This captivating book offers a close and exciting account of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, recounting what it was like to live through and survive this disaster. Readers will gain a unique perspective of the enormity of the tragedy and a greater appreciation of those who experienced it and survived its aftermath. With stunning images and gripping text, this book offers readers a new perspective of this tragedy, and readers will gain a greater appreciation for the power of mother nature.

Eleven-year old Barry Tucker's family tries to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina strikes their home in New Orleans, but family illness forces them to stay behind. When the levees break, Barry is swept away from his family, and must survive the storm alone. Includes notes with factual information.

Within myself I empathise with the main character who I share some similarities with, however in other factors we are worlds apart yet still I felt the plight of his anguish. This is a prolific story of an African American boy/man growing up in the Southern States, whom not only overcame a number of adversities in his life but survived to tell his tale. Some of his trials and tribulations were self-inflicted, but a large percentage as you will see was out of his definitive control. Yet throughout all his ordeals in one way or another he fought the fight to persevere, not always in the moral or ethical manner at times more frequently than most succumbing to human weaknesses. Forced into the onslaught of Katrina which he could have so easily avoided if not for sheer stubbiness, and escaping certain situations by a trifling margin of good fortune. Obviously if he could go back and change some of his indiscretions, in a heartbeat he would, but regrettably none of us get a second chance. At the end of it all he can only hope to emerge with a degree of dignity, able to face his accusers head held high without humiliation and indignity.

Try it. Right now. Picture the lights going off in the room you're sitting in. The computer, the air conditioning, phones, everything. Then the people, every last person in your building, on the street outside, the entire neighborhood, vanished. With them go all noises: chitchat, coughs, cars, and that wordless, almost impalpable hum of a city. And animals: no dogs, no birds, not even a cricket's legs rubbing together, not even a smell. Now bump it up to 95 degrees. Turn your radio on and listen to 80 percent of your city drowning. You're almost there. Only twenty-eight days to go. Joshua Clark never left New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, choosing instead to band together with fellow holdouts in the French Quarter, pooling resources and volunteering energy in an effort to save the city they loved. When Katrina hit, Clark, a key correspondent for National Public Radio during the storm, immediately began to record hundreds of hours of conversations with its victims, not only in the city but throughout the Gulf: the devastated poor and rich alike; rescue workers from around the country; reporters; local characters who could exist nowhere else but New Orleans; politicians; the woman Clark loved, in a relationship ravaged by the storm. Their voices resound throughout this memoir of a unique and little-known moment of anarchy and chaos, of heartbreaking kindness and incomprehensible anguish, of mercy and madness as only America could deliver it. Paying homage to the emotional power of Joan Didion, the journalistic authority of Norman Mailer, and the gonzo irreverence of Tom Wolfe, Joshua Clark takes us through the experiences of loss and renewal, resilience and hope, in a city unlike any other. With lyrical sympathy, humility, and humor, Heart Like Water marks an astonishing and important national debut. A portion of the author's royalties from this book will go to the Katrina Arts Relief and Emergency Support (KARES) fund, which supports New Orleans-area writers affected by the storm.Visit www.NewOrleansLiteraryInstitute.com to find out how to make a direct and positive impact on the region.

Jessica Pardee documents and examines the experiences of low-income African American women during Hurricane Katrina to uncover the ways that race, class, and gender shape the experiences of disasters. Drawing on intimate interviews to explore the complex challenges that these women faced in the course of the hurricane and its aftermath, Pardee reveals how, with so few material resources, they survived the storm and began the process of rebuilding their lives.

"This is the story of how one resident of New Orleans, John Lee, survived the physical storm only to be caught up in the maelstrom of social anarchy that followed. The climax of which was the burial of Miss Vera. It is Miss Vera?s grave, more than anything else, that has come to symbolize the abandonment the Katrina survivors experienced and the resilience and hope for recovery that made them survivors" -- publisher website (March 2007).

When and under what circumstances are disaster survivors able to speak for themselves in the public arena? In Consuming Katrina: Public Disaster and Personal Narrative, author Kate Parker Horigan shows how the public understands and remembers large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina, outlining which stories are remembered and why, as well as the impact on public memory and the survivors themselves. Horigan discusses unique contexts in which personal narratives about the storm are shared, including interviews with survivors, Dave Eggers's Zeitoun, Josh Neufeld's A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal's Trouble the Water, and public commemoration during Hurricane Katrina's tenth anniversary in New Orleans. In each case, survivors initially present themselves in specific ways, counteracting negative stereotypes that characterize their communities. However, when adapted for public presentation, their stories get reduced back to those stereotypes. As a result, people affected by Katrina continue to be seen in limited terms, as either undeserving or incapable of managing recovery. This project is rooted in Horigan's experiences living in New Orleans before and after Katrina, but it is also a case study illustrating an ongoing problem and an innovative solution: survivors' stories should be shared in a way that includes their own engagement with the processes of narrative production, circulation, and reception. When survivors are seen as agents in their own stories, they will be seen as agents in their own recovery. Having a better grasp on the processes of narration and memory is critical for improved disaster response because the stories that are most widely shared about disaster determine how communities recover.