United States: Mississippi: Biloxi: Hurricane Katrina Memorial

Shannon
Mississippi

The Story of the Memorial

The Katrina Memorial in Biloxi, Mississippi is located near Highway 90 in Biloxi’s Town Green. It’s dedicated to the Gulf Coast victims who perished in Hurricane Katrina. It opened February 15, 2006 in a ceremony with ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” crew.

The Memorial stands as tall as the height of the water during Hurricane Katrinas storm surge at the Town Green. It contains a tile inlay of a wave and a glass case containing various items from destroyed buildings. The artist, Aaron Kramer, was asked to assemble and create the collection of obects that were placed in the “Time Capsule” as part of the Memorial. All of the objects were collected from survivors and recorded by the crew of Extreme Makover. He describes his collage as a “hurricane of debris.” At the center is a clock he set to roughly the time when Katrina hit this city August 29th. The memorial has space for the names of the people who died in Mississippi.

I’m amazed I haven’t visited this place yet since I’m only an hour away. I really want to go see it soon.

Comments:

skatoolaki
Baton Rouge

Thanks

Thank you for adding this. I didn’t realize a memorial had been put up. I’ll definitely be checking this out soon.

urbanobjects
0 places

Katrina Memorial

On a Wednesday in early February of 2006 I was asked by a producer of Extreme Makeover, Home Edition to fly to Biloxi to take part in the building of a Hurricane Katrina Memorial. The ABC channel TV show, asked me to create a sculptural time capsule made up of hurricane related objects. I was flown out on Sunday night. On Monday morning we started receiving objects from the public. By Wednesday at noon I had finished the piece and the unveiling occurred several hours later. This was an amazing experience and an opportunity that I just had to take. The harrowing stories I heard will stay with me forever. Here are some links and images of the project.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronkramer/sets/72157594339157342/

www.biloxi.ms.us/katrina_and_B iloxi/Katrina_Memorial.html

And the article that was on the AP wire. “http://www.usatoday.com/ weather/hurricane/2006-02-15-k atrina-memorial_x.htm”> www.usatoday.com/weather/hurri cane/2006-02-15-katrina-mem…

Hopefully this television program will keep the nations’ collective
eye on the disaster recovery effort. Based on the destruction that I
saw it will be decades before Biloxi is normal again. Take care.

6 months after the hurricane and there was still a sense that this had just haappened. There was a barge as big as 3 football fields sitting up against a museum, houses flattened, giant metal containers looking like they had been crumpled up into a ball and virtually the only thing operating was a casino and the health clinic.

Kce19
Biloxi

I’ve been to this memorial several times. I was there, standing in the cold night, when they revealed it. My first thoughts when I saw it were, “is that really it?” It was far less than what I thought it would be. It’s nice, without a doubt it serves it’s purpose.. to remember that day, and those we lost. But.. it seems like with the TV show it was so built up. They had it fenced off.. nobody could see.. it was made to be such a big deal, and in my opinion, it could have been more. I’m probably just talking and not making sense b/c if I were asked to design a memorial I would have been dumbfounded. I don’t know what I thought it would be, or even what it should be, but it wasn’t that. The ‘time capsule’ is touching, but it looks thrown together. I thought the hurricane Camille memorial was absolutely beautiful.. I guess I was thinking of something more along those lines. Anyway, the memorial serves the purpose of never forgetting, and I guess that’s what it’s there for! I will never forget that day, or how it changed my life! God bless the Mississippi Gulf Coast.. we’re strong, and we will come back!


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