Oral history interview with Rhonda Lind, June 4, 2006
Subtitle: Interview U-0240, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Shelbourne, Elizabeth, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Hurricane Katrina, 2005; Personal narratives; Disaster victims
Other titles: Interview U-0240, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Rhonda Lind, June 4, 2006; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Rhonda Lind was raised in the Ninth Ward and moved to St. Bernard Parish in 1973. Hurricane Katrina changed everything about her life. At the time of the interview, she and her husband had moved five times since the storm. She had to separate from her extended family because there was not enough space for them to evacuate together. While she misses having her own things, the biggest losses have been the irreplaceable items such as photographs. She describes the mud that entered her house during the flood. The strength of the water moved a house three blocks and then deposited it in the middle of her brother's street. She feels that the rest of the nation abandoned them, but the people in the neighborhood help rescue each other. Though she and her husband left, she has heard about the horrors other people faced. When she returned, she was struck by the silence. Because they had lost so much, she and her neighbors scoured the area for anything that reminded them of their old lives. Lind says that many did not have flood insurance because mortgage companies told them they did not need it. Though her neighborhood still does not feel normal, she is grateful that she is home. She does not expect to return to life as it was, but she is hopeful that she will have a smaller version of what used to be. She lists how she will handle future storms differently. Lind believes that the government needs to spend more money fixing the problems plaguing New Orleans, especially the levee system and the erosion of the coastline, but she does not believe this will happen. Nonetheless, she is hopeful that the residents themselves will slowly be able to revive the neighborhood.
Notes: Title from electronic title page of transcript (viewed on June 20, 2009).

Duration: 02:05:29

Interview participants: Rhonda Lind, interviewee; Elizabeth Shelbourne, interviewer.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files : 151 kilobytes, 229 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series U, interview U-0240. Originals are in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by Carrie Blackstock. Original transcript: 35 p.

Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  QuickTime and JavaScript for audio clips embedded in transcript; MP3 player for download.