Disasterology: Dispatches from the Frontlines of the Climate Crisis—A Memoir and Expert Analysis of Our World's Growing Vulnerability to Natural Disasters

by Samantha Montano

An overwhelming 1.1 million housing units were damaged,30 accounting for about 70 percent of available housing in New Orleans.31 The number is staggering, but it does not tell us what the people who lived in those 1.1 million housing units needed. As I talked with New Orleanians, I learned how that number alone did not tell us how many of those homes were damaged to the point of being unlivable. It didn’t tell us how long it would take to repair each home or how much it would cost. It did not tell us if the owners could afford those costs. It did not tell us if the homeowners needed temporary housing until they could move back or if they had found someplace to stay. It did not tell us if they could afford their temporary housing. It did not tell us if their pets could stay there. It did not tell us if it was near their job or their children’s school. It did not tell us if the homeowners even wanted to move back.