Comment by Arthur on a photo by Chris Jordan

This photo is of a large book dropped on the ground somewhere. It's in a poor state. It’s a sober photo with few elements, which make those elements all quite important. My first idea was that it somehow symbolized the destruction by the elements of American culture... It contrasts with the idea the world has of the USA as being almost indestructible. I think Jordan wants to show that we are weak compared with the natural forces.

Looking more closely at the picture, we notice that it is in fact a telephone directory. The photo becomes even more tragic, refering to the human loss caused by Katrina. The list of names are a kind of reference to all the deaths caused by the hurricane.

Thoughts on a photo of a devastated home by Evan & Marion

Interview of the photographer Chris Jordan

This photo shows how destructive Katrina was for all the people who lived on its trajectory. Indeed, what had taken them their whole life to build and improve - their home - suddenly got wrecked in a matter of seconds without any possibility for them to intervene.

This photo shows the vulnerability of human beings, of life, and the fragility of the "material world" we nowadays live in. Here, we realize that even if we have acquired a great level of knowledge, we will always suffer passively from Nature's haphazard violence. It will always be superior to us.

This dramatic event may raise awareness of environmental issues, as the force of hurricanes will probably intensify because of global warming, which we all contribute to. Even though some scientists believe the increase in hurricane frequency is just part of a natural cycle, it is still extremely important to care about the world we live in, as it can only bring positive repercussions on many different aspects.

Loss... Comment by Sarah & Julien on a photo by Chris Jordan

The floor of the emptied room is covered in dried mud. This photo is about the emptiness a person feels when he or she loses everything. The cracks are in a way also the mental scars left by Katrina...

Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster that occured over a week from August 23 to August 30 in 2005. Winds reached 280km an hour. It formed over the Bahamas and crossed southern Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, southeast Louisiana and Mississippi, Alabama, Cuba and almost all the east coast of the United States. The hurricane caused almost two thousand deaths. It caused beach erosion, local marshes were overrun by water, and it affected the habitats of animals and also caused oil spills.

Reconstruction was costly because infrastructures and forest lands were completely destroyed. Some insurance companies stopped insuring homeowners so people moved to other States. Looting in search of food and water was widespread and there were even some murders, thefts and rapes.

Are we all responsible to some degree for this disaster? Yes, we are, everyone of us, because of our constructions, of our new high tech products, of our industries, the environment is being damaged. Using the car is one of the worst things, and the United States is by far the worst culprit. Climate change is due to all of us and it explains the violence of Katrina.

But can we do something to avoid damaging the environment? Not much, because the electronic objects we use upsets the earth's fragile balance.

If the effects of the hurricane were so devastating it is also because people did not build strong enough houses and because the evacuation plans were not edequate. Maybe too some of the cities that were destroyed were situated too near to a river.

We consider that all our modern conveniences are essential. Disasters like Katrina are the price to pay for progress...

Lost fridge... by Marie and Alexane

The picture shows a refrigerator on Franklin Avenue. It stands there as if it has always been there. Besides the fridge, the street is completely empty and devastated by the violence of Katrina. The fridge has its door open to show us all the food in it. It is all messed up, fallen down. Still, we recognize some stuff such as milk, eggs, and bottles of coke and beer.

Normally, the fridge is in a house, in an interior, it has no reason to be outside in the street. It shows that Katrina has changed everything; it has devastated and destroyed the city. The violence moved a fridge, which is really heavy, from one place to another. It also shows that people have lost their goods. They no longer have a complete house, any food to eat... They have lost everything in the hurricane. Nature has literally taken the goods and the lives of people. Fridge is the symbol of consumerism; it is as if Nature has taken over society.

We think we are all partly to blame for the Katrina catastrophe. First of all, people have not taken adequate safety measures by building on risk-free areas. The constructors should have made more tests before building there because they knew there was a risk in these areas. The politicians could have taken preventative measures such as strengthening the dike protecting the city from floods due to hurricanes, creating an evacuation plan for the population, and the construction of buildings adapted to the natural risks on this specific zone. However, the authorities have not provided a sufficient budget to set up these measures and thereby failed to limit the risks associated with this catastrophe. Another reason may have been that the population was not even aware of the risks. Authorities should have set up simulation exercises so that people would have known how to react in case of a natural disaster, or the students should have received some sort of training in school to be informed and know what to do in case of a hurricane.

After the catastrophe, the entire world could have helped by giving money to repair and help the population that had almost lost everything.

Hurricane Katrina... Are we all responsible to some degree?

What is the background photo of our blog all about!? Read the photographer's statement!

Cyprien says...
Are we all responsible to some degree for the Katrina disaster? If we look at the natural disaster side of the event, yes we all are. The planet is heating up and we in the West are all responsible, it's a fact, and we can't do anything about it. Just by everyday living, such as buying food, we are contributing to global warming...

But hurricane Katrina became a human disaster because of the situation in New Orleans. It's a big city built under sea level, which is obviously risky... Plus the evacuation plans of the city were not efficient. The fact is, the poor were forgotten about, and the wealthier people escaped easily. This aspect of the catastrophe we are not all responsible for, it was the authority's fault mainly.

The picture of a globe in a classroom taken by Chris Jordan represents the violence and the impact that hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans and on the world in 2005.

The photograph uses the globe as a symbol, to make us understand that the education and the children have been gravely affected by this disaster.

Sarah & Julien say...
The messed up globe symbolizes the world falling apart... It is all dirty from pollution and the dirt also signifies the guilt of the people who did not foresee the consequences of Katrina. There is no movement in the picture; this is like the devastation and death after the hurricane. The grey background evokes the feelings of loneliness, loss and desperation.

Justine & Laura say...
The picture of a globe in a classroom taken by Chris Jordan represents the violence and the impact that the hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans and on the world in 2005.

The photograph uses the globe as a symbol, to make us understand that the education and children have been gravely affected by this disaster.

Jordan solicits our emotion and reflection. He demonstrates that Katrina has killed children which highlights the sadness of the event.

The globe is turned towards the side of the American Continent where the disaster occurred as if to accuse the Bush government and demonstrate that it is responsible to a large extent for mishandling the disaster's consequences.

He uses the idea of a globe to represent the inhabitants of the world in order to make us understand our responsibility during the event. As we are members of this large community we are all concerned and all responsible in a way for this terrible event which means that we should help each other and be more respectful of Nature.

Can we link this disaster to climate change? Experts still don’t really know. The only thing we can be certain of is that we will be confronted with other environmental disasters similar to this one during the coming decades.

Marion says...
Are we all responsible to some degree for the Katrina disaster? First of all, it is important to state that a hurricane needs two essential "ingredients" to develop: warm water and moist warm air. If we take this fact into consideration, we could easily link the increase in hurricane frequency, that has taken place throughout the past decades, to global warming, whose aftermaths have drastically intensified since the industrial revolution. From this point of view, we certainly could say we all are partly responsible for the Katrina catastrophe as we all are unconsciously contributing to global warming through our everyday "modern society" mass consumption. However, we are definitely not fully culpable for the immensely negative turn the proportions took. Indeed, we must not forget that New Orleans was built under sea level on marshy land that had previously been drained. Furthermore, the dikes that had been built in order to protect the city in case a catastrophe of this amplitude would happen were obviously to weak to be effective. Moreover, the social and human consequences would certainly have been hindered if the authorities had been prepared more thoroughly to handle such a situation and had decided to put in place the evacuation plan earlier.

Even if we actually realize we are responsible to some degree for the Katrina disaster, the past remains the past and we unfortunately cannot go back in time and fix what we did wrong. This is why we need to focus on the future and try to measure and adapt our actions according to the possibly devastating longterm consequences they will have. We can hope that the trauma and media coverage Katrina engendered will stimulate people's awareness towards the world they live in.

Jonathan says...
The globe in a classroom is the emblem of education. It symbolizes the knowledge of children and their leaning. But in this photograph, we see their knowledge has been "damaged". Something is stopping them from learning, and that is hurricane Katrina. Katrina destroyed many schools and buildings, and killed many people. The globe shows us a general view of who was affected. We first see the American continent, which was the most severely affected. This globe not only shows that America was concerned, but that the whole world should feel concerned. It's not because it's happenening somewhere else that it doesn't affect us. We all have a part of responsibility in what happened. The same issue keeps coming back: what reinforces hurricanes and contributes to their strength is global warming. There is no denial possible; we are responsible for that. America has the highest CO2 emissions in the world, but Europe and Asia also contribute significantly. We should be more cautious to prevent a similar disaster from occuring in the future. We have to do what we can to minimize the damages. We must reduce our CO2 emissions and insist that America signs the Kyoto Protocole. We can all do something together to prevent this. The whole world is at risk, but if everybody does what they have to, we can prevent the world from being destroyed, or from destroying itself.

Are we all responsible to some degree for hurricane Katrina? In 2005, a deadly hurricane hit the South of the United States: Hurricane Katrina. It killed almost 2000 people. Are we really all responsible for the massacre and the destruction in Louisiana? Are we responsible for the fatalities and should we feel guilty towards the families who lost someone they loved? Are we responsible for the $100 billion damages caused by Katrina?

Hurricanes occur naturally, mainly in tropical zones like Florida. They destroy everything in their path. People lose their homes and property, and many had to be evacuated. Unfortunately, in New Orleans, the alert wasn't given early enough, and therefore people were trapped. Nobody was prepared. Not enough help was sent to help the residents and evacuate them. Some decided to barricade themselves in their houses and refused to leave, but that was only a minority. If we look at the fatalities, many poor people died in the hurricane. Why? Some places in New Orleans are under sea level. These are mainly poor neighborhoods. The rich neighboorhoods are high up above sea level and protected from the floodings. The lands in southern Louisiana are vulnerable. There should be laws about building under sea level or near marshlands. In addition, under President Bush's administration, many soldiers were in Iraq when they could have been called in to save many people in New Orleans. Finally, the levees that were built to protect the city weren't very solid. It would have cost the city a great amount of money to construct efficient and solid ones. As Europeans, we are not responsible for those factors, but we are responsible for another factor... It has been scientifically proven that global warming contributes to making storms and hurricanes more powerful and more severe. In 2005, America experienced a dreadful hurricane season. Many hurricanes kept hitting America, again and again. We are entirely responsible for making those hurricanes deadlier and stronger through global warming. We must be careful in our everyday life to minimize our impact on the environment and reduce our CO2 emissions. Each time we buy, waste, or use a product, we contribute to polluting the Earth in a small way and therefore making these storms worse.

To conclude, I think we, as Europeans, are indeed at least partially responsible for what happened in New Orleans. It was a natural event but was worstened by human fault. Most of the casualties could have been prevented. As individuals, we should be cautious about global warming which contributes to build stronger storms and hurricanes. As global citizens, whether European, American or from any other nation, we should be cautious about who we vote for. The President must spend the nation's money wisely and use it to have an elaborate protection and evacuation system in potential hurricane zones. The local authorities should insist on reinforcing the existing levees and laws should be passed about building in areas that are at risk. We should be prepared.