LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Students taking a public history course at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have created a podcast series about the floods of August 2016, and are holding events this weekend to collect more oral histories.
The floods affected 56 of Louisiana's 64 parishes, killed 13 people and did more than $8.7 million in damage across 20 of the worst-hit parishes.
"UNDERWATER: Memories of the 2016 Floods" is based on dozens of interviews conducted last year by faculty and student researchers, according to a news release Wednesday from the university. The series will examine topics such as the effect of the flood and community responses.
It's part of the history department's Recent Louisiana Disasters Oral History Project, which is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the University's Undergraduate Research Council.
"History Harvests" to collect more people's stories about the flood are scheduled Friday in Scott, Saturday in Youngsville and Sunday in Lafayette, with another planned in Lafayette on Sept. 22.
According to the project's Facebook page, each interview will take about five to seven minutes.
"It is for a larger study on disaster response at the community level," the students write.
They're looking for peoples' memories of where they were when the floods hit, how they responded and were affected, and the effect it's had personally over the last two years. And in each community where the events are being held, they want to know the flood's effect on that community and Acadiana in general, and how the flood of 2016 compares to other disasters in the area.