Uses interviews with evacuees and service provider reports to analyse the response to the human crisis that was Hurricane Katrina.

Ronald J. Angel is Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin.

1. After the storm: the state, civil society, and the response to Katrina; 2. An emerging methodology for a crisis situation; 3. Life before the storm: the old community; 4. Evacuation and arrival in Austin; 5. The limited transportability of social capital; 6. NGOs and the grassroots response; 7. The state and basic welfare: housing, employment, and identification; 8. Health care and the limitations of society; 9. The new social contract: the state, civil society, and social capital.