Documenting Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and One Family's Saga

On August 29, 2005 the world witnessed the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as it swept through New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi; a natural disaster that will forever be linked to the images of suffering and neglect wrought on citizens of the United States. This essay relates the story of the Hankins family’s survival in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The family of brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, children, and friends, communicate through oral narratives and personal photos the stories that detail their recovery and triumph over the psychological and emotional trauma of what has been called “one of this nation’s worst natural disasters.