Catastrophe in the Making: The Engineering of Katrina and Disasters of Tomorrow (review)

In the five years following the catastrophic hurricane we have all come to know as "Katrina," a plethora of books has been published on the storm. Many of these books are edited volumes, while others reflect accounts from journalists, historians, risk analysts, public policy specialists and a broad range of social scientists. Indeed one may ask, "Why another book on hurricane Katrina?" "What more can we learn about the storm and its destructive aftermath?" The book, Catastrophe in the Making: The Engineering of Katrina and Disasters of Tomorrow, provides an original, scholarly and revealing explanation of the flooding of New Orleans and the devastation caused by the storm of the century. This important account of Katrina expands our understanding of the storm to include deeply rooted societal processes that will place many more communities at risk in the future.

Esteemed sociologists William R. Freudenburg, Robert Grambling, Shirley Laska and Kai T. Erikson have written a brilliant account of this "untold story" of Katrina. Framed in terms of Harvey Moloth's conceptualization of the growth machine, "a set of dynamics that tends to shape the daily economic life of most American communities,"(10) the authors chronicle how New Orleans became a defenseless target for Katrina's massive destruction. The growth machine's uncontrollable advance towards progress and profit produced an engineered landscape that ultimately placed the citizens of New Orleans at extreme risk. Most important, the lessons of history, which are brought to light by the authors, go beyond just understanding Katrina's violent attack on New Orleans. Indeed, they are relevant to places far removed from South Louisiana, such as California and Missouri, where similar patterns of false promises from growth machine ideology provide prosperity for a few and threaten the lives and well-being of many.

Initially, the authors provide a pithy description of Hurricane Katrina's formation, landfall, media coverage and personal accounts of their experience following the storm. Taken together these are the first two narratives. The "third story" begins in the early 18^th century when New Orleans was settled as an inland city, "well protected from hurricane winds and water by a broad swath of wetlands and cypress swamps..."(39) Located along the Mississippi River, what is now known as the French Quarter was the initial population concentration that made up the city of New Orleans. Early on, the growth machine began its insatiable march to "progress." Improvements for commerce and growth involved the digging of canals for local economic interests. These activities initiated the first modifications of the areas of water and land around the city. As water transportation gave way to railroad transportation, political leaders at both the state and local level felt obligated to assist nature and reestablish an economic growth pattern for New Orleans. A direct water route from the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain became the commercial dream. The evolution of the growth machine was initiated in 1904 and in 1923 the Industrial Canal was completed. This canal provided a link to the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway and, most important, the opportunity to develop a deepwater route from the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. This progressive dream was framed as an issue of national security and the ultimate plan for the promotion of commerce. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with state and local politicians, now evoked all the powers of the growth machine to build the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, which would produce an "explosion for world trade."(84) Despite very real and serious concerns about the destruction of wetlands, shrimp harvests, waterfowl habitat and threats to the ecological viability of St. Bernard Parish, the taxpayer subsidized construction of MRGO became an unfolding reality.

MRGO became a man-made channel that insidiously grew in size while destroying thousands of acres of coastal wetlands and altering salinity levels of an additional 30,000 acres (129...