Eleven years ago, Hurricane Katrina forever altered the physical, architectural, and spiritual landscape of the city of New Orleans and the entire Gulf South.

The Preservation Resource Center quickly found itself in the same position as countless other residents of the city that we love so dearly – facing a seemingly impossible road to recovery.

The PRC’s flagship publication, the award-winning Preservation In Print, began documenting our rebuilding and recovery work as soon as we were able to get the presses running again in December 2005.

December 2005Here is a selection of the special message that we spread across the cover of the December 2005 issue:

For 32 years, the Preservation Resource Center has revitalized and rebuilt New Orleans’ historic neighborhoods.

Now, in this time of our city’s greatest need, the PRC is focusing its experience, members and 5,500 volunteers, dedicated Board of Directors and staff, national and international alliances and all our resources to restore lives and homes devastated by Hurricane Katrina…

…To everyone who has supported PRC, to the thousands of volunteers who are working with us, to the courageous individuals who are restoring their homes, businesses and lives: PRC pledges to bring all our expertise, time and resources to rebuilding this great city.

Eleven years later, the PRC is more dedicated than ever to helping preserve and protect the neighborhoods and architecture of New Orleans.

In response to the devastating floods that swept across much of south Louisiana earlier this month, we set up a Disaster Recovery page that represents the culmination of our extensive recovery experience.

We are also collecting donations to the Emergency Recovery Fund to facilitate the ongoing efforts of Rebuilding Together New Orleans to help gut flooded homes and begin the recovery process.

As we work to bring our hard-earned Katrina recovery experience to so many homeowners who lost everything earlier this month (including the families of PRC staffers), we look back at how far we have come in the past 11 years, and we look to the future of a region rebuilt stronger than ever before.