Hurricanes Katrina and Rita continue to shape the lives of their survivors. As the storms’ decade anniversary approaches, Second Line Rescue reminds readers of the suffering wrought in 2005 and offers a new take on the hurricanes’ aftermath. The editors begin, “[t]his is not another book about what went wrong in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Rather, it is a book about what went right in spite of it all” (xv). “What went right,” and what the book demonstrates in rich and moving detail, is “the power of vernacular responses and of creolized solutions” (10). Contributions to this edited volume illustrate ordinary people’s creative (or “improvised”) responses to the storms, providing a new and nuanced portrait of affected communities. This volume also models ethnographic approaches with broad applications for disaster study and response.
The book is divided into two parts. Part One describes “Gulf Coast rescuers from without,” or “second responders” to Katrina and Rita, whereas Part Two features “‘victims’ themselves” as “first responders” (xvii). The editors do not make too much of this distinction though, recognizing how in Part One, for example, a man named Glen Miguez becomes a first responder in his own community due to his local knowledge. The emphasis remains throughout Parts One and Two on improvised responses to disaster that highlight community members’ reliance on themselves and each other.
Following a preface by Ernest J. Gaines and a brief introduction by Ancelet, Gaudet, and Lindahl, Part One comprises eight sections. Barry Jean Ancelet introduces Part One, providing cultural context by explaining how “Cajuns and Creoles…improvised rescue efforts…for reasons that come from far back in our history” (11). Like the book as a whole, though, Ancelet’s chapter spends less time on interpretation than on the remarkable stories of survivors and rescuers. Subsequent contributions from Robert LeBlanc, François Ancelet, and Glen Miguez are three such stories. Originally shared in emails, LeBlanc’s and François Ancelet’s narratives recount their respective experiences as they improvised the rescue—marshaling the resources of their communities—of stranded New Orleanians. LeBlanc and Ancelet contradict rumors characterizing survivors as dangerous, depicting kindness and effectiveness in the face of institutional failure. Miguez conveys, in an interview with Ancelet, how he used his flat-bottom boat to rescue his Delcambre, Louisiana neighbors (and in some cases, members of the National Guard) after Rita’s flooding.
Following these narratives, contributions by Davis and Fontenot, then Donlon and Donlon, are different in tone but similar in purpose: these are essays rather than emails or interviews from the “front lines,” but they are also composed by those who endured Rita and Katrina. These authors again emphasize the capacity of community members to creatively come to each other’s aid: Davis and Fontenot describe how they witnessed in Ville Platte, Louisiana, “the bayou country’s ancient moral bedrock of populist revolt, cultural resistance and New Testament generosity” (52); Donlon and Donlon explain how a highway welcome center in St. Martin Parish became an impromptu shelter and a site of “grace, generosity, and an organic hospitality embedded in local tradition and shared community values” (53). The final essay in Part One is Marcia Gaudet’s study of General Honoré as a folk hero. Honoré, a native Louisianan, was commander of Joint Task Force Katrina. Gaudet makes her case for understanding Honoré’s effectiveness in light of his role as a “culture hero/trickster hero [who] not only comes to the rescue of his people, but he entertains them as well” (67). Part One concludes with a collection of photos illustrating some of the narratives in the book’s first half.
Part Two focuses on the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project (SKRH), a unique documentation effort coordinated by Carl Lindahl and Pat Jasper. This section begins with Lindahl’s introduction, explaining the origin, purpose, and methods of SKRH, wherein evacuees in Houston interviewed their fellow survivors. The two interviews that follow are paired with insightful reflections by their respective interviewers, Shari Smothers and Nicole Eugene, a combination that offers readers a fascinating view into the improvised community of SKRH. These “Two Duets” are followed by interviews with Josef Brown, Chantell Jones, Angela Trahan, Sidney Harris, Vincent Trotter, Glenda Jones Stevenson Harris, and Charles A. Darensbourg. Though these seven selections do not offer the same detailed background as the “Two Duets” do, editorial remarks accompany each interview. This framing offers commentary on significant patterns, as well as relevant details of narrators’ life histories and of the interview context. Moreover, every one of the nine survivors’ stories in this section tells a harrowing tale—from the demolished halls of a waterfront school in Mississippi to the flooded floors of the Orleans Parish Prison—of terror, of occasional humor, and of the persistent will to survive. Finally, Lindahl’s epilogue connects this second half of the book to the first, making explicit the ways in which SKRH stories echo the creative, vernacular responses described in Part One, while also making a larger claim that post-disaster scenarios are less likely to bring out “the worst of people” (252) than they are to engender “uncommon grace and goodness” (250).
Some readers might recognize contributions to this volume that have been previously published elsewhere (namely, National Geographic, The Nation, Louisiana Folklore Miscellany, and Callaloo). However, in addition to including new work and reflections afforded by the passage of time, this volume improves on previous individual publications by providing a compilation. In Second Line Rescue, readers encounter unprecedented, sustained attention to hurricane survivors’ experiences as told through their own stories. Audiences also gain a valuable perspective by reading (or teaching) these stories in tandem: traditions of care and resourcefulness are alive and well in Gulf Coast communities, and those interested in culture as well as those invested in the recovery of the region ought to take note of their staying—and healing—power.
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[Review length: 964 words • Review posted on March 12, 2014]