Portland author Ellen Urbani lived through the final years of Guatemala’s horrific civil war — an experience she wrote about in her first book, "When I Was Elena." She then spent 13 years as an art therapist working with oncology patients and disaster survivors. Both experiences primed her for her first novel, “Landfall,” about the days after Hurricane Katrina.

The book follows the intersecting lives of two mothers and two daughters.

Urbani will read from Landfall at the Powell’s City of Books store in downtown Portland on Aug. 29, the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in New Orleans.

Urbani started her conversation with State of Wonder's April Baer by reading an excerpt set in the Ninth Ward the morning after the hurricane hit. It was that brief moment when everyone thought they were safe and had no idea what was about to happen.