The Stories of Katrina

Launched in 2005, the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank uses electronic media to collect, preserve, and present the stories and digital record of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. George Mason University’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and the University of New Orleans, in partnership with the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of American History and other partners, organized this project.

https://hurricanearchive.org/collections/show/179

Louisiana, USA; 21. Cenury; Various; Oral History Data Base; City: New Orleans and surroundings

The X-Code

Photography by Cynthia Scott of the X-code left by rescue searchers as they systematically covered the city of New Orleans after Hurrica Katrina.

Online Exhibition and detailed info:
https://southernspaces.org/2010/katrina-5-x-code-exhibition/

Thanks to Craig Colton for the lead!

Detlev von Liliencron (1844-1909): Trutz Blanke Hans

Ein einziger Schrei – die Stadt ist versunken,
Und Hunderttausende sind ertrunken.
Wo gestern noch Lärm und lustiger Tisch,
Schwamm andern Tags der stumme Fisch.
Heut bin ich über Rungholt gefahren,
Die Stadt ging unter vor sechshundert Jahren.
Trutz, Blanke Hans?

(Excerpt)

full text and info:
https://www.deutschland-lese.de/streifzuege/balladen/trutz-blanke-hans/

Germany; 19. Century; Christian; Poetry; City: Rungholt

The little Hero of Haarlem

Apparently an anglo-american invention, this story about the boy who rescues a Dutch city by sticking his finger in a hole in the dyke, has been republished in various versions since the mid 1800s . This is the earliest published version of the story and it starts with the words, ” A long way off, across the ocean, there is a little country where the ground is lower than the level of the sea…”

full text

The view back

To see your city, you have to get out and look back. In many disaster movies, that’s a car ride onto a bridge. In this scene from Geostorm, the look back is directed towards Hong Kong.
USA; 21. Century; Christian; Movie; City: Hong Kong

Map of sunken and sinking Cities

A map I made of locations of sunken cities or cities that are currently threatened by rising sea levels or land subsidence.

Click on image to follow link to google maps.

Gustave Doré: The New Zealander

Last image from Gustave Doré‘s Book “London – A Pilgrimage” (1872). Detailed Information.

France; 19. Century; Christian; Illustration; City: London

Franz Karl Basler-Kopp (1879–1937): Der Schimmelreiter

German painter Basler-Kopp painted two images in 1924 after Thodor Storm’s novel “Rider on the White Horse” one of the best knows examples of German literary realism of late 19. Century. Contrary ot the genre of the text, these images are clearly rooted in romanticism but also show the influence of early expressionism. (Basler-Kopp was best knwon for his fairytale illustrations.) They give a good example of the allure of flooding and extreme coastal weather events had on the visual arts at the time.