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“Natural” Disasters
“Natural” Disasters
“Natural” Disasters
As millions of Americans struggle to recover from this year's devastating hurricanes, we offer up this collection of stories about previous generations' ways of dealing with meteorological calamity.
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Hurricanes
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Fire
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Flood
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Policy
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Aftermath
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12
“Natural” Disasters
Aftermath
Aftermath
How Hurricane Katrina Changed Disaster Preparedness
Hurricane Katrina exposed deep inequities in federal disaster response. "We never felt so cut off in all our lives."
by
Yasmin Garaad
partner
How the Federal Government Became Responsible for Disaster Relief
The Alaska earthquake that put Washington in charge of natural disasters.
by
Andrew Morris
America’s Oldest Black Town Is Trapped Between Rebuilding and Retreating
In Princeville, what’s at stake is not just one town’s survival but a unique window into American history.
by
Jake Bittle
How Puerto Rico Recovered Before
The island’s New Deal history offers an alternative to disaster capitalism.
by
Kate Aronoff
Appalachian Hillsides as Black Ecologies: Housing, Memory, and The Sanctified Hill Disaster of 1972
A landslide that exposed racial inequalities embedded in Appalachian communities.
by
Jillean McCommons
On Inventing Disaster
The culture of calamity from the Jamestown Colony to the Johnstown Flood.
by
Cynthia Kierner
,
Anna Faison
The Untold Story of the Iraq War’s Disastrous Toll on the City of New Orleans
The Bush administration thought an elective war would make America safer. Then Katrina hit.
by
Paul A. Kramer
Laura Ingalls Wilder and One of the Greatest Natural Disasters in American History
When a trillion locusts ate everything in sight.
by
Caroline Fraser
partner
Puerto Rico’s Hurricane María Proves Once Again that Natural Disasters Are Never Natural
Today's rhetoric about dependency and disaster relief echoes a conversation from more than a century ago.
by
Stuart B. Schwartz
The Flood Blues
How floods have united people of color from the Gulf Coast states for nearly a century.
by
Tyina Steptoe
The King and Queen of Haiti
There’s no country that more clearly illustrates the confusing nexus of Hillary Clinton’s State Department and Bill Clinton’s foundation than Haiti.
by
Jonathan M. Katz
partner
Decisions More Than a Century Ago Explain Why The U.S. Has Failed Puerto Rico in Its Time of Need
Fears about trade prompted the decision to make Puerto Rico a colony.
by
Marc-William Palen