Long-time CNN Correspondent Challenges Obama to Visit Mississippi for Hurricane Katrina Anniversary

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 23, 2010 - (Washington, D.C.) – Award-winning journalist Kathleen Koch, a former CNN correspondent and author of the bestselling new book, Rising from Katrina:  How My Mississippi Hometown Lost It All and Found What Mattered, is calling on President Barack Obama to recognize the devastation Hurricane Katrina inflicted on Mississippi, and the progress the state has made in the past five years, by visiting it when he comes to the region on August 29 for a memorial in New Orleans. She will speak about the fifth anniversary and sign copies of her new book on August 25 at Politics and Prose in Washington, DC.

On August 29, 2005 as the levees collapsed in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina roared onshore at the Louisiana/Mississippi border and the eye cut east over Mississippi.  The sustained 125-mph winds, hop scotching tornadoes and 30-plus-foot storm surge shredded the eighty-mile-long Mississippi Gulf Coast, erasing virtually every structure within a half mile of the water.

“Both states deserve a standing ovation from the nation for all they have accomplished over the last five years,” says Koch.  “In fulfilling his campaign pledge to visit the Katrina-ravaged areas, President Obama last year only went to New Orleans.  This year on this important anniversary, it’s time to recognize the gains the entire region has made.”

Where:  Politics & Prose
   5015 Connecticut Ave., NW   
   Washington, DC  20008
When:  Wednesday, Aug. 25
   7 p.m.

Koch will be available for interviews from the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore region all week before she flies south Friday for anniversary ceremonies on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

The week ending Aug. 15, Rising from Katrina hit #12 in trade paperback nonfiction on the Southern Indie Bestseller List.  CNN host Larry King called it “a great new book” Aug. 16 when he made it his Pick of the Week. Author Douglas Brinkley wrote, “A first-rate reporter, Koch got all the harrowing details exactly right.”  NFL quarterback Brett Favre called the book “a great read.”

Kathleen Koch can be reached at 202-841-2710 or kathleenlkoch@gmail.com.
More information about her book can be found at www.kathleenkoch.com and www.blairpub.com.

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John F. Blair, Publisher, is an independent, family-owned company that publishes book on the southeastern United States and is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Learn more at www.blairpub.com.