The Storm

By: Mike Bryan and Ivor Van Heerden and Field Sketches

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Synopsis: The ultimate inside story: how bureaucracy, politics, and a disregard of science combined to cripple-perhaps forever-a great American city As deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, Ivor van Heerden had for years been warning state and local officials about New Orleans's vulnerability to flooding. But like Cassandra's, his predictions were ignored-until Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. Suddenly, van Heerden found himself at the center of a media maelstrom. Stepping forward to challenge the official version of events, he revealed the truth about the city's shoddy levee construction. Now, in The Storm, van Heerden shares up-to-the-minute reporting from his investigations and connects the dots among the Army Corps of Engineers, the bureaucrats, the politicians, and the chain of events-both natural and human-that culminated in catastrophe. An epic of cutting- edge science and systemic bureaucratic failure, The Storm is the first book from a major player in the Katrina disaster and a riveting narrative that brings expertise, passion, and a human viewpoint to America's greatest natural disaster.