After Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force convened regular conference calls for representatives of federal, state, and local organizations, agencies, and institutions involved in relief efforts. Reports of these calls contain extensive information on damage to cultural heritage and on relief efforts.

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The compelling images and stories seared into the memories of all who lived through last year's hurricanes will endure through an online hurricane archive. Anyone may visit the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: Preserving Stories from Katrina, Rita, and Wilma at www.hurricanearchive.org to read the submissions of others before contributing their own memories and pictures to this growing collection. All experiences related to the storms are sought, whether one was directly affected by the storms or served as a volunteer hundreds of miles away.
First-hand accounts, on-scene images, blog postings, podcasts, and other audio files are some of the materials being collected. Digital technology offers people the opportunity to record experiences in the moment, but many of those digital recordings are quickly discarded. Hurricanearchive.org seeks to save those creations in a permanent database for scholars and a wide audience for generations to come. Contributors also may phone 504-208-3883 to record their stories.
The University of New Orleans and the Center for History and New Media, CHNM, at George Mason University created this digital history project in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and Gulf area partners, with funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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The National Park Service Status Report on cultural resources affected by the 2005 hurricanes is now available.