artwork > Don’t Let Me Slip Away

Prior to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, parts of Louisiana would be hit by a hurricane almost every year.

Located on the Tchefuncte River in Madisonville, LA, my father's wholesale oil distribution company would take almost a year to repair the damage from the previous year's storm.

Through trial and error, the company began filling their empty oil tanks with water, anchoring them so they wouldn't be swept into the river by storm surge.

With Katrina approaching, my father filled the 14,000-gallon empty tank with water, hoping it wouldn't be lost to the storm. The tank managed to make it through Katrina, even as everything around it was ruined.

In 2022 the property was sold and the tank, still filled with water from 17 years earlier, would need to be emptied. I was asked to carry out this task.