Katrina Memories: "Didn"t Miss a Beat"

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library was a microcosm for the entire city in the days after Hurricane Katrina. Originally told the building had dodged a bullet and came away unscathed, Lance Query, dean of libraries and academic information resources, later found out the basement flooded with more than eight feet of water.

“On that early trip in coming up to the library and going down towards the basement … I saw the horror of the black water,” says Query.

Instead of giving up, Query and his staff did what seemed unlikely, if not impossible — they got the library ready by the time school resumed only four months later. In this video, part of a series on remembering Hurricane Katrina, Query talks about what it took to achieve that feat.

Lance Query recalls how the library survived its Katrina flooding in this multimedia presentation by Ryan Rivet.