ARLINGTON, Va., - "In Katrina's Wake: The National Guard on the Gulf Coast, 2005," a book that chronicles the National Guard's involvement in the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, has been released by the U.S. Government Printing Office.
This 64-page monograph, written by National Guard historians Bill Boehm, Renee Hylton, and Army Maj. Thomas W. Mehl, shows how Katrina first grew from a seemingly-routine Category One hurricane in Florida into a behemoth storm in the Gulf of Mexico bringing 150 mph-plus winds and large swells of water upon hundreds of thousands of people.
It struck Louisiana and Mississippi somewhat diminished in strength, but bringing with it the capability to flood 80 percent of the city of New Orleans as its levees failed, and to flatten buildings and structures in the state of Mississippi. Over 1,800 individuals were killed, and many more incapacitated.
The story of the National Guard during the time of the hurricane was not well-publicized, nor was it correctly reported by mass media outlets, said Boehm, who is the lead author of the book.
The National Guard undertook the largest humanitarian mission in recorded U.S. history by sending over 50,000 Soldiers and Airmen from all 54 states and territories to the stricken region for over a month.
This book focuses the readers on the tasks undertaken by the Guard in aiding marooned residents and assisting local authorities without overemphasizing political or social commentary prevalent in reporting the larger story.
It also uses oral histories recorded by soldiers and airmen on the ground to illustrate the stark conditions present there and includes maps, photographs, and multiple appendices that further detail the National Guard units that came to the Gulf States, and a timeline that shows how events progressed, Boehm said.