The Political and Cultural Economy of Recovery: Social Learning in a Post-Disaster Environment .

• Author: Pompe, Jeffrey
• Position: Book review

The Political and Cultural Economy of Recovery: Social Learning in a Post-Disaster Environment

By Emily Chamlee-Wright

New York: Routledge, 2010.

Pp. xiv, 224. $130.00 cloth.

Despite our increasing familiarity with devastating storms--the ten costliest hurricanes in U.S. history have occurred since 1989--Katrina transcends the pack. A Category 4 hurricane on the water and a Category 3 when it struck land on August 29, 2005, Katrina caused the most insured damage in U.S. history and was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to strike U.S. shores. Even today, more than five years after the storm, many communities continue to struggle with its aftermath. Emily Chamlee-Wright's The Political and Cultural Economy of Recovery provides an account of the experiences of residents from several New Orleans communities trying to recover from Katrina. Chamlee-Wright, who was a member of the Mercatus Center's Crisis and Response in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina project, provides an analysis of why one community successfully recovers from a major disaster and another does not. She uses information from the three hundred interviews of New Orleans residents performed by members of the Mercatus Center during the three years after Katrina to convey the experiences of survivors and to explain the keys to a successful recovery.

Chapter 1, in which the author extols the benefits of laissez-faire policy, is familiar territory, but it is nicely done, and for the uninitiated it will provide an excellent introduction to the Austrian school's recognition of the important discovery role of markets. In chapter 3, the author provides examples of how in Katrina's aftermath private firms and individuals outperformed government. For example, the speedy return of large chain stores, such as Home Depot and Lowes, was important because the 40 percent of the population who did not have flood insurance did their own work. The successful "strategy of mutual assistance" that community leaders, businesses, and individuals carried out contrasts with the top-down approach of government agencies such as the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the Bring New Orleans Back Commission (BNOB). Mayor Ray Nagan set up the BNOB in the weeks following the storm, and the ULI was the BNOB's principal consultant. Whereas community activists such as Father Vien Nguyen organized crews to start rebuilding, government created uncertainty and road blocks. For example, the BNOB told communities in a November...