In October 2005, shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, A.D.’s Josh Neufeld served a three-week stint as a Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi/Gulfport, Mississippi. Taken from his online journal and illustrated with photographs, Katrina Came Calling is an intimate look at his reaction to the hurricane; signing up for Red Cross training; getting deployed; the conditions in the Gulf; working with the survivors; a visit to New Orleans; Port-a-Potties; his co-workers; issues of race, religion, and regional background; returning home; and much more.

Being a public forum, Neufeld’s blog was read and commented on by people from all over the spectrum: not only by his friends, associates, and regular readers, but by other Red Crossers past and present, and by Biloxi-area survivors and former residents. Many of those comments (and his responses to them) are included in Katrina Came Calling, a unique marriage of print and the ongoing conversation of the Internet.

Whitney Matheson of USA Today’s “Pop Candy” calls Katrina Came Calling…

“a great little book. Most of us watched hours of news footage after Katrina, but I can’t say I read or saw anything as personal as this—through Josh’s eyes, we really get to know the people, places and destruction that surrounded him.”

Katrina Came Calling is a limited-edition, black-and-white, digest-sized, saddle-stitched, 102 pp. booklet; and is available via PayPal.

You can also read the entire thing online, via the links below:

CONTENTS

Part 1: Katrina Came Calling
Sept 5, 2005 — “Katrina”
Sept 10 — “A Day With The Red Cross”
Sept 17 — “DSHR”
Sept 22 — “Mass Care/Sheltering… Lost… Insomnia”
Oct 4 — “Wading Through the Floodwaters of Red Cross Red Tape”
Oct 7 — “Biloxi Blues”
Oct 12 — “Travel Tip #3a: Rolling”

Part 2: Deployment
Oct 12 — “Touchdown”
Oct 14 — “Late For Orientation”
Oct 14 — “ERV!”
Oct 15 — “Dear Ngdugu”
Oct 16 — “Illicit Pix”
Oct 17 — “Driving With ERV”
Oct 18 — “SeaBee Base/ DR #307 Tour”
Oct 21 — “Good Samaritans”
Oct 22 — “NOLA”
Oct 26 — “Reveille”
Oct 27 — “Rumors”
Oct 27 — “Long Beach C”
Oct 28 — “Blue Water”
Oct 29 — “Spaceman”
Oct 31 — “Convenience Vs. Need”
Nov 1 — “Survival Stories”
Nov 2 — “Kitchen 35″

Part 3: Back in the World
Nov 3 — “Die-Hards”
Nov 5 — “Last Day/Out-Processing”
Nov 6 — “Working-Man Hands”
Nov 10 — “City Mouse, or The Guy From Brooklyn”
Nov 14 — “The (Near) Immortal Shoes”
Nov 28 — “Whine, Whine, Whine”
Jan 5, 2006 — “Afterword (Moral Uncertainty)”