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The article is a review of the book "Asian-Cajun Fusion: Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou" by Carl A. Brasseaux and Donald W. Davis. The book explores the history of the Louisiana shrimp industry, tracing its development from a local food to a global commodity. It examines the political, social, technological, and economic impact of the industry, with a focus on Louisiana. The book also discusses the influence of Asian immigrants on the industry and the shift from canned to frozen shrimp. It highlights the cultural and social changes surrounding the consumption and marketing of shrimp. The review praises the book for its informative and engaging content, and recommends it as a valuable resource for understanding the shrimp industry in Louisiana. [Extracted from the article]

"The Great Power of Small Nations" by Elizabeth N. Ellis explores the complex Indigenous history of the Lower Mississippi River Valley and its impact on wider continental and imperial politics. The book sheds light on the diplomatic and political influence of smaller Native nations such as the Tensas, Tunicas, Yazoos, and many others, who formed alliances with other Native nations and Europeans to protect their lands and cultures. The author also highlights the violence and devastation caused by colonial encounters, as well as the ongoing struggles faced by Indigenous communities today, such as the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, who continue to fight for federal recognition and support in the face of environmental challenges. This meticulously researched book provides valuable insights into the Gulf South and the Indian politics and diplomacy that shaped the modern world. [Extracted from the article]

This paper focuses on the impact of Hurricane Katrina—which hit parts of the U.S. South, especially New Orleans, in 2005—on African American coming-of-age novels. In particular, we argue that Hurricane Katrina constitutes a watershed moment in African American coming-of-age narratives, bringing about changes in identity formation and self-realization concerns that are typically associated with preKatrina African American coming-of-age novels. To develop our argument, we study two post-Katrina African American coming-of-age narratives: Ninth Ward (2010) by Jewell Parker Rhodes and Salvage the Bones (2011) by Jesmyn Ward. We suggest that these two narratives exemplify those changes through conforming to the Black Radical Tradition, as theorized by Cedric Robinson. The two novels, we show, not only lay bare the systemic racism that came to the fore in the aftermath of the hurricane but also highlight African Americans’ resistance strategies in the face of such racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood is one of the main materials used in buildings and furniture worldwide. After a disaster, indeed, a considerable amount of timber waste is produced. Wood waste is generally downcycled—i.e., recycled into low-quality products, incinerated for energy production—or, worse, landfilled, but in a post-disaster situation, it not only represents a quantitative issue and an environmental hazard but also acquires a cultural, social, economic and emotional value, thus requiring more effective ways to be managed. The Katrina Furniture Project, led by Sergio Palleroni in 2006 for the regions hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, provides a valuable precedent. Through pilot initiatives in New Orleans, furniture design emerged as a resilient practice within the reconstruction process. Affected people were involved for six weeks in a collaborative design workshop, enabling the generation of income, the acquisition of professional skills and, moreover, the rebuilding of a sense of community through collective work and the intrinsic gathering value of the crafted objects. The research develops a desk analysis and an on-field survey to reflect on the social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts of this case study and on the role of furniture design for resilient wood waste upcycling. Finally, the paper discusses the "legacy" of such practices from a digital perspective, analyzing limitations and opportunities within current research in design and manufacturing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At a global scale, deltas are vital economic hubs, in part due to the combination of their access to inland regions via river systems with their proximity to sea. However, with the sea in close vicinity also comes the threat of freshwater contamination by saline seawater, especially during droughts. This study explores the potential of a mitigation measure to estuarine salt intrusion, namely the construction of a (temporary) earthen sill—a measure implemented in the Lower Mississippi River near New Orleans (LA, USA). This study suggests design guidelines on how a sill can be used to mitigate estuarine salt intrusion: the design should focus on the longitudinal placement and the height of the sill, and the mitigating efficiency of the sill reduces with increasing tidal range. Overall, a (temporary) sill has great potential to reduce salt intrusion in salt wedge estuaries if there is sufficient water depth available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a review history of online collecting of current moments, including Hurricane Katrina, September 11, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which have been digitized.

This applied psychoanalytic paper explores the phenomenon of murder‐suicide in post‐Katrina New Orleans, focusing on the case of Zack Bowen and Addie Hall. The aftermath of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina often leads to increased mental health issues, including violence and suicide. The author, who lived and practiced psychiatry in the New Orleans French Quarter (FQ), was involved in a documentary about the couple, providing a unique perspective on their tragic story. Zack Bowen, a veteran of Iraq and Kosovo with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and Addie Hall, an artist with a history of abuse, were star‐crossed lovers in the post‐apocalyptic FQ. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, with the higher socioeconomic population evacuated, the city experienced lawlessness, but also a bond between subcultural groups seeking anarchy, freedom, escapism, and avoidance of past troubles. Drawing from excerpts of the documentary and material from a book about the couple entitled Shake the Devil Off, this paper utilizes an object relational framework to understand the multidetermined causes of the murder‐suicide. It highlights how disasters can bring individuals together in desperate situations, destabilize social connections, and exacerbate avoidant defenses through increased substance abuse. Furthermore, it reveals how such traumatic events can reopen past wounds, including PTSD and experiences of abuse, creating a mental health crisis that extends far beyond the initial impact of the storm. It also underscores the significance of interpersonal containment of toxic projections in the aftermath of a disaster, particularly for individuals with intrapsychic vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the intersection of in-group bias and mercy in extreme situations, drawing on examples from Hurricane Katrina's aftermath and literary works like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." It argues that both legal professionals and individuals facing crisis situations are prone to favoring their own group, which can hinder the exercise of mercy towards outsiders or strangers.

Large waves pose a significant threat to the safety of low-laying coastal bridges. In 2004 and 2005, many coastal bridges were destroyed by the large waves generated by Hurricane Ivan and Katrina. A series of studies have been conducted to investigate the wave action on bridge decks. However, the effect of seabed topography on wave forces is seldom considered. In this study, a numerical model of wave impact on bridge decks located close to a sloping seabed was set up based on OpenFOAM-v1912. The reliability of the present numerical model was checked against published experimental results. The wave forces acting on the bridge decks located before and after the sloping seabed were compared with a bridge deck located above a flat bottom. With the validated numerical model, the effect of the wave properties, coefficient of submergence, and the inclination on wave forces were investigated. The results show that the wave forces on the bridge are affected by the interaction among the incident and reflected waves, the position of the bridge relative to the sloping seabed, and the inclination. These findings emphasize the complex dynamic effects of wave forces on bridges and the importance of considering seabed topography in bridge design and strengthening strategies. This research contributes to an improvement in the safety of coastal bridges, especially in the face of increasing threats from climate change and sea level rise, as well as promotes the development of more resilient infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological evidence for local environmental change is obscured by the tendency for humans to remove natural resources from places of procurement and deposit them elsewhere, sometimes at great distance. This is especially problematic for changes in relative sea level, which clearly affected the inhabitability of low-elevation coastal landforms but not necessarily the regional availability of resources of cultural or economic value. Needed are proxies for relative sea level from non-dietary taxa. One genus of terrestrial snails, Truncatella, offers good potential in this respect because of its specific niche at the interface between seawater and land. However, like food resources displaced by people, Truncatella shells are displaced by storms and redistributed landward of the coastline. Distinguishing between autochthonous and allochthonous deposits is essential to inferring relative sea level from the occurrence of this taxon alone. To this end, assemblages of Truncatella shell from stratified sites along the north Gulf Coast of Florida, USA are compared to associated archaeological snails of other taxa and to snail shells from the wrack of proximate foreshores to infer changes in relative sea level over the past four millennia. Variation in the morphology of shorelines and in the accumulation rates of archaeological midden mitigates any direct relationship between terrestrial snail frequencies and sea level, but the results of this study suggest that our approach can be applied to other non-dietary taxa occupying marginally terrestrial niches to refine estimates for sea level derived from the sedimentary records of geological cores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines two neglected elements within the history of online news: public service news sites and weather reporting, and it does so by utilising web archives, which – surprisingly – do not figure very prominently in journalism history. The two elements have – in isolation and in combination – at least in Denmark, become increasingly important as the online news sections of the two public service institutions Denmark's Radio (DR) and TV2 consistently are among the most visited news sites and since reporting on the weather has gained in prominence and more recently, at least on DR TV, has become increasingly educational in its linking to issues of climate change. This article focusses on online news and conducts a historical analysis of the weather reporting on DR.dk from 2005 to 2022. The analysis seeks to balance the coding of journalistic texts with considerations of the online form of journalism, which here broadly means reading the webpage as a text. A key focus in the analysis is how meteorological data have been woven into cultural and social narratives, some of which are linked to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case study is about the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Make It Right Foundation (MIR), as it responded to Hurricane Katrina with Help and Harm between 2007-2022. The case focuses on the devastation of the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana, which impacted a disproportionate number of Black citizens already living below the poverty line before the hurricane destroyed their homes and community (i.e., Hurricane). Celebrity actor Brad Pitt led the foundation and promised to bring in renowned architects to build environmentally sustainable houses for the displaced residents (i.e., Help). The project garnered great media attention as Pitt provided his own donation and raised millions of dollars from fans and A-list celebrities. Unfortunately, the residents needed more than houses, but even those were not delivered. MIR's board neglected to consider the likely racial inequity and other complex traumas already experienced by residents. Moreover, MIR's inadequate aid, such as becoming completely unresponsive to requests for help, further compounded residents' complex trauma (i.e., Harm). We apply the Trauma-Informed Approach (SAMHSA, 2014) to governance and examine the racial equity challenges of nonprofit board governance across time: before beginning work with constituents, during the execution of the nonprofit's mission, and after problems arise. Furthermore, we introduce the "Resilience-Informed Leadership Approach" (RILA), which expands on the trauma-informed approach by recognizing the trauma of all those involved in the help process, recognizing survivors' resilience, and including the possibility for posttraumatic growth. A multimedia instructor and trainer guide is provided with links to videos, statistics, and popular press articles to illustrate the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean's mixed layer depth (MLD) plays an important role in understanding climate dynamics, especially during extreme weather occurrences like hurricanes. This study investigates the effects of Hurricane Katrina (2005) on the MLD in the Gulf of Mexico, using the Delft3D modeling system. By integrating hydrodynamics and wave dynamics modules, we simulate the ocean's response to extreme weather, focusing on temperature, salinity and MLD variations. Our analysis reveals significant cooling and mixing induced by Katrina, resulting in spatial and temporal fluctuations in temperature (~±4 °C) and salinity (~±1.5 ppt). The MLD is estimated using a simple threshold method, revealing a substantial deepening to ~120 m on 29–30 August during Hurricane Katrina in the middle of the northern Gulf of Mexico, compared to an average MLD of ~20–40 m during pre-storm conditions. It took about 18 days to recover to ~84% of the pre-storm level after Katrina. Compared to the stand-alone FLOW model, the coupled FLOW+WAVE model yields a deeper MLD of ~5%. The MLD recovery and wave effect on the MLD provide insights from various scientific, environmental and operational perspectives, offering a valuable basis for ocean management, planning and applications, particularly during extreme weather events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, an increasing number of crises worldwide, triggered by climate extremes, natural and human-made hazards, the coronavirus pandemic, and more, pose a high pressure on crisis, emergency, and disaster management. Spatial data and Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) are key issues in the successful and immediate response to crises. This paper aims to explore the use of VGI in crisis management, including emergency and disaster management, based on a scoping review of existing literature in English for five years (2016–2020). Specifically, the research intends to answer Scoping Review Questions (SRQ) regarding the use of VGI in crisis, emergency, and disaster management, and the verified cases' spatial distribution, the VGI sources utilized (e.g. OpenStreetMap – OSM, Crowdsourcing, Twitter), the types of hazards (e.g. natural and human-made hazards, pandemic), the specific tasks in crisis, emergency or disaster management and VGI use in the management of actual crisis events, e.g. COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Katrina, etc. Eligible papers on VGI use in crisis, emergency, and disaster management are geolocated based on first-author affiliation, and as a result, a spatial bibliography is provided. Thus, the term Spatial Scoping Review is introduced. Scoping Review Questions are answered, and the results are analyzed and discussed. Finally, implementing the "VGICED Atlas", a web atlas, permits the publication of the research results to a broad audience and the visualization of the analysis with several interactive maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In temperate regions, the annual pattern of spring onset can be envisioned as a 'green wave' of emerging vegetation that moves across continents from low to high latitudes, signifying increasing food availability for consumers.Many herbivorous migrants 'surf' such resource waves, timing their movements to exploit peak vegetation resources in early spring. Although less well studied at the individual level, secondary consumers such as insectivorous songbirds can track vegetation phenology during migration as well.We hypothesized that four species of ground‐foraging songbirds in eastern North America—two warblers and two thrushes—time their spring migrations to coincide with later phases of vegetation phenology, corresponding to increased arthropod prey, and predicted they would match their migration rate to the green wave but trail behind it rather than surfing its leading edge.We further hypothesized that the rate at which spring onset progresses across the continent influences bird migration rates, such that individuals adjust migration timing within North America to phenological conditions they experience en route.To test our hypotheses, we used a continent‐wide automated radio telemetry network to track individual songbirds on spring migration between the U.S. Gulf Coast region and northern locations closer to their breeding grounds.We measured vegetation phenology using two metrics of spring onset, the spring index first leaf date and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), then calculated the rate and timing of spring onset relative to bird detections.All individuals arrived in the southeastern United States well after local spring onset. Counter to our expectations, we found that songbirds exhibited a 'catching up' pattern: Individuals migrated faster than the green wave of spring onset, effectively closing in on the start of spring as they approached breeding areas.While surfing of resource waves is a well‐documented migration strategy for herbivorous waterfowl and ungulates, individual songbirds in our study migrated faster than the green wave and increasingly caught up to its leading edge en route.Consequently, songbirds experience a range of vegetation phenophases while migrating through North America, suggesting flexibility in their capacity to exploit variable resources in spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potter, C. and Sukanna, T., 2024. Remote sensing of damage inflicted on coastal wetlands of southern Louisiana from tropical storms. Journal of Coastal Research, 40(2), 235–245. Charlotte (North Carolina), ISSN 0749-0208. Shoreline and wetland loss in Louisiana threatens the future of the state's economy, which is heavily dependent on coastal activities. This study builds on previous satellite remote sensing studies over the Mississippi Delta region to make increasingly detailed assessments of damage inflicted on coastal wetlands of southern Louisiana from tropical storms of different categories. To begin to identify and characterize coastal wetland damage from Hurricanes Katrina (Category 5 in 2005) and Gustav (Category 2 in 2008), Potter and Amer (2020) used a multiband-subtraction methodology developed by Amer, Kolker, and Muscietta (2017) that calculates a Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) from Landsat Operational Land Imager images. Analysis of biweekly Landsat NDWI images between the years 2000 and 2011 for the Mississippi River Delta study region suggested that there have been increases in water coverage (and corresponding losses of wetland coverage) over most of the marsh shorelines facing the Gulf of Mexico across the Barataria Basin. The extensive erosion of marshland edges in northern Barataria Bay has continued from 2013 to 2022. Oiling from the Deepwater Horizon spill event in 2010 has contributed to high erosion rates observed after recent tropical storms in Barataria Bay. The combination of Landsat NDWI trend mapping with high-resolution image segmentation of marshland edges and interior features indicates that different types of biophysical damage inflicted on coastal wetlands of southeastern Louisiana from tropical storms can be characterized using this combination of satellite and aerial remote sensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of Jesmyn Ward’s novel “Salvage the Bones” is presented. It explores the portrayal of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, the challenges to the narrative of disaster, the concept of a "timescape," the idea of being "in the wake," and the themes of repurposing, care, and futurity in the novel. [Extracted from the article]

Facing the escalating effects of climate change, it is critical to improve the prediction and understanding of the hurricane evacuation decisions made by households in order to enhance emergency management. Current studies in this area often have relied on psychology-driven linear models, which frequently exhibited limitations in practice. The present study proposed a novel interpretable machine learning approach to predict household-level evacuation decisions by leveraging easily accessible demographic and resource-related predictors, compared to existing models that mainly rely on psychological factors. An enhanced logistic regression model (that is, an interpretable machine learning approach) was developed for accurate predictions by automatically accounting for nonlinearities and interactions (that is, univariate and bivariate threshold effects). Specifically, nonlinearity and interaction detection were enabled by low-depth decision trees, which offer transparent model structure and robustness. A survey dataset collected in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, two of the most intense tropical storms of the last two decades, was employed to test the new methodology. The findings show that, when predicting the households' evacuation decisions, the enhanced logistic regression model outperformed previous linear models in terms of both model fit and predictive capability. This outcome suggests that our proposed methodology could provide a new tool and framework for emergency management authorities to improve the prediction of evacuation traffic demands in a timely and accurate manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Keywords: Constraints; disasters; hurricanes; liminality; social media; uncertainty EN Constraints disasters hurricanes liminality social media uncertainty 300 321 22 05/16/23 20231101 NES 231101 1. Past hurricane experiences were less useful than they would have been for a more typical hurricane, as many noted in their social media posts, e.g., " ... We've had hurricanes before, but not like this one - so I don't know at all what to expect, really." The monologic series of social media posts enable study of those affected over the duration of the hazard and better understand social media expression especially from voices that are otherwise overcome by the highly public and therefore "louder" experiences of disaster. First, to isolate the people who might have experienced both flash flood and tornado hazards during Hurricane Florence, we collected all tweets from 8 September to 20 September 2018 containing both a tornado-related keyword ("tornado", "funnel cloud") and a flash flood-related keyword ("flood", "flash flood", "storm surge"), including keywords as hashtags (e.g., "#flood"). [Extracted from the article]

Background: Weather-related disasters, including hurricanes, are becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change. Vulnerable populations, such as people with low income and racial and ethnic minorities, are particularly prone to increased levels of physical harm and psychiatric adversity from weather-related events. Objectives: We aimed to explore psychosocial resources and coping of survivors with three different posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) trajectories (High-Decreasing, Moderate-Decreasing, and High-Stable), after Hurricane Katrina across two different time points: F1 (1-year post-disaster) and F3 (12 years post-disaster). Method: Participants in this multi-method study were part of a larger cohort of the Resilience in Survivors of Katrina (RISK) project. Transcripts of interviews completed at the two time points were analysed using two qualitative methods, combining thematic analysis and narrative analysis, and providing both breadth of perspectives with the depth of specific case studies. Results: Sixteen survivors completed interviews at both F1 and F3. From our in-depth analysis of the data, we derived five inductive themes: 'Hope,' 'Adaptive vs maladaptive avoidance,' 'Emotional delay,' 'Acceptance, Finding Meaning and Being in the Moment,' and 'Coping strategies.' Survivors with High-Decreasing and Moderate-Decreasing PTSS trajectories experienced hope for future, accepted the hurricane and its results, and found efficient ways to cope with their situation. Survivors with High-Stable PTSS trajectories tended to express a lack of hope for future and struggled to be mindful and accept the hurricane and its harm. Unlike survivors with High-Decreasing and Moderate-Decreasing PTSS trajectories, survivors with High-Stable PTSS trajectories also reported less social and family support and faced more discrimination and racism. Conclusion: There are factors beyond individual-level psychosocial resources that may shape post-disaster resilience. When supporting survivors after a weather-related disaster, it is essential to provide ongoing psychological, financial, and physical assistance to bolster these resources. After Hurricane Katrina, survivors with different posttraumatic stress symptom trajectories reported different levels of hope, mindfulness, and willingness to talk about the hurricane, emotional processing, and coping strategies. These experiences varied over time for survivors in all three trajectories. Survivors who report ongoing high levels of symptoms should be offered additional support to bolster these psychosocial resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevention of non-native species introductions and establishment is essential to avoid adverse impacts of invasive species in marine environments. To identify potential new invasive species and inform non-native species management options for the northern Gulf of Mexico (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas), 138 marine species were risk screened for current and future climate conditions using the Aquatic Species Invasiveness Screening Kit. Species were risk-ranked as low, medium, high, and very high risk based on separate (calibrated) thresholds for fishes, tunicates, and invertebrates. In the basic screening, 15 fishes, two tunicates, and 26 invertebrates were classi- fied as high or very high risk under current climate conditions. Whereas, under future climate conditions, 16 fishes, three tunicates, and 33 invertebrates were classified as high or very high risk. Very high risk species included: California scorpionfish Scorpaena guttata, red scorpionfish Scorpaena scrofa, purple whelk Rapana venosa, and Santo Domingo false mussel Mytilopsis sallei under both current and future climates, with weedy scorpionfish Rhinopias frondosa, Papuan scorpionfish Scorpaenopsis papuensis, daggertooth pike conger Muraenesox cinereus, yellowfin scorpionfish Scorpaenopsis neglecta, tassled scorpionfish Scorpaenopsis oxycephalus, brush-clawed shore crab Hemigrapsus takanoi, honeycomb oyster Hyotissa hyotis, carinate rock shell Indothais lacera, and Asian green mussel Perna viridis under climate change conditions only. This study provides evidence to inform trans-boundary management plans across the five Gulf of Mexico states to prevent, detect, and respond rapidly to new species arrivals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency and severity of natural disasters is surging, posing an urgent need for robust communication network infrastructure that is capable of withstanding these events. In this paper, we present a groundbreaking graph-theoretic system designed to evaluate and enhance network resilience in the face of natural disasters. Our solution harnesses the power of topological robustness metrics, integrating real-time weather data, geographic information, detailed network topology data, advanced resilience algorithms, and continuous network monitoring. The proposed scheme considers four major real-world U.S.-based network providers and evaluates their physical topologies against two major hurricanes. Our novel framework quantifies the important characteristics of network infrastructure; for instance, AT&T is identified to have fared better against Hurricane Ivan (57.98 points) than Hurricane Katrina (39.17 points). We not only provide current insights into network infrastructure resilience, but also uncover valuable findings that shed light on the performance of backbone U.S. networks during hurricanes. Furthermore, our findings provide actionable insights to enrich the overall survivability and functionality of communication networks, mitigating the adverse impacts of natural disasters on communication systems and critical services in terms of improving network resiliency via adding additional nodes and link or rewiring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]