How We Came Back: Voices from Post-Katrina New Orleans

“How We Came Back is a testament to the resiliency and power of a self-governing citizenry and the trials and tribulations they endure in dealing with the ‘cares of thinking and all the troubles of living,’ as Tocqueville put it. Its stories offer a fascinating window into the self-governing capacity of a people and the truly democratic way of life, even in the aftermath of horrific devastation.”
— Peter Boettke

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About the Book

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in southeastern Louisiana, displacing half a million people and causing more than $100 billion in damage in the Greater New Orleans region. The nation wondered how the people of New Orleans could recover from a disaster of this magnitude, the costliest in American history. Within a few years of Katrina, hundreds of thousands had returned and were rebuilding their homes. How they have come back is, to say the least, something of a puzzle.

A decade later, this book presents 17 oral histories of Hurricane Katrina survivors from four diverse New Orleans communities. The oral histories explore how these individuals, families, and communities began to rebuild after the devastation. These testimonies show that communities can be surprisingly resilient in the wake of disaster, especially thanks to early and disproportionately large individual efforts.

Why have some communities rebounded quickly while others have lagged behind? Even after accounting for obvious factors, such as degree of damage, median income, and flood insurance, much of the variance remains unexplained. What are the socially embedded resources that communities have drawn on to develop effective recovery strategies? Why, despite the commitment of significant government resources, have many of the official forms of assistance produced disappointing results?

This book explores the answers to these persistent questions, which have dogged social scientists over the past 10 years. Perhaps most importantly, it serves as fitting tribute to the vision, resolve, and industriousness of those who came back.

About the Authors

The authors conducted their field-research in New Orleans from February 2006 to December 2008.
Their overall study of disaster recovery efforts began in October 2005 and is ongoing.


Nona Martin Storr is an affiliated scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Her work has focused on the political and social histories of disadvantaged communities. She holds a PhD in history from George Mason University and a MA in public history (with an emphasis in oral history) from Loyola University Chicago.

 

 

 

 

Emily Chamlee-Wright is provost and dean of the college at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Her work examines the intersection between cultural and economic processes, including work on community resilience in post-disaster contexts, economic development, and civil society.

 

 

 

 

Virgil Henry Storr is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and a research associate professor of economics at George Mason University. He is a co-author of the forthcoming Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster: Lessons in Local Entrepreneurship (Palgrave 2015) with Stefanie Haeffele-Balch and Laura E. Grube.

 

 

 

 

Foreword

Peter Boettke is the vice president and director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center as well as the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism and a University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University. He has authored or coauthored 11 books, including his most recent, Living Economics.

 


 

Archived Footage

Saundra Reed, chair of the board, Central City Renaissance Alliance | From Chapter 2, Central City

 

Mary Tran, executive director, Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation |
From Chapter 4, The Mary Queen of Vietnam Community in Village de l’Est

Related Research

Media

Emily Chamlee Wright on the RealClear Radio Hour, "There's No Place Like New Orleans" (08/27/2015).

 
Virgil Storr and Laura Grube in The Advocate, “The Strength of the Human Spirit Was the Greatest Winner from Hurricane Katrina” (07/14/2015).

Scholars Present Their Findings on C-Span (08/23/2006)

 

20/20 with John Stossel: Rebuilding New Orleans through Spontaneous Order


 

20/20 with John Stossel: Rebuilding New Orleans through Entrepreneurship

 

Contents

Foreword: The Anatomy of Recovery by Peter Boettke

Introduction: What Stories of Return Can Teach Us

1. Ninth Ward

2. Central City

3. Gentilly Woods, Gentilly Terrace, and Pontchartrain Park

4. The Mary Queen of Vietnam Community in Village de l’Est

Conclusion: Stories of Resilience

Notes

Further Reading

About the Authors

 

 

 

 

 

 


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