Katrina Survivors Project

It was Monday August 29th 2005, I was driving down the highway. The roads were starting to get worse and it was still raining on and off. The clouds were letting off as they drifted further north.





Cars were smushed.



Traffic was at a standstill.



I hadn't seen an open gas station for over 100 miles, and cars were running out of fuel alongside the roads.



Even the trains were stopped in their tracks.



But after a while I came as far as I could go. For some reason I wanted so badly to get over that bridge, for on the other side was the city of New Orleans.



It must have been the journalistic instict that led me to come on this crazy adventure, at the time I was so dissapointed. All I wanted was to get into that city and document what was happening. Everyone wanted in, they wanted to return to their homes, after all the hurricane had passed and all was well in the Big Easy. But the way was blocked and I turned around and headed for home. It wasnt until the next morning that the levees finally gave way. The city was underwater, and I came to realized how lucky I was to have NOT made it across that bridge.

Fast forward to November 29th 2005, it was three months later and my jounalistic nature was still kicking. I wanted to return and this time I had a way in. My mom had been deployed by FEMA into New Orleans and I would get a tour of the devastaion first hand. In no way can I describe what I saw, there are no words and even pictures and news stories can hardly begin to show what happened. So instead of focusing on the negative, I decided to try and find a more positive way of deciphering these events.

I toured the costal lands, the streets the neigborhoods, the upper ninth ward looking for signs of activity. Searching for those people which were surveying their homes, cleaning them out, or even beginging to rebuild. It was these people that I talked to and some were kind enough to let me create portraits of them and what was once their homes.

Brandy Feaster of New Orleans, LA


Kenny Melvin of Slidell, LA


Rachel and Rebecca Weidenbacher of Abbeville, LA


Lorraine McDaniel of Violet, LA


George Cramer of Slidell, LA


Cheryl Reichert and Friends of Kenner, LA


Korey Williams, Franice Thomas, and Nakita Shavers of New Orleans, LA


And Others






Some of you might ask, why bring this up now almost a year later. The fact is that in return for letting me take these photographs, I promised to send each person a print. This last year has been extremely busy for me and week after week I kept procrastinating printing and sending the pictures. Well, this week I have stopped delaying and I am printing and prepaing to send them off to their rightful owners.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see you again next week,

Matt