John McQuaid

A former reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, John McQuaid is a Katrina Media Fellow at the Open Society Institute and the coauthor, with Mark Schleifstein, of Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms.

Get my RSS

Storm Warning: Never Again? The Politics of Preventing Another Katrina

The Bush administration's lackluster response to one of the largest natural disasters in the nation's history has been to rely on stopgap measures and incompetent contractors, rather than devising a national plan to protect the U.S. coastline. Will it take another Katrina for the government to act? The conclusion of a three-part series.

Wed Aug. 29, 2007 12:00 AM PDT

Storm Warning: What the Dutch Can Teach Us About Weathering the Next Katrina

A 1953 storm that killed 1,835 people forced the Netherlands to change the way disaster protection is done. The same can't be said of the U.S., where innovation has been stymied by pork-barrel politics. Part two of a three-part series.

Tue Aug. 28, 2007 12:00 AM PDT

Storm Warning: The Unlearned Lessons of Katrina

New Orleans and its surrounding areas are a petri dish for global climate change. What's happening there will show up in your neighborhood sooner than you think. Part one of a three-part series.

Sun Aug. 26, 2007 12:00 AM PDT

A Hundred Katrinas: Climate Change and the Threat to the U.S. Coast

If you thought Katrina was the big one, wait till you see what's coming to your neighborhood.

Sun Aug. 26, 2007 12:00 AM PDT

Broken: The Army Corps of Engineers

Plodding, complacent, careless—the agency whose lapses led to the near-destruction of New Orleans now must fortify the entire U.S. coast for an era of rising seas, global warming, and more powerful storms. But first it must fix itself.

Sun Aug. 26, 2007 12:00 AM PDT