Twenty-seven days of refuge: Vicksburg Convention Center’s Katrina story

VICKSBURG, Miss. (VDN) — In the aftermath of the devastation Hurricane Katrina wrought upon New Orleans, roughly 500 people called the Convention Center their home for twenty-seven days, Erin Southard, former Executive Director of the Vicksburg Convention Center, and the rest of the staff included.

“At first we were on 6 hours shifts, but when you have a small staff, that means people are…are always coming in at random hours. So eventually it got to more of a first, second, and third shift.”

Operations took the overnight shifts, Southard took the swing shift, with the rest of the staff working the more traditional office hours.

“Even though we were the shelter, we were also still functioning. At first, it was cancelling business, and then rescheduling business, and then new business was still being booked and handled because we were not going to remain a shelter indefinitely.” said Southard. “We may not have known the end date when we started, but we knew that time was going to come to an end. I don’t think any of us thought it was going to be twenty-seven days.”

The Katrina transplants made their home downstairs, using the Convention Center’s chairs to divide the space into little homes. The spaces were respected to the point where a visitor would politely “knock” before they came in. Soon the space was dubbed Crescent City, including their own elected mayor. The mayor would settle disputes, hold town hall meetings to discuss quality of life issues i.e. curfews, etc. and generally helped the citizens of Crescent City navigate their new world.

Upstairs, in the meeting rooms, an infirmary was setup for the ill, as well as a store for the citizens of Crescent City to begin to rebuild, purchasing clothing and other necessities, as some arrived with only the clothes on their back.

Quoting Dickens, Southard said “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

Editor’s note: This article was originally a portion of a longer piece regarding former Vicksburg Convention Center Executive Director, Erin Southard. It has been edited and reformatted here.