Voices Rising

by Rebeca Antoine, Frederick Barton

Overview

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast and nearly toppled the historic city of New Orleans. As the storm cleared, residents watched water and chaos overtake their city, while political and legal systems proved unprepared and insufficient. The University of New Orleans served as a base for rescue and sustained tremendous damage to its Lakefront campus, but, in October 2005, the university reopened online and asked students to submit interviews and accounts of citizens' experiences during Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of manuscripts, interviews, and transcripts were collected from students and other residents who were willing to share their personal stories of the disaster. UNO compiled all of the submissions and created The Katrina Narrative Project, which is currently housed at the University of New Orleans Library. Voices Rising is a sampling of this greater collection. Transcending the images and headlines portrayed in the media, these are the true accounts of trauma and survival told by the people who endured them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780972814362
Publisher:	University of New Orleans Press
Publication date:	03/01/2008
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

Editorial Reviews

*Starred Review* In this astonishing collection of personal narratives, readers come face-to-face with the stark reality wrought by Hurricane Katina and the failure of the federal levees. Many books have been written about the tragedy, but the work done by University of New Orleans students to collect these survivors’ narratives in 2005 is groundbreaking. Every aspect of the post-Katrina New Orleans experience is present here, from areas as divergent as the I-10 overpass, the French Quarter, and shelters across the South. The rescuers and rescued have equal voices and share memories poignant and startling. Perhaps most revealing is the way evacuees were greeted elsewhere. From the Jefferson Parish deputies who were “very sinister” to people at the Oklahoma border who held signs of welcome, the reaction of various communities to the national nightmare is a snapshot of the country’s best and worst. Cutting, caustic, and riveting from start to finish, this collection does not shy away from presenting the agonies that often go unrecorded in the aftermath of a sudden disaster. Miles away from academic analysis, this is American social history from the ground up and staggering in its significance. —Colleen Mondor, Booklist

From the Publisher