Drowned City

Drowned City

YA graphic novel
A little over a decade ago Hurricane Katrina slammed into New
Orleans. People who had cars had evacuated in a traffic jam snarl.
This left twenty percent of the population, disproportionately blacks
and the poor, to face nature's fury. This is the story eloquently
told in Don Brown's Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans.
The graphic novel format gives a you are there quality to the
narrative. It adds an immediacy and urgency many people wouldn't get
from just blocks of words. Some of the pictures, such as the one
where the storm surge waters break down the levees, are vividly
frightening. Some of them, such as the one where a man is forced at
gunpoint to abandon his dog before he can get on a bus to safety, are
heartbreaking. Then President Bush is shown as being disturbingly
clueless.
Drowned City not only tells an important part of American
history vividly, but should raise a number of questions for readers
young and old.
*Why did black and/or poor residents face the greatest danger and bear
the greatest losses of life and property?
*Why did so much go wrong in the government rescue efforts?
*Is my town/city/state prepared to handle a catastrophe such as a
hurricane?
The latter is not just a rhetorical query. With extreme weather
events on the rise many of us might not be as safe as we'd like to
think.
On a personal note, I'm up for reelection to Veazie School Committee
in June. I've taken out my papers and am collecting signatures. I
have to get at least twenty-five to get on the ballot. That shouldn't
be too hard. I'm finishing my eleventh year. If I get reelected I'll
get three more.
A great big shout out goes out to the Veazie voters who will hopefully
will reelect me for three more years.
Jules Hathaway


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