABC News transcript.

  64. Bruce Alpert, “FEMA Chief Dawdled,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, November 3, 2005.

  65. Bahamonde testimony, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, October 20, 2005.

  66. David D. Kirkpatrick and Scott Shane, “Storm and Crisis: The Former Administrator, Ex-FEMA Chief Tells of Frustration and Chaos,” New York Times, September 15, 2005.

  67. Rick Klein, “Ex-FEMA Chief Spreads the Blame,” Boston Globe, September 28, 2005.

  68. Kirkpatrick and Shane, “Ex-FEMA Chief Tells of Frustration and Chaos.”

  69. Spencer Hsu, “After the Storm, Chertoff Vows to Reshape DHS,” Washington Post, November 14, 2005.

  70. Evan Thomas, “How Bush Blew It,” Newsweek, September 19, 2005.

  71. Alison Young, Shannon McCaffrey, and Seth Borenstein, “As New Orleans Flooded, Chertoff Discussed Avian Flu in Atlanta,” Knight Ridder, September 15, 2005.

  72. Interview with Charles Foti Jr., January 22, 2006.

  73. The O’Reilly Factor, Fox, August 29, 2005.

  74. Suzanne Rodgers, interview on Paula Zahn Now, CNN, August 29, 2005.

  75. Jonathan S. Landay, Alison Young, and Shannon McCaffery, “Chertoff Delayed Federal Response, Memo Shows,” Knight Ridder, September 13, 2005.


  76. Michael Brown to Michael Chertoff, memo, Department of Homeland Security, August 29, 2005.

  77. Jeff Crouere, “President Bush’s ‘Brownie’ Is Black Mark on Louisiana History,” BayouBuzz.com, November 4, 2005.

  78. Randolph E. Schmidt, “Red Cross Says Number of People in Shelters Growing,” Associated Press, August 31, 2005.

  79. “Hurricane Katrina Aftermath: American Red Cross Relief Efforts,” Reuters, September 14, 2005.

  80. http://haircut.net/auction.

  81. 2005 Meteorite Community Charity Raffle, http://www.aerolite.org/meteoriteraffle.htm, September 17, 2005.

  82. Anthony Tan and Hedwig Kröner, “Latest Cycling News for September 5, 2005; Armstrong Helps Katrina Victims,” http://cyclingnews.com, September 5, 2005.

  83. Peter Whoriskey and Sam Coates, “Looting, Fires, and a Second Evacuation,” Washington Post, August 31, 2005.

  84. Cecilia M. Vega, “As Bodies Recovered, Reporters Are Told ‘No Photos, No Stories,’” San Francisco Chronicle, September 13, 2005.

  85. Interview with Russell.

  86. Interview with Lamar Montgomery, January 22, 2006.

  87. Interview with Jimmy Duckworth, November 21, 2005.

  88. Bill Walsh, “Federal Report Predicted Cataclysm,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, January 24, 2006.

  89. Interview with Ivory Clark, November 25, 2005.

  Chapter 8: WATER RISING

  1. Interview with Kathleen Blanco, December 19, 2005.

  2. Interview with Raymond Blanco, December 19, 2005.

  3. Interview with Bob Mann, December 19, 2005.

  4. Interview with Mary Landrieu, January 26, 2006.

  5. Ibid.

  6. Interview with Philip L. Capitano, January 27, 2006.

  7. Interview with Eddie Compass, March 13, 2006.

  8. “The Education of Eddie Compass,” Gambit Weekly, May 28, 2002.

  9. Walt Philbin, “Despite Murder Rate, Crime Down,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, August 20, 2005.

  10. Interview with Eddie Compass.

  11. Interview with Mary Landrieu.

  12. Interview with Kathleen Blanco.

  13. Arthur Davis, Design for Life, unpublished manuscript supplied by Arthur Davis.

  14. Ibid.

  15. Interview with Kathleen Blanco.

  16. Interview with Mary Landrieu.

  17. Interview with Kathleen Blanco.

  18. Interview with Raymond Blanco.

  19. Interview with Kathleen Blanco.

  20. Ibid.

  21. Interview with Ty Bromell, January 27, 2006.