Through the Eye of the Storm: A Book Dedicated to Rebuilding What Katrina Washed Away

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 202 pages
• Published by: Chelsea Green Publishing Company May 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1933392185
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1933392189
• Book Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Weighs: 8.8 ounces

Product Description
Cholene Espinoza—Air Force Academy graduate, former U-2 reconnaissance pilot, and embedded Iraq War journalist—rediscovers hope and purpose in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. With her partner, a close friend, and a U-Haul packed with supplies, Espinoza drives into the Deep South with misgivings and self-doubt. Once in DeLisle, Mississippi, she meets Rev. Rosemary Williams, pastor of the Mt. Zion Methodist Church. Williams is at the center of local relief efforts, and from her damaged church she gives survivors comfort—not just spiritual comfort, but food, shelter, clothing, and love. Espinoza finds her own struggles overwhelmed and transformed by the stories of Katrina’s survivors.

Through the Eye of the Storm is a rallying cry for working Americans and an indictment of the public and commercial sources of assistance that have failed them. Espinoza details the seemingly insurmountable red tape, systemic barriers, and inequities in disaster assistance for people who have no means to complain or demand better. Common stereotypes about race, religion, poverty, government assistance, single parenthood—even our notions of charity—are challenged when seen Through the Eye of the Storm . This is a story of loss and recovery, of the ravages of disaster and the healing power of community.

From the Author
I believe that most of us have hidden something in our lives or had something gnawing away at our spirit that separated us from community and the human family. We have all felt "less than," from time to time. For me, being gay had stopped me from serving two of my greatest loves in life, God and country. Through the eye of the storm, I came to the realization that each one of us has something to give and that gift is desperately needed in our world. This is the story of my life, the lives of truly heroic Americans, and the transformation of my spirit that took place rather unexpectedly in a small Mississippi community--a community Katrina nearly washed away.

Cholene Espinoza, May 2006

Reader Reviews
This is one of the most remarkable accounts of one person's struggle to heal a broken world that I've ever read. An Air Force Academy graduate, the author has confronted man-made battlefields, notably in Iraq during OIF-I, where she accompanied the invasion force on the road to Baghdad. But nothing prepared her for Nature's wrath from Hurricane Katrina. In responding to the needs of those hit hardest by that disaster, she found a human community worth connecting to. While this was the experience of many who went South after the storm, few are able to write as evocatively and eloquently about the experience as Ms. Espinoza. The result is a beautifully told story of disaster, faith, recovery and healing, an account unabashedly rooted in the finest traditions of Judeo-Christianity. A must read.