View of the Mississippi River from Perot State Park

International Conference on Rivers and Civilization:
Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Major River Basins


La Crosse, Wisconsin USA
June 25-28, 2006

HOST AND PRESENTER INSTITUTIONS
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Home Page National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium Home Page

CONFERENCE SPEAKER

Michael Tidwell (Author, Filmmaker, USA): Life After Katrina: Allowing the Mississippi River to "Flood" Again Is the Only Way to Save New Orleans From the Next Hurricane  (Abstract)

photo of Michael Tidwell Author and filmmaker Mike Tidwell predicted in vivid detail the Katrina hurricane disaster in his 2003 book Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast. He is now at work on a follow-up book, to be published on the first anniversary of Katrina, titled: The Ravaging Tide: Katrina, Global Warming, and the Race to Save America's Coastal Cities. Tidwell has written a total of five nonfiction books centered on the themes of nature and travel. These include Amazon Stranger (detailing efforts to save the Ecuadorian rainforest) and In the Mountains of Heaven (travels to exotic lands across the globe). Tidwell has won four Lowell Thomas awards, the highest prize in American travel journalism and is a former grantee of the National Endowment for the Arts. Tidwell's most recent documentary film - "We Are All Smith Islanders" - details the dangers and solutions associated with global warming in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. In 2003, Tidwell received the Audubon Naturalist Society's prestigious "Conservation Award." A native Georgian, he now lives in Takoma Park, Maryland with his eight-year-old son Sasha.

Abstract: Poor evacuation plans and faulty levees were only the symptoms of a much larger disease that lead to the Katrina disaster. The real problem was the catastrophic loss of one million acres of wetlands and barrier islands along the Louisiana coast over the last 100 year. This lost land, triggered by the flood levees of the lower Mississippi River, created the watery flight path that allowed Katrina to slam into the heart of New Orleans. The good news is there's a plan to restore the coastal land by letting the river to "flood" again in a controlled way, and so rebuild the natural land barriers that protect against hurricane surge tides.