Oklahoma Voices: Oklahomans in
New Orleans Since the Storm, Pt. 2 (Sep 16, 2007)
More than two years after Hurricane Katrina, we visit with several Oklahoma natives living in the Crescent City to find out how they’re coping and whether things are returning to normal. In the most badly-damaged neighborhoods of the Lower Ninth Ward (pictured above), many houses remain overgrown and abandoned, but the news isn’t all bad.

College student Sophie Johnson is re-building her life after being flooded out during the storm, yet she says she feels incredibly optimistic. Hip hop artists Jeff Chambless and Roan “Know One” Smith say these are difficult times to operate a record label, but they’ve found music is an effective creative outlet during times of trouble. Photographer Stephen Houser moved to New Orleans three months after Katrina to document the rebirth of the city, and he discovered it feels like a natural fit. And New Orleans waitress Andi Knox and Oklahoma City fertility specialist Dr. David Kallenberger tell the fascinating story of how Andi came to have three healthy babies “Made in Oklahoma.”

WEB EXTRAS:
View a slideshow of the guests interviewed in this program

During his visit to New Orleans in July, KGOU News Director Scott Gurian and about one dozen other public radio reporters spent a morning volunteering with the grassroots organization Beacon of Hope to clean up one block in the Lakeview neighborhood of north New Orleans, which was heavily flooded following Hurricane Katrina.
View photos of their trip to Lakeview.

If you missed this first part of our series two weeks ago featuring a roundtable of Oklahomans in New Orleans discussing life since the storm, you can listen to it here: MP3

Listen to this program:

Listen
« back