2005
Hurricane Katrina
Residents wait on rooftops for rescue in flooded New Orleans — a defining image of evacuation failure and delayed organized response.
Educational presentation · see credits below
Field memory · 现场记忆
Twenty years of disasters. One lesson: readiness is not optional.
A curated educational gallery of publicly available field photographs — FEMA and other open sources — used to teach why organized evacuation, risk recognition, and trained mutual aid matter.
About these images. We do not use sensational news-wire photos without rights.
Files are downloaded from Wikimedia Commons and are primarily U.S. government public domain (FEMA Photo Library and related) or clearly open-licensed (CC BY / CC BY-SA).
They are presented for nonprofit education. Full attribution list at the bottom of this page.
Timeline & themes
What the field keeps teaching
Each event below links a real place and year to a training takeaway for campuses and communities.
2005
USAR after Katrina
Urban Search and Rescue teams mark structures after search — standardized field language under chaos.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2005
Mass sheltering
Thousands sheltered in public facilities — logistics, crowd care, and dignity under pressure.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2005
Team operations
FEMA Urban Search and Rescue in the field after Katrina.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2010
Haiti earthquake
Collapsed structures and dense urban rubble — why mutual aid and trained local responders matter in the first hours.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2011
Tōhoku earthquake & tsunami
Cascading multi-hazard disaster: quake, tsunami, infrastructure loss — protective action and early warning at societal scale.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2012
Hurricane Sandy
Coastal flooding in the U.S. Northeast — power, transit, and high-density evacuation challenges.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2013
Joplin tornado
Violent tornado damage — shelter-in-place decisions, debris hazards, and community recovery.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2017
Hurricane Harvey
Prolonged urban flooding and boat rescues — self-evacuation windows and neighbor mutual aid.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2017
Hurricane Maria
Island-scale infrastructure collapse — communications, medical logistics, and long-tail recovery.
Educational presentation · see credits below
2018
Camp Fire · Paradise, CA
Fast-moving wildland-urban interface fire — evacuation timing, routes, and community readiness.
Educational presentation · see credits below
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Wildland firefighting
Fire service operations under extreme heat and smoke — professional risk that campus and community plans must respect.
Educational presentation · see credits below
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Flood boat rescue
Water rescue platforms in inundated streets — coordination between military, civilian, and volunteer assets.
Educational presentation · see credits below
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Urban search & rescue
USAR discipline: search markings, structural awareness, and team accountability.
Educational presentation · see credits below
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Flood operations
Hurricane Florence flooding — slow-moving storms and extended inundation risk.
Educational presentation · see credits below
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Post-quake field work
Earthquake response environments — rubble, access, and first-hour decisions.
Educational presentation · see credits below
From memory to competence
Looking is not enough. Training is the point.
These images are not decoration. They are reminders that untrained crowds, blocked exits, late decisions, and silent buildings cost lives.
IERRTA’s UEB campus course and professional tracks exist so students and responders share a language before the next photograph is taken.
Teaching prompts
- Where would your building’s assembly point fail in flood or fire smoke?
- Who accounts for people with limited mobility?
- What is the difference between panic flight and organized evacuation?
- When is self-rescue appropriate — and when must you wait for professionals?
Credits
Image sources
Machine-readable credits also live in images/media/credits.json on the server. Primary portal: Wikimedia Commons. FEMA works are U.S. federal government public domain unless otherwise noted.
Files hosted locally under
images/media/ for reliability (not hotlinked).
Representative events: Hurricane Katrina (2005), Haiti earthquake (2010), Tōhoku (2011), Sandy (2012), Joplin tornado (2013), Harvey & Maria (2017), Camp Fire (2018), plus wildland firefighting and USAR field photography.
Always verify license on the Commons file page before commercial reuse outside this nonprofit educational context.