The book details events in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast in the days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall and the subsequent weeks of those communities recovering from its destructive wake. The book includes first-hand accounts from many of the more than 200 CNN anchors, correspondents, and production members dispatched to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee to cover the aftermath.

CNN will donate all royalties to the American Red Cross Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Fund, with AMP matching that donation.