After the Anniversary: What Next for Hurricane Aid?

All images in this post by special guest contributor Brandon Edwards

More than a year later, the official ceremonies and memorials for the anniversaries of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have come and gone. The best, in concept, had to be the cattle drive to commemorate Rita, which had the added bonus of drawing attention to the devestation of the Southwest Louisiana's cattle industry (an ongoing catastrophe, as the saltwater that cows and trees drank continues to do damage).

We at Austinist tried to put something together, and met with mostly frustration. Over the next two days, we'll have a couple posts that highlight the work of two local artists, Brandon Edwards and Megan Griffith. Both shot in the Gulf Region in the first weeks after the storm, Brandon in New Orleans, Megan in Gulfport, Mississippi. Brandon originally came to us after he had no luck finding a charitable outlet for his work. We dug around and would have liked to provide more information on what people can do to get involved here in town, but it seems like the local web resources have gone silent (here and here, for example). There's an interesting and seemingly useful nation-wide Wiki for Katrina help, but the Rita page has gone dead.

There's a good chance we just don't know where to look, so please, drop us a line if you know of any good local resources to help Katrina and Rita evacuees. Or if you know of any artists who were forced from their homes and into Austin, also let us know. Maybe Austinist can get something together, even if it's just one benefit or if its something like setting up a local Wiki.

More of Brandon's photos are below the Expand-O-Tron (his full collection is here.) Megan's will appear tomorrow along with an essay on her experiences in Mississippi.