Youth Group at Federated Church Returns from Mission to Aid New Orleans Cleanup

By MARK ALAN LOVEWELL

A large area in and around New Orleans remains devastated after Hurricane Katrina brought high winds and a storm surge to the Gulf Coast in August 2005.

Hurricane Katrina Anniversary Stirs Memories

Vineyard Residents Who Helped Vividly Recall Battered Region

By TOM DRESSER

During the eight years that former West Tisbury teaching assistant Jill Dresser (who is my daughter) lived in New Orleans, the common refrain she heard was that it was a doomed city, a bowl that had sunk below water. Potholes were frequently seen gushing up water. Rain storms quickly became momentary afternoon floods. And there always was talk of The Big One.

Listening to Hard Lessons of Hurricane Katrina

By JAMES KINSELLA

The anguished crying went on and on, echoing within the walls of the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, where hundreds sat in silence.

On the screen at the front of the hall, a mother was walking away from the grave of her five-year-old daughter, who drowned when the levees outside New Orleans broke last August 30, sending the swollen waters of Hurricane Katrina pouring into the streets of the mostly black, mostly poor Ninth Ward.

They are two of the most accomplished and respected scholars both in the nation's elite collegiate circles and in the African-American community, but on Wednesday morning Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Dr. Charles J. Ogletree Jr. were preoccupied with one thing - going fishing.

Vineyarders Join Nation in Aiding Hurricane Relief

By IAN FEIN

Vineyard Haven neighbors Laura Kimball and Ashley Brede planned to spend a good part of their Labor Day weekend selling lemonade outside their Skiff avenue homes. But when news spread of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast region, the pair found a new focus for their end-of-summer stand.

Katrina's Wake: Devastation of Hurricane Touches Life on Vineyard

By James Kinsella
Gazette Senior Writer

Devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina may delay the delivery of the new Steamship Authority ferry Island Home for six months or more.

But the likely postponement of the new $30.5 million ferry for the Vineyard is just one of the ripples reaching the Vineyard in the aftermath of the hurricane, which authorities now say may have left thousands dead in New Orleans and beyond.