The good pirates of the forgotten bayous : fighting to save a way of life in the wake of Hurricane Katrina / Ken Wells.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wells, Ken.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hurricane Katrina, 2005--Social aspects--Louisiana--Saint Bernard Parish.

Hurricane Katrina, 2005.

Working class--Louisiana--Saint Bernard Parish--Biography.

Working class.

Disaster victims--Louisiana--Saint Bernard Parish--Biography.

Disaster victims.

Bayous--Louisiana--Saint Bernard Parish.

Bayous.

Community life--Louisiana--Saint Bernard Parish.

Community life.

Saint Bernard Parish (La.)--Biography.

Saint Bernard Parish (La.).

Saint Bernard Parish (La.)--Social life and customs.

Saint Bernard Parish (La.)--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

With a long and colorful family history of defying storms, the seafaring Robin cousins of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, make a fateful decision to ride out Hurricane Katrina on their hand-built fishing boats in a sheltered Civil War-era harbor called Violet Canal. But when Violet is overrun by killer surges, the Robins must summon all their courage, seamanship, and cunning to save themselves and the scores of others suddenly cast into their care. In this gripping saga, Louisiana native Ken Wells provides a close-up look at the harrowing experiences in the backwaters of New Orleans during and after Katrina. Focusing on the plight of the intrepid Robin family, whose members trace their local roots to before the American Revolution, Wells recounts the landfall of the storm and the tumultuous seventy-two hours afterward, when the Robins' beloved bayou country lay catastrophically flooded and all but forgotten by outside authorities as the world focused its attention on New Orleans. Wells follows his characters for more than two years as they strive, amid mind-boggling wreckage and governmental fecklessness, to rebuild their shattered lives. This is a story about the deep longing for home and a proud bayou people's love of the fertile but imperiled low country that has nourished them.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Map of the St. Bernard Parish region

Prologue

A Monster Cometh

1. Ricky at the Helm

2. Ronald on the Invincible Vance

3. Susan Robin Goes for a Drive

4. Stormy Traditions

5. Cajun- Spanish Roots and Pirate Connections

6. Charlo's Dawn

7. Matine's Dilemma

8. Ricky's Ark

9. Charlo Adrift

10. The Human Tide

11. Charlo in Limbo

12. Herbie and Mike's Strange Adventure

13. The Long March

14. Cruel Tuesday

15. A Day of Reckoning

16. Nine Days Beyond the Flood

17. The Imperfect Storm

18. Pioneers in the Rubble

19. Dancing with Boats

20. A Short Journey of Hope

21. Hard Realities of the ''Federal Storm''

22. The Toll upon the Land

Epilogue

Notes on Sources

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9786612352911

9781282352919

1282352911

9780300152951

0300152957

OCLC:

994401600