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Hurricane Archive

Collecting and Preserving the Stories of Katrina and Rita

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The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University and the University of New Orleans organized the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (HDMB) in 2005 in partnership with many national and Gulf Coast area organizations and individuals. HDMB was awarded the Award of Merit for Leadership in History, and is the largest free public archive of Katrina and Rita with over 25,000 items in the collection. Read More.

Items (8462 total)

In St. James my aunt and uncle from Chalmette came stay with us. We were at my grandpa;s house and he was in a hospital in New Orleans having surgery. We loss power at around 1 a.m. before the storm even hit land. We…

I remember Hurricane Katrina well. I was one week into my second semester of college at the University of New Orleans. I was living with my grandparents in New Orleans East. My grandparents decided not to evacuate for…

It\'s hard to believe that something that occurred five years ago could feel like yesterday in an instant. My family stayed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. However,the hurricane didn\'t prepare us for what we…

I was enlisted in the Army National Guard and called to federal active duty when Hurricane Katrina destroyed our Gulf Coast. My unit was activated three or four days before the storm, and instructed to report to our home…

I had just started my junior year at high school. It had only been a week when I first heard about the storm. My family and I weren\'t really planning on evacuating for Katrina because we didn\'t think it would be coming…

Three feet of water in my dad\'s house. No fun but I consider myself lucky considering the other tragedies.

Hurricane Katrina did not affect my family and I as much as most people in New Orleans. We were very lucky in that the only damage our house received was the roof caved in, in one room. We had damage, but it wasn\'t…

This hurricane seemed just like any other. Nothing too harsh, it will just blow over in a few days. We stayed until August 28th, when our fellow neighbors convinced us to leave. We sat in traffic for 26 hours on our way…

My mom walked in my room and said \"only take what you can\'t live without.\" I looked around my room and looked back at her and said \"I can\'t live without all of my belongings.\" I have to say till this day that has…

For hurricane Katrina I evacuated to a friends house that lived in Lafayette. Two days after the storm passed I drove back to the deserted westbank (Marrero) to reunite with my father and brother. We stayed in a…