MSM 454 Kathleen Koch - This is My Home! - a podcast by USM Center for Oral History

   CNN sent correspondent Kathleen Koch to Mobile, Alabama to ride out Hurricane Katrina. After the storm, when she was finally allowed to travel to her hometown, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, the level of devastation and suffering she witnessed was overwhelming.

   In this episode, Koch describes feeling intensely conflicted between the detachment her job required and the desire to cast aside her role as a reporter and do anything possible to alleviate the suffering she encountered.  She and crew decided to use their time off the air to search for the missing and help survivors.

   After Hurricane Katrina, South Mississippi residents came together in a spirit of cooperation and self-reliance.  Koch recalls a resourceful group of young people she met at their unauthorized shelter and a mad dash to Wal-Mart to bring them much needed supplies.

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