Lessons Learned from Katrina: What Really Matters in a Disaster

SUMMARY While life's everyday occurrences in libraries leave us with a disaster situation, nothing could have prepared libraries for the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina. Devastating winds, flooding, and destruction to the area infrastructure required a type of response seldom experienced. By revisiting the responses in minor to catastrophic disasters, there are lessons to be learned. Some lessons serve as a source for prevention for potential disaster situations, rehabilitation in localized disasters, and reinvention when libraries are reduced to rubble.