Mark Eric Photo Journal » {love is beautiful}

The world refers to her as “Katrina”. Around here, we simply refer to her as “The Storm”. Today marks the 5 year anniversary of a day that most of us around the Gulf South were affected by. Personally- the storm didn’t affect effect my family directly. At the time, I was working for a bank based out of New Orleans. Our Alexandria office (which was built for about 10 employees) was transformed into an emergency operations center housing about 35-50 employees. Alexandria is about 180 miles inland, out of the reach of most devastation caused by hurricanes- although we do see damage occasionally. Our area becomes a haven for those seeking refuge. During The Storm, the haven became home to many. I witnessed their stories first hand. I watched and listened as they made phone calls trying to locate loved ones, find out the status of their home, figure out where their kids would be going to school, find a place to live, and so on. We were witnesses to the storm after The Storm.

One of my biggest regrets as a visual artist is that I didn’t attempt to make my way to our ravaged coast until 4 months after The Storm. This is mostly because I was so busy with the bank that I just didn’t have time. When I did finally venture down to New Orleans, the devastation was still widespread- and I was able to capture some powerful images simply by shooting out a car window as we drove around. I could pull some hard drives to show what we captured, but I saw a blog post today by one of today’s best photographers, Vincent Laforet, describing his thoughts as he covered the tragedy for the national media.

I urge you to read his story here: http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/2010/08/29/katrina-new-orleans-5-years-later/

On a positive note, I’m thankful that today- New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are thriving. I am proud to call the Gulf South my home. There is no place in the world like the Gulf. Our culture, our determination, our love for life are enough to survive any storm.