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Remembering Hurricane Katrina

Jackie Kennedy

Aug. 29, 2007 marked the two-year anniversary of the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history-Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane killed at least 1, 836 people because of the succeeding floods that were caused by the New Orleans levee system failure. The effects of Katrina have been the costliest recovery and the efforts to rebuild have continued to be a struggle.

To help in the rebuilding efforts, the Black Women’s Collective has dedicated October to increasing awareness of New Orleans’ struggle.

Junior Trevina Caldwell, BWC president, said the club has organized a film festival every Wednesday of the month. She said BWC will be showing Spike Lee’s When the Levees Broke in hopes of “firing everyone up and getting them to want to help.”

Senior Christina Walker, vice president, organized a panel discussion for Tuesday Oct. 23. Groups like Critical Resistance will address the many issues that have risen from Katrina. One focus, Caldwell said, will be about “what happened to the prisoners.”

BWC practiced Katrina Awareness Month last year, and junior member Britt Taylor-Vernon said she is disappointed at the response they have been getting from Mills this year. “I don’t know what it is, [Katrina] was fresher last year I guess.”
BWC says it encourages the Mills community to get more involved.

“We’re going on living our lives when people still can’t even go home,” Caldwell said.

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All pictures were taken in July of 2007 in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. Two years after the hurricane, parts of New Orleans still remain in ruins.