Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. Commentary and analysis typically focused on what went wrong in the post-disaster emergency response. This forward-looking book, however, presents a more cautiously optimistic view about the region's ability to bounce back after multiple disasters.

Catastrophes come in different forms --hurricanes, recessions, and oil spills, to name a few. It is imperative that we learn how best to rebuild in the wake of disasters and what capacities and conditions are needed to improve future resilience. Since the devastating summer of 2005, leaders have made important inroads to restoring communities in more prosperous ways. "Resilience and Opportunity" is an important contribution to our collective learning from a teachable moment.

Contributors: Ivye Allen, Foundation for the Mid South; Lance Buhl, Duke University; Ann Carpenter, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Robert A. Collins, Dillard University; Mark S. Davis, Tulane University Law School; Breonne DeDecker, Brandeis University; Karen B. DeSalvo, Tulane University School of Medicine; Kathryn A. Foster, University at Buffalo Regional Institute, SUNY; Linetta Gilbert, The Declaration Initiative; Ambassador James Joseph, Duke University; Mukesh Kumar, Jackson State University; Luceia LeDoux, Baptist Communities Ministries; Silas Lee III, Xavier University of Louisiana; David A. Marcello, Tulane University; Richard McCline, Southern University; Nancy T. Montoya, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Reilly Morse, Mississippi Center for Justice; Elaine Ortiz, Greater New Orleans Community Data Center; Andre Perry, Loyola University, New Orleans; John L. Renne, University of New Orleans; Kalima Rose, PolicyLink; Michael Schwam-Baird, Tulane University; Jasmine M. Waddell, Brandeis University; Nadiene Van Dyke, New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation; Alandra Washington, W. K. Kellogg Foundation; Frederick Weil, Louisiana State University; Leslie Willams, LeaderShift Consulting; Jon Wool, Vera Institute of Justice.

The loans ordinary Americans take out to purchase homes and attend college often leave them in a sea of debt. As Devin Fergus explains in Land of the Fee, a not-insignificant portion of that debt comes in the form of predatory hidden fees attached to everyday transactions. Beginning in the 1980s, lobbyists for the financial industry helped dismantle consumer protections, resulting in surreptitious fees-often waived for those who can afford them but not for those who can't. Bluntly put, these hidden fees unfairly keep millions of Americans from their hard-earned money. Journalists and policymakers have identified the primary causes of increasing wealth inequality-fewer good working class jobs, a rise in finance-driven speculative capitalism, and a surge of tax policy decisions that benefit the ultra-rich, among others. However, they miss one commonplace but substantial contributor to the widening divide between the rich and the rest: the explosion of fees on every transaction people make in their daily lives. Land of the Fee traces the system of fees from its origins in the deregulatory wave of the late 1970s to the present. The average consumer now pays a dizzying array of charges for mortgage contracts, banking transactions, auto insurance rates, college payments, and payday loans. These fees are buried in the pages of small-print agreements that few consumers read or understand. Because these fees do not fall under usury laws, they have redistributed wealth to large corporations and their largest shareholders. By exposing this predatory and nearly invisible system of fees, Land of the Fee reshapes our understanding of wealth inequality in America.

In the winter of 1910, the river that brought life to Paris quickly became a force of destruction. Torrential rainfall saturated the soil, and faulty engineering created a perfect storm of conditions that soon drowned Parisian streets, homes, businesses, and museums. The city seemed to have lost its battle with the elements. Given the Parisians' history of deep-seated social, religious, and political strife, it was questionable whether they could collaborate to confront the crisis. Yet while the sewers, Metro, and electricity failed around them, Parisians of all backgrounds rallied to save the city and one another. Improvising techniques to keep Paris functioning and braving the dangers of collapsing infrastructure and looters, leaders and residents alike answered the call to action. This newfound ability to work together proved a crucial rehearsal for an even graver crisis four years later, when France was plunged into World War I. On the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the flood, Jeffrey H. Jackson captures here for the first time the drama and ultimate victory of man over nature.

Evaluate the Evidential Details uncovered by the world's first Decorated Pentagon psychic remote viewer as he solves Titanic's greatest mysteries - including how the Captain really died. Heavily documented with Disaster Hearings testimony. Over 30 pictures including remote viewing drawings. Includes a specialized Introduction to remote viewing targeting Princess Diana's 1997 auto accident.

In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, Susannah Charleson clipped a photo from the newspaper: an exhausted canine handler, face buried in the fur of his search-and-rescue dog. A dog lover and pilot with search experience herself, Susannah was so moved by the image that she decided to volunteer with a local canine team and soon discovered firsthand the long hours, nonexistent pay, and often heart-wrenching results they face.

Still she felt the call, and once she qualified to train a dog of her own, she adopted Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever puppy who exhibited unique aptitudes as a working dog but who was less interested in the role of compliant house pet. Puzzle's willfulness and high drive, both assets in the field, challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years.

"Scent of the Missing" is the story of Susannah and Puzzle's adventures together and of the close relationship they forge as they search for the lost--a teen gone missing, an Alzheimer's patient wandering in the cold, signs of the crew amid the debris of the space shuttle "Columbia" disaster. From the earliest air-scent lessons to her final mastery of whole-body dialog, Puzzle emerges as a fully collaborative partner in a noble enterprise that unfolds across the forests, plains, and cityscapes of the Southwest. Along the way Susannah and Puzzle learn to read the clues in the field, and in each other, to accomplish together the critical work neither could do alone and to unravel the mystery of the human/canine bond.

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.

Peace For Your Home offers a fresh eyes approach for emergency preparedness and offers a guide you can follow along with as you begin or continue in your efforts to live a more stress-free life. By preparing you will be less stressed about the future. The book covers where to start, identifying your needs, meal planning, food substitutions, and provides many miscellaneous tips to help prepare spiritually, mentally, and physically for emergencies.

Weather correspondent Philip Eden has written a fascinating book, balancing just the right amount of science with illustrations and practical language. He asks and answers some difficult questions that must be discussed. Disaster books traditionally feed on hype, sensationalism and bad science. Eden manages to redress the balance. What then is the place of weather disasters in our climate? Are they freaks or a necessary part of the whole? How rare are meteorological event does it take to cause chaos in our day-to-day lives? Are we becoming more at risk and less capable of dealing with them? Or do we just complain more? These days we try and mitigate the effects of different hazards, by acquiring personal and property protection - individually, personally and politically. So what is the role of local and central government, the insurance industry, the media and the public? And how do we actually measure disaster? By rarity, insurance cost, death toll, recovery times etc? Can we merge all these so we can compare -say- the 1976 drought with the 1891 blizzard? Can we rank disasters? 15,000 died in the European heatwave of August 2003. Is this the shape of things to come? What will happen if the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Drift stops flowing? Here are just a few of Philip Eden's topics in a book which will be riveting to readers.

At the age of twenty-nine, Sizwe Magadla is among the most handsome, well-educated, and richest of the men in his poverty-stricken village. Dr. Hermann Reuter, a son of old South West African stock, wants to show the world that if you provide decent treatment, people will come and get it, no matter their circumstances.

Sizwe and Hermann live at the epicenter of the greatest plague of our times, the African AIDS epidemic. In South Africa alone, nearly 6 million people in a population of 46 million are HIV-positive. Already, Sizwe has watched several neighbors grow ill and die, yet he himself has pushed AIDS to the margins of his life and associates it obliquely with other people's envy, with comeuppance, and with misfortune.

When Hermann Reuter establishes an antiretroviral treatment program in Sizwe's district and Sizwe discovers that close family members have the virus, the antagonism between these two figures from very different worlds -- one afraid that people will turn their backs on medical care, the other fearful of the advent of a world in which respect for traditional ways has been lost and privacy has been obliterated -- mirrors a continent-wide battle against an epidemic that has corrupted souls as much as bodies.

A heartbreaking tale of shame and pride, sex and death, and a continent's battle with its demons, Steinberg's searing account is a tour-de-force of literary journalism.

Crises Happen... Will You Be Ready?
Crises affect people on many different levels, including psychological well-being. The 2004/2009 tsunamis, hurricanes Rita and Katrina, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are among events continuing to affect millions of lives daily. Potential events like Avian and Swine Flu pandemics, global warming/climate change and threats of spreading unrest in the Middle East are concerns weighing heavily on all. Planning and coordination are important components of responses to crises, disasters, and critical incidents.
Resilience, recovery from crises, community preparation, learning from past experience, and strategically planning for future events are all activities involving education, training and time of first responders, behavioral health professionals, chaplains and others.
Additional response variables include cultural knowledge and sensitivity. We need to respond appropriately within a culture not our own, whether locally, nationally, or internationally. The purpose of a behavioral health plan is to ensure efficient, coordinated and effective responses to behavioral health needs of affected populations during times of disasters and other critical incidents.
Readers of this book will:
Learn how the community and individuals respond to recover from disasters. Identify activities in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. Perform strategic planning and explain how it is helpful in mitigating and responding to disasters, critical incidents and other crises. Understand the mental health services provided to people affected by disasters, critical incidents and other crises. Identify and explain how disaster mental health professionals are affected by responding to disasters, critical incidents and other crises. Understand the stages of disaster recovery and how resilience affects each stage. Learn the signs and symptoms of disaster induced stress and emotional trauma and how resilience mitigates outcomes. Discover the meaning of "Return to Equilibrium" and explain its role in the recovery process following a disaster or critical incident.
Praise for "From Crisis to Recovery"
"Mr. Doherty has produced an invaluable reference volume for everyone involved in disaster response/disaster preparedness field. It is a must for your library His attention to detail, breadth of scope, depth of knowledge and readable writing style, reflect the work of an eminent scholar in his field and one who has paid his dues on the frontlines. It represents the ultimate A to Z 'How to Do It' manual in this difficult, complicated field. From the sensitive discussion of clinical issues to the organizational planning details, the clarity and thoroughness of this volume are outstanding. This book should be required reading for everyone involved in this critical field."
--John G. Jones, Ph.D. ABPP ATR-BC Licensed Psychologist
Learn more about the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute at www.RMRinstitute.org
MED003010 Medical: Allied Health Services - Emergency Medical Services
SOC040000 Social Science: Disasters & Disaster Relief
PSY022040 Psychology: Psychopathology - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

What kind of animals are human beings? And how do our visions of the human shape our theories of social action and institutions? In Moral, Believing Animals, Christian Smith advances a creative theory of human persons and culture that offers innovative, challenging answers to these and other fundamental questions in sociological, cultural, and religious theory.
Smith suggests that human beings have a peculiar set of capacities and proclivities that distinguishes them significantly from other animals on this planet. Despite the vast differences in humanity between cultures and across history, no matter how differently people narrate their lives and histories, there remains an underlying structure of human personhood that helps to order human culture, history, and narration. Drawing on important recent insights in moral philosophy, epistemology, and narrative studies, Smith argues that humans are animals who have an inescapable moral and spiritual dimension. They cannot avoid a fundamental moral orientation in life and this, says Smith, has profound consequences for how sociology must study human beings.

Emergency Response to Domestic Terrorism analyzes the emergency response to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.
Terrorism is a complex threat, and the American government is expected to deter or intervene in every attack. For that reason, the government must be better prepared to respond to acts of terror. One critical element is to understand what constitutes an "effective response."
To answer this key question, the author examined the existing literature and interviewed thirty-one elite participants in the emergency response to the bombing. The result is a unique qualitative case study that analyzes the response efforts undertaken after the bombing to draw conclusions about their relative success or failure.
Emergency Response to Domestic Terrorism looks at the nature and interrelationship of bureaucratic structures involved in the response, the organizational networking between the response bureaucracy, and the impact of bureaucratic culture on the response.
The work contributes to the existing literatures in both emergency response and bureaucracy. First, theoretical arguments about bureaucracies and their function are put to the test as they are applied to a specific crisis situation. Second, interview materials with key individuals who were on the scene of this American terrorist disaster are provided. Third, the emergency response literature is examined to determine whether the Oklahoma City bombing exhibited the anticipated response challenges. In addition, the work provides insights into the extent to which response communities are familiar with federal response guidelines. The overall results of the study are applicable to emergency response to terrorist incidents and to natural disasters.
By bringing together the academic and the practical aspects of emergency response, the work will appeal to students, practitioners, and policymakers. Further, it will foster better understanding of public policy and public administration in general.

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.

This book is the only one that will take you inside the psychological aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Each heart-wrenching tale will leave you shaking your head and counting your blessings. The testimonies are forthright and will allow you to see beyond the picture that the media has painted of them. They're still in shock, still without official word of where some loved ones are, and to add insult to injury, they're having to make defiant declarations that they deserve better than what they've been getting.

During the war in Sierra Leone (1991 2002), members of various rebel movements kidnapped thousands of girls and women, some of whom came to take an active part in the armed conflict alongside the rebels. In a stunning look at the life of women in wartime, Chris Coulter draws on interviews with more than a hundred women to bring us inside the rebel camps in Sierra Leone.

When these girls and women returned to their home villages after the cessation of hostilities, their families and peers viewed them with skepticism and fear, while humanitarian organizations saw them primarily as victims. Neither view was particularly helpful in helping them resume normal lives after the war. Offering lessons for policymakers, practitioners, and activists, Coulter shows how prevailing notions of gender, both in home communities and among NGO workers, led, for instance, to women who had taken part in armed conflict being bypassed in the demilitarization and demobilization processes carried out by the international community in the wake of the war. Many of these women found it extremely difficult to return to their families, and, without institutional support, some were forced to turn to prostitution to eke out a living.

Coulter weaves several themes through the work, including the nature of gender roles in war, livelihood options in war and peace, and how war and postwar experiences affect social and kinship relations."

Hurricane Katrina and the Redefinition of Landscape discusses the ways in which Hurricane Katrina and other such disasters that follow in the wake of large-scale natural phenomena have the ability to alter the physical and social landscapes of an area. Miller and Rivera emphasize the importance of the physical landscape and explore the ways in which any alteration to the landscape affects the economic, cultural, and political lives of the survivors. Through the example of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting devastation to New Orleans, Miller and Rivera suggest that economic and political policies should be more reflective of each unique physical location, thereby aiding in the development and sustainability of different cultures, economies, and political landscapes.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana and Mississippi. The storm devastated the region and its citizens. But its devastation did not reach across racial and class lines equally. In an original combination of research and advocacy, "Hurricane Katrina: ""America's Unnatural""Disaster" questions the efficacy of the national and global responses to Katrina's central victims, African Americans.
This collection of polemical essays explores the extent to which African Americans and others were, and are, disproportionately affected by the natural and manmade forces that caused Hurricane Katrina. Such an engaged study of this tragic event forces us to acknowledge that the ways in which we view our history and life have serious ramifications on modern human relations, public policy, and quality of life.

Despite the volumes of information they contain, few libraries, whose population at any given moment is as unpredictable as the weather, know how to prepare for, endure, and survive a disaster, whether natural or man-made, and even fewer put their know-how to paper. Emergency Preparedness for Libraries provides library management with a comprehensive guide to planning and executing emergency procedures. Based, in part, on an emergency preparedness seminar the author has presented for the American Library Association, Emergency Preparedness for Libraries provides library personnel with detailed instructions for protecting staff, patrons, and the facilities themselves, including Steps to take now, before disaster strikes People and procedures to include in an emergency/disaster action plan Practical ways to turn written plans into an instinctual team response Safety considerations to take into account when caring for people on-site during an emergency Information to provide to the umbrella organization and the media after a disaster Key things to do the first few days after an event Tips for getting back to business In addition, the author examines possible scenarios and provides step-by-step solutions for all types of libraries academic, school, public, and special and all types of disruptions, including floods, fires, civil disturbances, and theft.

Because most environmental problems result from human intervention in the ecosystem, ecological research in the social sciences is now joining research in the biological and physical sciences as a means of addressing long-range problems. Within this type of social science research, no problem is more important than the investigation of disasters. To assess the impact of sudden cataclysms on the living conditions of families or communities, scientists need a set of pretested, standardized measures that can be used cross-culturally. Once a disaster strikes, investigators are often faced with insufficient tools for assessing its impact and evaluating whether aid programs have enabled households to recover or improve their conditions. In this book, the authors introduce and describe a measure - the Domestic Assets Scale - that they have developed to deal with these research problems. They first present theoretical arguments that relate living conditions to the concepts of disaster and development, they then show how the measure was constructed with the use of data collected in sample communities in Italy, Mexico, Peru, Turkey, the United States, and Yugoslavia. Throughout their discussions, they emphasize the practical application of their theoretical arguments and address the research problems and constraints faced by investigators using this procedure. Finally, they assess the validity and reliability of the Domestic Assets Scale and show how it can be used to measure long-term change, especially in the wake of catastrophic events.

The first study of its kind to address the issue of ethnic diversity, Minority Citizens in Disasters focuses on the responses of two minorities-blacks and Mexican-Americans-relative to whites in three disaster events: a propane car derailment, a nitric acid spill, and a flood. Ronald Perry and Alvin Mushkatel find that response to initial warnings is influenced by the source of the information-mass media, public authorities, or family and friends-and by the immediacy of the danger, a group's familiarity with the type of threat, and the cause of the disaster. Though social contacts were most often the source of warning, public authorities were the most trusted and reliable. The mass media, usually considered an unreliable source, proved an effective means for reaching a majority of Mexican-Americans, who often tuned in to Spanish-language stations. Blacks, however, tended to dismiss the media as a vehicle controlled by whites and covering primarily white concerns, while whites often dismissed news stories as mere media productions. Perry and Mushkatel's record of the responses of blacks, Mexican-Americans, and whites not only reveals the differing social configurations of minority and majority groups but, more importantly, suggests concrete ways to modify and improve emergency management systems.

The earthquake that struck the Messina Straits on December 28, 1908, was Europes most powerful catastrophe in modern times. It claimed the lives of approximately 200,000 people, including some American diplomats and tourists. This book provides important insight into many aspects of the calamity and its subsequent impact. It also lends us some perspective on more recent natural disasters, such as the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 Historian Salvatore LaGumina describes the remarkable responses of various nations and people that was an impressive display of cooperation and brotherhood among competing nations. This study constitutes the first comprehensive volume that specifically explores the extensive and admirable role played by the United States in aiding Italy in the wake of the distressful time. It is an important book that should be of interest to the general public and to people in many fields, including philanthropy, Italian American studies, military/naval history, Italian history, disaster studies, gilded age history, twentieth-century America.

In recent years, the world has seen both massive destruction caused by natural disasters and immense financial and physical support for the victims of these calamities. So that these natural hazards do not become manmade disasters, effective systems are required to identify needs, manage data, and help calibrate responses. If well designed, such systems can help coordinate the influx of aid to ensure the timely and efficient delivery of assistance to those who need it most. 'Data Against Natural Disasters' seeks to provide the analytical tools needed to enhance national capacity for disaster response. The editors and authors begin with an overview that summarizes key lessons learned form the six country case studies in the volume. Next, they outline the data needs that arise at different stages in the disaster response and explore the humanitarian community's efforts to discover more effective response mechanisms. The country case studies review the successes and failures of efforts to establish innovative monitoring systems in the aftermath of disasters in Guatemala, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. 'Data Against Natural Disasters' will be useful to policy makers and others working in port-calamity situations who are seeking to design new monitoring systems or to improve existing ones for disaster response management.