August 29, 2015 marks the 10th anniversary of arguably the greatest natural disaster in the United States in the past century: Hurricane Katrina. Though a 1928 hurricane took a greater toll in human lives, Katrina’s wider impact on business and culture dwarfed it. 23,000 jobs lost. $142 billion in aid to rebuild. Over half the population of a thriving city displaced, some of them permanently. Many of those displaced were in lower socioeconomic classes, affecting the city’s economic and cultural diversity. Some represented the Cajun and European roots of a historic melting pot.

It wasn’t till after the storm that some of the hidden histories of the people and the trauma they experienced were revealed. Oral histories have long been a source of life for microcultures and a way to paint rich pictures of events, otherwise left to their statistics or historical accounts. Once thought of as only qualitative stories, oral histories are embraced as ways to preserve context, meaning and truth.

Peter Mayer created its own oral history of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, told through the eyes and memories of its employees.These compelling stories were collected as part of an experiment with interactive technology, and now serve as a somber but inspiring reminder of this company’s past. By sustaining the employee base and helping each individual through the disaster, Peter Mayer was a key player in the recovery of the New Orleans business community.

In memory of Hurricane Katrina, record a story of your own.

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