Covering Hurricane Katrina: DC’s Newseum opens exhibit on news coverage 5 years after disaster

Newseum in DC retells Katrina story 5 years later

WASHINGTON — Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the Newseum in Washington is opening a one-year exhibit on how journalists reported on the disaster and its aftermath.

Called “Covering Katrina,” the special exhibit is billed as the first major showing of its kind about media coverage of the storm that pummeled New Orleans and neighboring areas of Louisiana and Mississippi.

The exhibit opening Friday shows kayaks and bicycles used to cover the disastrous flooding and provides journalists’ accounts and some 80 front pages from around the globe.

Newseum chief executive Charles Overby, says the exhibit “puts you right there in the middle of the storm.”

The museum about news and the First Amendment also produced a film of reflections from TV and newspaper journalists.