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November 20, 2008 |
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Created and Maintained by: The Photoimaging Information Council |
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Columns |
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On August 28, 2005, as the National Weather Service of New Orleans was releasing its ominous warning about the rapidly approaching Hurricane Katrina, extreme weather photographers and videographers, Jim Reed and Mike Theiss, were well on their way to Gulfport, Mississippi, driving past thousands of bumper-to-bumper cars heading the opposite direction. Having made reservations at the beachfront Holiday Inn in Gulfport, and equipped with a two week supply of food and water, Reed and Theiss planned to carry out a three phase plan to document Katrina's maximum winds and storm surge. The first two phases, "shooting while driving around the beachfront area of Gulfport in an SUV until wind gusts reach 80mph," followed by "shooting from a concrete parking garage until wind gusts reach 100mph" were almost immediately aborted, as Katrina's force tore down the forty-foot hotel sign and blew out windows. That left only the daunting phase three: "Shooting from the hotel during the most violent part of the storm, with wind gusts possibly exceeding 130mph."
A lone palm tree endures winds in excess of 100 mph and storm surge created by the hurricane © 2005 Jim Reed et al / Farcountry Press From a fortified stairwell cum bunker, Reed and Theiss watched in awe as a nearly fifteen foot wave headed straight for the hotel, picking up a sedan along the way and slamming it into the lobby. The nine hours the two spent there documenting "the full evolution of a major hurricane's storm surge" produced chilling images that illustrate the unimaginable force of a category 5 hurricane. In a particularly unnerving series of images of Theiss capturing footage from just beyond the hotel doors, we see how astonishingly fast storm surge can rise, from barely enough water to cover his ankles in the first frame, to violently splashing over his waist and forcefully driving against the door in the fifth frame.  While documenting Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge in a beachfront hotel parking lot, Mike Theiss is forced to take cover. This series of photographs demonstrates how fast storm surge can rise. Mike was able to safely enter the hotel seconds later © 2005 Jim Reed et al /Farcountry Press
By using such devices as a laptop computer and a remote video camera, the pair were able to monitor Katrina's radar signature and capture "never-before-seen-footage" of her storm surge. While it goes without saying that Reed and Theiss risked their lives making this book, they ended up helping to save a life as well. Along with two United States Petty Officers who were also residing at the same hotel, they rescued a Holiday Inn employee who Katrina had trapped inside her room.  US Navy Petty Officers John Gulizia (left) and Michael Latka rescue Lillie Williams from Hurricane Katrina’s rapidly rising storm surge in Gulfport, Mississippi. Ms. Williams had been trapped inside her beachfront hotel room © 2005 Jim Reed et al /Farcountry Press
Unlike the many media images that portray just the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Reed and Theiss took pictures of the same things before and during Katrina's landfall, making the final image all the more shocking. And the fact that Reed and Theiss were able to capture Katrina from her slightly agitated beginnings, her escalation to a more frenzied stage, her menacing finale, and finally the consequences of her destruction, makes this book all the more important in its comprehensive coverage of Katrina's stages of transformation.  Beachfront hotel courtyard area before the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. Hotels typically place outdoor furniture into the pool to keep it from blowing away. It was a fruitless effort, given Katrina’s massive force © 2005 Jim Reed et al /Farcountry Press
 Beachfront hotel courtyard area during landfall of Hurricane Katrina © 2005 Jim Reed et al /Farcountry Press
 Beachfront courtyard area after Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge receded © 2005 Jim Reed et al /Farcountry Press
One particularly memorable image of Katrina's aftermath focuses on a young boy, apparently yelling as he clutches packs of chewing gum and climbs over heaps of rubble. Only after we read the caption do we understand that the boy was reacting to a police officer not included in the photo. "The officer, holding a gun, was under the impression that people were looting a Gulfport, Mississippi convenience store destroyed by the hurricane. It was soon made clear that the owner, who was also present, had given everyone permission to take whatever they wanted."  © 2005 Jim Reed et al /Farcountry Press
"Hurricane Katrina" doesn't have many photographs that capture the facial expressions of the victims of the hurricane. Instead, Reed and Theiss relied on peoples bodies to do the talking. When we see a Gulfport resident hunched over and trying to rescue any belongings from his desk that was thrown into the middle of U.S. route 90, we can only imagine what he is feeling. The resigned posture of Holiday Inn general manager, Truett Martin, as he surveys the extent of the damage to his hotel is what suggests his present state of mind more than anything else. And one of the book's last images of a young girl hugging her mother, their backs turned towards us, says everything.  A resident of Gulfport tries to salvage belongings from his desk, which was found in the middle of U.S. Route 90 © 2005 Jim Reed / Farcountry Press
"Hurricane Katrina" is complete with radar and satellite images of Katrina as she approaches the Gulf Coast, a Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale chart outlining the intensity and effects of category 1 through 5 hurricanes, aerial photographs from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the destruction in Gulfport, and select images from media photographers who covered the residuum of Katrina in New Orleans. In the book's epilogue Reed and Theiss write that "every tropical depression to form in 1996 turned into a named storm, something that has never happened before in the history of the National Hurricane Center," and that the hurricanes that strike the U.S. coastline every year confirm "that we have entered a period of increased tropical cyclone activity"-- a pattern that many climatologists and meteorologists anticipate will persist for several years to come. Unlike other photo-documentary books that expose viewers to the problems of war and poverty in the hopes of preventing future occurrences, hurricanes can't be prevented or even thwarted. Thus, Reed and Theiss' foremost hope for their book is in its potential to inspire its readers to become more educated about the weather and to prepare themselves for very real possibility of storms to come.
© 2005 Jim Reed et al / Farcountry Press
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