Disasters/Relief

As BTW went to press today, ABA learned that Michele Lewis of Afro-American Book Stop and Mary Price Dunbar of Beaucoup Books, both of New Orleans, were both safe and staying with family in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Nashville, Tennessee, respectively. Lewis reported losing her home and her stores to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. In addition, former bookseller and ABA Board member Kevin McCaffrey was out of New Orleans when the storm struck and was safe.

As the weakened Hurricane Katrina headed north from the battered Gulf Coast, dangerous floodwaters rose in New Orleans on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the historic city became the epicenter of what might be the largest natural disaster in the U.S. since the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

It was a day of fear, drama, and concern as Hurricane Katrina, a raging Category 4 storm, reached land after gathering strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. By this afternoon, the storm had moved inland and weakened to a Category 2 storm, but, when it made landfall east of New Orleans at 6:10 a.m., it blew winds of 145 miles per hour with driving rain.