Reviews
"If you aren’t long since Katrinaed out, and if you have the stomach for it, LSU Press at Baton Rouge has what’s likely to be the authoritative account of the great bungle."
Arkansas Times
"The rush of words about Hurricane Katrina has slowed somewhat, except in New Orleans and portions of the Mississippi coast. But what is happening -- and not happening -- to rebuild the devastated areas and prevent future devastation should not be considered stale news."
The Times-Picayune
"'Hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents were displaced by Katrina,' opens the remarkable new book City Adrift: New Orleans Before And After Katrina. 'More than 1,400 Louisianans died, more than half of them from New Orleans.' Several articles and books have been written about Katrina since the monster hurricane made landfall. City Adrift is among the best."
The Clarion-Ledger
"Anybody already familiar with the skilled investigative reporting emanating from the Center for Public Integrity during the past two decades will be unsurprised to hear that 'City Adrift' reveals details ignored or forgotten since coverage began in August 2005."
The Denver Post
“This objective investigation conducted by seven outstanding journalists is an overwhelming indictment of the failure on the part of government and non-government agencies to respond to both the threat and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This excellent exposé of corruption and incompetence, conducted under the auspices of the Center for Public Integrity (a nonpartisan organization that sponsors investigative journalism) should lead to calls for future accountability.”
Publishers Weekly
"If there was any doubt that Hurricane Katrina was, in reality, a man-made catastrophe in New Orleans, this book dispels it, fact by indisputable fact. Anyone who believes that government exists primarily to protect the public from events and matters beyond an individual's control will be appalled and embarrassed. This is an important book that exposes the depth and breadth of government dysfunction with ramifications far beyond the levees and bayous of southeastern Louisiana."
Bryan Norcross, CBS News hurricane analyst and author of "Hurricane Almanac 2006"
“This book documents, with clarity and cogency, the cupidity and stupidity of virtually every agency and institution, public and private, that failed a city when the threatened ‘big storm’ finally struck.”
John Seigenthaler, founder of The First Amendment Center and former editor and publisher of The Tennessean
“City Adrift is the most disturbing and engrossing book on the heartbreaking entrance of Hurricane Katrina into our nation’s mythology. The reporting is infuriating and devastating in its power and terrible accuracy. This disaster did not have to happen and this book provides further proof why the winds of Katrina will refuse to die down in our lifetime.”
Pat Conroy, bestselling author of "The Lords of Discipline," "The Great Santini" and "The Prince of Tides"