Colleague Check-In
If you're from one of the affected areas, let us hear from you.
NOTE: For those of you whose institutions no longer have accessible email addresses, please share your personal email if you
can. We've had many of your friends and colleagues express frustration at having no way to make contact.
| Melissa Smith, Special Collections, Tulane University | Hello everyone. My family and I evacuated to Florida and now we have located to Mandeville. We are still currently looking for a place to live as we have lost everything at our home in Mid City. I may be reached at the following numbers: 985.845.2090, 985.845.9312, or mlsmith572@yahoo.com. I'm glad to hear that so many made it out well. Good luck everyone and best wishes, Melissa Smith
2 | | 2005-10-01 23:56:49 |
| Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator | | Then National Hansen's Disease in Carville, Louisiana sustained no damages to building or collections due to Hurricane Katrina. But I returned from mandetory evactuation to a very changed world. Carville Historic District is now home to 2000 National Guardsmen from all over the country who report to duty in New Orleans for shifts of 1 week to protect utilities crews and search/rescue and recovery. They live in a tent city set up on what was originally the staff side of the hospital grounds. The top brass have filled the old Infirmary, recently renovated. I think the FBI has offices here, too, prob. many displaced from their building near UNO campus. A huge temporary morgue set up to handle the bodies (official count in LA is around 450) is 5 miles up the river road in St. Gabriel. I heard on the news yesterday that one of the temporary trailer cities that the Fed. Gov. is setting up to house 750 refugee families will be on about 350 acres of land directly north bordering Carville's property boundaries. The cafeteria here has been operational for about 18 hours a day, no one has had a day off since the storm. We are trying to act "normal" in a world that is anything but. The Public Health Service, the funders of the museum, are all out in the field inspecting shelters, checking infrastructure for safety all over LA and MS. We only got our T-1 and tele. lines repaired and functioning a day ago. Tele. communication is much improved but "all circuits are busy" is just as likely as getting a "ring" tone. Lastly, a trailer city of some 250 units will be installed behind the Carville Job Academy complex on what was the patients' 9 hole golf course. Many of the trailers will be used to house soldiers and others for administrative purposes, to continue the operations that the National Guard performed from Jackson Barracks, which was flooded. Today I took my first oral history from a Public Health Service officer who was wrapping up 2 weeks in the field, inspecting sanitation conditions at Louisiana evacuation sites. | | 2005-09-16 16:17:02 |
| Robert Skinner | I'm the director of Xavier University Library in New Orleans. I'm trying to put together a recovery team to go back into Xavier as soon as we get the word. Please ask Irwin Lachoff, who I see is staying in Dallas with relatives, and Lester Sullivan if anyone knows where he is, to call me at (225)721-3937 as soon as possible. I can also be reached at directorskinner25@yahoo.com.
| | 2005-09-16 09:25:28 |
| Priscilla Lawrence | "Members of the staff of The Historic New Orleans Collection were able
to enter the French Quarter this week with a State Police escort. Our
buildings and collections are high and dry. Much of the material was
moved to a generous and accommodating institution in another part of
the state.
Because the presence of armed forces is now pervasive, we feel that
the museum is extremely secure. We hope to be back in operation as
soon as city services have been restored.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of our fellow citizens affected
by Katrina and our offers of assistance go out to all of our
colleagues, friends, and neighbors..”
Priscilla Lawrence
Executive Director
The Historic New Orleans Collection"
| | 2005-09-13 13:14:41 |
| Cindy Keefer | Has anyone heard from Larry Blake or Andrew W. Smith, both AMIA members from New Orleans?
Please contact keefco1@gmail.com or post any contact info for them, thanks | | 2005-09-12 17:59:50 |
| Peggy Price | Checking in from the McCain Library & Archives at the University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS. Although Katrina knocked down every power line and every other tree in most of our neighborhoods, our collections are fine. We only had a few leaky windows. Next storm, I am evacuating to my office.
I am curious about other special collections in MS. Please report. | | 2005-09-12 17:31:05 |
| Lee Miller | | I've now relocated to Hot Springs, Arkansas, probably for the duration. I'm pretty isolated here, with no CNN, no "real" phone, and Internet access only through the local junior college on the other side of town, so I hear little about what's going on in the city. I try to check my email at least every other day; it's still lmiller510@cox.net, and my cell is 504-338-7423. Has anyone heard from Bill Meneray or Rob Sherer? I heard from Melissa Smith the other day. She's fine and with family in Florida. Other than Melissa, I've heard from no one at Tulane's Special Collections. | | 2005-09-12 14:40:33 |
| Brenda B. Square | Here is my new contact info. bbsquare@bellsouth.net or (504) 259-8702
Thanks!
| | 2005-09-12 10:55:29 |
| Brenda B. Square | Dear Friends,
Thank you all for sharing news and keeping in touch. We have had contact with the following staff of the Amistad Research Center: Rene Arnold-Brown (Atlanta), Shannon Burrell (Baton Rouge), Lori Carr (Shreveport)Shugana Campbell (Laurel), Yolanda Dilbert (Baton Rouge),Lee Hampton (Austin) Regenia Perry (Richmond) Sonya Smuthers (Houston)Sandra Wallace (Houston). I'm trying to reach Hazel Moore and Venola Jones. Our family left New Orleans on Sun morning before the storm around 11 am. We finally arrived in Baton Rouge at aproximately 11 pm. After a few days with friends, we journeyed to Dallas with our 3 cocker spaniels and hardly anything else. We are all looking forward to rebuilding our beautiful city. Let us continue to pray for each other; for those in danger; for those who have lost loved ones; homes and yes, please pray for our government.
All reports indicate that the Amistad collection in Tilton Hall is fine. Lee Hampton and I are trying to get in to survey Tilton Hall and the offsite storage facility. | | 2005-09-12 10:48:19 |
| Monika Bieli | Dear Howard, I'm very happy, that you are well after Kathrina! I wish you a lot of power and courrage in these hard days! If you find some time, it would be fine if you can contact me. Your (very) old friend from Switzerland (Gelterkinden/Basel), Monika
bieli@praxis-leimen.ch | | 2005-09-11 10:52:23 |
| Irene Wainwright | | We have received word that Marie Windell is safe with a nephew in Kansas City. | | 2005-09-10 16:43:34 |
| Richard Bloom | | Ann Wakefield Please contact me at bloomr@copper.net re Edith Murat | | 2005-09-09 16:43:05 |
| michael flug | | Has anyone heard from Brenda Square or others at Amistad Research Center? We have not been successful in learning anything about the safety of the staff or the situation at Amistad. | | 2005-09-09 16:25:08 |
| susan ehrens | would like information related to photographers, photography gallery owners and photography collections for a hurricane report to be included in the nov/dec issue of Black & White magazine. will cover reports through 9/13. be safe everyone, and please email me news of where photographers are staying, status, and if any of you want me to include contact info [email address?] where you can be reached,
susan ehrens
black & white magazine
susehrens@aol.com | | 2005-09-08 14:06:14 |
| Casey Rayborn | | I'm trying to contact Florence Jumonville of UNO. If anyone has any contact information I would appreciate it. | | 2005-09-07 14:20:50 |
| Stasia Wolfe Griffin | I got an e-mail from Alfred Lemmon today, and Brett Carnell talked to him on the 1st (see the share zone section)
| | 2005-09-06 22:32:36 |
| James Cartwright | | Has anyone heard from Alfred Lemmon? | | 2005-09-06 20:16:10 |
| Ann Wakefield | | I have posted an update on the repository page of this web site. Thank you to everyone who has sent such kind words of support. I will continue to post updates as I receive them. | | 2005-09-06 18:48:03 |
| Ann Wakefield | | Oops. I forgot to add my email address: annwake@aol.com | | 2005-09-05 23:37:06 |
| Ann Wakefield | The following staff members of the Notarial Archives Research Center are well and accounted for: Howard Margot (Lafayette), Karley Frankic (Virginia),Charles Johnson (Chicago), Sybil Thomas (Jacksonville, FL), Amanda Picou (Decatur, GA), Rob Duncan (Lafayette), Alicia Rosemond (Houston), Adrian Zeno (Baton Rouge). I am in Lafayette.
We have worked very hard for the last seven days to gain access to our buildings with Munters to assess the damage. Our main office is in the basement of the civil courthouse, and we saw broken windows in the old Amoco building where the research center is on the third floor. We finally gained clearance to enter New Orleans today, shortly after an article on our plight appeared on the Times Picayune web site. If all goes as planned (and nothing has so far) two or three staff members and Munters should be on site late tomorrow afternoon.
We received a report that the basement had taken two feet of water. I don't know if the water was still standing at the time of the report.
I will let you know if there are any developments.
What an experience. And it's just beginning ... | | 2005-09-05 23:34:13 |
| Irene Wainwright/Wayne Everard | I am safe in Hammond, LA, where my family lives. Wayne Everard and his wife and mother are here with us. We are fairly certain that the archives at NOPL is under water, although I guess we are foolishly holding out some exceedingly minor hope; we saw a picture on t.v. last night showing what we thought was the corner of Tulane and Loyola, looking pretty dry; but we also heard from someone else that the water was threatening the second floor of Tulane Med. Center, across the street from us. So who knows, who knows? Given the current circumstances downtown, there seems little that we can do. The Library administration is dispersed around the country like everyone else. Ann Wakefield of the Notarial Archives is safe in Lafayette and making an effort to get one of her employees into the area with Munters to assess damage in her shop. She has no idea whether she will be successful. HNOC people: Joshua Pailet was on Channel 9 (B.R. tv station) last night. He said John McGill went to HNOC and said the collections are fine. Maybe you know this already? He also said NOMA is safe. I hope it's true. There are so many rumors and communications are so insane that it's hard to know what to believe. All of you take very good care. We'll see you all back in New Orleans.
| | 2005-09-03 15:31:44 |
| Susan Goldstein | | Has anyone heard from Wayne Everard from the New Orleans History Room at the Public Library? And what has happened to this collection of municipal records, going back to the French and Spanish periods? | | 2005-09-03 11:36:36 |
| Irwin Lachoff | | I work at Xavier University. I am in Dallas with relatives. Cathy Kahn is in New Iberia with her daughter. Has anyone heard anything about Lester Sullivan? | | 2005-09-03 10:19:37 |
| Stasia Wolfe Griffin | | As Nancy Zimmelman posted earlier, I am safe in California. I had left Saturday to work for a week at Art Center, working with my replacement Bob Dirig. My husband evacuated on Sunday with our new neighbors, our cat, our computer, and our photographs. He is in Lafayette working at the shelter there on the medical team, and may be going to Baton Rouge to do the same there. I am staying at my mom's in Sacramento indefinitely. I can be reached at stasia.wolfe@gmail.com | | 2005-09-03 09:59:55 |
| The Historic New Orleans Collection | | Chuck started a group on Google for employees. It is named THNOC. | | 2005-09-03 09:24:53 |
| Chuck Patch & Amy Baptist | Chuck is in Baton Rouge and Amy is in Jackson, MS with her parents.
Does anybody know where Cathy Kahn is from Touro Archives??? | | 2005-09-02 23:20:55 |
| Linda Epstein | | I'm so glad to find out about my friends! Kelly and I evacuated Sunday morning and rode out the storm near Mobile in our RV. Not one of our brighter moves! We are now in Troy, AL waiting to go home. Heard my house is ok. Siva Blake and Ken are in Nashville. Mary Lou Eichorn is in Port Allen and in need of assistance on housing as she is with her sick, elderly in-laws. You can text message my cell: 504-319-5989 or email me at linny61@yahoo.com. I can make outgoing calls to anything other than 504 numbers. | | 2005-09-02 22:05:14 |
| Pamela D. Arceneaux | | I am so glad to have found this site and to hear about some of the THNOC staff...Best wishes to Mark and Carol...and I hope Amy's alright. Paul and I sat out Katrina in Hattiesburg, then with some difficulty left for GA on Tuesday afternoon arriving at my sister's (Betsy Davis)house in Thomasville, GA at 3am Wednesday. email here is ittlebit71@msn.com phone is 229-226-2655 God bless you all. It's so good to get some info! | | 2005-09-02 21:32:10 |
| Pamela D. Arceneaux | | | 2005-09-02 21:20:09 |
| Mark Cave | I just arrived at my sister's home in Lexington, Ky last night [with my cat]. I evacuated with my friend from HNOC, Amy Baptist on Sunday and weatherd the storm with her family in Covington, LA. I can be reached at my sister's 1-859-278-3671 Please contact with any news, or just to talk. I have not yet been able to make contact with anyone else from HNOC.
| | 2005-09-02 20:49:44 |
| Nancy Zimmelman | | Stasia Wolfe is safe in California where she was before the hurricane hit. | | 2005-09-02 17:53:33 |
| Renee DeVille | Renee is a professional conservator in NO and has worked with many of us in the Archives world. This is posted for her:
Please tell everyone we are okay. Me, Jean-Paul and the girls landed in Lakeway (Austin, TX) late last night. We are staying with his mother and stepfather and will be here for some time, possibly months. Please tell everyone or anyone who may be wondering. Communication has been difficult via cell - as in no service at the tower. Our current land line is 504-261-1089.
My e-mail is reneedeville@bellsouth.net.
| | 2005-09-02 14:32:25 |
| Lee Miller | Kevin Williams and I are fine and we evacuated to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, on Sunday (Kevin is my partner of 21 years; some of you may know him from the Tulane architectural archives, where he has worked for 15 years). We left about 10:00am Sunday. It took us four hours on the roads to get out of town, but once out of town the traffic was generally steady, if slow. We arrived in Pine Bluff about 2:00 am the next morning; it's normally a six or seven-hour drive, not a 14 or 16-hour drive. We're staying here a few more days until things at Tulane seem more settled, and then we will probably decamp to Little Rock or Hot Springs, Arkansas, where I have relatives.
I haven't heard from anyone else from Tulane, such as Bill Meneray, Robert Sherer, Kenneth Owen, or Brenda Square. Does anyone have any news of them? The Tulane email system is not working so no Tulane email addresses are valid. My library dean, Lance Query, is en route to St. Louis, where he has a sister, and the upper-tier Tulane administration is trying to organize a petit administration in exile in Houston. They've established a website at emergency.tulane.edu (which says the campus is in relatively good shape with no damage that they can't handle) but they have not posted any way to contact them.
I've been trying to have myself designated "essential personnel" in order to be allowed back into the city to inspect the archival impact of the storm so I can begin conservation planning. I only want in for one day so I can take a quick look, take some notes, and leave, but the relief efforts are so disorganized that I haven't found anyone yet to apply to. If you have have any ideas or can put in a good word for me, please let me know. I can be reached through lmiller510@cox.net.
Many thanks for everyone's good wishes and I hope everyone is safe and secure.
Lee | | 2005-09-02 13:57:14 |
| Carol Bartels | Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all the good wishes and thoughts. I safely evacuated the city, leaving shortly before 3:00 a.m. last Sunday morning and arriving at my sister's house in Austin, Texas shortly after 12:15 p.m. The drive was a constant stream of red tail lights ahead of us and white head lights behind us all the way into Texas. Like you I do not know where most of my fellow staff members and area co-workers are and hope to hear from them shortly. I do not know the state of The Collection's buildings or holdings but hope for the best. | | 2005-09-02 11:39:53 |
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