A University of Southern Mississippi research center in Long Beach is documenting the impact of Hurricane Katrina on people and places around south Mississippi.

Katrina Research Center director Ray Scurfield says it is a chance to document what happened on Aug. 29, 2005.

The center has a permanent collection of books and articles written about the hurricane. It also features art and photographs that bring in the human element.

Scurfield wants the center to go beyond the material losses.

He says the center is compiling an oral history. Katrina survivors can go into the center, located on the third floor of the library on USM’s Gulf Coast campus, sit down at a microphone and tell their story.