MSS 331 - The Times-Picayune Hurricane Katrina Editions Collection: Inventory

The Times-Picayune Hurricane katrina editions COLLECTION

(Mss 331)

Inventory

Earl K. Long Library

University of New Orleans

September 2006

 

Summary

 

Size:                          3 linear feet

Geographic

locations:                 New Orleans, La.

Inclusive

dates:                        August 28, 2005 – September 17, 2005

Summary:                Issues of the New Orleans Times-Picayune published August 28, 2005 through September 17, 2005, covering Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the New Orleans area.  Twenty-three issues.  (Issues of August 30-31 and September 1, 2005, were issued in electronic form only.  See http://www.nola.com/katrina/pages/.

Related

collections:              “Writing Katrina” (Spring 2006) Collection (Mss 332)

Source:                     Gift, October 2006

Citation:                    The Times-Picayune Hurricane Katrina Editions Collection, Earl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

 

Historical Note

 

 

            Hurricane Katrina was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record and the third-strongest to strike the United States.  After crossing Florida as a Category 1 hurri­cane on August 25, 2005, it entered the Gulf of Mexico and, as a strong Category 3 hurricane with a Category 5 storm surge made its second landfall near Buras, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005.  The heavy winds and storm surges associated with Katrina weakened the levee system that protected the city of New Orleans from flooding.  Many levee failures were reported, including major breaches at the Seventeenth Street, London Avenue, and Industrial Canals, which allowed water to inundate at least eighty percent of the city.  Katrina proved to be the costliest hurricane and one of the deadliest disasters in United States history.

 

            More than eighty percent of area residents evacuated in advance of Katrina’s arrival, many did not.  As the world watched in growing horror, rising floodwaters forced many to flee for their lives or to await long-delayed rescue in attics or on rooftops.  The disaster had significant and enduring economic and political implications on local, state, and national levels, as well as an uncalculable personal toll on the hundreds of thousands of lives it touched.

 

            For its reporting of Hurricane Katrina, The Times-Picayune won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize—journalism’s highest honor—for distinguished coverage of breaking news and shared with the Mississippi Sun-Herald the Pulitzer for public service.  The latter citation recognized the staff’s “courageous and aggressive coverage of Hurricane Katrina, overcoming desperate conditions facing the city and the newspaper."

 

            “In the aftermath of Katrina, rising floodwaters from collapsed seawalls forced 240 Times-Picayune staff and their family members to flee the paper's downtown offices in delivery trucks on August 30.  But photographers, reporters, and editors stayed in the area continuously, and the newspaper never ceased publishing, posting online editions for three days, then returning to print editions as well on September 2.”  Other journalists worked out of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge for six weeks, printing first on the presses of the Houma (La.) Courier and then the Mobile (Ala.) Press-Register.  The Times-Picayune returned to its building in New Orleans on October 10 and printed that night on its own presses for the first time in six weeks.

 

Sources include:

James O’Byrne, “TP Wins Two Pulitzers, in Public Service, Breaking News,” New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 18, 2006 (quotation).

 

 

Container List

    

  Issues of The Times-Picayune:

 

331-1     Sunday, August 28, 2005.  Headline: “Katrina Takes Aim.”

 

331-2     Monday, August 29, 2005.  Headline: “Ground Zero.”

 

331-3     Tuesday, August 30, 2005.  Headline: “Catastrophic.”  (Printout)

 

331-4     Wednesday, August 31, 2005.  Headline: “Under Water.”  (Printout)

 

331-5     Thursday, September 1, 2005.  Headline: “Hitting Bottom.”  (Printout)

 

331-6     Friday, September 2, 2005.  Headline: “‘Help Us, Please.’”

 

331-7     Saturday, September 3, 2005.  Headline: “First Water, Now Fire.”

 

331-8     Sunday, September 4, 2005.  Headline: “Help at Last.”

 

331-9     Monday, September 5, 2005.  Headline: “7th Day of Hell.”

 

331-10    Tuesday, September 6, 2005.  Headline: “Coming Home.”

 

331-11    Wednesday, September 7, 2005.  Headline: “Disease, Fire Threaten City.”

 

331-12    Thursday, September 8, 2005.  Headline: “Clear Out or Else.”

 

331-13    Friday, September 9, 2005.  Headline: “After hell, high water holdouts pried loose.”

 

331-14    Saturday, September 10, 2005.  Headline: “Death Toll May Not Be As High As Feared.”

 

331-15    Sunday, September 11, 2005.  Headline: “Glimmers of hope emerge as water slowly recedes.”

 

331-16    Monday, September 12, 2005.  Headline: “Some return to Plaquemines; death toll in Louisiana at 197.”

 

331-17    Tuesday, September 13, 2005.  Headline: “City Needs to Control Recovery, Bush Says.”

 

331-18    Wednesday, September 14, 2005.  Headline: “Some parts of Orleans could open on Monday.”

 

331-19    Thursday, September 15, 2005.  Headline: “The Bill Comes Due.”

 

331-20    Friday, September 16, 2005.  Headline: “‘There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans.’”

 

331-21    Saturday, September 17, 2005.  Headline: “After the Water, Utter Emptiness.”

 

331-22    Sunday, September 18, 2005.  Headline: “Empty Hands, Broken Hearts.”

 

331-23    Monday, September 19, 2005.  Headline: “Keeping the Faith.”

 

 

 

Index Terms

 

Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Times-Picayune