Oral histories help community reflect on disasters

The interviews in the collection are in their final stages. They've been processed and transcribed. Within the next month, they'll be donated and accessible at the Center for Louisiana Studies at UL as part of the "Recent Louisiana Disasters Oral History Project."  There, they'll be accessible to anyone who wants to hear the interviews.

In the fall, UL assistant professor of history Liz Skilton will hold pop-up History Harvest events in the 12 parishes that were declared federal disaster sites after Hurricane Harvey. It's part of a grant project with the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

"We piece all these memories together and thus we're better prepared for the future," Skilton said, "because we have the collective whole of this memory and not just individual segments of experience."