Drowned City

In his 2015 nonfiction graphic novel Drowned City, the author and illustrator Don Brown takes middle school readers through the shocking development and tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it wreaked on the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Using direct – and often deeply poignant – quotations from victims or observers, Brown creates panels that display the storm’s violence, the chaos of the relief efforts, the heroic actions of individuals who found the courage to help, and the different challenges which survivors had to face both during and after the hurricane.

On August 29, 2005, the category 5 Hurricane Katrina smashed into the city of New Orleans, quickly overflowing the levee walls that the Army Corps of Engineers had built to protect the city. This failure unleashed a scourge of water, and the floods created by this storm ravaged 80 percent of the city, and the flood water rose as high as 20 feet in some places. Property damage exceeded $100 billion. And when all was said and done, somewhere between 1400 and 1850 people died in the disaster. (The count varies depending on whether people who died from storm-induced complications are counted or not.)

Drowned City takes this momentous event and breaks it down into panels depicting the many tragic facets of the event. During the storm itself, Brown shows how slow coordinated government help was in arriving to help the residents of New Orleans. Panels contrast ordinary people who happened to own boats rescuing whomever they could with officials who couldn’t or wouldn’t respond to the unfolding circumstances. By illustrating the failures of President George W. Bush, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Mayor Ray Nagin, and the slow to mobilize National Guard, Brown subtly makes the case that there was no need for the storm to cause the level of destruction that it did.



Brown’s artwork fills the pages with images of people attempting courageous helicopter and boat rescues, citizens trying to swim across coursing floodwaters that used to be streets, and crowds lucky enough to escape the city filling the completely clogged highways. Other pages portray the emotional pain of people forced to leave their beloved pets behind to starve to death after rescue vehicles refused to accept them – sometimes at rescuers’ gunpoint. Still elsewhere, we can see how neglect, a lack of useful help, and worsening conditions lead to stores being looted, hospitals struggling to take on patients while losing access to electricity, and those displaced to the Superdome having to endure unimaginably grim conditions. The darkest images are those showing corpses simply being left abandoned in the streets, as there are no resources to properly take care of them; and those exploring the 5000 children who were separated from their parents, not knowing whether they would have a family to reunite with even if their parents could eventually be found.

The book uses the technique of focusing on the experiences of individuals that can then be extrapolated to encompass what happened to millions of people. Seeing a family desperately making its way to the roof from an already dangerous flooded attic is effective in conveying just how makeshift survival strategies became for those trapped in the city. Watching a small group of police officers make the decision to stay on the job and do their duty highlights the dereliction of other officers who instead go looting. Understanding that those small organizations who chose to conduct relief efforts were very effective in helping those whom they could reach underscores the dramatic failure of the federal government to intervene.

At the same time, Brown also uses his artwork to make his book age-appropriate to younger readers. Using a toned-down color palette and stylized, often silhouetted human figures serves to dilute the absolute horror of the material and allow readers to take a step back from complete emotional immersion.



Drowned City ends on a small note of hope. The last few pages turn their attention to the rebuilding effort that could restore at least some parts of New Orleans, given enough time and resources. However, this positivity is tempered when Brown points out that the vastly decreased population will have a long-term effect on the city’s prospects.

Although this graphic novel is only 96 pages long, it comes with an extensive bibliography for those interested in exploring this event further. Not only that, but because of Brown’s dogged commitment to factual representation and research, Drowned City won the Robert F. Sibert Honor, an annual award given to the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book in a given year. As noted by the School Library Journal, “This astonishingly powerful look at one of America’s worst disasters is a masterful blend of story and art and a required purchase for all libraries.”