It’s amazing how unforeseen and unusual events can captivate every corner of our attention. Our natural inclinations send us rummaging for a camera whenever we encounter the new and unusual. This is perhaps because we are unsure that we can fully and effectively contemplate what we are seeing at that instant and know full well that extraordinary events deserve more of our attention than we are able to parcel out during their often-brief duration. Surely in the case of natural events, the corresponding outcome has the power to alter our fundamental perspectives on the world around us, and our ability to record what is going on through photographs gives us ample time to reflect on what has changed both inside and around us.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the natural world has a profound way with them. Through photographs, an observer can give proverbial legs to the spectacle of a localized event, and give others around the country and around the world the opportunity to experience and learn from it. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, which battered the Gulf Coast region of the United States on and around August 29, 2005, these experiences and lessons can set in only after the initial shock subsides. On this date, one of the most powerful storms in American history made landfall on the low-lying and highly populated coastal areas between New Orleans and Biloxi, eradicating thousands of homes with a storm surge that rose as high as 30 feet and leaving thousands more partially submerged in contaminated water for more than half a month.

Photographs of the aftermath clearly convey the catastrophic effects of the storm on manmade structures of a wide variety. For this reason, the event has captivated those in the fields of architecture, engineering and construction, who at once must come to terms with the stunning magnitude of the storm and investigate what should and should not change with the way they do business in the gulf coast region and beyond.

The abundance of visual language leads to a convoluted understanding of the situation on the Gulf Coast. A photographer approaches a subject with the objective of conveying thought and emotion. As a consequence, photographic evidence of a technical nature can be marred by the intention of the creator. Amongst the stacks of photographs that have been widely circulated since Katrina subsided, relatively few offer significant insight into how buildings in the region performed during the storm and through the subsequent flooding.

In the interest of obtaining a clearer perspective on the condition of buildings and the nature of the reconstruction effort, SEAoNY sent two delegates to New Orleans in April of 2007 to survey the structures that survived and observe the process of urban and suburban rebirth – a process that has had ample time to coalesce. Over the course of two weeks, the delegates attended the annual AISC Conference (held in the now infamous New Orleans Convention center), surveyed damaged buildings in the vicinity of several major levee failures, spoke with individuals intimately involved in the rebuilding efforts in these neighborhoods, and traveled to Biloxi to observe the reconstruction of both major infrastructure and family residences following the storm surge. The following photo essay is a collection of their experiences, offered as insight into a few aspects of life today in the Gulf Coast region that you might not yet know about.

By Zak Kostura and Erik Madsen