The Continuing Storm

This beautifully written account by two preeminent disaster scholars takes readers on a journey that begins long before Hurricane Katrina, continues through its devastating impact on New Orleans, and explores its cumulative and lasting sociodemographic, economic, psychological, and related effects. An early harbinger of institutional failures yet to come, Katrina showed starkly how those institutions worked primarily for white, privileged, well-resourced groups and households, while leaving people of color, the marginalized, the poor, or survivors living in what were perceived as unconventional family arrangements, to fend for themselves. Above all, as its title indicates, the book shows in powerful detail that Katrina is not over for so many survivors who continue to struggle with repeated assaults on their physical and psychological well-being and on the social relationships that formed the bedrock of their identities. Erikson and Peek remind us that, like a gaping wound that refuses to heal, Katrina is still very much with us.— Kathleen Tierney, University of Colorado Boulder, author of Disasters: A Sociological Approach
The Continuing Storm documents the cruel irony that perennially besets human disasters, whether the culprit is a hurricane named Katrina or a pandemic named Covid-19. The least among us seem always to suffer the harshest collective traumas, bearing an effect that repeats. This book is a must-read for everyone who wishes to understand and to respond effectively.— Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology, Yale University, author of Black in White Space: The Enduring Impact of Color in Everyday Life
This is a wonderful book. It beautifully blends the clear-eyed analysis and elegant prose we expect from Kai Erikson with the state-of-the-art knowledge of disaster sociology that only Lori Peek can deliver. It’s precise, insightful, and powerful from beginning to end.— Eric Klinenberg, New York University, author of Palaces for the People: How To Build a More Equal and United Society
The Continuing Storm is a succinct volume about how racism, poverty, and other human-made injustices exacerbate natural disasters.— Foreword Reviews
[The Katrina Bookshelf] is the only series of writings that explores the multiple levels of a disaster and its extended aftermath over a nearly two-decade period. As such, the series provides a much needed understanding of the complexity of disaster response and recovery, of long-term toll disaster takes on people, families, and communities. The Continuing Storm serves as a series capstone of sorts, locating Katrina in both time and space while revisiting the chaos fostered by the immediate storm and flooding. The book also extensively reviews the impact of race and racism on Katrina response and recovery.— Recovery Diva
The authors have provided a wonderfully succinct account of Hurricane Katrina that clearly emphasizes the importance of viewing this disaster as an ongoing phenomenon...Erickson and Peek make important contributions to field of critical disaster studies, the study of disaster time frames, and the study of trauma that individuals who endure disasters experience. The Continuing Storm is recommended for those who teach undergraduate courses on environmental history and sociology, history and sociology of disasters, and the sociology of trauma. This book would also serve as a terrific introduction to Katrina for both academic and non-academic audiences.— H-Environment
Essential.— CHOICE
For the final installment of University of Texas Press’ Katrina Bookshelf collection, two of the most discerning voices in disaster sociology, Kai Erikson and Lori Peek, offer answers in a short and powerfully written new book, The Continuing Storm. . . In applying the insights beyond the specific case of Katrina, the book, therefore, concludes as powerfully as it begins, recognizing that most 'storms' have just begun. This excellent book is readable for a variety of audiences, thoroughly insightful, and represents the sociology of disaster at its finest.— Social Forces
Erikson and Peek provide an enlightening perspective on hazards and disasters that needs to be taken into account...[and] should have broad appeal and utility.— International Journal of Mass Emergencies & Disasters
This series is arguably the most comprehensive set of scholarly books on a single natural disaster ever published, and Erikson and Peek are two of the most experienced researchers of disasters...This work is incredibly valuable, particularly when taken as part of the whole series on Katrina, in providing detailed, often heavily data-driven, insight into the effects of not just a tragic natural disaster, but of the historical accumulation of decisions, policies, and institutions shaping inequality in the United States.— American Studies