Louisiana's Response to Extreme Weather: A Coastal State's Adaptation Challenges and Successes

Shirley Laska

Nov 2019 · Springer Nature

About this ebook

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license.This book takes an in-depth look at Louisiana as a state which is ahead of the curve in terms of extreme weather events, both in frequency and magnitude, and in its responses to these challenges including recovery and enhancement of resiliency.
Louisiana faced a major tropical catastrophe in the 21st century, and experiences the fastest rising sea level. Weather specialists, including those concentrating on sea level rise acknowledge that what the state of Louisiana experiences is likely to happen to many more, and not necessarily restricted to coastal states. This book asks and attempts to answer what Louisiana public officials, scientists/engineers, and those from outside of the state who have been called in to help, have done to achieve resilient recovery. How well have these efforts fared to achieve their goals? What might these efforts offer as lessons for those states that will be likely to experience enhanced extreme weather? Can the challenges of inequality be truly addressed in recovery and resilience? How can the study of the Louisiana response as a case be blended with findings from later disasters such as New York/New Jersey (Hurricane Sandy) and more recent ones to improve understanding as well as best adaptation applications – federal, state and local?

About the author

Shirley Laska, PhD, is professor emerita of sociology and founding past director of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans (UNO-CHART). She has been conducting applied research on the social/environmental interface, natural & technological hazards, and disaster response for 25 years. Her work includes studies on residential flood mitigation, hurricane response, coastal land loss effects, coastal fisheries, community risk assessment and risk management for coastal hazards, use of information technology and GIS as support tools for disaster management, and evacuation of the vulnerable. She has presented her work at National Academies of Science conferences and Congressional committees. Since Katrina her work has been focused specifically on lessons to be learned from the event, especially in the realm of community recovery and hazard resiliency. This work emphasizes Participatory Action Research in both slow onset – coastal land loss and sea level rise --and abrupt major disaster events – hurricane Katrina and the BP oil leak. She is the 2008 recipient of the American Sociological Association's Public Understanding of Sociology Award for her continuous collaboration with physical scientists and her presentations nationwide on Katrina/Rita impacts, and awards from the ASA Environment and Technology Section and the Rural Sociological Society's Natural Resources Research Group.