The Hurricanes: One High School Team's Homecoming After Katrina

by Jere Longman

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina pummeled the lower end of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, a peninsula housing one of the nation's most isolated, vulnerable, and vital counties. A year later several ravaged communities came together to form South Plaquemines High. Kids who were former rivals defiantly nicknamed their football team the Hurricanes and made the 2006 state playoffs. In 2007, South Plaquemines set its sights on a state championship. The Hurricanes used a trailer as a makeshift locker room and lifted weights in a destroyed gym that had no electricity. For the players, many of them still living in FEMA trailers, football offered a refuge. Bestselling author Jeré Longman spent two seasons following the team. In The Hurricanes , the team's journey provides a lens through which to view the legacy of Katrina, the cycle of poverty in rural America, and the attempt to maintain traditions in the face of uncertainty. Football is a familiar remnant of the way things used to be—and a sign of hope in a place of disaster.

Genres: Football, Sports

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2008

Reviews

[Dillon Deckert · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed the whole section of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, this section had some of the most unique communities in America. This team lost a whole season of football because of the hurricane devastated players and fans. Coach crutchfield gets assigned as a coach to coach the south Plaquemines hurricanes. This school is a bunch of towns together and a mixture of students. They chose the hurricanes as mascot. The first year they used a trailer as a locker room they lost in the first round in the playoffs. There star player transferred to Bastrop high a 5a class school and he won states. The next year coach crutchfield leads his team to a 1a Louisiana state championship. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves football because this shows how a town can come together through a sport and unite as one. Its an amazing thing to watch.

[Kurt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not sure who I know that would actually appreciate this book. It's a great American story. It's the true story of South Louisianians wiped out in Hurricane Katrina and trying to find their place. Three high schools in Plaquemines Parish merged into one. The writer (from Eunice) follows the football team as they made a swing at the State Championship. The players from different schools had to swallow rivalries and come together. Frickin awesome book.

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't believe how bad the writing in this book is, but I'm still liking the stories. Was there an editor??

Okay, I'm done with it now, but I still can't believe how scatterbrained this book was. The stories were all over the place! Either way, this was a good look at the effects of Katrina in a specific way. These kids didn't all thrive post-hurricane, but many of them did. No doubt, I bawled through the whole endinig!

[Adrienne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another author I heard on NPR -again so gripping in his telling of the writing of this book. He's a journalist by trade which could be why this book reads like one, long hard news article. By all rights, the story should be very interesting and the reader should be drawn in.

Not so much.

[Stuart Nachbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read everyone of Longman's books, this one being the most interesting because of the setting of high school football in post-Katrina New Orleans. I learned that the Friday Night Lights tradition is as important in Louisiana as it is in Texas, even when your school is down for the count there's always a football game!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in the 700 DDC of the stacks of a local library while doing inventory there. I actively seek out books about football, and I had never heard of it. Most nonfiction books' cultural relevancy, tenuous at birth, doesn't last very long. I do love finding them, even and especially a little bit older.

Like, I said, I've even read books very similar to this, the Friday Night Lights-type of deal. This one hit a little bit harder, focusing on a community coalescing, even maybe for a short while, after Katrina. These people KNOW what matters and what is ephemeral, and high school football is part of what those to care about during a tenuous time in an already tenuous place anyway. They chose to care about each other for the time they had.

So many of the kids and parents had great stories, but I don't think I'll stop thinking about the Cambodian refugees of the Khmer Rogue any time soon. Even devastation has its competition.

I will say, it's a 18-year old nonfiction book about people, the kids who play sports, who are sort of mildly public figures. A few of them played college ball. Even with distinctive names, a lot of them resist SEO. Crutchfield was fired form South Plaq a few years later after another state title, but still coaches in Bogalusa. Lyle Fitte, the star running back, went to Louisiana Tech, and then returned to South Plaquemines to coach them to another state title a few years ago. I worry about some of those then-kids. I hope they're doing okay.

[Matt DiSilvio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uplifting, inspirational, fantastic (insert other synonyms for these words here). I couldn't put this book down. It only failed reaching 5 stars in my eyes because the stories were a bit jumpy at times but that's my only complaint. If this is made in to a movie I will go to the midnight showing.