| Length | 24:02 |
| Licensor | Terrascope Radio |
| Producer(s) | Emily Davidson, Barbara McCarragher, Katie Puckett and Aubrey Samost |
| Formats | Actuality, Documentary, Soft Feature |
| Topics | Environment, Music, Public Affairs |
| Produced | May, 2007 |
| Added to PRX | July 18, 2007 |
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Personal stories of New Orleans' recovery from Hurricane Katrina, as found by four young women on spring break from MIT
Produced in Terrascope Radio, a class developed by the MIT Terrascope program in collaboration with the MIT Program in Comparative Media Studies. The class is taught by Dr. Ari Epstein, and this year's teaching assistant was Steve Schultze.
English
What happens when a New Orleans river-boat captain tells a group of MIT freshmen that it's OK to go visit his engine room? A light-hearted account of the students' aquatic adventure sets the stage for this thoughtful, moving and personal collection of stories from New Orleans, as the city works its way to recovery from Hurricane Katrina.
The students have spent the past six months thinking about New Orleans as scientists and engineers would, looking for rational, affordable, sustainable solutions to the city's problems. But when they visit the city in person they see its human side, and they bring back stories they hadn't expected to find. Among the highlights are:
--An interview with a nurse who was stranded for six days in Charity Hospital, as she describes the small (and large) kindnesses crucial to keeping the hospital running and the patients alive.
--Views of the bayous and wetlands south of New Orleans--areas that are crucial to the city's future--as seen by the people who live there, and who face their own set of environmental and political threats.
--The story of one accidental disaster-recovery volunteer, and of what keeps him full of joy and happiness as he does the difficult, brutal work of tearing down and throwing out the old in order to make way for the new.
