Book examines in a brilliant narrative the long-term and short-term causes, successful and unsuccessful responses to Hurricane Katrina along the U. S. Gulf Coast and in New Orleans. Include a special focus on especially vulnerable populations.
[Submitted by John Jordan]
Tarukan was home to hundreds of families of a Filipino tribe
called the Aeta
50 villagers opted to come home to relive a
lifestyle they thought they would never see again.
The 50,000-member tribe has long survived along the slopes of the volcano
by fishing, hunting wild boar, deer, birds and mountain cats and farming beans,
rice, sweet potatoes and root crops.
Forced to flee to the lowland valleys below, the Aeta learned a life far
different from their mountain habitat. They shed traditional loincloths,
sarongs and bare feet for Western dress and shoes, ate from canned foods
donated by relief agencies and slept in cramped resettlement centers that
resembled refugee camps.
In Tarukan, they have built bamboo huts and cleared fields for crops.
Papaya and mango trees have been planted. Wild boar and birds are coming back
and the acidity of the soil has declined, allowing farmers to resume planting.