Welcome!

My name is Stacy Parker Aab, and for the past two years I have interviewed Americans about their Katrina experiences. Each interview is different. Each interview is unique. We talk about the hurricane and the aftermath. We talk about what it’s been like to survive, and for some, to thrive. We talk about crimes. We talk about epiphanies and lessons learned. We talk about their lives before. We talk about their dreams ahead.

Katrina is not history.

For those on the Gulf Coast, or for those whose love or livelihood is connected to the Gulf Coast, Katrina is not over. Far from it. Therefore, I will keep chronicling the lives of those who survived.

No story is the same.

I have spoken with survivors, and with those who came to their need. I have spoken with those who played some sort of “role”—people who found their personal and professional trajectories altered by Katrina and its aftermath. Read the stories and you’ll see: there is no single Katrina experience.

Every story counts.

I have only one rule: every story counts. No matter your color or your socio-economic background, no matter how quiet or intense you perceive your story to be, your story counts. Period.

Because we know this can happen again.

The more we know the truths of August 29th and its aftermath, the more we can understand what went wrong and what went right, the better prepared we’ll be for the next crisis, the better we can understand each others’ grievances, the more likely that some of the injustice of the Katrina response can be avoided in the future.

If you are interested in being interviewed, please contact me.

I plan to keep interviewing for at least three more years. If you are interested in sharing your story, please contact me at thekatrinaexperience@gmail.com.

Danger and Hope on this Katrina Anniversary

August 31st, 2008

 (first posted on the Huffington Post August 29th, 2008)

“I’ve got an idea,” said my friend Larry, “why don’t you come down and ride out Gustav with me? Don’t you want to experience a hurricane firsthand?” These plaintive questions were on my voicemail. I listened as I walked uphill on 145th in Harlem, laughing the entire length of the message. Larry’s a good friend, but no way in Hades was I going to get on a plane and head directly for trouble, at least not of the meteorological kind. “Cause I’m not going anywhere,” Larry declared.

I laughed, but I knew he was serious. I also knew how this kind of attitude gets skewered by outsiders, many unaware of the mental gymnastics a person must make when preparing to face down a hurricane. From the outside, it’s so easy to forget that evacuations cost money. That you need a place to go. That you must concern yourself with the wellbeing of loved ones who may be too unhealthy, and well, too crotchety to travel. That you don’t want to leave your home and your businesses unattended, that you want to be there to repair any damage mid-storm. And then there’s the pets…

Larry has a cat, as well as a beautiful home near City Park, and a business in the Central Business District. I can understand his desire not to abandon all that’s his, especially as of today, when the slow-moving Gustav could land anywhere. But as forecasts change, his decision may no longer remain justified. As his friend, I don’t panic for him — yet.

But I feel for my friends who must make their decisions on the very day of the anniversary. As my friend Michael wrote me: “Emotionally, it’s a very overwhelming feeling to be bombarded with urgent TV broadcasts of the regional storm preparation on the anniversary of the LAST storm.” Knowing how most of my friends down there have either flirted with, or fallen into depression over the last three years, I know this time is drenched with anxiety. That they’re natural “get up and go” might be sapped.

This morning, I also spoke with my friend Suzanne who has decided not to leave — yet — because her ailing mother is too frail to move. She shared her contingency plans, including checking her mother into a nearby hospital. “If things worsen, I’ll reconsider [leaving],” she said, “but this storm does not look like another Katrina. There can’t be two Katrinas in a lifetime.”

I hope to God she’s right.

This Katrina anniversary is not like the others — neither for Louisiana residents, nor for me. This is the first Katrina anniversary where Gulf Coast residents await an approaching hurricane. Families across Louisiana weigh their options, figuring out what they should do. Many will forestall decision-making until the last possible moment, hoping the storm will shift, making evacuation unnecessary. Some will book their rooms elsewhere and just go, trying to treat this as a vacation, hoping that this time, it will remain as such. Depending on what kind of mandatory evacuation orders are given, some may be evacuated out of town by government-promised buses and trains, as well as concerned friends and neighbors. Others will simply remain. If there is any benefit to Gustav landing during the RNC convention, it must be that this time the response will be both competent and energetic from the federal level (yes, hope springs eternal).

For the first time, I count friends as among those making these decisions. This wasn’t the case before Katrina. I knew nobody who lived in Louisiana. Hurricane evacuations were total abstractions, the gritty details foreign to me. I have since worked on a Katrina oral history project (www.thekatrinaexperience.net), and through this work, have made a few wonderful, deep friendships. I now join the millions across the country who worry for their loved ones on the Gulf Coast, wondering what they will do, hoping they will be OK, trying to offer whatever assistance we can.

I am going to keep Suzanne’s hope in my heart. Hope that this is not another Katrina, hope that there will be no devastating landfall and 30foot+ storm surge, and that the levees will hold.

But, when it comes to the levees, we should not have to operate only on hope. We should not be afraid of the truth. And the truth appears to be that there were deep construction flaws in the New Orleans levee system, as designed by the Army Corps of Engineers http://www.levees.org/factsheet. The fact is, Americans all across the country live near Army Corps of Engineers’ designed levees. How many floods will take before we focus our objective investigative powers on these systems?

Three years later, we’re still calling for an 8/29 Commission. Please visit www.levees.org to see how you can help. It’s important for Speaker Pelosi and for your representatives to know that we want an independent commission to get to the bottom of what really happened with the levee failures. Let this be part of our push to rebuild America’s infrastructure. Let this be one small way you reach out and help New Orleanians on this anniversary.

Still Counting Katrina’s Dead

August 27th, 2008

(first posted on The Huffington Post on June 25, 2008)

The Katrina dead. Three years later and we can still see the drowned rooftops, the hospital staffs begging for evacuations, the lines of wheel-chaired sick fading before our eyes. Some of us remember this because we saw it on TV. Some of us remember this because we were there. No matter our vantage points, we should all be united in our desire that the dead be duly counted.

In a recent piece in Baton Rouge’s The Advocate, journalist Allen Johnson gives the latest update on state and local efforts to create an accurate accounting of the Katrina death toll. He focuses on the work of John C. Mutter, a professor of seismology at Columbia University’s Earth Institute and an expert on the impact of disasters on national economies, who is working to measure the full impact of Hurricane Katrina.

Dr. Mutter defines “full impact” as “the entire awful landscape of death, the grief it causes, and the loss of spirit as well as the losses to the informal as well as the formal economy.” While all of this not obviously quantifiable, Mutter believes that the more we know about the circumstances of individual deaths, the better prepared we will be to prevent similar deaths in the future.

I know Dr. Mutter through my own Katrina oral history work and have followed intently his efforts to go beyond the purviews of state officialdom and create the most complete list possible of Katrina deceased. In doing so, he has created the Hurricane Katrina Deceased Victims List . While he receives name-redacted information from state agencies, he also asks family members and friends of the deceased to submit directly to the list, given that many deaths may not be officially recorded in Louisiana or Mississippi records, and that families may wish to have the deaths publicly recognized. As for indirect deaths, he allows submitters to use their judgment as to whether they felt their loved one’s death was hastened by Katrina and its aftermath.

In Louisiana, the direct dead count now stands at 902, according to state epidemiologist Raoult C. Ratard. In Mississippi, the number is 223, according to Sam L. Howell, director of the Mississippi Crime Laboratory. The Louisiana number includes out-of-state deaths, but only if the out-of-state coroners notified Louisiana, as most were doing for up to a month after the storm.

“Direct” deaths are attributable to the storm and its immediate aftermath. “Indirect” deaths, such as suicide, loss of continuity of health care and profound heartbreak are causes whose victims are unlikely to be counted by state coroners as “Katrina-related.” Out-of-state deaths are most likely under-reported, too. There is also the difficult task of accounting for undocumented populations. And of course, there are the stories of killings during those initial dark days that must be either documented or dispelled — a task that is not Mr. Mutter’s, surely, but one that only investigative reporters seem interested in pursuing.

While no one is guaranteed an extra day’s life on this earth, there are certainly deaths that appear to be exacerbated, if not outright caused by Katrina-related factors. Researchers can later subdivide the groups by causation; in the meantime, Dr. Mutter strives to create the most comprehensive list possible. If you know someone who should be included on this list, or if you have any questions or information to share, you may contact Dr. Mutter at the address below:

Dr. John C. Mutter
Hurricane Katrina Deceased Victims List
The Earth Institute at Columbia University
405 Low Library
Columbia University in the City of New York
535 W. 116th St. New York, 10027
Jmutter@ei.columbia.edu

Arguably, this is the sort of work that could be sponsored by an 8/29 Commission if one actually existed. But it doesn’t. I’m glad and grateful that Dr. Mutter has taken it upon himself to take the lead.

Thanks for supporting The Katrina Experience!

March 2nd, 2008

Welcome the new, redesigned site!

First off, thanks to Ian Tadashi Moore (OneFullStop.net) for his work and artistry. I appreciate it very much!

With this blog, my plan is to share commentary, a bit of reportage, and occasional updates on the project. So please, take a look around, read an interview, and let me know what you think!

Thanks for your continued support!

Stacy