Because of more media attention, the Hurricane Katrina Project has had a boost this semester. We extended our interviews to include first responders and volunteers. Now our collection houses 42 interviews, along with pictures and videos supplied by displaced families and volunteer responders. We continue to do interviews every day and we welcome referrals of new participants.

Here is a sample from one of the project interviews:

Initially it was very, very tough.  Every day I watched the news. Every day I looked in the newspaper.  I recognized -- it was very hard to recognize places, but I did recognize places that I knew that I frequented, and it was very tough. 

I cried quite a bit every day, for probably the first month, month and a half, until I was actually able to get back home and that helped a lot, to be able to see things for myself and get some closure.  I would have been emotional when I went home, but I was in too much shock, you know, at the state of things, to be emotional.  Just, I could not believe the shape the coast was in, mainly Waveland and Bay St. Louis.  I just couldn’t imagine it being that bad.
                                               ...................William Denius

William Denius is from Poplarville, Mississippi.  William is currently a graduate student in the Public History program at MTSU.  He was in Murfreesboro when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and his home town.

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