The University Press of Mississippi will release Craig Colten’s new book, Perilous Place, Powerful Storms:  Hurricane Protection in Coastal Louisiana in July 2009.

The hurricane protection systems that failed New Orleans when Katrina roared on shore in 2005 were the product of four decades of engineering hubris, excruciating delays, and social conflict. In Perilous Place, Powerful Storms, Craig E. Colten traces the protracted process of erecting massive structures designed to fend off tropical storms and examines how human actions and inactions left the system incomplete on the eve of its greatest challenge.

For more information see: http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1177