Twenty years ago, Mark Clemens stepped off an airplane into the devastated landscape left by Hurricane Katrina.
With two decades of experience in Washington’s Emergency Management program, Clemens was no stranger to disaster. He had helped respond to floods, wildfires and toxic spills.
But Katrina proved to be a catastrophe on another scale. marked by 135 mph winds, torrential rains, and a surge of gulf waters almost 30 feet high. The hurricane claimed approximately 1,400 lives and inflicted $125 billion in damages, devastating much of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi delta…