Commentary magazine: "The Lessons of Disaster" by James B. Meigs. An excerpt:
My Katrina experience taught me to be suspicious of easy narratives about disasters. Major catastrophes—whether natural or man-made—are complex, multifarious events. They contain contradictions: Heroism and incompetence exist side by side; black-and-white attributions of blame are generally wrong. Even the richest, most disciplined societies are never fully prepared for disasters. (Witness the entirely preventable meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant following the 2011 tsunami.) Disasters are, by definition, events that exceed our imaginations and overwhelm our preparations.
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