Katrina, five years later

I can't explain exactly why, but what happened after the levees broke in New Orleans five years ago still affects me so deeply that thinking about it not only puts a lump in my throat but fuels an internal round of sheer, unadulterated anger. How so many people were literally left hung out to dry and virtually abandoned by those whose job it is to care is still beyond my capacity for understanding. I don't think I'll ever get it, to be honest.

This post isn't a retrospective about my feelings; that would take pages and pages and I'd still not be able to get everything down. Instead, I've done something constructive for myself and others who want to revisit Katrina and New Orleans: I've created a list of nonfiction books that deal with Katrina and its aftermath, which can be found here.  I'm sure I don't have them all, so if you know of more, please let me know. And, because not all of the studies are in book form, after some research, I found a site of scholarly research on the hurricane's effects, which you can find at the Katrina Research Hub.  There are links to everywhere, including the US Government. And believe me, I'm going to go through them all.

It's not that I'm obsessed...I just want answers. And I can't be the only one out there who still thinks about those dark days that exposed just how little our government cared.