Overview

The government's response to Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, suffered numerous criticisms. Nearly every assessment pointed to failure, from evaluations of President George W. Bush, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security to the state of Louisiana and the city administration of New Orleans. In Managing Hurricane Katrina: Lessons from a Megacrisis, Arjen Boin, Christer Brown, and James A. Richardson deliver a more nuanced examination of the storm's aftermath than the ones anchored in public memory, and identify aspects of management that offer more positive examples of leadership than bureaucratic and media reports indicated. Katrina may be the most extensively studied disaster to date, but the authors argue that many academic conclusions are inaccurate or contradictory when examined in concert. Drawing on insights from crisis and disaster management studies, Boin, Brown, and Richardson apply a clear framework to objectively analyze the actions of various officials and organizations during and after Katrina. They specify critical factors that determine the successes and failures of a societal response to catastrophes and demonstrate how to utilize their framework in future superdisasters. Going beyond previous assessments, Managing Hurricane Katrina reconsiders the role of government in both preparing for a megacrisis and building an effective response network at a time when citizens need it most.

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9780807170441

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Boin, Brown, and Richardson's impressive study of the Hurricane Katrina 'megacrisis' serves up a compelling blend of cutting-edge crisis management concepts, dramatic and meticulously researched empirics, and lessons of great practical value to leaders, emergency managers, journalists, and others who participate in and observe crisis management. Their work has done for the burgeoning Katrina literature what Graham Allison's seminal Essence of Decision did for the discourse on the Cuban Missile Crisis.--Eric Stern, professor, College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity, University at Albany Millions of words have been written about Hurricane Katrina. But few studies are as balanced, sober, and well-researched as this study. Managing Hurricane Katrina draws upon the deep expertise of its authors and an intensive research effort to not simply recap all the things that went wrong. Rather, this book helps us to understand what went wrong and what went right. This approach will be of considerable interest to disaster scholars and emergency managers who seek to learn from the hard lessons taught by Hurricane Katrina to better prepare for and respond to the next catastrophe.--Thomas Birkland, Professor of Public Policy, North Carolina State University

Author Information

Arjen Boin is professor of public institutions and government in the department of political science at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He has published widely on the subject of disaster management and public leadership, and is cofounder of Crisisplan, an international crisis consultancy. Christer Brown has extensive crisis management experience from the Swedish Government Offices and other agencies. He currently works for the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. James A. Richardson, Alumni Professor of Economics and Public Administration at Louisiana State University, worked with the Financial Services Roundtable, testified before the U.S. Congress on housing and financial issues associated with Hurricane Katrina, and provided information to the state of Louisiana on recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

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