Two Texas folklorists' oral history project records the experiences of storm survivors

HURRICANE Katrina was destroying New Orleans, but Vincent Trotter had problems of his own. He was a jailer at the Orleans Parish lockup, and the 700 prisoners, some of whom were smashing their way out of their cells, were threatening to kill him. Between crises at the jail, which was filling with water and shaking in the wind, he fought off worries about his family and his house in Algiers.

Before the ordeal ended, Trotter shepherded his charges through chest-deep water to rescue boats. He was stranded for days at a sun-scorched highway evacuation point. He hiked for miles through the ruins of his hometown. These were the horrors that gave birth to Trotter's story.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were the mothers of a million stories — stories worth telling and remembering. And now, safe and dry in Houston, Trotter, 32, is working with the University of Houston and the Library of Congress to save those tales of woe, endurance and heroism for future generations.
"Every story," said UH folklorist and English professor Carl Lindahl, "has its surprise."