“The Storm – What went wrong and why during Hurricane Katrina – the inside story from one Louisiana scientist” was written and published months after Hurricane Katrina by lead project investigator Ivor Ll. van Heerden with Mike Bryan. This book combines Louisiana history and politics with science and insight from the often lone scientist, who up until the disaster was dismissed as “alarmist” by many regarding his assessment of New Orleans true vulnerability to storm surge flooding. Having studied the mounting hurricane risks and warned of impending threats to coastal Louisiana and particularly New Orleans for years – both as a leading state restoration official and prominent researcher – in “The Storm” Dr. van Heerden gives a bold and straightforward account of the events and players that led up to and unfolded during and after the storm.

“van Heerden manages to navigate the narrow path that fuses scientific data with a gripping narrative worthy of a Tom Clancy thriller…. Informative and emotional… a must-read for anyone truly interested in the facts behind Hurricane Katrina.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

“..a compelling new book….I have said this to you off camera before. And just to say it on camera, I mean, I consider you really one of the heroes of this storm, because, in many senses, you were a canary in a cage years before this thing hit, warning people about what was to come….” CNN’s Anderson Cooper

“…LSU disaster specialist and hurricane researcher Ivor van Heerden….for the last decade… had used every available megaphone to warn of this catastrophe waiting to happen. On August 29, 2005, his worst fears became reality, and the natural disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi quickly evolved into national disgrace. Soon van Heerden became perhaps the most prominent independent voice in the national media pressing the administration, FEMA, the Corps of Engineers, everyone at all levels of government to act now.

The Storm is the ultimate inside story of the Katrina tragedy. In Louisiana, van Heerden is known as a scientist who tells it like it is. He knows why the levees failed to protect New Orleans. As a former coastal restoration chief for the state, he knows why the abused wetlands surrounding the city could not protect the levees. He knew how many people would be unwilling-or unable-to evacuate and how many homes were likely to be destroyed. And he has seen with his own eyes the politics responsible over the decades for the failure to plan for this completely predictable situation. He now unites this understanding with his firsthand, behind-the-scenes reporting, including the state's official investigation into the levee failures, which he led. Van Heerden witnessed the desperation of first responders who were unable to talk with one another-and the heroism of those same responders, tirelessly working the waters of a flooded New Orleans to save thousands of lives. This is their story. It is the story of the families that escaped the flooding in Louisiana and the devastating storm surge on the Mississippi coastline-and it is told in memory of those 1,300 Americans who did not.

If the past is indeed prologue, "America's wetlands" is in terminal trouble, but they don't have to be. Van Heerden lays out the necessary course of action for building the levees and the protective wetlands that will guarantee "Cat 5" flood protection for New Orleans and the surrounding communities. Success depends only on civic will and political leadership. Van Heerden doesn't like to see science pushed to the sidelines, but that is what happened in Louisiana for decades. He is the only one to connect the dots between the bureaucrats, the politicians, the Corps of Engineers, and the tragic chain of events that culminated in the catastrophe that crippled, perhaps forever, a great American city.” (From the Publisher, Penguin Books)

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