Jill Nishi of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation kicked off a panel discussion of “Recovery along the Gulf Coast” by saying it was hard for her to believe that it has been five years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged large portions of Mississippi and Louisiana. “But so much has been accomplished,” she added.
Nishi noted that when the hurricane hit, she was new to the foundation staff and traveled to the Gulf to see what could be done. “What I was struck by,” she said, “was the resiliency of those of you who were here and recognized the important role the public library played in immediate recovery.” Many in the audience had lived through the hurricane and helped make public libraries clearinghouses for essential information, helping to reunite families and connect to the help that was available to them. “Public libraries continue to be an essential lifeline for the people in this region,” Nishi said, which is “a testimony to the resilience of this field.”
In 2006, the Gates Foundation awarded a $12-million grant to support Louisiana and Mississippi public libraries damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to be administered by Lyrasis. She said that the librarians of those two states “accomplished those objectives with flying colors.” Libraries might have been “out of sight, out of mind” were it not for the temporary facilities set up in the immediate aftermath. “You have been tenacious, doggedly persistent,” she said, and have “built back stronger than before the storm.”
Kate Nevins, CEO of Lyrasis, invoked Charles Dickens, saying that “Katrina was truly the worst of times, and thanks to Gates Foundation for turning them into the best of times.” She emphasized that librarians must be integrated into the leadership of the community and always be prepared. “If you do not have a disaster plan, it’s time to get started,” she said.
Project Director Mary Ellin Santiago told stories about her arrival in the devastated region, saying, “In many cases there was nothing left in the community, nothing to move into,” and she concurred that “if you do not rebuild as soon as possible, you will not be on the list for rebuilding. We have to work hard to make sure that we are always at the table.”
Santiago emphasized that in disaster recovery, people must come first. There are mental health issues and family and personal crises to be dealt with. “Things move very slowly,” she warned, but “set the bar high.” She urged everyone to read the Stafford Act, which defines libraries as an essential service on the federal level.
Panelist Tony Zaunbacher, library board member for Calcasieu Parish Library in Louisiana, said, “Disaster is a very personal experience. The majority of library staff suffered damage to their own homes, but within two weeks, all the libraries were up and running.” He credited the Gulf Coast Libraries Project with bringing the community together in the planning process, and when the time came to ask residents to renew a tax levy, it passed with more than 90% approval.
Charline Longino, director of the public library in Biloxi, Mississippi, said, “There is nothing like standing in your living room and watching the waves roll in to give you a sense that things are going to change.” Biloxi lost its four biggest libraries. Longino quipped that she learned that “you can have a library with a phone, a computer, and a fax machine,” the librarian being the key factor. Laptops give you a whole new way to offer service, Longino added. “It makes a difference in the way you design things.” For her, it was saving the library’s local history collection that affected her most emotionally. “We carried local history items to freezer trailers when they were still dripping wet. It was important to people when they had lost so much of their history.”
Vince Creel, PIO of the city of Biloxi, said the city was enjoying the most prosperous time in its 300-year history when Katrina hit. Creel said that, oddly enough, the old building was earthquake proof but not hurricane proof, and we “wanted to make sure we didn’t make that mistake again. People still get emotional about what the hurricane did to their lives,” he said.
Sharman Smith, executive director of the Mississippi Library Commission, said, “Trying to get your head around what was happening was the hardest part. People were scattered to the four winds.” For a time, she noted, the most important thing the state library agency could offer was moral support. “It is all right to ask for help,” she concluded. Smith also observed that part of the commission’s role was documenting the disaster, “not only to share with others but to learn from it.” She said, “People depend on their libraries. Librarians have been saying that for years without the factual information. We’ve got the facts now, and we know that our staffs are the most important part of our libraries, not books or bytes. Librarians are amazing resourceful people.”