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Path of Destruction

The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms

Chapter One

In 2002, we wrote a series for the Times-Picayune that explored New Orleans's unique vulnerability to hurricanes, especially the enormous storm surge waves they generate. Our reporting explored an obvious but little-acknowledged fact: here was a city that, for the six months of every hurricane season, lived with a substantial risk of utter annihilation. New Orleans's predicament seemed to fly in the face of sound government policy, not to mention basic common sense: much of the city was built on top of a swamp, below sea level and gradually sinking. The hurricane levees around it formed a shallow bowl that, if breached or overtopped by a storm surge, would fill with water. Anyone there would be trapped by quickly rising floodwaters, their escape routes cut off. As streets became rivers and neighborhoods lakes, hundreds, maybe thousands, would drown.

Such horrors seemed unimaginable to most Americans, and remote even to New Orleans residents who had heard scientist ... read full excerpt from: Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms ebook