Who Was This Katrina Victim?

Today marks the 19th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Every few years, I put out a passionate inquiry asking the question, who was this Katrina victim? I firmly believe, after all these years, it’s worth knowing who this woman (seen below, bottom left) was. Sure, she is just one of over 1,500 victims from Louisiana, yet her story is worth knowing, telling and sharing.

I’d love to hear from the man sitting with her. In this image, pictured on the inside of Newsweek Magazine from September 12, 2005, he’s feeling her pulse slip away with one hand while holding a cross in the other. Were they friends, or just a caring young man caught up in the mass of humanity outside the Louisiana Superdome on September 1, 2005? It was 9 a.m. when I shot this image. Temperatures would soon reach 90 degrees. Mix that with near 100-percent humidity, standing on concrete with over 5,000 people in direct sun for hours and days on end. It’s no wonder she suffered and ultimately died in his arms.

If you could see my entire take from this scene, which lasted four minutes until she was carried away from the crowd, you’d see the man was performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the victim. Every so often he’d listen to her dying breath, his ear pressed down against her face. It’s one of the saddest thing I’ve ever witnessed and photographed. Tears well up every time I think of it.

Ironically, I lost all my tear sheets (newspaper and magazine clippings) and all the press passes and ephemera I ever saved from my newspaper career due to a storage unit flood. I received the Newsweek copy above, enclosed in a sealed plastic bag, from my cousin last evening over dinner. She is on a house purge, and I am grateful she saved it all these years.

Years ago, I spoke with Louisiana State Medical Examiner Louis Cataldie. He was tasked with identifying the dead, a herculean task if ever there was one. At the time, he was unable to identify her. If you know who this woman was, or happen to know a way to find out, please get in touch. Let’s get her story out there.