Digital Resources for Hurricane Katrina Research
The City Archives & Special Collections holds many of the born digital records from the city government as the region recovered from the effects of Hurricane Katrina. We’re excited to start making these digital resources available for researchers.
The Archives has made several gigabytes worth of digital records related to Hurricane Katrina recovery available to patrons. They include records from Mayor Ray Nagin’s collection in the Office of Communications series from 2002-2010 and the City Council’s website series from 2004-2016. They include photographs and video, as well as text searchable documents like news releases, presentations, and reports. These records show an actively changing landscape in New Orleans, detailing storm damage, demolition, and new buildings that emerged in their place. They illustrate the depth of the challenges and the struggles the city government faced, as well as their shortcomings.
The recovery from Hurricane Katrina accelerated the city government’s switch from paper to digital records. Elected officials and city departments still used paper records to communicate and provide a wide array of city services, but began increasingly implementing new technologies to aid with communication and information.
The city’s elected officials often utilized new, emerging technology alongside other forms of communication to highlight recovery projects and changes to city services. The city published videos of construction, demolition, and elected officials interviews highlighting recovery projects in various states of completion. The city implemented 311 and NOLA Ready to help make communication during a disaster and the recovery more efficient. The city launched a new website for both the municipal government and the city council. The mayor and other elected officials went on radio broadcasts and made web videos to promote these new digital initiatives and highlight the city’s recovery.
Mayor Nagin’s Office of Communications contains the bulk of these digital materials. Nagin and his communications team actively promoted recovery efforts by publishing project photographs, descriptions, and costs. They highlighted new economic initiatives and infrastructure improvements. The collection includes spreadsheets showing detailed costs associated with specific recovery projects, as well as prepared testimony and lobbying documents for federal and state officials. Nagin also used his PR team to respond – sometimes forcefully – to criticisms of his administration. They collected photographs, video, and news articles to both emphasize the Mayor’s perspective and respond to critics.
Videos
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Video, Born Digital Video, 2008-2010
Office of Communications
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Office of Communications, 2002-2010
Marketing
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Office of Communications, Network Drive, Marketing, 2007-2010
Katrina Presentations
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Office of Communications, Network Drive, Mayor’s Hurricane Katrina presentations, 2008
Project Delivery Unit
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Office of Communications, Network Drive, Project Delivery Unit, 2008-2009
Recovery Projects
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Office of Communications, Network Drive, Recovery Projects, 2009
Writing
Mayor C. Ray Nagin records, Office of Communications, Network Drive, Writing, 2002-2009
The City Council and its individual members also kept digital records of their recovery efforts. The council launched nolacitycouncil.com in 2004. The City Archives has collected the bulk of the news releases and presentations originally published on their website. These files have been converted to text-searchable pdfs for long term access and preservation. These documents highlight improvement projects in individual council districts, as well as concerns of the council as a whole. The website features introductory videos for 2008 City Council (below). The website also served as another way to communicate the council’s frustrations with both the actions of the Mayor and the federal and state government. Jackie Clarkson’s At-large digital records and Shelley S. Midura’s emails from when she represented District A are the first two individual councilmembers to be made available. In the future, additional digital collections from Arnie Fielkow will be available for researchers. We are currently processing Fielkow content relating to the anniversaries of Hurricane Katrina.
Website
City Council records, City Council website, 2004-2016
Presentations
City Council records, City Council website, Presentations, 2008-2011
Clarkson
Councilmember Jacquelyn Clarkson At-Large records
Midura
Councilmember Shelley S. Midura District-A records, Email Files, 2006-2010
Both Midura and Clarkson’s collections contain numerous records of lessons learned from Katrina and previous anniversaries of the hurricane. New hurricane preparations were distributed across the city and put into practice during Hurricane Gustav. The city government planned anniversary events to highlight the recovery and to promote its efforts. Photographs, brochures, and videos highlight the ceremonies held in the subsequent years after the storm to memorialize and honor the city’s loss and recovery.
Search
Hurricane Katrina – Anniversaries and Memorials
The records have bias and often leave out large parts of the storm’s history. They take credit where there is success and they deflect blame when there is failure or criticism. As much as the records speak to the city government’s recovery efforts, they also contain their own absences in historical information. Sometimes this loss of historical records is alluded to in the collection, such as in the city council’s controversy providing access to their email correspondence in 2009. Police violence and criticisms of the NOPD are hardly mentioned.The effects of the city’s economic recovery are all framed positively, with little consideration of their negative effects on residents. The silences – or scant acknowledgement – in these records serve as a reminder that while they’re official city records, they’re just a piece of the historical memory.
Post written by Andrew Mullins in 2025.