AWWA JAW63294

This article summarizes the American Water Works Association's (AWWA) 7th Annual Public Officials Summit. This year its focus was on the new realities facing those responsible for disaster planning, response, and recovery in the wake of the well-documented failures by local, state, and federal governments to handle Hurricane Katrina. The article relates Katrina response stories presented by water utility managers, operators and state regulatory officials from Mississippi and Louisiana, along with presentations by representatives of utilities from other states that rushed to the aid of water suppliers along the Gulf Coast.