Rebuilding community in Louisiana after the Hurricanes of 2005

Abstract

The United States Gulf Coast was devastated during the 2005 hurricane season. Louisiana and Mississippi lost large portions of towns and communities-including much of New Orleans--dating back hundreds of years. The loss has been personal, resulting in hundred of thousands left homeless and displaced; political, as the federal government has been slow to act decisively and continues to falter; and cultural, as libraries, museums, and musical heritage have been shattered and displaced. This column provides an overview of the situation facing public libraries in Louisiana and how Louisiana librarians have been working to rebuild their communities. Overview of Hurricanes Katrina was the first Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic season. It crossed southern Florida and strengthened rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico, making its second landfall the morning of August 29, 2005, along the central Gulf Coast near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage along the coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The levees between Lake Ponchartrain and New Orleans were breached by the surge, flooding most of the city. Katrina killed at least twelve hundred people. More than seven hundred thousand people were displaced. More than 205,000 homes and 18,750 businesses were destroyed. Hurricane Rita was the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic season, first striking Florida, then Texas and Louisiana. The storm came ashore near the Texas and Louisiana border on September 24, 2005. Post-landfall damage was extensive in the coastal areas in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas. The storm killed six people; many thousands were displaced. The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, a collaboration of George Mason University's Center for History and New Media and the University of New Orleans, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, used electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. (1) The Public Library Situation in Louisiana after the Hurricanes of 2005 Hurricane Rita displaced hundreds of thousands of people from New Orleans and surrounding parishes. Many sought refuge in parishes north and west, including Vermilion Parish and Terrebonne Parish. When Hurricane Rita struck a few weeks later, those communities that were sheltering refuges also met with destruction of infrastructure and housing, according to Jackie Choate, head of the Vermilion Parish Library and Louisiana Library Association president, 2005-2006. As president of the Louisiana Library Association, I can tell you that the two sister hurricanes--Katrina and Rita--have damaged 39 percent of Louisiana's parish libraries with twenty-six facilities destroyed and twenty-eight damaged. Katrina devastated seven eastern parishes of Louisiana while Rita tore through the western half of Louisiana with the same strong winds and deadly tidal surge. As director of the Vermilion Parish Library, I have first-hand knowledge of the devastation Hurricane Rita brought to the Western Gulf Coast. My library system has two branches destroyed and one with major water damage. Hurricane Katrina brought the same ferocious winds and water to New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. (2) The litany of destruction includes libraries lost and swept away, libraries totally destroyed, and libraries flooded to the rooftops as recorded on the Current Status Assessment for Louisiana's Public Libraries at the State Library of Louisiana Web page. (3) Geraldine Harris, assistant city librarian of New Orleans Public Library, reports that Hurricane Katrina damaged all thirteen New Orleans Public Library locations and some of its archival documents that were in a storage facility. These documents have been removed from further harm by transfer to a restoration company. …

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