A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld

I first read Josh Neufeld's A.D. as a webcomic online. It is now available in hardcover book format. In five separate storylines, Neufeld follows the lives of seven people from New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

All of the stories were compelling, but what happened to Denise, a Black woman with a Master's degree in counselling, really struck a chord with me and I think of her as someone I've met and still care about. She was sharing an apartment with her mother, her niece and her niece's baby. They did not have the means to leave the city when the storm hit. The broken promise that a room would be provided at the hospital where Denise's mother worked; the man with a sick wife and child in a boat being turned away by armed soldiers outside the hospital as they all awaited evacuation; the horrors of waiting in the hot sun at the convention centre for more than a day without adequate water or sanitation facilities... her story is heartbreaking. Multiply that by thousands.