Louisiana State Museum	§Founded in 1906 by the State of Louisiana		§An agency in the Department of Culture, Recreation,and Tourism, State of Louisiana		§Headquartered in New Orleans		§Properties include National Historic Landmarks: theCabildo and Presbytere on Jackson Square, the Old
U.S. Mint, and Madame John’s Legacy	Presbytere on Jackson Square, location of exhibit	

Living with Hurricanes:Katrina and Beyond	§ Artifact collection began immediately afterHurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005)	

§ Exhibition development began June 2006	§ Funded by the National Science Foundation	§ Opening October 27, 2010 	

Exhibit Partners		

§Tulane/Xavier University Center for
Bioenvironmental Research, with Dr. Douglas
Meffert 	§Office of Marine Programs, Graduate School of
Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, foreducational website	Exhibit Floor Plan	Boat used to rescue 400 people	

to be displayed in front of museum	Exhibit entrance featuring introductory video andstorm-damaged piano symbolizing cultural loss	Fats Domino’s piano, at his Lower Ninth Ward home	Fats Domino’s piano, stabilized and now
on display in music exhibit	Introductory media showing how 	Louisiana lives with water	Room 1: Panel explaining history of the port
and the geographical expansion of the city as
swamps are drained	History of Past Hurricanes and Flooding	Evacuation Timeline: visitors learn about how people
made evacuation decisions	Storm Theater	

Attic room, featuring oral histories
of people trapped in their attic	

Room 2:	Room	Features oral history
audio, images, andartifacts	Elton Mabry kept a record of his thoughts and activities
on this wall in the days after the storm.	

Curators carefully remove
Mabry’s wall diary, which will
be on display in Room 2.
Shortly after the diary wasremoved, the B. W. Cooper
Housing Development wasdemolished.	

Overhead view of Gallery 2, “Is This America?”	

Gallery 2, showing Coast Guard helicopter rescuebasket and marked garage door.	

Coast Guard
helicopter rescuebasket	The next slide shows a garage door withinternational search and rescue symbols (the “X”). 		

The Louisiana Society for the Protection ofAnimals (SPCA) also marked the door with regard
to animals at the house.	

Stephen Ford and the boat he used to rescue dozens ofpeople in the Lower Ninth Ward	Overhead view of Room
3, “What Happened?”	

Visitors explore how the disaster
happened	Animated map to show levee failuresand how the city flooded	Hurricane Interactive	

• Will show visitors how tropical storms
strengthen over warm water	Visitors will use atouchscreeninteractive to
examine howlevees failed.	

Touch-screen levee interactive	A video featuring a coastal
scientist will explain land
loss in coastal Louisiana.	

A video will explain the science behind hurricane
forecasting and how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
developed.	

A video will analyze thefailures of disaster
preparedness andAvideowillanalyze
response for Hurricane
thefaildisaster
pre	Katrina.	

This area shows the destruction and hardships people
faced when they returned home.	

Renowned musician Gatemouth Brown’s
damaged fiddle. He evacuated before thestorm to Orange, Texas, where he died fromcancer less than 2 weeks after Katrina
destroyed his home.		

Boat washed ashore. The Louisiana fishing industry
was severely affected by Hurricane Katrina.	

Final Gallery: Where Do We Go From Here?	

Final gallery reviews looks at the future of disaster
preparedness and mitigation in Louisiana and makerconnections to disasters elsewhere. The museum will
update this section annually to show levee
improvements and the status of coastal restoration.		

The goal is to encourage Louisiana citizens and visitors
elsewhere to consider the potential impact of disasterin their lives.	

Our partner, the Office of Marine
Programs, University of Rhode Island
Graduate School of Oceanography, isproducing a comprehensive
multidisciplinary educational website,
Hurricanes: Science and Society. 		

Tailored for K-12 and university educatorsand students but also accessible to thegeneral public, the site will enhanceunderstanding of current scientific andtechnological advances and help visitors
make good decisions prior to and during ahurricane emergency. 	

The Louisiana State Museum has started
working with teachers so that they will
be able to make effective use of theexhibit in their classrooms.		

After the exhibit opens, we will haveregular children’s and adult programming
relating to exhibit themes.	

Teachers’ Institute: Living with Water, June 2009