An Oral History of the LSU AgCenter’s Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
August 12, 2025
Hundreds of LSU AgCenter employees—including many whose own homes were damaged or destroyed—worked long hours in the months after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated much of south Louisiana in 2005, providing care for displaced people and their pets, rescuing livestock, and providing other support.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane in Louisiana near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm caused extensive flooding and an estimated $125 billion worth of damage in its wake.
– AgCenter file photo
LSU AgCenter economists estimated that the state’s agricultural sectors sustained nearly $1.6 billion in losses from the storms.
“You are never prepared for these kinds of things, and it’s not something that you expect to have to deal with when you take a job doing extension work,” said Paul Coreil, the current chancellor of LSU Alexandria who was LSU's director of extension in 2005.
Coreil and others recounted their experiences to mark the 20th anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and to discuss how these storms affected Louisiana and the AgCenter.
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Turning Tragedy into Impact
Explore LSU’s role in response, recovery, resilience, and research following Hurricane Katrina.