As much as it recounts her exemplary coverage of the worst natural disaster in modern American history, Kathleen Koch’s new book “Rising from Katrina: How My Mississippi Hometown Lost It All and Found What Mattered” is also a promise kept to those who told her their gripping stories of survival and recovery.
As a reporter for the Cable News Network (CNN), Bay St. Louis native and University of Southern Mississippi alumna Koch was on the ground covering Huricane Katrina's impact on the Gulf Coast, including her native Bay St. Louis, the subject of her acclaimed CNN documentary “Saving My Town: The Fight for Bay St. Louis,” followed by the sequel “The Town that Fought Back.”
With her new book, Koch believes she’s meeting an obligation to those who begged her to let the world know how Katrina devastated their lives. She couldn’t include all of them in her live reports from the
“There were so many stories that never made it on the air, and that happens to every journalist – so much ends up on the cutting room floor. But this was my town’s history, the
With the death toll and physical damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and the emotional toll on survivors as a backdrop, Koch reported the grim details of the event to the nation and world. But she also reported the kindness of strangers, volunteers who came from across the country to help, and of the residents committed to rebuilding their beloved
“The people there have such a deep faith and are so optimistic. You didn’t see a lot of outward anger from them with Katrina. But with my coverage, I felt like I was carrying their cause – I just had this anger in me. Why isn’t help coming sooner, why aren’t they getting paid for damages from the insurance companies?”
Returning to
“I mention in the book that this experience helped me understand how soldiers feel when they return home from war, the bond they have with their fellow soldiers they’ve had to leave behind, because when I had to return home to
“You just wanted to do everything and anything you could to help, so that was very difficult to be so far away.”
Koch has also written about the impact of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the region in an opinion piece for CNN.com.
She’s also encouraged to see some things coming back together in her hometown and along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans, post-Katrina. “Finally,
The book has helped Koch work through her own emotions and figure out how the storm impacted her personally. “There’s always a part of me that’s working to make sense of what happened, how people made it through and how it changed them,” she said.
“I think it’s like a scar – it has healed, but it will always be there. I believe that’s been true for me and anyone who grew up on the
Koch graduated as salutatorian from Bay St. Louis High in 1977 before attending Southern Miss, where she majored in journalism with minors in French and political science. She was a student in the university’s prestigious
Endorsements of her new book come from her former colleague at CNN, Anderson Cooper; fellow Southern Miss alum and NFL great Brett Favre; renowned historian Doug Brinkley; and jazz legend Pete Fountain, who lost a home in Bay St. Louis to the storm.
Dr. Chris Campbell, director of the
“Rising from Katrina: How My
Kathleen Koch (photo by Ken Cedeno)
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