If the United States appeared invulnerable following the dissolution of its biggest geo-strategic rival, the Soviet Union, in 1990 and America’s military victory against Soviet-equipped tanks in Iraq in 1991, the 2000s began to chip away at this image starting with the destruction of the Twin Towers in New York City in 2001. By 2005, Iraq had gone from military conquest to imperial quagmire, and the country’s city on the Mississippi River delta, New Orleans, became a literal quagmire as Class 5 Hurricane Katrina collapsed the levees and flooded the town. After thousands died during mismanagement of the crisis response, Katrina was the most expensive natural disaster in US history, in both financial and well as social capital terms, revealing the limits in capability of a people who fancied themselves a superpower.
Myth of the 20th Century – Episode 204 – Hurricane Katrina
— References —
- Bad Lieutenant, Ferrara (1992)
- Dawn of the Dead, Snyder (2004)
- Bush, God and Katrina, Landau (2005) – https://www.counterpunch.org/2005/09/15/bush-god-and-katrina/
- FEMA Faces Intense Scrutiny, PBS NewsHour (2005) – https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/government_programs-july-dec05-fema_09-09
- When the Levees Broke, Lee (2006)
- Trouble the Water, Lessin and Deal (2008)
- Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army, Skahill (2007)
- The Secret History of Hurricane Katrina, Ridgeway (2009) – http://www.heal-online.org/katrina082809.pdf
- Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Herzog (2009)
- Levees Cannot Fully Eliminate Risk of Flooding to New Orleans, National Academy of Sciences (2009) – https://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=12647
- Treme, Simon (2010)
- Walking Dead, Darabont (2010)
- ThE FEDERAL RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA LESSONS LEARNED, The White House (2011) – http://library.stmarytx.edu/acadlib/edocs/katrinawh.pdf
- Why Ending FEMA Will Improve Disaster Response, Edwards (2014) – https://www.cato.org/commentary/why-ending-fema-will-improve-disaster-response
- Monster hurricanes struck U.S. Northeast during prehistoric periods of ocean warming, National Science Foundation (2015) – https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=134130
- James LaFond – Beyond the Wire – Masculinity and Civilization, Myth of the 20th Century (2017) – https://myth20c.wordpress.com/2017/10/04/james-lafond-beyond-the-wire-masculinity-and-civilization/
- Flaming McDonalds Wrappers – After Dark, Myth of the 20th Century (2020) – https://myth20c.wordpress.com/2020/09/18/flaming-mcdonalds-wrappers-after-dark/