Never forgetting Katrina (oral history): “We needed to start collecting…”

Editor’s Note: We don’t need to try and “remember” Katrina because the aftermath is still with us–from the trauma that impacts the growing youth to the displaced populations who never got to make it back home. In honor of the people who banned together in help, who clung to their lives and their home, and who post mark their lives as ‘pre-Katrina’ and ‘post-Katrina,’ we are publishing oral histories from the people who lived through the storm and who want to tell their “Katrina story” in their own words. 

New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: Uptown house with wall blown off. (Photo: wiki commons)

In this interview, Karen Leathem, local historian and curator of the Louisiana State Museum’s “Katrina and Beyond” exhibit, discusses the storm’s impact on her life, the museum, and the city, and how it ultimately inspired her to collect the artifacts that told the story of Hurricane Katrina. 

[Editor’s Note: This reflection was captured as part of an English class taught by Gaurav Desai to document memories of Hurricane Katrina]

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