Billboards mark 10-year Katrina anniversary

Billboards in the Valley are marking the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Lamar, who owns the digital billboard, is dedicating ad space to remembering what happen after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29, 2005.

“Did a tremendous amount of devastation, a lot of flooding there, put a lot of people out of homes and certainly jobs,” said Lamar Palm Springs General Manager Bill Houck.

Those people included employees with Lamar advertising, a company that specializes in billboards.

“Lamar’s headquarters is in Baton Rouge and that is not too terribly far away from New Orleans. We’ve had our roots in the Gulf states and certainly in Louisiana after the storm a lot of people were displaced,” said Houck. “It really became evident to Lamar because so many of our employees had family in and around where the storm devastation was we needed to do something.”

The digital billboard on Bob Hope and Ramon Road displays the words “Ten years stronger” in front of iconic photos of New Orleans.

“It’s happening here in the desert as well as all over in Lamar land. We have 2,000 digital billboards and it’s a very quick way of exposing millions upon millions of people to the importance of the events of Aug. 29th,” said Houck.

There are four ads up in the desert. Each one gets about 1,900 views a day.

“We just want people to recognize that New Orleans has been rebuilt. It’s coming back to its glory and the people that had the problems, businesses, and individuals alike are rebuilding their lives,” said Houck.

It’s coming back stronger than ever before, or as the billboard says, “Ten years stronger.”

The ads will stay up through Sunday.