Hurricane Katrina Narrative

There are countless examples of narratives falsely portraying the reality of a situation due to the lack of personal insight. Personal accounts of situations provide a lot of emotional and firsthand details that would otherwise be omitted from a third person perspective of the events that transpired. More specifically, Hurricane Katrina is a great example of how narratives incorrectly depicted the true sequence of events that lead to the massive amounts of causalities and damages. In addition, the raw fear that many individuals experienced are not captured in most articles that discuss how many viewed the storm before, during, and after. The extent to which someone can evaluate the recovery process and damage is largely contingent on the

personal accounts of survivors that can attest to the daily actions being taken to help stabilize the cities affected. Furthermore, the understanding of a disaster with the addition of personal accounts allows for inferences to be make more accurately and efficiently in analyzing the overall effects the storm inflicted. Many of the people who have recounted the events in relation to Hurricane Katrina, more commonly than not, have brought light to the truth behind some speculations of writers. The personal accounts of Hurricane Katrina shed light on the information that is commonly misconstrued by an outside perspective.
Alice Jackson was a local reporter in Mississippi and she recounted her personal experience throughout Hurricane Katrina’s cycles before and after.

She began her personal narrative by explaining that through her profession, she was very used to hurricane constantly failing to live up to the warnings issued. Therefore, she and her family moved to one of her friends’ houses that were more equipped to handle strong winds and flooding. Unfortunately, as the storm started to arrive, falling trees and increasing flood waters started to concern her because she was the main person who reiterated to her family that they would whether the storm without harm. She said the point in which everything took a turn for the worst was when a huge tree crashed through the house prompting them to evacuate. In the aftermath, she recounted the multiple times that looters would try and salvage any remains for people’s houses. On the other hand, my aunt’s personal story was vastly different because she chose to evacuate in just enough time to miss the brunt of the storm. She described the early indications of the storm by strong winds and heavy rains from the outer bands of the hurricane, which caused for the travel to become difficult with thousands of other evacuees following suit. Her description of returning to New Orleans after the storm was quite surprising because her town apparently did not suffer as much damage as other towns. Overall, these personal accounts allowed for me to see personalized

obstacles and circumstances through the eyes of survivors and evacuees.
The value of personal accounts far outreaches the value of third person narratives that piece together facts of Hurricane Katrina with reported articles to create a generalized synopsis. These personal accounts have helped me become more empathetic towards the people affected by Hurricane Katrina. All in all, it is very beneficial to research and interview people with firsthand experiences to effectively address a natural disaster’s effect on society.