Katrina + 5: Documenting Disaster (review)

"Katrina + 5: Documenting Disaster" was an exhibition open to the public in the late summer and early fall of 2010, at the Williams Gallery, part of The Historic New Orleans Collection on 533 Royal Street in the historic French Quarter. The exhibit commemorated the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and featured primary materials from a project incorporating oral history and photographic components. The documentation for this collection began in October 2005, and the oral histories focused on the experiences of first responders, while the photographs endeavored to capture the images of devastation wrought upon the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast regions. The exhibit also included historic maps and documents highlighting the two hundred-year history of tidal flooding and storm surges in New Orleans. In addition to the photographs and listening stations featuring oral histories, there was a multimedia station including an interactive timeline and a link to their online Web page, "Katrina on the Web +5."

The materials from the exhibition were pulled from the project, "Through Hell and High Water: Katrina's First Responders Oral History Project." Mark Cave, The Historic New Orleans Collection Williams Research Center Manuscript Curator and Oral Historian, began conducting interviews shortly after the levees broke in New Orleans in the fall of 2005; this project continues into the present and consists of 650 oral history interviews with local, state, and federal agency employees about their efforts in a post-Katrina New Orleans. The six agencies represented in the oral history project were the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Arkansas Army National Guard, Louisiana Department of Corrections, New Orleans Fire Department, St. Bernard Fire Department, and Disaster Medical Assistance.

The exhibit demonstrates the long relationship between powerful hurricanes and the city of New Orleans, greeting the visitor with a short Department of Defense film called, "The Five Days of Betsy." This film is a good start to the exhibition, and coupled with the historic maps and documents that outline the past two centuries of flooding and storm surges, it helps situate the infamous Katrina well within environmental historical frameworks. The film chronicles the impact of Hurricane Betsy, which hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 1965, and vividly demonstrates the similarities between the past and present storm surges, levee breaks, and flooded streets. Watching the film is an apt introduction for visitors to the exhibition as it places the fragility of New Orleans in a culturally historical framework. If this black-and-white film were in color, one would have a difficult time differentiating between Hurricanes Betsy and Katrina.

The listening stations housing the oral history components were positioned along the walls of the gallery, with adequate space for visitors to focus their listening experience. Each station focused on one agency's participation in responding to Katrina and the subsequent levee breaks. Photographs provided context on the physical environment per topic, and the station provided a brief explanation of each of the groups' involvement in the rescue efforts during Katrina. Excerpts from responders' stories were available at each kiosk with the push of a button, and the audio added a compelling layer of texture to the exhibition. For future displays, the addition of excerpt transcriptions for correlation to the audio would be helpful, especially when the gallery is crowded and/or noisy. The corresponding photographs of people and places—notably first responders and people stranded in the city—that accompanied the audio clips provided a very strong visual element and were well correlated to the narrative. Overall, the organization and display were very well done, and a visitor could move through gallery space with ease.

The interview content, some of which is available online, covers the initial evacuations, peacekeeping, and humanitarian efforts. And of course, the most compelling subject matter lies within the narrators' detailed explanations of working with the people of New Orleans. The first responders recall trying to...