Collection: August 2009 flood collection

1228 Digital images and 14 digital videos of the flood experienced in Louisville on August 4, 2009, donated by members of the community to document the event. Many of the images are from the campus of the University of Louisville and the surrounding area, although the Beechmont, Chickasaw, and Phoenix Hill neighborhoods are also represented. This collection also includes a small number of pictures of the ice storm of January 2009 and the wind storm of September 2008. Image files are arranged by creator.

A selection of flood-related items (210 still images and 3 videos) have been made available via the University Libraries' Digital Collections. The University of Louisville Libraries also entered into a partnership with Archive-It, a service of the Internet Archive, to preserve web-based content relating to the flood. This archive, which includes mainstream media as well as social network content, can be accessed at http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1627.

Dates

2009

Conditions Governing Access

Materials not available via the August 2009 Flood digital collection may require prior notice for viewing.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has not been assigned to the University of Louisville; please consult a reference archivist for more information.

Extent

1242 computer files

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

On August 4, 2009, the city of Louisville, Kentucky experienced a rainstorm in which five inches of water fell in 90 minutes, with reported rainfall rates of up to 8.8 inches per hour at times. While small in comparison to the historic Ohio River flood of 1937, the flood of August 2009 caused significant damage at Churchill Downs, the Louisville Free Public Library, on the Belknap and Health Sciences campuses of the University of Louisville, and elsewhere in the city. Knowing that people were capturing the events as they unfolded using cell phone cameras and other digital devices, archivists at the University of Louisville put out a call soon after the waters began receding, asking for donations of images and other materials to document this event.