Disaster Honored by Fire Chiefs
The NJ Deputy Fire Chiefs Association threw its 15th annual awards dinner and reception on November 17, at which it honored Chris Cooper and Bobby Block for Disasterť. The book won the civic associations' prestigious "President's Award". Deputy Fire Chief President Charles Aughenbaugh, Jr. heaped praise on the book, especially for highlighting how first responders got short-changed by the Department of Homeland Security's almost myopic focus on terrorism at the expense of other disasters like fires. He said Disaster was "wonderful" and required reading for Americans across the country. The Association presented attendees with copies of the book. Bobby accepted the award on behalf of the authors.
See picutures of the awards dinner

The Washington Post praises "Disaster"
The Washington Post calls Disaster, “likely the best in-depth contemporary analysis” of the Hurricane Katrina debacle that America has yet seen. It is, the paper says, a “searing indictment of a post-9/11 federal government more intent on dealing with hypothetical dangers than real ones”.
The review, written by Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard Commander turned author and homeland security guru, praises the book as a tightly crafted and very readable book, “by two veteran reporters who tenaciously piece together the inside story of how the Bush administration unraveled when confronted with its first major post-9/11 domestic emergency.”
“Given that future catastrophes are inevitable,” the Post says, “this book is a call to arms to demand a far more competent federal emergency response than Washington has been willing to provide.”
Read the review

Podcast of CBC Congressional Award ceremony
Chris and Bobby received an award from the Hon. Rep. Donna Christensen and the Congressional Black Caucus back in September. A podcast of their remarks is available here:
Visit the podcast

Heckuva miniseries, Brownie
Dave Walker of the Times-Picayune riffs on Katrina flim projects currently in development, including HBO's effort to turn "Disaster" into a TV miniseries. "I got the clear message from HBO that they want to do it right, and they want to take as much time as needed to get the journalism right," said David Fanning, the award-winning producer approached by HBO to oversee the transformation of the book into a miniseries. "They don't want to do something that takes so much dramatic license that it's not fair to the story," he added.
Read the TP story

HBO seeks to build on success of Spike Lee Documentary
The New York Times today reported in its "Arts, Briefly" column that HBO acquired "Disaster" with an eye to developing it into a miniseries. HBO's aim, the Times said, was to build on the success of Spike Lee’s documentary, “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” which it showed over the summer.
Read the NYT story

'Disaster' brings HBO back to Big Easy
HBO has acquired "Disaster," to develop as a miniseries. David Fanning, an Emmy-winning documentary maker, and David Kennedy are the producers. Kennedy produced Showtime's "Our Fathers." Director and cast have yet to be named.
See the Variety story on the acquisition

Podcast from Rising Tide blogger convention in NOLA
We were on tour in NOLA recently and delivered a keynote at the Rising Tide blogger conference. It's worth checking out what these Internet writers they have to say about the city, since they know it so well. You can find many of them linked through a site called Your Right Hand Thief (righthandthief.blogspot.com). Ashley Morris, a local blogger and college professor, has posted a podcast of the panel discussion.
ashleymorris.typepad.com

Authors Podcast
Listen to Christopher Cooper and Robert Block discuss their book and the state of recovery of New Orleans. This was recorded at the Rising Tide bloggers conference in New Orleans on Aug. 26.
Listen to the podcast

U.S. Congressional Black Caucus honors Disaster authors
The Congressional Black Caucus has awarded Christopher Cooper and Robert Block the 2006 CBC Health Braintrust Leadership Award in Print Journalism for their book, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. "Disaster is a valuable resource to those of us on Capitol Hill who have and continue to champion and support legislation to address the myriad unmet needs of the survivors of the hurricanes in the Gulf Region," wrote Donna M. Christensen, Democratic delegate to Congress from the Vrigin Islands, and a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The award will be presented on September 8, 2006, in Washington D.C.

Disaster a "must read"
Wall Street Journal's influential Washington Wire today quotes ex-Clinton aide P.J. Crowley, touting new releases on Katrina and Iraq, as saying, “The two leading books about the Bush administration out this summer: ‘Disaster’ and ‘Fiasco.’ "
Read the Washington Wire

Disaster authors honored with a first responder award
The awards committee of the New Jersey Deputy Fire Chiefs Association will bestow its President's Award to Christopher Cooper and Robert Block in recognition of their book, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. The New Jersey Deputy Fire Chiefs Association is a nonprofit association of career fire officers whose purpose is training, safety, education, and research to improve fire safety for the citizens of New Jersey and our nation. The honors will be presented at the Annual Awards Dinner on November 17, 2006, at the Glen Ridge Country Club, Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
See the Jersey Chiefs' website

WASHINGTON, August 8, 2006 - Christopher Cooper and Robert Block, authors of “Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security”, today release on their website a group of important government documents previously unavailable to the public detailing the history of the bungled emergency response to Hurricane Katrina.

Key among them is the US Senate staff interview of Gen. Matthew E. Broderick, the former head of the Homeland Security Operations Center, the main information clearing house of the department. The center and Gen. Broderick played a pivotal role during the disaster, becoming a stovepipe of vital information that impeded relief efforts. Gen. Broderick was responsible for advising both Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the White House of the scale of the disaster.

The failure of the Homeland Security Operation Center is a main revelation of “Disaster”, which is available today in stores throughout the country.

Highlights of Gen Broderick’s statements to Senate investigators include:

• He did not know New Orleans was vulnerable to a major hurricane despite the fact that DHS had included a hurricane strike in New Orleans in its National Planning Scenario of 15 worst catastrophes along with a nuclear attack on a major city and the sabotage of the US food supply by terrorists
  
  
• He and DHS spent the better part of two days trying to confirm whether the levees had breached, despite ample evidence this had occurred. The question of breaching was a pivotal fact in determining whether the situation in New Orleans warranted a stepped-up federal response
  
  
• He did not understand that the Super Dome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, scenes of some of the greatest suffering after the storm, were separate places, thus denying the government with information that could have speeded relief to storm victims there
  

Also released are previously unavailable White House emails faulting the flow of information from DHS and transcripts of daily video-teleconferences with state and federal officials, including one on August 29, 2005, the day of landfall, when state and federal officials could have placed the response a proper footing – but for a single, terrible, and unnecessary miscommunication between Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin over the state of the New Orleans levees.
Read the Documents

Available in stores nationwide

Wall Street Journal Article / Excerpt
The Wall Street Journal today reports on what went wrong during the Katrina response, and publishes a free chapter of Chris Cooper and Robert Block's book, Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security. All links are free to non-subscribers.

Disaster Podcast
Robert Block, co-author of "Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security," talks about the government's response to the hurricane and why things went so bad in New Orleans.
Listen to the Podcast (MP3)