...she has never heard of this archive. Why is that?

I moved to Charlotte exactly six years ago today.  For those of you who have just moved here, you'll learn the first question asked of you is, "Where are you from?"  When I would reply, "Louisiana," the next question would be, "Are you here because of the hurricane?"

"No.  Katrina didn't cause damage where I'm from."

I still get asked that question.  I'm from a tiny north central Louisiana town named Dodson, population 350 and dropping.  (Well, technically I'm from six miles west of there.)  Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused devastating destruction and horrific loss of life.

But judging from the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank, you would think only New Orleans was effected by both these hurricanes.  In fact, whole communities were wiped out on the Mississippi Coast when Katrina struck.  Likewise, Rita damaged or destroyed nearly 95 percent of the structures of Cameron Parish, just south of Lake Charles.  There there is no tag for "Cameron Parish," and only two items are available under "Lake Charles."

Why is that?

For one reason, the archive is created in conjunction with the University of New Orleans, so it is not surprising that most items would cover that institution's immediate area.  Also, Katrina (rightfully, to a degree) receives so much media attention.* In a family sense, Rita is the shy, neglected sister to popular Katrina.

I had never heard of this archive.  No one I know has heard of it, either, as far as I can tell.  So as a purely digital media archive, how effective is it?  As far as accessibility, no physical archive can compare.  But is an archive presented in this medium truly revolutionary if is not advertised to those persons who can help it grow?

I'm probably taking the evaluation of this archive personally.  But even though I grew up over 150 miles inland, I was impacted by Rita.  My dad is originally from Sulphur, and I was born in Lake Charles.  My great-uncle, who works for one of the petrochemical plants, had to say to maintain the facility.  My aunt, great-aunt, and other family members from the Lake Charles area evacuated to my parents' house.  Their homes received damage, though luckily it was minor.  I had to evacuate my trailer in Ruston (don't hate, I owned it, paid cheap lot rent, and lived by myself!) because it wasn't anchored and my mom didn't want me to blow away.  Rita hit my area as a tropical storm.

I've posted a link to this archive onto my Facebook, urging friends and family members effected by Rita to add their stories and photos.  Maybe I'll add my own, however trivial it may seem.

*Did anyone watch the recent coverage of Hurricane Isaac?  (My in-laws live in Baton Rouge, and some predictions had Isaac hitting Dodson as a tropical storm.  I was riveted.)  It was nauseating how excited The Weather Channel got as the storm intensified and moved toward New Orleans.