Writing Hurricane Katrina: A Class Blog

Death of an American City

2005-12-19T13:34:00.000-08:00

Here's the 11/11/05 editorial in the NYT. I am pasting it here because it needs to be read as part of this blog and not just a link.

Editorial
Death of an American City

We are about to lose New Orleans. Whether it is a conscious plan to let the city rot until no one is willing to move back or honest paralysis over difficult questions, the moment is upon us when a major American city will die, leaving nothing but a few shells for tourists to visit like a museum.
We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.
There are many unanswered questions that will take years to work out, but one is make-or-break and needs to be dealt with immediately. It all boils down to the levee system. People will clear garbage, live in tents, work their fingers to the bone to reclaim homes and lives, but not if they don't believe they will be protected by more than patches to the same old system that failed during the deadly storm. Homeowners, businesses and insurance companies all need a commitment before they will stake their futures on the city.
At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words "pending in Congress" are a death warrant requiring no signature.
The rumbling from Washington that the proposed cost of better levees is too much has grown louder. Pretending we are going to do the necessary work eventually, while stalling until the next hurricane season is upon us, is dishonest and cowardly. Unless some clear, quick commitments are made, the displaced will have no choice but to sink roots in the alien communities where they landed.
The price tag for protection against a Category 5 hurricane, which would involve not just stronger and higher levees but also new drainage canals and environmental restoration, would very likely run to well over $32 billion. That is a lot of money. But that starting point represents just 1.2 percent of this year's estimated $2.6 trillion in federal spending, which actually overstates the case, since the cost would be spread over many years. And it is barely one-third the cost of the $95 billion in tax cuts passed just last week by the House of Representatives.
Total allocations for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have topped $300 billion. All that money has been appropriated as the cost of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. But what was the worst possible case we fought to prevent?
Losing a major American city.
"We'll not just rebuild, we'll build higher and better," President Bush said that night in September. Our feeling, strongly, is that he was right and should keep to his word. We in New York remember well what it was like for the country to rally around our city in a desperate hour. New York survived and has flourished. New Orleans can too.
Of course, New Orleans's local and state officials must do their part as well, and demonstrate the political and practical will to rebuild the city efficiently and responsibly. They must, as quickly as possible, produce a comprehensive plan for putting New Orleans back together. Which schools will be rebuilt and which will be absorbed? Which neighborhoods will be shored up? Where will the roads go? What about electricity and water lines? So far, local and state officials have been derelict at producing anything that comes close to a coherent plan. That is unacceptable.
The city must rise to the occasion. But it will not have that opportunity without the levees, and only the office of the president is strong enough to goad Congress to take swift action. Only his voice is loud enough to call people home and convince them that commitments will be met.
Maybe America does not want to rebuild New Orleans. Maybe we have decided that the deficits are too large and the money too scarce, and that it is better just to look the other way until the city withers and disappears. If that is truly the case, then it is incumbent on President Bush and Congress to admit it, and organize a real plan to help the dislocated residents resettle into new homes. The communities that opened their hearts to the Katrina refugees need to know that their short-term act of charity has turned into a permanent commitment.
If the rest of the nation has decided it is too expensive to give the people of New Orleans a chance at renewal, we have to tell them so. We must tell them we spent our rainy-day fund on a costly stalemate in Iraq, that we gave it away in tax cuts for wealthy families and shareholders. We must tell them America is too broke and too weak to rebuild one of its great cities.
Our nation would then look like a feeble giant indeed. But whether we admit it or not, this is our choice to make. We decide whether New Orleans lives or dies.

9/9 After the Flood Episode 296 True stories hit home

2005-12-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

Episode 296 was basically a collection of stroies of people who either experienced or survived the effects of Katrina. It brings up the the "blame game." It turns out that this particular disc jockey feels the federal government is to blame because they declared a state of emergency so it was their responsibility to evacuate Louisiana; I found this to be particularly interesting. I don't feel that we can point the finger at any one organization at this time because there is so many opinions, victims damage and New Orleans is total chaos.
This piece really hit home because of the personal accounts of these people, their sadness and frustration is and emotional tidal wave; my heart truly goes out to them. All I can think of when I hear the desparation in their voices is "How can I help? How can I make a difference?" Actually hearing their voices makes their stories so much more real than magazine and newspaper articles. These are real people and these horrnedous stories are true accounts of what actually happened.
I would reccommend this episode to anyone who wants to know more about what happened to some of these people. I feel that if we could convey the emotions and hardships of these people through a dialogue as heartfelt as this one then we might have a chance of stroking the heart strings of some of these organizations. We coul possibly recieve a positive response by showing them and anyone else the pain a hardship that has been dealt and hopefully one day, we could move past it a grow together as a communtiy. We can help each other get through this tragedy and move on to see a better day.

Katrina Photos

2005-12-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

http://Don McClosky
massive wave crashes over a floodwall near Michoud's Entergy plant near I-510. This massive wave is yet another frightening scene of Katrina's wrath.

The following photos are pics that were emailed to me of Katrina approaching land. They look pretty scary but I bet it was even scarier for the person taking the pictures.
i000765_big.jpg, 800 x 600
i000766_big.jpg, 800 x 600
i000767_big.jpg, 800 x 600
The Significance of these photos is for the opportunity to "peek" inside the storm. For those who were not actually "there" this is a great opportunity to see the wake of disaster. These photos will be forever etched in my mind reminding me of Hurricane Katrina.

After the Flood

2005-12-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

After The Flood 9/9 Episode 296
While Bush and Blanco fussed over who would control the National Guard, people died.
That was the greatest tradgedy of Hurricane Katrina. And that's what this episode is all about. It starts off summing up the Blanco/Bush fiasco and then moves onto actual acounts from people who had to find a way to survive after the storm.
Listening to these accounts is just enraging. I mean, just to think about it, the girl from the Lafitte project saying she went without water for so long that her stomach sucked into her back, the lady outside the Convention Center describing the Convention Center floor as a sewer of crap and piss and how trucks with water would just pass them up without stopping, all the accounts of the people who were turned away, shot at or harrased by Gretna police because they simply wanted to cross a bridge, it's just disgusting. It makes you sit down and say, "this is my country? This is what I'm apart of, a country that is buried in so much politics and racial hate that citizens, most of them black, are left to die on national TV?
Hearing their voices is what really made the episode work. It's so much different than reading it in print. You could hear the sincerity, the sniffles letting you know that there were tears behind those words. Anybody who wants to hear an upfront account of what happened post-Katrina should log on to www.thislife.org and listen to this.

9/9 After the Flood, Episode 296

2005-12-14T18:13:00.000-08:00

This episode was a collection of stories from people who experienced and survived Katrina. At the end there was a story about a trailer park community in Florida due to Hurricane Charley in 2004. The stories range from everything to a woman who was stuck in the Convention Center, to people not being allowed to cross the Mississippi River Bridge. Hearing these stories from the voices of the people who experienced it, as opposed to written accounts, was very moving. I could hear the frustration and sadness in their voices as they told their stories. That extra emotion made me imagine how I would have felt in their situation - much more than any article I have read made me imagine the horror of being in New Orleans days after the hurricane or the sense of betrayal these people felt. The girl that described being so thirsty she hallucinated seeing water bottles and so hungry she was literally starving and her stomach felt like it was going into her back, had an effect that needed to be heard by voice.

I would recommend this audio episode to anyone who wants to hear what it was REALLY like living in post-Katrina New Orleans. Newspapers and news shows can help you learn alot, but do not convey the emotions and hardships some people had to go through.

Katrina Picture

2005-12-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

Picture of a flooded neighborhood in New Orleans, one of the many.

Katrina Picture

2005-12-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

This is another picture of fishing boats pushed onshore and jammed together, helping destroy Louisiana's fishing industry.

Katrina Pictures

2005-12-13T18:22:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of a shipping vessel pushed onshore in Plaquemines parish by Katrina's strong winds.

Lemann article: In The Ruins

2005-12-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Lemann's article, In The Ruins, had it's moments, but overall I think the article suffered from bad timing. Lemann starts the article off by describing New Orleans as a city vulnerable to nature. True enough, but at times he seems to exaggerate, like the part about rats, roaches and snakes crawling out the gutters. What city doesn't have a rat and roach problem especially those close to water? But despite this the beginning of the article was good enough to draw readers in. It's about New Orleans two weeks after a hurricane, so it suceeds in getting attention.
He then moves on to the literary history of hurricanes in the city. It's a nice middle section, shows our history with hurricanes and how, for the most part, a lot of us are stubborn when it comes to evacuating. In the next transition, he brings his daddy in as an example. His daddy is a typical New Orleans man when it comes to hurricanes - he knows more about the weather than anybody.
Also the section where Lemann talks about the incompetence that surrounds and runs the city is nicely done too, gives the reader an idea of the danger, both natural and human, that awaits anybody who decides to ride out a storm down here.
All in all this wasn't a bad article. It would have actually been pretty good if it was written at a different time. I mean, he wrote this two weeks after Katrina, two weeks after city flooded, two weeks after people waited on rooftops, marched across bridges, sat stranded outside the Convention Center, waiting or looking for help. So considering that, it didn't seem like good timing for a cynical-like artcile that points out the problems of the landscape and government and the personal hang-ups of the people.
The narrative voice throughout it seemed fine, though at times his tone did seem a little too nonchalant and cynical. Still, a decent article.

2nd testimony

2005-11-30T09:39:00.000-08:00

This 2nd testimony comes from a conversation I had with my father in law, Herbert.
Like my cousin Darryl, he and my mother in law rode Katrina out too. They stayed at the Wyndam hotel in Metarie, next to the Galleria. That evening, after Katrina passed, he and my mother in law walked to the Wyndam's parking garage to get their car. Both of them were stunned by what they saw. "Every car in the garage had all their windows blown out except ours," Herbert said. "You had to see it, glass was just everywhere." After they left the garage, he dropped my mother in law off Uptown where they lived and went to work. By the time he came home from work, the water was already covering the drains. "When I pulled up my podna from the NOPD flagged me down. He was like, 'Y'all gotta get outta here. That water coming.' I went inside and told'em we had to get my grandmother in the car. She's bed-ridden so by the time we got her in, the water was up to the steps. It was just coming so fast. Somehow we made it up to Magazine where it was dry, then we got on the Interstate and headed for the Westbank. You shoulda seen the people walking across the Crescent City Connection. Packs of'em. If I had room I swear I woulda gave somebody a ride." He said all that then paused and looked at me. "Kenneth," he said, "that's something nobody could tell you about. You just had to see it with your own eyes - all those people struggling acrosst that Interstate." They rode until they got to Houston. The first night in Houston they slept in the car. The next night he found his cousin's apartment in Houston and went over there. "They had so many people in that house," he said. "At least 25. People sleeping in the kitchen, the closet, on the front porch, even in the tub." He and my mother in law stayed there for about two weeks. Then FEMA kicked in and gave them all apartments. As of right now he's back in New Orleans staying with friends and working at a lumber yard.

1st Katrina testimony

2005-11-30T08:51:00.000-08:00

This first testimony is based on a conversation I had with my 23 year old cousin Darryl.
Instead of evacuating to Houston like most of my family did, Darryl stayed behind in New Orleans and rode the storm out in Carrolton near Rock N Bowl. The day his mama left, she begged him to go to the Superdome. She warned him about the wind, the rain, the levees. But he wouldn't listen. Like a lot of people he figured the storm wouldn't be that bad. The day after the storm he called and told us about it. "Katrina wasn't nothing," he said. "A lil wind and some rain but that was it."
Four days later he would rethink that statement.
Later that day he kept hearing running water, like a faucet was left on or something. When he finally looked out the window, water was up to the curb. "It was just coming so fast. People was jumping on top of cars,running on to the bridge, whatever." That bridge, the Tulane overpass to the left of Rock N Bowl, was where he spent the next four nights. "That was the longest four nights of my life .They had people everywhere, pregnant women, kids."
Nobody came to bring them food or anything. During the day helicopters would pass, but none of them stopped. Besides the memories of the heat and waking up on scorching cement, one of the things he'll never forget is the evening he and a Chinese man floated on a makeshift boat and went looking for food. "When we got to the store, we could hear people screaming," he said. "It sounded like a whole family trapped in there. We floated around to the side and told them we was coming, but it was getting dark, fast, and the water kept falling and rising. I looked through the side window and all I could see was the top shelves. That had to be the spookiest scene I saw in my life. And that's when the screaming just stopped. We called and called but they wouldn't answer. So we reached through the window, grabbed whatever we can and left." Back on the bridge he had to hold a flashlight in front of him just to see the food he was eating. On the fourth day, some dudes from the neighborhood passed in a boat. He paid them to bring him to the Superdome. He stayed there for two days before a bus brought him to Houston and he was reunited with the rest of our family.

This American Life

2005-11-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

This Is Not My Beautiful House
9/16
Episode 297

After listening to “This Is Not My Beautiful House,” I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has lived through the hardship of evacuating from a hurricane. Hurricane Katrina was a major disaster and to the evacuees in this audio, some things just seemed to get worse even once they arrived in Houston. The difference in listening to these essays from reading them is that you can get an idea of how the people talk. You can hear the frustration and anger in their voice. Feelings are just much more evident. I enjoyed hearing all the different people talk about their experiences. Partly because I could relate since I had been through some of the same things as them. I know once my family and I arrived in Houston, everything was a line. It was never ending and so frustrating. I liked when Nick Spitzer, host of the Public Radio International music show American Routes, drove through New Orleans and went to his house. He collected some items to bring back to his family to last him one, two, or even three months. As I was listening to him go through his house, I was remembering the first time I went back home after the hurricane. I was able to get in with my Jefferson Parish credentials and go see what my house looked like. Luckily, it just suffered minor damages and I was able to gather some belongings. I remember it was so hot in the house because the electricity had not be turned back on. As I went through my room I was trying to see what I could take that I would really need in the time that I would be gone. I was not sure when I would be back. Nick Spitzer was reading the list his wife had written for him trying to see where he could fit all the items she was requesting. It seemed like so much, simple things that just hold so many memories.
Another story I enjoyed was that of Louann Mims, a 78-year-old retiree who planned to leave her New Orleans house before the floodwaters rose, but then the water came rushing in and she was trapped in her house for eight days on the only thing that would float: her extra firm Sterns and Foster mattress. It was crazy to even imagine how she could just stay on that one mattress for eight days straight without having any dry clothes or pillows to sleep on. She lived off of raising, cheese, and water. She had to ration her food because she did not know how long she would have to stay in her home, on her mattress, until someone discovered she was there. She went into detail about all the clothes she had and furniture that she had lost. She realized now that it was all gone she didn’t need all of those things in the first place. Instead of feel sorry for herself, she tried to look at the bright side and think of ways to redecorate her home. I guess that’s one way to look at things. After living through a disaster like Hurricane Katrina, you start to realize how unimportant material things are. You can just be thankful to be alive!

Night Before Katrina

2005-11-22T22:31:00.000-08:00

Something a friend of mine brought over and I scanned. I didn't write it

Twas the Night Before Katrma (Cajun style)

'Twas de night before Katrina, when all tru da state,
Not a gas pump was pumpin', Not a store open late.
All da plywood was hung, on de windows wit care,
Knowing dat a hurricane, soon would be dere.

Da chilren were ready wit deir flashlight in hand,
while rain bands from da hurricane covered over our land.
And Mom wit her Mag-lite, and me wit my cap,
Had just filled da battub for flushing our crap.

When out on de lawn, there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from da closet to see what was de matter.
The trees on da terrace, and de neighbor's roof torn,
We feared we'd be dyin' in dis terrible storm.

Wit a little wind gus, so lively and quick,
I 'membered quite clearly our walls was not brick.
More rapid than Eagles, her courses they changed!
And she whistled and wafted and surged all the same.

Off shingles! Off sidings! Off rooftops! Off power!
Down trees! Down fences! Down trailers! Down towers!
On da street of New Orleans, she continued to maul,
Screaming Blow away! Blow away! Blow away all!

As da wind ripped and tossed da debris tru de sky,
I peeked out the shutters at the cars floatin by.
So go to the attic my family did do,
With a portable radio and some batteries too.

And den in a twinkling, I heard on da set,
The end was not coming for a few hours yet!
As I calmed down da kids and was turning around.
Tru de window it came with a huge crashing sound.

A tree branch it was all covered in soot.
De wind blew it smack-dab on top of my foot!
A bundle of twigs now lay in a stack.
And my livn Room looked like it was under attack.

De wind now it howled, de storm very scary,
Myself and my family were all too unwary.
Da dangers or hurricanes are serious ya Know,
Dey are taken for granted as Betsy did show.

Wit da winds dying down and da danger beneath,
I noticed my tool shed was missing its sheath
So I grabbed my last tarp, and nailed it on down,
Den I got in my car and drove into town.

Da traffic was awful and stores had no ice,
My 5-gallon cooler would nave to suffice.
Generators was scarce, not one left in town,
Dere was trees on the roads and power lines down.

FEMA was ready wit people to work,
Electrical companies came in from New York.
I sprang to da car and gave my family a whistle,
Den away we all went like a Tomahawk missile!

You could near us exclaim as we drove out of sight,
"The heck wit dis ol place, Texas seem just right”
Author unknown

Katrina image # 1 water line

2005-11-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

The brown water mark on the back of my parents' house. I think this picture and the three below will give everyone an idea of the destruction Katrina left behind.

Katrina image # 2 living room

2005-11-22T22:04:00.000-08:00

The living room me and my sister were never allowed to go into as kids.

Katrina image # 3 parents bedroom

2005-11-22T21:59:00.000-08:00

My parents' bedroom

Katrina image # 4 other downstairs bedroom

2005-11-22T21:54:00.000-08:00

One of the downstairs bedrooms, destroyed

mini photo essay

2005-11-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

I used pictures from the wwltv.com site. I wish I had some pictures scanned from my house because it was quite destructive, but here are some notable pictures about New Orleans in general.

Picture 1: This is a picture of looting on Canal St. This was a very controversial subject around the time of the hurricane because some looters were taking food and necessities for survival while others were taking electronics and luxury items.

Picture 2: Jamaal Khalfani with his daughter outside the Convention Center. This image is obviously ironic because an American flag is sheltering the daughter while they have little help from the American government at this time.

Picture 3: This is an aerial photo of the destruction of I-10 going to Slidell. This is significant because New Orleans truly depends on the vitality and access to the suburbs around it.

Picture 4: This is a picture of men working at the St. Claude tire shop. They are helping repair tires in New Orleans after Katrina. They are helping to "get the city rolling again." I have been to this place with a friend, and they patch and repair tires extremely fast for a low fee.

The story of my sister Kristen

2005-11-22T07:42:00.000-08:00

The second testemonial I have is of my sister Kristen. She is college aged and has lived in New Orleans most of her life. She was most recently a student at a small nursing school in New Orleans.

Kristen finally seemed to be making headway in her education. Through many events, her high school time was interupted several times and she ended up getting her GED a year or so after she should have graduated. It finally was beginning to seem that Kristen would be able to go to college. She started at William Carey College, a private nursing school on the New Orleans Baptist Seminary. She was also working at the nursery on campus. Then Katrina hit New Orleans and several other branches of her school in the Gulf Coast. It was apparent that Kristen would not be going back to William Carey College. She spent a couple months with family in Alexandria because her house was completely wrecked. Her disappointment was obvious: after all this time of not being in school, she finally was there, but now had to leave. She eventually decided to go to McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA. She was there about two weeks when Hurricane Rita hit that area. She moved back to Alexandria, dismayed at all that was happening. She started to joke and say that she was about to move with some friends in California, hang out on the beach and forget about school for a while. Eventually she decided to fly up and stay with her older sister in Washington State for a while, and focus on finding a college for the Spring 2006 semester.

The Story of Sal

2005-11-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

Our landlord told us the story of Sal. I don't know his last name, but he was a man in a wheelchair next door to us in Gentilly. He worked for many years as a small business owner and owned his own double and rented it out. About 2-3 decades ago Sal was shot in the leg by a thief. He was almost paralyzed and now forced to spend the rest of his life in wheelchair.

The Saturday before the storm everyone was getting ready and packing up to leave. Sal was a very independent person considering his handicap. He drove around town and volunteered every day at a local hospital. We told him that he needed to leave. This is a very indpendent man, so our words and the words of our neighbors didn't have an effect on him. After the storm we came back and saw his car in the driveway so we imagined the worst case scenario: that he died inside his house. He was in his house, and the waters started to rise. For whatever amazing reason, he had a life preserver with him. So as the waters steadily rose at a rapid rate, he wheeled himself outside to his sidewalk by his house. He placed life preserver around him, and began to float up. He then clung on to the second story balcony railing for what seemed like hours. Having almost no ability to move below the waist, he seemed stuck there. Much later he began to hear screams from the church building about 2-3 blocks away. He decided that he would swim with his hands all the way there. So he swam there only using the strength in his arms. When he finally got there, he saw that people had broken into the second floor school building of the Marian Central School. They pulled him in through the window and waited there for a couple of days. They were all hungry, so one set out to find a boat. Somehow they were boated to the UNO Lakefront Arena, then Sal was taken to the Airport in Kenner. The conditions there were awful, and Sal refused to eat because he did not have his bag that collected his waste. He did not want to have to have someon clean him up. He did this all the way until Friday when he couldn't take it anymore, so he ate. Later a church in Alabama would help him find a hotel to stay at and help him out. They also used connections in FEMA to try to get Sal a trailer outside his house in New Orleans. This is a very bad idea because there is no electricity or running water still in our neighborhood. Our landlord Dwight saw the people from FEMA bringing the trailer to the sight and he calmly explained how irrational this would be considering the state of the neighborhood and Sal's condition. What the future holds for Sal is uncertain. He may need to be placed in a nursing home or institution. He has not said if his family will help him, or even if he has family. Yet from what I have heard and seen of Sal, I believe he will be an indpendent determined man for quite some time to come.

Images Of Katrina

2005-11-19T21:39:00.000-08:00

These images are very powerful and will forever replay in the minds of those who have seen them. The people in New Orleans suffered to no end. These images do a good job of showing that.

Picture 1:People walking through the flooded city of New Orleans trying to keep what belongings they have left dry.

Picture 2: A man is pictured carrying a baby through the flooded streets of New Orleans outside the cities Super Dome football stadium. Tens of thousands of displaced citizens sought shelter at the dome, before, during and after Hurricane Katrina, but were forced to evacuate as floodwaters continued to rise throughout the area.

Picture 3:Thousands of people sit on the freeway after fleeing to higher ground in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Floor Repair after Katrina

2005-11-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

This testimony is from my mom, Paula. She lives on the Westbank with my stepdad and two sisters. Their house flooded only a little, less than a foot, but enough to ruin all the wood tile throughout the house.

When we got back to our house it smelled awful, like mold. We had to pull up all the tile in every room of the house, strip it to the bare concrete, and bleach the entire floor. We've been living on concrete for two months now and it's really no fun. You cant walk around barefoot, and sounds travel in the house alot more now. If the living room tv is on, it echoes and amplifies throughout the rest of the house, even closed bedroom doors. So we've been trying to get new tile layed. The only problem is EVERYONE is price gouging, including the corporate chains that sell the tile. I went to Home Depot to order the tile one day, they gave me one price, when I went back the next day they wanted another price, much higher. I asked to speak to a manager. She said the sale was over. Thats bull1$%$. I ordered the tile at the "sale" price. She said there was nothing she could do.

We finally found a place to buy the tile from that gave us a decent deal. Now the problem is finding someone to lay it. We've had 5 or 6 different groups of people come out to measure the house and estimate the cost of the job. They all have outrageous prices. We've even caught some of them LYING about what the actual square footage of the house is in order to bump up the cost even more. We've had 5 or 6 square footage measurments, all different, and all much higher than the actual square footage of the house. We refuse to get ripped off like that, and until people stop going money crazy from this hurricane, we'll stick with the concrete.

Evacuation and Return to New Orleans

2005-11-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

This testimonial is from my dad. He evacuated from Metairie and returned about 2 weeks after Katrina made landfall.

I was watching the news reports several days before Katrina made landfall. You know how I am, I rarely evacuate for these things. But this one I wasn't taking any chances for. I left the Saturday night before Katrina hit and made it to Birmingham, AL in 6 hours. I was lucky...the next day it turned into a 13 hour drive. I checked into a hotel and spent the Sunday watching the news. When I woke up Monday morning, the news stations were reporting very little damage in New Orleans. By mid afternoon I was packed up and was gonna try to get back into New Orleans before the rush. Then the reports started to get worse and I realized I wasn't going back. So I sat glued to the TV watching and listening to more reports of widespread devastation in New Orleans. I couldn't reach anyone on the phone, the 504 area code was simply not working. When I'd walk outside the hotel and see other evacuees, they all had their own horrible rumors of places being wiped off the map, or neighborhoods under water - some turned out to be true, some not. After my fourth day at the hotel, and 100 news reports later, it started to really hit home that I was not going back home anytime soon. To save money, I packed up and drove to my sisters house in North Carolina.

After about a week in North Carolina, I began the long drive back to Louisiana, not knowing exactly where I was going, or if I'd even be able to get into the city. There were gas shortages everywhere because of Katrina. My sister had given me 10 gallons of spare gas in tanks which turned out to be a real lifesaver. There were massive lines for gas at any gas station that was open. The closer I got to Mississippi, the worse the situation got. There was no gas at all, but the reserve gas I had got me through. I stopped at my father's summer house in Silver Run, Mississippi for the night. The roads to the house were cleared by now, but the house was in a heavily wooded area. When I got there, the house wasn't even visible - for a moment I thought it was destroyed...the eye of a level 2 Katrina had passed directly over this area. I had to fight my way through about 300 feet of downed trees till I got to the house which turned out be relatively untouched. I spent the night there with no electricity. The next morning I drove to Slidell. There was devasation everywhere. My mother's summer home in Slidell, right next to a bayou that connects to Lake Pontchartrain had 6 feet of water in it. When I pulled up I thought it was looted, windows were knocked out, doors flung open, items were laying in the front yard. Then I stepped out of the car and stepped on a dead fish, at least 100 yards from the bayou. They were everywhere. Everything in the house was destroyed.

Listening to the radio, I found out that they weren't letting people back into New Orleans yet. I drove to Lafayette and ended up at another hotel. Four days later I headed back to Metairie to find my house completely fine.

A Story from Poplarville

2005-11-16T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have decided to do my fiance's testimony of his experience during Hurricane Katrina.
His name is Todd Ray and he stayed in Poplarville, Ms. where the eye came through.

It was the 28th of August and it was hot. I was staying with my friend, jason in Poplarville and we were preparing for the strom. My car broke down three weeks earlier so I had no way to evacuate. We decided "What the hell, we'll get some beer, invite some friends over and party." Everyone was busy evacuating; the small town of Poplarville began to look deserted. The neighbors said that we could plug the fridge up to the generator if we needed to. We spent the night drinking beer, playing cards and shooting pool.
The strom came thundering through at about noon the next day. I was on the phone with Cynthia and she sounded worried. I had admitted to her that the wind and rain had been pretty scary but I was going to be okay. We lost our connection through the cell phones and I couldn't reach her to let her know that I was okay. She was in Texas with her mom and our baby so I knew that she would be okay. Everything went downhill after I talked to Cynthia. Katrina came in with thundering winds that knocked down trees and powerlines all over town. We lost electricity and kept seeing tornadic activity just outside the house, down the street where our freind, Kenny lived. When we were finally able to leave the house, we noticed that it was moderately damged, there were shingles missing off the roof and the garden by the pool had been totally destroyed. The bird house that I helped Jason build was gone and there were shrubs and tree bracnhes in the pool. The entire town was out of power for nearly two weeks.
On Tuesday, we drove to Jackson to stay with Jason's sister but they didn't have electricity either so we decided to drop me off at a nearby Target and I called my parents in Memphis to come and get me. I had only the clothes on my back and just enough battery to call Cynthia when I reached a service area. It was a tough trek but I'm fortunate, and I'm never staying through another hurricane again.

Timeline of Events

2005-11-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how pertinent this is to the assignment but I can only get one personal account. I figured that I could list a brief timeline of evetns that went one the week of Hurricane Katrina.
Times Picayune

IN THE STORM: A TIMELINE OF EVENTS
Friday, Aug. 26*
Watching Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico, National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield calls Jefferson Parish emergency management chief Walter Maestri with a frightening analysis: "This is the 'Big One' ... I'm as sure as I can be." * Gov. Kathleen Blanco declares a state of emergency.
Saturday, Aug. 27*
Mayfield calls New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Blanco with his warning of a potentially disastrous storm. * Blanco orders mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas. * 4 p.m. Officials implement contraflow on Interstate 10. Traffic is already backing up from people leaving the coast. * Bush declares a state of emergency in Louisiana, authorizing Department of Homeland Security and FEMA "to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population." * St. Charles and Plaquemines parishes order mandatory evacuation. Others are voluntary. * 5 p.m. Nagin declares state of emergency and gives voluntary evacuation order. * Nagin says Superdome to be opened at 8 p.m. for prequalified special-needs patients. * FEMA told by National Hurricane Center that Katrina storm surge is likely to top levees.* FEMA Emergency Headquarters put on highest alert. FEMA Director Michael Brown dispatches teams to Louisiana.
Sunday, Aug. 28*
2 a.m. Katrina declared a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of more than 140 mph. * 8 a.m. Katrina upgraded to a Category 5 storm, with sustained winds above 155 mph. * 10 a.m. Nagin orders mandatory evacuation; opens Superdome as shelter of last resort, warns that floodwaters could top levees. * President Bush takes part in teleconference with officials in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. "I asked him to send me everything he's got," Blanco said. * FEMA positions food, water and medical supplies around the region for deployment as soon as it is safe, begins coordinating with military. * 3 p.m. About 10,000 people are sheltered in the Superdome. They are told to bring enough food, water and medicine to last up to five days. * 7 p.m. National Weather Service predicts levees may be topped. "All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario," Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center said.
Monday, Aug. 29:
* 6:10 a.m. Katrina makes landfall as a Category 4, with 145 mph winds, surging ashore just east of New Orleans. * 8 a.m. Nagin announces he has heard reports that levees have been breached. Ultimately, six breaches would open up in three levees. * 11 a.m. Nagin talks to Matt Lauer on the "Today" show about an estimated 30,000 people in Superdome: "Well, you know, we have everything planned for them to be in there for four to five days. And then if it has to extend beyond that, we're going to - we're basically counting on the federal government to supply us with what we need." * FEMA's Brown issues directive urging all fire and emergency services not to respond to counties and states affected by Katrina "without being requested and lawfully dispatched." * 11:37 a.m. National Weather Service advisory: "Widespread flooding will continue ... Those seeking refuge in attics or rooftops are strongly urged to take the necessary tools for survival." * 3:30 p.m. National Guard trucks start bringing dozens of people trapped in their houses to the Superdome. Many are barefoot and wrapped in sheets. * Bush declares major disaster in Louisiana, releasing federal money. * FEMA's Brown arrives in Baton Rouge. Blanco said she feels "blessed" he has arrived. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., calls him "an able and experienced director." FEMA teams will wait to enter the city. * Two holes ripped in Superdome roof. * Red Cross announces it is "launching largest mobilization of resources in its history." * Coast Guard begins rescuing people from roofs.
Tuesday, Aug. 30*
Nagin estimates that 80 percent of the city is under water. He says it's up to 20 feet deep in some places. * Bush is briefed about rising waters in New Orleans, decides to cut short vacation. * Nagin evacuates city government to Baton Rouge. He remains in a city hotel. * Looters begin ransacking stores. * Officials issued a call for flatboats to rescue people stranded in the flood. * National Guard soldiers bring people from outlying areas into the Superdome in the backs of Army trucks. Louisiana's wildlife enforcement department also brings people in on the backs of their pickup trucks. * Gov. Kathleen Blanco says everyone still in the city, now huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers, needs to be evacuated. There aren't enough buses or drivers for the job. * 6:30 p.m. Nagin announces efforts to patch the breach in the 17th Street canal levee have failed. Helicopters that were to drop concrete barricades in the breach weren't equipped with the proper slings.
Wednesday, Aug. 31*
Bush heads back to Washington flying over the region. Appoints Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to lead federal task force. * In Baton Rouge Brown says: "The president's admonition to me today was that we do everything, everything's on the table. I've got access to everything I need." * Blanco again asks Bush for troops. * With looting and violence escalating, Blanco and staff search for buses to evacuate New Orleans. She calls for a day of prayer. * Nagin calls for total evacuation. The Superdome is crowded with 23,000 people. It is hot and there is no power, food or water. * Ten buses are found and head to Houston with evacuees. The state promises 475 more. * Brown sends memo to Chertoff that he needs 1,000 people within 48 hours. They are advised to bring sunscreen, sun hat and sunglasses, walking shoes, mosquito repellant. * Maestri complains: "We have no food or water for evacuees. FEMA and national agencies are not delivering the help nearly as fast as its needed." * The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers works to plug a 200-foot hole in the 17th Street canal levee. The water in the city has crested and begins to slowly recede.
Thursday, Sept. 1:*
Bush tells "Good Morning America," "There is a lot of help coming." * Nagin lashes out at federal response: "They are thinking small, man. This is a major, major deal." * Attempted rescue by helicopter of patients at Charity Hospital is aborted amid reports of sniper fire. * Nagin issues a statement about conditions of evacuees at the Convention Center: "This is a desperate SOS. We are out of resources at the Convention Center." * FEMA's Brown says on CNN that the federal government only learned about the situation at the Convention Center that morning. * 45,000 evacuees estimated to be at the Superdome and Convention Center. * With water level dropping a half-foot per hour, Corps of Engineers makes progress closing the 17th Street canal levee breach.
Friday, Sept 2:*
Bush heads to region. As he boards the helicopter he says, "The results are not acceptable." In Mississippi he tells the FEMA director, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." * Nagin says: "People in our city are holding on by a thread. Time has run out. Can we survive another night? Who can we depend on? God only knows." * 50 trucks with food and water and supplies roll into New Orleans. * The National Guard moves into Convention Center and controls it. * The Coast Guard has rescued more than 4,000 people in the Gulf region. * Nagin estimates that 50,000 survivors remain on rooftops or in shelters, awaiting rescue and evacuation. * Congress approves $10.5 billion to continue the relief operation. * Bush tries to seize control of National Guard troops from Blanco. She refuses.
Saturday, Sept. 3*
Bush orders 7,000 active duty soldiers to the region. They begin arriving throughout the day.

Hurricane Katrina Testimonie-2

2005-11-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

This next testimonie comes from my Dad. My parents have lived in New Orleans for the past thirteen years. After various jobs, they finally decided to open up a restaurant/bar in New Orleans, which they had for three years before the hurricane hit. Things were going really good until all this happened. They have been forced to relocate and leave their dream behind. Here is their story:

I first heard about the hurricane when it was getting stronger. I was up watching the news with my wife at 1am Sunday morning. I knew I had to pack my family up and head to Houston where we would be safe. We ended up leaving at 8a.m. Sunday morning only to find ourselves stuck in traffic for hours. We literally moved one mile in one hour. It was frustrating. In the end, it took us seventeen hours just to reach Houston and another hour from there to get to my brother-in-laws home. We spent two weeks with one of my wife’s brother and another two with her other brother. By then, a month had passed. I did NOT expect to be in Houston for that long. It was hard to leave my family business and restart my life here, in Houston. It is just something that needed to be done and I couldn't change what had happened. Originally, I thought a day or two and we would be back home like we did last year for Hurricane Ivan. When we realized we might be here for a while, I applied for assistance from FEMA and the Red Cross. Thankfully, they have helped us get through this. We were able to move into a new apartment complex that FEMA is paying for, for a year. After weeks and weeks of looking for a job, (it’s hard to find a job at my age) I found one. I am currently working at the Hilton Hotel as a chef. I have over twenty five years experience in the field so I was hired on the spot. I thank God every day for this job and for keeping my family safe. I have decided with my wife that we will stay in Houston and make it our new home. New Orleans is a special place for me, but I can’t go on running from a hurricane every time. I am getting old and it’s too nerve racking. A more recent development, I am now working on buying a house for my family. We have had the blessing of participating in a program with Habitat for Humanity in which you help to build your home and then you get to live in it. You still have to pay for it, but they have teamed up with Oprah to help out those victims of Hurricane Katrina. And to my surprise, Oprah herself showed us where the new subdivision would be built. She has hired her team to decorate and furnish the homes. I hope this is the beginning of a new future. I am certainly looking forward to it! Hopefully this will be the last time we have to move.

Hurricane Katrina Testimonie-Living Through the Storm

2005-11-14T08:19:00.000-08:00

This testimonie is coming from one of the Detectives in Jefferson Parish. His name is Dave Randall. He is also the person I chose to write my feature article about. His experience through this disaster is one that I can't keep from all of you. I just couldn't believe that I was reading about my home after I read the emails he sent me about what happened during this trying time. He has been in law enforcement for approximately 8 years. He started off as an undercover narcotics agent, correctional center deputy, career criminal intercept unit detective, patrol deputy, and finally a juvenile crimes detective. I have never seen someone so deeply committed to their job. He has lived in the New Orleans are his whole life and this is his story:

My experience during this catastrophe was one that will last a life time. All of my life living in the New Orleans area, you always hear, "Boy we're bound to get one." or "You know if one of those big ones come to New Orleans, we're through." One would think New Orleans would have been one of the most prepared cities in the gulf south. Well here we are practically living in the stone ages with little or no leadership from ranking officials. I've seen the best in some people who stepped up to the plate and took charge and unfortunately, I've seen the worst come out. Some people are just born to help, not just talking about me and my love of the job (you know me), but just the dedicated love of the job. We as officers did everything humanly possible to keep order in a place where there was total break-down of civilization. I've seen deputies break down because of the inability to do more. Just the totality of circumstances was just too much to bear for us mere humans trying to do our part.
During the storm, it got so bad and there was no end in sight for alot of people. To some it really did look like an end of the world situation. There were people who called 911 and said they were gonna shoot any police officer they’ve seen because we were not bringing them food and water. Last time we checked it was a mandatory evacuation and anybody who stayed behind, stayed at they’re own risk. Then they had people who would break into businesses and retrieve food items for survival. It came to the point where Sheriff Lee spoke on the radio saying if that was the case, because no relief was coming on the federal level do not arrest or stop them. But there were always the ones who had to take it a step further thinking if the police are not stopping us from getting things out of the stores, not realizing it was food only, thought hey it's free reign. They were quickly apprehended and dealt with.
I have nothing good to say about the officers who abandoned their jobs. Most of us came on this job and held that oath we took very seriously. We knew there would be a time something of this magnitude would strike and we would have to step up to the plate and do what it takes to protect the people. There was never any question with me. Yes it hurts to see people I love leave and not knowing what tomorrow may bring from them and us. But we signed on the line just as some of us did in the military. It needed doing. There were the ones who said oh my family, I’m scared, and stuff like that. Or the pressure from family members saying you need to quit and be with us. This is a brotherhood like no other. Yet family is important, there is no way you could live with yourself if you leave your brothers and sisters in arms alone. Family can't argue with that as best as they try. It's a line you don't cross. Now after the threat is over, if you still want to leave then that's different. In the military if you desert during wartime the UCMJ (United Code of Military Justice) says the punishment is death, no if ands or buts. It should be the same here. This was a wartime situation.
Now, three months after the storm, everything is different no matter how they try and tell you it's not. You go to some the of stores that's open and you might fight for the smallest of things on the shelf. Gas is still pretty hard to find. New Orleans still looks like the pictures of Japan after the atomic bomb was dropped. But still the politics of the higher up are still the same. No one knows anything and can offer no answers to us on what's next.

My Street

2005-11-12T14:46:00.000-08:00

When I first saw this picture published on my neighbor's blog Katrina: A Midcity Blog, I really didn't want to go back. Although the shotgun double where I live is not in this picture, the absolute devastation of this image taken in mid-September made the storm more real for me than any of the surreal news footage because it was/is just a typical New Orleans street, one that I walked down on my way to the local coffee shop to prepare for classes or meet a new colleague. Now with the spectacular waters receded, the modest homes on this street were left wounded, raw and bare, for all of us to see.

Stats Article 2: New Orleans tries to Rebuild

2005-11-11T13:26:00.000-08:00

The International Herald Tribune's New Orleans tries to rebuild is an interesting article about wages and business in New Orleans. Since many residents have left, many organizations are upping their wages to lure people to come back and work in New Orleans. Business flyers are all over the city promising 17-20 dollar an hour jobs. Even Burger King is advertizing a 10 dollar an hour job. Southern Electronics is advertizing 30 dollars an hour for salvage work. Business leaders predict an economic boom in the city for the next few years, yet there is such a high problem with housing and schools that businesses are finding it difficult to fill the job vacancies. Bollinger Shipyards is still lacking 600 employees for work. To me, it is interesting that there is such an economic boom after destruction, yet having trouble to grow because of lack of workers. While before the storm there was a surplus of available workers, yet not many opportunities.

In the Ruins - Lemann response

2005-11-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

The Talk of the Town Article by Nicholas Lemann was very intriguing. It was written from the perspective of a man whose family has lived in New Orleans for a long time. It seems to have the similar powerful effect of speaking about an intriguing yet decaying city that I have read in other articles about New Orleans recently. Lemann wraps up the literary history of Hearn and Faulkner's works on storms in SE Louisiana as well as the history of the violence and looting.
Lemann, like other writers, groups the city into certain main themes: imminent destruction by storms, looting, corrupt officials, decay, ambivalence among the people, and poverty. He writes mainly of his father's experience in New Orleans storms and weaves through his stories, literature, history and most of all: political implications of the innaction of government. It covers many ideas, and seems to depart at times from the story of his father, yet it is a powerful piece, and its conclusions about government are well founded.

The Sunken City--John McPhee article

2005-11-11T11:14:00.000-08:00

In reading John McPhee's article, I felt that he brought the reader into his subject as he describes the city of New Orleans with such disdain and accuracy. It leaves one to wonder and find it hard to beleive why one would choose to live there. I found his structure of writing to be supportive of his ideas as well as both interesting and informative. He brought a view of New Orleans into light that I had never thought of before.
McPhee uses a descriptive narrative in his article. He describes the elevation of land and the sinking levee systems as the bellowing out of a fish bowl. He asserts that the city is sinking due to the widening of the Mississippi River, the rising of the lakes and swaps and the erosion of the wetlands. Soon New Orleans will be nothing but a lake where a once great city stood.
His point is a very convincing one as well as a very terrifying one. His evidence may be factual but has he no love or compassion for New Orleans? What place does he call home? Why does he choose to write about the city and what ties does he have to it?
If you get a chance, check out this article THE SUNKEN CITY.

bayou farewell

2005-11-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

I dont know if this is a valid topic here - but i want to thank you for assigning this book doreen. It has struck a deep chord with me reading it - and I still havent finished it.
I read the first chapter(s) and knowing what he was writing about - pretty much wrote it off as a documentary. Interesting and cute - but nothing anyone didn't already know. His perspective as an outsider - unfamilar with eating crawfish and crabs - how to make a roux simple things that i can show people - i can't write about because I am an outsider.
He goes place that i have never been And places I have been but never grasped the significance of
And as i'm digging for places in this book i find them hiding themselves from me. I've been to this place in the oaks tichner visited - I can remember riding down the causway to this place at the end of the world. I don't remember connecting with the people as he did.
I do remember eating catfish and redfish and nutria for the first time.
I wasn't as open - but the people trimble found were as open then

Fast Food Restaurants Hungry For Workers

2005-11-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

I found this article at the Times-Picayune that supplied numbers and stats of those places looking for employment. There is an obscene amount of jobs opening up in the New Orleans area and yet there are no workers available to work.

NOPD Abandonment Stats

2005-11-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

I found this article at the Times-Picayune about 45 NOPD officers who were fired for abandonment. I'm posting this because it shows the consequences and number schemes for those who did not comply with their duties.

"On the Roof"-Article

2005-11-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

“On the Roof,” by Dan Baum is an article about a family who was aware of the evacuation orders, but (like many) was forced to stay because they did not have any money to leave. It starts off pretty calm but the reader soon learns that the family will have to endure a horrible week ahead. The stepfather, Charles Covington, in the article is quoted as saying, “I’m poor, but I’m not stupid” when it was mentioned that New Orleans was under mandatory evacuation. I was compelled to keep reading because once the storm was over it seemed as though the family had lived through it and everything would be ok. I was wrong! This was only the beginning of their hardships.
Once the storm passed, the family was forced to go up into the attic because the water was rising quickly. It was very convincing because as the article describes the stepfather breaking a hole open in the roof with his hammer so they could get on the roof, I could picture images like many of those showed on the news. Also, the helicopter coming to rescue people was a constant image displayed on the news. Once they freed themselves from their own home, they still had hope that buses would be sent to rescue them. The article ended without us finding out what happens to this family. However, seeing it for myself, I know now that it took a long time for help to arrive and when the buses did reach New Orleans, only certain people were allowed to get on. One would think that in a time of need anyone would be allowed to receive help. After more buses were provided, everyone who wanted to leave was able to leave the city.

Blanco budget plan leaves legislators cold

2005-11-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plan to trim more than $500 million from the state budget through cuts and spending freezes. However, some questioned whether certain programs were being unfairly targeted. Health care is being trimmed by $222 million, while higher education is being cut by $71 million. Most of the health-care cuts are due to fewer people receiving services since the storms. Charity and University hospitals have notified 2,600 workers that they're being laid off as of next month. In addition to the budget deficit, Louisiana is projected to owe the federal government $3.7 billion for its share of the hurricane relief and recovery costs. Unless Congress votes to relieve Louisiana from all or part of that debt, the state will likely be forced to push those payments far into the future. Its hard enough to try and deal with all the cleaning up in New Orleans. The debt that needs to be repayed is just more stress added on!

Pain at the Pump Eases

2005-11-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

This article appeared on NOLA.com. It talks about how gas prices were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Before Katrina hit, gas prices were around $2.52 a gallon. Katrina and Rita damaged oil platforms and shut down Gulf refineries, pushing gasoline prices even higher. In New Orleans, gas prices shot up to $2.88 a gallon. Although gas prices are decreasing, they still remain pretty high.

Porch Duty, by Dan Baum

2005-11-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

In this article, Baum writes about a man, his girlfriend, and their neighbors staying at their nearly flooded house's in New Orleans to protect them from looters. The man talks about the misconceptions of many people that New Orleans could be under 20 feet of water from a storm surge. Meanwhile, they witness looters walking down their street with looted goods, and a Baton Rouge police patrol searching houses and businesses.

This article is a good feature article about people who stayed through the worst of Katrina to protect their homes from the almost certain looting after Katrina. Baum hooks you in with a grim setting revealed almost immediately. My interested was maintained by the dialogue throughout the story - the man explaining why 20 feet of water in New Orleans is basically impossible. This gave the article credibility, along with the man conversing with wandering looters and police patrols cruising around on boats. The way the looters were portrayed, seeming as if they thought it was ok to steal alcohol and clothes, things that were not neccessary, made the story more convincing and credible. Baum was able to separate the situation from the story, and detach himself from the story - not over dramatizing it, just telling the story. http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/050912ta_talk_baum

Katrina Pet Rescue

2005-11-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

In this article from the Times-Picayune, the executive director of the Louisiana SPCA says her organization has rescued approximately 8,500 animals since the storm. She estimates other organizations have rescued approximately 5,000. In the days after the storm, 7,000 people called the SPCA to ask them to look for their pets.

Coastal Erosion

2005-11-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

This article titled 64,000 Coastal Acres Lost in Storm details the coastal erosion impact from Hurricane's Katrina and Rita. 64,000 acres, or 100 square miles, were washed away. In the last century, Louisiana has lost 1900 square miles of land from coastal erosion.

Stats: Impact on small businesses

2005-11-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

This article from the Times-Picayune talks about, in part, some of the statistical damage to small businesses. Among the numbers: 2.8 billion loss in seafood this year, 85000 jobs at risk in the hospitality industry, 1.6 billion loss in agriculture, 4 in 10 of Louisiana's businesses were destroyed or damaged through Rita/Katrina, only 2,294 small business association loans approved of 136,000.

Stats: Small Business

2005-11-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

This article in the Times-Picayune talks about, in part, some of the statistical damage to small businesses. Among the numbers: 2.8 billion loss in seafood this year, 85000 jobs at risk in the hospitality industry, 1.6 billion loss in agriculture, 4 in 10 of Louisiana's businesses were destroyed or damaged through Rita/Katrina, only 2,294 small business association loans approved of 136,000.

Job loss and recovery costs statistics

2005-11-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

Together, these two articles show how costly Katrina has been to the city and state. The first one deals with the unemployment rate in New Orleans.
Katrina Blows Away 224,000 Jobs is interesting just to see how our economy has been crippled. The next one

State's rebuilding bill could hit $3.7 billion shows how the already devestated state is going to have to find ways to come up with its share of the rebuilding cost. But after reading about the 224,000 jobs lost in New Orleans (Louisiana's major city), you get an idea of what a struggle its going to be.

BBC News: Premature Babies

2005-11-05T13:57:00.000-08:00

BBC's archive on Katrina. As with most subjects, the BBC is very informative and in-depth.

BBC News: Pulling Together

2005-11-05T13:51:00.000-08:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4259434.stm

This viewpoint was written in response to the idea that Robert Putnam said after 9/11 that Americans were basically on their own, and that there was not enough generosity of the American people. The response to Katrina, however, was extremely successful by the American people's donations and work to help out the city of New Orleans as well as the rest of the Gulf Coast. Matthew Spalding takes care to show that the American people were very generous in opening up arenas, giving money, donating food, etc. All of this is in contrast to many of the relief blunders of the government.

Louisiana Can't Pay...

2005-11-04T14:38:00.000-08:00

This article appeared on USATODAY.com. According to the article, Louisiana can't pay the $3.7 billion that the U.S. government says is its share of hurricane relief. Federal law requires state and local governments to pay a portion of disaster relief costs. I'm just wondering how do they expedct Louisiana to come up with this money if they still need money to rebuild!!

Hurricane Evacuees Face Eviction

2005-11-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

This article appeared in the New York Times. It caught my eye because it was talking about Katrina. Basically, the article is talking about FEMA and how they may not be doing their job. Evacuees are facing eviction mostly in the Texas area. Hotels and landlords are complaining because although they do not want to bring more stress and worry onto evacuees, they can not continue to extend rent to those displaced.

Environmental issues

2005-11-04T13:54:00.000-08:00

This website is a good resource on post Katrina environmental issues. It tells about the quality of air and water in the New Orleans area. Also gives information on wildlife, hazardous chemicals, and hurricane debris and where it is going to be dumped at. http://www.deq.state.la.us/

Site full of information

2005-11-04T13:48:00.000-08:00

I found this site that is full of Hurricane Katrina information from landfall to present. It covers every aspect of Katrina from the actual storm, to racial issues, looting, media coverage, and political impacts. It is full of links that give more detailed information on a particular phrase or word. I think it could be a very helpful research tool. The website is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina.

Katrina and the Superdome

2005-11-04T10:20:00.000-08:00

I know that all fellow New Orleanians feel that the Superdome is a significant part of New Orleans. In this article, I found their plans for reconstruction, where the home teams will play in the meantime and great photos of New Orleans. I though this would be great for those of us who have not been back to New Orleans, like myself, and would like to see pictures and get a little detail of what is going on with the Superdome. http://en.wikipedi.org/wiki/Louisiana_Superdome This cite has some really cool info about the Superdome and people in New Orleans.

Celebrities and donations

2005-11-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

I just though this was a neat cite. I like to keep up with what celebrities are doing, especially in a crisis. Michael Jackson is donating a song...Travolta is donating his jet, while still other celebrities are being a little more generous by donating actual money. I alos heard somewhere that Britney Spears is auctioning off her clothes and childhood toys for victims of Katrina. She is from Louisiana you know. http://www.luxist.com/entry/1234000210057694 Check this cite out. I found it quite interesting.

Something funny (Chris Rose on the Saints)

2005-11-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

I just thought everybody would get a laugh out of
this. You have to be a Saints fan to appreciate it.

The pilght of New Orleans police

2005-11-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

This article,When heroes become all too human, was written by Leonard Pitts, a writer for the Miami Herald. This dude is awesome. I read his column every time the Times Picayune publishes it. He wrote this one a week after Katrina hit. It's about Paul Accardo, one of the New Orleans police officers who committed suicide.
In this article, Pitts interviews some of the officers who knew Accardo. He uses their words and bits of narration to try and make sense of the suicide and also give the readers a sense of the despair and desperation that Katrina left behind.
What's also good is how he uses simple language in a context that gives off so much depth. There are layers and layers of emotion in this article and he does it effortlessly.

The way we talk

2005-11-04T08:28:00.000-08:00

This article, In N.O.,they have a special way of talking, was written by Jarvis DeBerry, an editorial writer for the Times Picayune. What he says about the way we talk is so true, but you never notice it until you're away from New Orleans. I especially like the part about the two people wondering if "they" had any ketchup in the refrigerator. Me and my wife do it all the time.
DeBerry does a good job of capturing the voices of the people. The quick hits of dialgoue that he gives, mixed in with the narration, gives the article that feel of New Orleans, makes me wish I was there. (One more day to go.)
Reading this will make you think of New Orleans, the language and the culture. Even if you've never been there, you'll still get a good representation of the way we talk,our attitudes and how we go about things. Hopefully, for those who did live there, it will make you miss it and have you itching to get back.

Writing, Manuscripts, and Katrina: New Orleans Writers discuss their Loss

2005-11-03T10:59:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal did a story today on New Orleans' writers including UNO English Dept.'s very own Niyi Osundare and Kris Lackey! Words Can't Describe What Some Writers In New Orleans Lost. Their many stories of losing manuscripts of prose and poetry are quite devastating. Even more profound is Niyi's story of barely escaping the floodwaters with his wife and ending up in a shelter in Alabama. Fortunately, he is now a visiting writer at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire this semester, but what an experience!

BTW, this article is a great example of a feature article with its compelling lead-in, interviews with a variety of writers from NO, and exciting details and character profiles as well as its very focused angle on how writers have suffered tremendously from Katrina.

More Return of Cultural Stuff

2005-11-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

It looks like the Prytania Theatre is now open for those of you in the area who may want to see Wallace and Grommet's Curse of the Were Rabbit.

Signs of a recovery WWOZ on the air

2005-11-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

Hi - Just picked up a copy of today's Times Picayune, & saw a column titled Coming Up For Air by Dave Walker. He mentioned that WWOZ (90.7 FM) was back on the air and broadcasting. I turned on my radio and found out that I am able to receive it from my home in Slidell. The song playing when I first turned the radio on was What New Orleans Means. I'm not sure who the band was, but it was appropriate.

Website and Audio Memorial

2005-11-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

To Kick Off the Memorial Component of our class blog, I'm going to provide a few links that may be useful for article ideas, but are also powerful testimonies from people about the storm.

The first is a website entitled Alive in Truth which is "an all-volunteer, grassroots effort to record oral and written history about the lives of displaced New Orleanians, in their own words.
The project is founded and coordinated by New Orleans native Abe Louise Young, a nationally-awarded poet." It seems like this website is collecting stories primarily from those evacuees who were in the Superdome, Convention Center, or rescued from their homes, but they are open to all testimonies and encourage people to submit their own stories and/or collect oral histories and post them on the website.

Secondly, This American Life, an audio narrative program on NPR, hosted by Ira Shor, did two fantastic shows on Katrina. Episode 296 is called After the Flood and Episode 297 is named This is Not My Beautiful House. They are both well worth listening to in their entirety as they offer a variety of testimonials from people affected by Katrina. You can buy and/or download them for a fee or listen for free with RealPlayer or ITunes.

My Katrina aftermath

2005-11-02T17:05:00.000-08:00

My name is Eddie and I am a marketing major. Life was pretty good before Katrina...your average work, school, work, school routine, but it was good. I liked going to UNO and I loved my job as a waiter at Zeke's. I lived in Fat City in Metairie and kinda liked that too. I was getting an earful about Katrina before it even crossed the Florida panhandle from my mom, who always worries about hurricanes. Over the next days I watched it until the Friday before it hit and it was obvious it was coming here. So my girlfriend and I got a room for free at the downtown Marriott where she was a manager. We figured we'd be fine there, and she was getting paid overtime for being there. We stayed there Saturday night, but when I woke up Sunday and watched the news I said to hell with this, were leaving, and thank God we did. We left Sunday afternoon, sat in 13 hours of traffic and went to Birmingham, then North Carolina, then Lafayette, and now I have a permanent apartment in Houston. I kinda like it in Houston, its alot nicer than New Orleans in some ways. My apartment is beautiful, like nothing Ive seen in New Orleans, but I do miss home, the food, the 24 hour bars, and the people.

I am back in New Orleans right now for a few days for the third time since Katrina. Things seem to be taking so long to get back to order in some places. Today we were looking for a cat in an absolutely devastated neighborhood of Chalmette. Those kinda neighborhoods seem to be everywhere. I'm glad I made the decision to make a permanent move to Houston to continue my life, but saddened at seeing just how devastated my real home is.

My Life

2005-11-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

My name is Cynthia. I am two years away from finishing school with two degrees. I'm a Poli Sci pre-law major and I'm completing my certification in Paralegal Studies. New Orleans is my roots; I've been here forever. I absolutely love the city and the tourists that visit daily. My favorite thing to do is walk into in the French Quarter and introduce myselfto people; I enjoy meeting new people from new places and learning about their own personal experiences. I'm now the mother of a seven month old baby girl named Madilynn; she is my world and my everything. When the word spread around the city about Katrina, she was only a few days away from impacting the gulf coast. I evacuated to Orange, Tx. with my mom and my brother; we left late Saturday night leaving my fiance and my dad behind. We thought this trip would only last a few days but days have turned into weeks of waiting to return to our home and our beautiful city. My finace waited the storm out in Poplarville, MS. where the eye passed directly over them. It seemed like forever before we finally received word that my dad and my fiance were okay. Ten days after the storm, my mom and brother returned home and I flew to Memphis to meet my fiance. I have been back only once since Katrina's wrath tore through New Orleans. My fiance and I lost our rental home in New Orleans, our car and our jobs. We are currently staying with his parents in Memphis and are hoping to find a new place to call home in the Big Easy. Things have been really tough but I'm back in school now and I still have my family and I Thank God for that.

Brian and Katrina

2005-11-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

It was to be the fall semester of my senior year. I was taking 21 hours, and I was quite excited at this challenge. School had jus started, and I moved back in with a friend that I had lived with fall 04/spring 05. We started hanging out more, and having fun. I began to socialize more, whereas during the summer, I spent most of my time at my parents house. When I went to my classes, I was so excited at every one of them. I knew there would be a lot of work involved, yet I was thrilled.
Meanwhile a lot of changes was going on at my church. I had been a volunteer with the youth group for several years and I really began to get tired of some of their disrespect. I recently had committed to a year with the youth ministry, and I regretted it so much. The Wednesday before Katrina, I was so depressed at the disrespect of the youth that night I felt like I was at the end of my rope. Friday night, my friend Daniel and I came to my parents house to eat a good meal. I heard about some storm that was about to be turning. I was mildly interested.
The next morning, I woke up and the NBC station was broadcasting the weather non-stop, and it seemed like Hurricane Katrina was going to hit New Orleans dangerously close. We immediately decided to leave. I put everything higher in my room at my parents house... taking care to put special books and items on top. Little did I know the water would reach far above our one story ceiling.
We went to Georgetown, 30 minutes outside of Alexandria in "the sticks." Actually, we were about 10 minutes away from Georgetown as well, bordering a national forest. We stayed at my sister's former boyfriend's house, which made things awkward. We stayed there for two weeks, and meanwhile I became friends with a starving stray dog that one day disappeared. I also saw preying mantis and walking sticks, catfish, turtles, hummingbirds, a fox and deer. I'm an animal lover, so I really enjoyed it. Meanwhile my dad was still trying to recover from a stroke he had in the spring. My mother immediately started looking for a job, and within a few days, she did.
Eventually we ended up renting a trailer closer to the suburb area of Alexandria, but still close enough to the country to feel relaxing. I have been here doing schoolwork and watching Ellen since then. Well, I also get out to order pizza sometimes (no delivery out here), go to Wal Mart, or to church with an elderly couple here. This is my life right now, but soon I will move back to New Orleans on my own, and I wil be quite excited to do so.

My Story

2005-11-02T06:55:00.000-08:00

Hi my name is Brandi Cotogno and I am a first semester student at Loyola. I am origianlly from a little town in St. Bernard Parish called Arabi. I grew up here my whole life and went to high school in New Orleans and received my undergrad from Loyola. I was attending UNO for prerequisite courses for Physical Therapy school. When Katrina hit I told my boyfriend I was not going to stay and so I made him pack and leave. Good thing I did because the eye of the storm swepted over my Parish, it is totally devestating. I first went to Birmingham. Then we went to Dallas and then to Tampa for a final month stay with my Uncle. Two weeks ago I returned to New Orleans to be with my boyfriend, find a job and continue school. We found an apartment and my dad is going to live with us temporarily, isn't that a living situation!! I guess we all have to deal with these crazy times and situations. I am now working twelve hour shifts at Sweet Fire and Ice six days a week and am trying to do my school work. This is such hectic times. I can't wait till one day things return to some sort of normalcy. I am glad to be back I just wish things were a little more settled. Until then everyone takes it one day at a time. All i am asking for is not more Hurricanes for awhile, but I know this is wishful thinking. I love reading everyone's post. We all have interesting lives and stories and that is the coolest part about this online class, hearing and reading other people's stories. I can't wait till this blog is full of more interesting facts and juicy stories. Later, Brandi.

Katrina and me: Kenneth Cooper

2005-11-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

The first I heard of Katrina she was off the coast of Florida. It was the Friday before she hit and I remember as I was leaving work that evening my boss stopped me and said, "Keep your cellphone on. I might need to contact some people in case this storm does something tricky." I worked there for five years and I never thought that would be the last time I set foot in the place.
The next morning I was leaving UNO's lakefront campus. I pulled onto Elysian Fields and the first thing I noticed was the cars lined up outside the Shell station. The line extended for at least two blocks. I hadn't turned on my radio yet, so I drove on wondering if everybody had lost their mind. I figured something was up when the Spur station on Elysian Fields and Gentilly had a big sign that said, "No more gas."
That's it, I thought. Bush has finally done it, ruined the country. Then I turned on the radio. Katrina was a Category 5 and headed straight for New Orleans. I was like, "whatever." So many hurricanes hit the Gulf between June and November every year that it's hard to keep up with the names. And then we always end up being the lucky ones, saved by some last second turn. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Dan Milham or Bob Breck standing in front of their Super Dopler 6000's predicting the worst, only to have Nash reappear from out of nowhere with his cardboard map to tell them they're wrong. So when I got home that afternoon, I wondered why my wife, Keyan, was packing.
"My job said I gotta go," she said.
That was the last thing I wanted to do - take a four hour drive to Shreveport.
"Let's just wait a while," I said. "It's gonna turn and then they'll call you back."
We waited until one o'clock that morning. Katrina still hadn't turned. Nash wasn't around and I don't ever remember seeing Bob Breck that nervous.
"What we gonna do?" Keyan asked.
"I don't know," I said, then walked outside.
Now, I'm not one to believe in signs or anything like that. But as I was standing outside on the front porch, I was thinking, it's not gonna come. It's gonna turn.
But then it happened. I was looking up at the sky, and it grumbled. Not anything supernatural. Just a loud roar of thunder. And at that moment everything just seemed so dark and still and this feeling came over me that something horrible was about to happen.
Two days later, in a Comfort Inn outside of Shreveport, I watched every neighborhood I ever did anything in get destroyed.
As of right now we're still in Shreveport. Everybody we know lost everything and I'm out of a job. Our house in LaPlace didn't get any damage so on the 7th of November we'll be going home for good. I guess you could say we're one of the lucky ones, if you can call it that.

Introduction...

2005-11-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

Hi. My name is Olga Conde. I am 20 years old. I am hispanic. My family is from Guatemala, which is in Central America. I was born in New York but my family decided to move to Louisiana when I was 8 years old. I have lived on the Westbank (which is about 5-10 minutes outside of New Orleans) ever since we arrived in Louisiana. This is my third year attending UNO. I am currently a sophomore but only 6 credits away from being a Junior (so close!!). My major is pre-law. At one point I was torn between Immigration Law and Corporate Law, but I seem to be leaning more toward studying Corporate Law.

Around the time I heard about Hurricane Katrina, it was only days away from hitting land. I was working at the Dectective Bureau for Jefferson Parish (the parish I lived in). Everything was so hectic around there (and then dealing with school) that it was hard to keep up with every storm that was forming in the Gulf. I remember looking forward to school starting in August because I was ready to get back into my routine. The first week of class was great. For the first time in a long time, I loved my schedule. My professors were all cool and really seemed to want to work with the students. Friday August 26, 2005, (before the storm hit) I went to school and work. I never imagined that I would never be coming back for a while.

On Sunday, August 28, 2005 at 8:00 AM, my family and I packed up a couple of our things and headed to Houston,TX. I did not want to leave, but was also scared because I had never experienced a hurricane before (nothing this major anyways). We always went to Houston whenever we felt the need to evacuate. We had only evacuated once before Katrina, and that was last year for Hurricane Ivan. We have family out in Houston so we were always sure we had a place to stay.

I spent the month of September in Houston just wanting to wake up and be back home. I wanted to make the Hurricane go away and have evrything go back to the way it was (I still want to do that). I can't even remember the month of Septemeber. It seemed that it went by in the blink of an eye! I spent that month going back and forth to Baton Rouge to stay with my boyfriend. I was contemplating enrolling at LSU. I even went through the process of applying and all the headache involved with that. In the end, I decided it might be best for me to go back to Houston to stay with my family and figure things out. I resigned from LSU and soon found out that UNO was offering online courses beginning in October. I was so excited to hear this. I thought finally something good was happening. I decided that I would just finish the semester off online. Now I am taking 4 classes and even though it was all so new to me, I still love all my classes. I have adjusted to the virtual classroom and it doesn't seem so bad afterall.

In mid-October, I was called back to work. We had been on Civil leave due to the hurricane. After a month of not working I was so ready to get back. I left Houston to go back to Lousiana and went to stay with my best friend, Maria. I worked for about a week when my parents called me to tell me that they would be coming back home to get their belongings and move to Houston for good. My heart sunk once again. Was I just supposed to drop everything I had ever known and leave the place that I call home? I couldn't begin to imagine living my life in Houston. It was just so big. I missed my home. I missed my friends. I missed knowing where everything was. My whole life was here, in Louisiana. I ended up quitting my job and temporarily moving to Houston with my parents. I was determined to go back to Louisiana and leave when I was ready, not because a hurricane forced me out.

It is now November 1, 2005. I have decided to move to Baton Rouge in January. I am going to transfer to LSU and see what happens from there. I just have to take things one step at a time.
I realize I can't make everything be back to normal. I just have to continue living my life. I am just thankful to have my family and be alive!

ok i guess it's my turn

2005-10-30T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well - the first i remember hearing of Katrina - she had already crossed Florida ans was either a tropical storm or depression in the gulf. She was supposed to turn northward towards Appalachacola - and not affect us. She had dumped monsoon rains across Florida, and Floridians were recovering from her wrath. Ì was a senior at UNO - I had a schedule I realy liked - and in a manor of speaking had fought for.
I lost faith in myself a long time before this storm. I had divorced myself from life - from people - I don't know how it happened but i did. I was in the process of at least - trying to find out who I was when this storm hit.
Katrina was the first hurricane I have ever run from. She is not the first major sorm I've lived thru - I was on St croix for Hugo - and I remember being with two hundred other scared individuals as that storm ravished the island. I do remember being with people i knew and cared about as they accessed what was left of their lives. I was a transient and a coward there. I flew home to New Orleans - my home in Slidell - and was able to greet my daughter for her first birthday at NO airport. She doesn't remember that day - but I do - Why did'nt I stay to help St Croix rebuild?
I'm in a similar state of flux with Katrina here. And I'm still a coward. This is the first Hurricane I have evacuated for. First off let me explain - I'm an ass and a drunk - not nescessarily in that order. but it is true. - i'm still a drunk - and probably still an ass.
My lady friend left for Alabama Sunday morning. I thought about it but went to work instead - at a hospital for adolescents with specific problems - an intensive clinic. I rode out the storm there. And quite a few days afterwards
I was able to go home the day after the storm to check on my house. I found out after wading thru downed trees & a couple feet of water in street that my house was relatively untouched. I brought back the food i had in freezers & pantry to the hospital.
Power was back on in my house 10 days later and i was able to move back home. I sort of have resumed my life - if you can call it that - I have an existance - where i'm mostly alone = in a house that stands - taking 7 classes at UNO - 21 hours - isolating myself more and more - and wonderring - why am I still here - why did my hous stand and not someone elses. Why the hell am i wasting my time taking these stupid classes. Should I be spending my time helping others - or making money - or WHAT??????????

A Little Bit about Me (and Katrina): Doreen Piano

2005-10-30T11:28:00.000-08:00

When Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 27, 2005, I'd just finished my first week of teaching at the University of New Orleans. I'd moved to New Orleans in early August to begin a position at UNO as an assistant professor of Rhetoric and Composition in the English Dept.

Weeks after the hurricane hit, I had two images in my head, one was of the chair of my dept. telling faculty members at a meeting the Thursday before the storm that the semester had gotten off to a much better start than last fall when during the first week of school everyone had evacuated for Ivan, and the second was again an academic moment during my job interview when the committee members, upon being asked why they liked where they worked, made several typical comments about the student population, the classes they taught, and their colleagues, and the chair after listening to them, gave me a smile and said, And it is New Orleans! to which everyone including me nodded our heads vigorously.

Despite knowing what a screwed up southern city it was both through my own half dozen visits to the city and my friends' accounts who lived there, I had eagerly looked forward to the move. When I finally arrived in the t-shirt stickiness of early August, I was not disappointed. I rented half of a double shotgun in MidCity. Even in the hot summer evenings, I made it a ritual to walk around the bayou and take in the oasis of natural beauty while the sun was setting. My neighbors were friendly, the local coffeeshop harbored a variety of people who had seemed to make it their second home, even something about the bizarre logic of driving in a city where you couldn't make a left turn at an intersection appealed to me.

Although I had almost considered evacuating 'vertically' with friends who had lived there most of their lives, I, like most folks that I knew, including my friends who shelved their incity evacuation plans, sped away by car, my cat Jaffa Cakes riding shotgun as we departed the city with a few suitcases, a box of research and teaching materials, and a favorite leather jacket I took "just in case." After realizing that this evacuation was going to be longer than a three night hotel stay, I slowly made my way to Tucson AZ where I had lived in the 1980s and where I had a friend who housed me and my cat and our things. I've been here now for almost two months and will return to NO in mid November to resume my new life.

Welcome to Writing the Hurricane: A Class Blog

2005-10-28T13:21:00.000-07:00

In fall of 2005, New Orleans was vaulted into the limelight of national and international news due to Hurricane Katrina. Within days, every aspect of New Orleans culture had been picked apart and analyzed by social commentators, news journalists, professional writers, artists, and authors. From this intense scrutiny of our city emerged numerous human interest stories due to the natural disaster that will remain forever etched in our collective minds. Furthermore, New Orleans itself acted as a reflection of the many social ills and environmental hazards that have beset many American cities while retaining its own indelible culture that sets itself apart from the rest of the nation. As someone I know who lived in New Orleans for years and moved away from the city recently said, "When I left New Orleans, I crossed the border back into the U.S."

For many of us affected by the storm, our own particular view/image/experience of Hurricane Katrina may or may not have been part of the national story which emerged or it may have only been the tip of the iceberg or it may have been misrepresented or not really understood. It is for this reason that I began teaching a non-fiction writing class called Writing Hurricane Katrina: Natural Disaster and the North American Psyche when the University of New Orleans restarted its fall semester in October 2005.