Epilogue: After Katrina, lessons not only to be learned, but to be used

This paper adds a concluding commentary to the special issue of Technology In Society on “Perspectives on Hurricane Katrina.” The symposium focused on “Lessons from the Past, Lessons for the Future,” and its organizers emphasized lessons to be learned in an interdisciplinary context in which values are made explicit. This afterword points out that the public policy questions “what should be done, for whom, and why?” are intrinsically interdisciplinary and normative. It goes on to discuss briefly a few of the policy issues raised by the Katrina disaster and its continuing aftermath. In particular, there was, before the storm, significant understanding of what might happen and what should be done in preparation that was surprisingly not acted upon, and remains in many ways still neglected. In addition, with respect to recovery there has been much discussion of what would constitute “equity” for the victims, but little agreement or even understanding of the complexity of the planning and distributional issues. Crucial questions affecting what kind of city New Orleans will become remain inadequately explored, let alone acted upon.