One August day, normal lives were turned upside down when this monstrous hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. People were caught in turmoil, not knowing which way to turn. Some were able to get out when they heeded the warnings given by our leaders. Others were not able, due to lack of transportation and or funds. The roads out were very congested with traffic, with thousands of people trying to escape the wrath of Katrina. People were afraid they would be on the highways when this storm would hit. This story also focuses on the return of individuals and the way of life, as it was before hurricane Katrina and Rita and for weeks after the storms had past. Faced with no electricity, no water, no food, no homes to return to, no telephone, which meant no communication w/family. Not knowing if they were ok, since everyone was split up all around the surrounding states. Our feelings were that of sadness, confusion, and despair. What would we do now? How would we start over, rebuilding our lives? Understanding ultimately who is really in control of our destiny. Maybe some things needed to be changed in the way we live our lives.

The urgency of reducing poverty in the developing world has been the subject of a public campaign by such unlikely policy experts as George Clooney, Alicia Keyes, Elton John, Angelina Jolie, and Bono. And yet accompanying the call for more foreign aid is an almost universal discontent with the effectiveness of the existing aid system. In Reinventing Foreign Aid, development expert William Easterly has gathered top scholars in the field to discuss how to improve foreign aid. These authors, Easterly points out, are not claiming that their ideas will (to invoke a current slogan) Make Poverty History. Rather, they take on specific problems and propose some hard-headed solutions. Easterly himself, in an expansive and impassioned introductory chapter, makes a case for the "searchers"--who explore solutions by trial and error and learn from feedback--over the "planners"--who throw an endless supply of resources at a big goal--as the most likely to reduce poverty. Other writers look at scientific evaluation of aid projects (including randomized trials) and describe projects found to be cost-effective, including vaccine delivery and HIV education; consider how to deal with the government of the recipient state (work through it or bypass a possibly dysfunctional government?); examine the roles of the International Monetary Fund (a de-facto aid provider) and the World Bank; and analyze some new and innovative proposals for distributing aid. William Easterly is the author of The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT Press, 2001) and The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. He is Professor of Economics at New York University (Joint with Africa House), Codirector of NYU's Development Research Institute, visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Nonresident Fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. Contributors Abhijit Banerjee, Nancy Birdsall, Craig Burnside, Esther Duflo, Domenico Fanizza, William Easterly, Ruimin He, Kurt Hoffman, Stephen Knack, Michael Kremer, Mari Kuraishi, Ruth Levine, Bertin Martens, John McMillan, Edward Miguel, Jonathan Morduch, Todd Moss, Gunilla Pettersson, Lant Pritchett, Steven Radelet, Aminur Rahman, Ritva Reinikka, Jakob Svensson, Nicolas van de Walle, James Vreeland, Dennis Whittle, Michael Woolcock

In Who They Were, Dr. Robert C. Shaler, the man who directed the largest and most groundbreaking forensic DNA investigation in U.S. history, tells with poignant clarity and refreshing honesty the story behind the relentless effort to identify the 2,749 victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center. No part of the investigation into the 9/11 attacks has taken as long or been less discussed than the daunting task of identifying the victims -- and the hijackers -- from the remains in the rubble of Ground Zero. In Who They Were, Dr. Robert C. Shaler, former director of the Forensic Biology Department at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, tells the inside story of the relentless process of DNA identification and depicts the victories and frustrations that he and his team of scientists experienced during more than three years of grueling work. On September 11, 2001, New York City was unprepared for the mass-fatality event that occurred at the World Trade Center. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner had to completely reconfigure itself to process and identify the nearly 20,000 remains that would eventually come through its doors. Facing an astonishing array of obstacles -- from political infighting and an overwhelming bureaucracy to the nearly insurmountable task of corralling personnel and supplies to handle the work -- Shaler and his team quickly established an unprecedented network of cooperation among public agencies and private labs doing cutting-edge research. More than a story of innovative science at the frontiers of human knowledge, Who They Were also tells the very human story of how Dr. Shaler and his staff forged important and lasting bonds with the families of those who were lost. He shares the agony of mistakes made in the chaos and unintended misidentifications resulting in the excruciating difficulty of having to retrieve remains from families of the lost. Finally, Dr. Shaler shares how he and the dedicated team of scientists who gave up more than three years of their lives when the rest of the world had moved on had to face the limits of science in dealing with the appalling level of destruction at Ground Zero and concede that no more victims would be sent home to their families. As of April 2005, when the process was suspended, only 1,592 out of the 2,749 who died on that fateful day had been identified. With compelling prose and insight, Who They Were reveals the previously untold stories of the scientists determined to bring closure to devastated families in the wake of America's largest disaster.

"[A] tightly crafted, very readable book . . . the best in-depth contemporary analysis we are going to get."--Stephen Flynn, The Washington Post When Hurricane Katrina roared ashore on August 29, 2005, federal and state officials were not prepared for the devastation it would bring. In this searing indictment of what went wrong, Christopher Cooper and Robert Block take readers inside FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security to reveal the inexcusable mismanagement during the crisis--the bad decisions that were made, the facts that were ignored, and the individuals who saw that the system was broken but did nothing to fix it.
In this award-winning and critically acclaimed book, Cooper and Block reconstruct the crucial days before and after the storm hit, laying bare the government's inability to respond to the most elemental needs. They also demonstrate how the Bush administration's obsessive focus on terrorist threats fatally undermined the government's ability to respond to natural disasters. The incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call to all Americans, wherever they live, about how distressingly vulnerable we remain.

On the morning of 9/11, the Port Authority Police Department was the first uniformed service to respond to the attack on the World Trade Center. When the towers collapsed, thirty-seven of its officers were killed -- the largest loss of law enforcement officers in U.S. history. That afternoon, Lieutenant William Keegan began the work of recovery. The FDNY and NYPD had the territory, but Keegan had the map. PAPD cops could stand on top of six stories of debris and point to where a stairwell had been; they used PATH tunnels to enter "the pile" from underneath. Closure shares many never-before-told stories, including how Keegan and his officers recovered 1,000 tons of gold and silver from a secret vault to keep the Commodities Exchange from crashing; discovered what appeared to be one of the plane's black boxes; and helped raise the inspirational steel beam cross that has become the site's icon. For nine brutal months, the men at Ground Zero wrestled with 1.8 million tons of shattered concrete, twisted steel, body parts, political pressure, and their own grief. Closure tells the unforgettable story of their sacrifice and valor, and how Keegan led the smallest of all the uniformed services at the site to become the most valuable.

A compelling and definitive account of why we need to radically rethink our approach to dealing with catastrophic events Catastrophic events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Tohoku "Triple Disaster" of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that hit the eastern seaboard of Japan in 2012 are seen as surprises that have a low probability of occurring but have a debilitating impact when they do. In this eye-opening journey through modern and ancient risk management practices, Jon Coaffee explains why we need to find a new way to navigate the deeply uncertain world that we live in. Examining how governments have responded to terrorist threats, climate change, and natural disasters, Coaffee shows how and why these measures have proven inadequate and what should be done to make us more resilient. While conventional approaches have focused on planning and preparing for disruptions and enhanced our ability to "bounce back," our focus should be on anticipating future challenges and enhancing our capacity to adapt to new threats.

Research in recent years on aid effectiveness shows that significant obstacles in fragile states--insecurity, poor governance and weak implementation capacity--usually prevent aid from achieving the desired results in these environments. This study investigates the attributes and effectiveness of donor-supported programmes and projects that worked well under difficult conditions in fragile states. Presented in this study are nine development initiatives in six less developed countries Afghanistan, Cambodia, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Timor Leste and Uganda. The cases show that development initiatives, which engage local communities and local level governments, are often able to have significant impact. However, for more substantial improvements to take places, localized gains need to be scaled up either horizontally (other localities) or vertically (to higher levels). Given the advantages of working at the local level and the difficulty of working through mainstream bureaucratic agencies at higher levels in these countries, donors often prefer to create 'parallel-agencies' to reach out to larger numbers of beneficiaries. However, this may in the long run weaken the legitimacy of mainstream government institutions, and donor agencies may therefore choose to work as closely as possible with government officials from the beginning to build trust and demonstrating that new initiatives are non-threatening and help prepare the eventual mainstreaming of 'parallel agencies'."

Understanding of Operational Counter Terrorism is one serious effort to lay out a comprehensive strategy of how to deal with a whole gamut of possible terrorist incidents by using a language that any person or first responders like policemen, security personnel, firemen, paramedics, etc. can understand. This guide covers everything from bombings and hostage- taking, to NBC (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical) Terrorism, what needs to be done before, during, and after an event. This manual combines what minimally needs to be understood about Operational Counter- Terrorism by the government- level policy maker, while at the same time helping the personnel on the first responder level who are planning to cope with what must at least initially seem like an overwhelming attack. Terrorism is global and any part of this guide can easily be adapted and translated to any region, law and government in the world. This manual should make clear that the only way, to effectively deal with terrorism is to have a thorough understanding of its present-day characteristics such as who is involved and what weapons and tactics are the terrorists likely to be using. their tool boxes; what works and what is required; what new capabilities need to be developed in order to face not only today's terrorist, but also tomorrow's as well.

For more than forty-five years, Kevin Cahill has been helping to heal the world: as a leading specialist in tropical medicine and as a driving force in humanitarian assistance and relief efforts across the globe.Physician, teacher, activist, diplomat, and advocate, Cahill has touched many lives and helped right many wrongs. In this book, he chronicles extraordinary achievements of compassion and commitment. Bringing together a rich selection of writingsaessays, op-ed pieces, speeches, and other works, many out of print or hard to findahe crafts a fascinating self-portrait of a life devoted to others.The writings reflect fully the range of Cahillas passions. Reporting from places under siegeaLebanon, Somalia, Nicaragua, Libya, and IrelandaCahill writes as a physician and activist working to restore lives wounded by land mines or threatened by violence and disease. Closer to home, there are his visionary statements from the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, powerful critiques of the politics of famine and public health, and programs for new forms of humanitarian assistance to transform health and human rights.Looking back as the Bronx-born son of an Irish physician, he also touches on more personalabut no less passionateaconcerns and on the impact on his life of the worlds of pain and suffering in which he has traveled. Kevin M. Cahill, M.D., is Director of the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs at Fordham University and President of the Center for International Health and Cooperation in New York City. He is the author and editor of many books, including Human Security for All: A Tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello and Technology for Humanitarian Action, both in the Fordhamseries International Humanitarian Affairs.

Eroding Local Capacity is a critical examination of the interplay between international and local actors operating in the humanitarian arena in Africa. All sides emphasise the need to build local capacity for humanitarian action, yet the results have not been substantial. Even long-term, semi-permanent emergencies have generated little local capacity to assist and protect the victims of violence, displacement and related deprivations. In some cases, whatever local capacity did exist has been overwhelmed by the international aid presence. Why is this so? What is the case for a more even division of labour between North and South in this area, and why is it so difficult to bring about?The book focuses on cases from East Africa and the Horn. It considers institutional capacity in the public and private sector, as well as legal and social norms of humanitarian action. The authors are African and Nordic scholars who worked together on the NORAD-supported project over a 3-year period. Preliminary conclusions were discussed at seminars organized by the Centre for Foreign Relations (Dar es Salaam), the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (Bergen).

Today there is a preoccupation among development agencies and researchers with getting policy right; with exerting influence over policy, linking research to policy and with implementing policy around the world. But what if development practice is not driven by policy at all? Suppose that the things that make for 'good policy' - policy which legitimises and mobilises political support - in reality make it impractical and impossible to implement? By focusing in detail on the activities of a development project in tribal western India over more than ten years as it falls under different policy regimes, this book takes a close look at the relationship between policy and practice in development. David Mosse shows how the actions of development workers are shaped by the exigencies of organisations and the need to maintain relationships rather than by policy. Raising unfamiliar questions, Mosse provides a rare self-critical reflection on practice, while refusing to endorse current post-modern dismissal of development.

As interest in planning for emergencies and disasters burgeons, and educational and training programs proliferate, Principles of emergency planning and management is the first book to meet the need for a concise yet comprehensive and systematic primer on how to prepare for a disaster. Providing readers with a comprehensive, systematic, yet concise introduction to effective preparation for disasters, it provides a unified starting point encompassing the scattered and parochial literature in this nascent field of academic enquiry and practical endeavor.

The book provides a general introduction to the methods, procedures, protocols and strategies of emergency planning, with emphasis on situations in industrialized countries and the local level of organization (i.e. cities, municipalities, metropolitan areas and small regions), though with ample reference to national and international levels. Rather than concentrating on the practices of any one country or state, the author focuses on general principles. Principles of emergency planning and management is designed to be a reference source and manual from which emergency managers can extract ideas, suggestions and pro-forma methodologies to help them design and implement emergency plans. A comprehensive all-hazards approach is adopted, with frequent reference to the most important individual hazards and the planning and management needs that they create. Twelve examples of actual emergency planning and management problems are analyzed in detail.

Principles of emergency planning and management is written especially for the new generation of emergency planners and managers that is emerging as a result of intensified governmental interest in disaster preparedness. Many of them will occupy positions in government or other organizations that require emergency plans. The book will also be of value to students of disasters and hazards who have a practical interest in how disasters are planned for and managed, and to professional workers and trainees who will eventually have to participate in disaster plans. Principles of emergency planning and management is designed to be easily integrated with training courses in emergency preparedness.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assists states and localities overwhelmed by, or at risk from, disasters. FEMA also co-ordinates emergency management activities and planning for the continuity of government should national security be threatened. Since 1979 FEMA has administered a range of authorities that enable the agency to serve as the primary source of federal, technical, and financial assistance for emergency management. Among the types of aid provided through FEMA programs are grants and material to help disaster victims meet pressing needs such as food and shelter, education and training programs to improve the response capabilities of non-federal officials, and mobile communications equipment. FEMA exercises little regulatory authority, but directives that underlie the agency's mission authorise the agency to establish standards for reconstruction of buildings after a disaster declaration is issued, for the construction of federal buildings in earthquake-prone areas, and for the operation of first responder equipment. FEMA has responded to, and has helped communities prepare for, terrorist attacks in the United States. The Office of Homeland Security (OHS), established by President Bush subsequent to the attacks in 2001, has a similar, but more encompassing, mission related to disasters caused by terrorist actions. Congressional debate on the contours and framework for federal administration of homeland security might include consideration of FEMA's mission, the extent to which that mission overlaps with the assignments given the new OHS, and a new structure or set of authorities for that agency.

"Tonight the Bhopalis are going through their Hiroshima."
-Professor Manish Mishra, a doctor on the scene from FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT IN BHOPAL

One of the premier historians of our time, Dominique Lapierre is the author of such stirring classics as Is Paris Burning? and The City of Joy. Famed for uncovering the humanity in historic events, he here joins forces with acclaimed writer Javier Moro. Together they investigate and chronicle each fateful moment counting down to what happened...

FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT IN BHOPAL

Union Carbide was a huge American corporation whose leaders had only the best intentions. In New York they invented a miracle insecticide. In ancient Bhopal, they formulated the lethal gas needed to produce it and built a giant plant to process it.

But at five past midnight on December 3, 1984, toxic gas leaked out of a pesticide tank. By one thirty geysers were spitting poison into the night wind. The apocalypse had begun. Banks of deadly fog filled nearby slums. Lungs burst. Corneas burned. Death would strike in seconds and no one was prepared: neither the bride at her wedding banquet nor the peasants who came to Bhopal for a better life, not the shoemaker rousing his neighbors to flee their huts or the Scottish nun risking all to rescue lost children. By night's end, over half a million Bhopalis were drowning in pain and chaos and between 16,000 and 30,000 would die in the worst industrial disaster in history.

In FIVE PAST MIDNIGHT IN BHOPAL, Lapierre and Moro weave hundreds of characters, eyewitness accounts, and adventures into one haunting human tapestry. An epic of ambition and valor, faith and hope, catastrophe and consequence, it is as spine-tingling as Titanic, as harrowing as The Perfect Storm, and as relevant as the latest headline.

Half of all royalties for this book go to the Dominique Lapierre City of Joy Indian Foundation to support humanitarian actions in Bhopal.

Michael Taylor spent 12 years of his life as director of Christian Aid, during which time he came face to face with world poverty. In this book he gives three examples of theological work which promotes historical change in favour of the poor.

Edited by the United Nations Development Programme, this collection of papers offers a new rationale and framework for international development cooperation. Its main argument is that in actual practice development cooperation has already moved beyond aid. In the name of aid (i.e. assistance to poor countries), we are today dealing with issues such as the ozone hole, global climate change, HIV, drug trafficking and financial volatility. All of these issues are not really poverty-related. Rather, they concern global housekeeping: ensuring an adequate provision of global public goods.

What impact do international economic inputs have on human rights in Third World nations? William Meyer explores the effects of direct investment by U.S. multinational corporations, economic and military aid, and MNC manufacturing plants. He examines the international political economy of human rights at both the national and the international levels. Case studies are combined with quantitative studies that use aggregate cross-national data, and theories that link MNCs to human rights are subjected to empirical testing.

As Meyer illustrates, at the national level, human rights violations are associated with U.S. MNCs in Chile, Honduras, India, Indonesia, and Mexico. MNCs have been especially guilty of violating labor rights, particularly through their reliance on sweatshops. MNCs have also been responsible for widespread pollution and environmental degradation. At a broader international level, increased investment by MNCs tends to go along with human rights improvements in the Third World as a whole. Meyer shows that there is a broad positive relationship between direct investment by MNCs and broader political rights and improved living standards. Aggregate data are also analyzed for human rights as compared to U.S. economic and military aid. Economic aid is found to be associated with improved civil-political rights and improved socioeconomic rights. Military aid, by contrast, is associated with declining levels of civil rights and with lower levels of social welfare. This book will serve as an important study for researchers, activists, and students of human rights.

First World Hunger examines hunger and the politics of food security, and welfare reform (1980-95) in five 'liberal' welfare states (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA). Through national case-studies it explores the depoliticization of hunger as a human rights issue and the failure of New Right policies and charitable emergency relief to guarantee household food security. The need for alternative integrated policies and the necessity of public action are considered essential if hunger is to be eliminated.

* An accessible introduction for all social science students * A balanced, comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the issues and trends * A guide to the past, present and future of foreign aid Foreign aid has undergone considerable changes over the past fifty years. Foreign Aid in a Changing World explores the changes and locates them in a context of wider economic and political developments. These are the developments affecting all countries, in North, South, East and West, and in particular, the changing relations among them. The book analyses the different reasons why some countries - both in the developing world and former communist states - seem to need assistance. It critically surveys the values-based and interests-based arguments in favour of aid and its many forms; encompasses the important non-governmental and multilateral dimensions, as well as the bilateral flows, at national and sub-national levels; and focuses particularly on the contemporary emphasis on making aid dependent on democratization and 'good government'. Peter Burnell examines the principal influences on foreign aid, what makes aid controversial, and whether it has a future. He provides an important text for all students of international relations and development studies across the social science disciplines.