If you grew up in New Orleans before 1997, you knew exactly what color hurricane prep was. It was K&B Purple. The drugstore on every other corner handed out a free hurricane tracking map every June, printed on cheap newsprint with a NOAA grid and a column on the side explaining how an advisory worked. You took it home, taped it to the fridge, and when the cone of uncertainty got serious, you grabbed a pencil and started plotting coordinates with your grandmother. That was hurricane prep. That was civic culture. That was K&B.
K&B got sold to Rite Aid in 1997. The signs came down. The purple disappeared from the city. But the tracking maps stuck in the collective memory the way only New Orleans things do.
So we made a new one.
The AG Hurricane Track Map is a co-production between Dirty Coast and Antigravity Magazine, inspired by the handouts K&B used to publish in the 1980s. It's free. It works. And it has a hurricane preparedness checklist on the back built with Emergency Legal Responders, the kind of practical, plain-language disaster guidance this city actually needs.
Why K&B Still Means Something
For people who grew up here, K&B is more than a chain of stores. It's a color, a memory, a shorthand for the city before everything got bought out. You bought your school supplies there. You picked up prescriptions for your aunt. You stopped in for a candy bar after baseball practice. And every June, a kid behind the counter would slide a fresh hurricane tracking map across the counter the same way he handed you the receipt. No charge. Just a small civic act of "here, this might keep you safe."
K&B Purple is a real color, by the way. PMS 268 if you want to get technical. The drugstore commissioned it. New Orleans adopted it. Whole neighborhoods will still tell you the exact shade. Our K&B Love tee is the most popular shirt we have ever made for a reason. Local nostalgia in this city is not a marketing strategy. It's a love language.
The hurricane map fit into that love language the way only a free, useful thing can. You did not need an app. You did not need a subscription. You needed a pencil and a wall.
The Antigravity Magazine Collaboration
If you do not know Antigravity Magazine, you should. They have been the free newsprint pulse of New Orleans alternative culture for over twenty years. Music, art, politics, weird poetry, a tarot column, a "Bug of the Month." It's everything good about a local print magazine still doing the work in a country that has mostly given up on local print.
So when we started talking about reviving the K&B tracking map, Antigravity was the obvious partner. They print on newsprint. They reach every corner of the city through their distribution network. They have a sense of humor about civic infrastructure. And they share our belief that the best New Orleans projects are the ones that put something useful in someone's hand for free.
The result is a two-sided poster. Side one is a tracking map with the NOAA Atlantic basin grid, latitude and longitude lines clean enough to plot a storm by hand, and a sidebar explaining exactly how a National Hurricane Center advisory works. Side two is the checklist. Side two is where the real work is.
What's On the Back: A Real Prep Checklist
We built the checklist with Emergency Legal Responders, a group sharing plain-language disaster rights information to help households and communities navigate complex recovery systems before, during, and after emergencies. (Important note: Emergency Legal Responders is not a legal aid entity and does not provide direct legal services. They share resources.) They came at the problem from a recovery angle, which is the part most checklists skip. After the storm hits, the paperwork is the hardest part. So we organized the back of the map around the documents that actually matter:
Identification. Local ID or driver's license. Passport. Photos of you holding your ID (yes, this matters for replacement purposes). Birth certificates. Social Security number. Customary status documents. Emergency contact sheet. Immigration or travel documents.
Housing. Interior and exterior photos of your home. Proof of address. Rental agreements or land use letters. Insurance policies (home, flood, wind). Mortgage or land loan documents. Property deeds or land records.
Financial. Income verification (pay stub, benefits letter). Bank contact info or account snapshot. List of monthly expenses or debts. Outstanding bills and payment notices. Tax filing or ID number.
Medical. Prescription list with dosages. Allergies, diagnoses, and ongoing medical needs. Immunization records. Doctor's notes for disability or evacuation needs. Advanced directives or care plans. Medical insurance cards and info.
Personal. Power of attorney or consent to treat. Custody, guardianship, adoption papers. Marriage, divorce, or name change records. Pet vaccine records and tags. Will or estate documents.
Travel and Supplies. Power bank, cables, radio. Flashlights, candles, matches. Canned food, water, can opener. Ice chest, ice, Sterno fuel. Baby food, diapers, prescription meds, first aid kit.
Most hurricane checklists tell you to buy bottled water. This one tells you to photograph the inside of your closets so the insurance adjuster believes you owned the things you owned. The difference is the difference between surviving the storm and surviving the year that comes after.
How to Track a Hurricane the K&B Way
The front of the map is the part that feels like 1985. Every six hours, the National Hurricane Center issues an advisory at 5 a.m., 11 a.m., 5 p.m., and 11 p.m. EDT, with bulletins in between when conditions warrant. Each advisory lists the storm's name, eye position, wind speed, and projected movement. Eye positions are given in latitude and longitude to the nearest tenth of a degree (for example, 13.2 North, 57.8 West). Once the storm moves within range of the radar fence, position may also be reported as statute miles and a compass bearing from a fixed reference point.
A tropical cyclone is not given a name until it reaches storm stage with closed isobars, rotary circulation, and sustained winds above 39 mph (34 knots). You take those numbers and you plot them on the grid. A dot. Then another dot. Then a line. Then a line that swings a little too close to the Gulf Coast and you start texting your cousin in Atlanta.
There is something about doing it with a pencil that an app cannot replace. You feel the storm move. You feel time pass. You see the curve. It is a small ritual that has helped New Orleanians stay sane during hurricane season for fifty years.
How to Get One
The AG Hurricane Track Map is distributed for free through Antigravity Magazine's usual stops around town, in print at Dirty Coast's stores at 5415 Magazine and 630 Chartres, and as a downloadable PDF for anyone outside the city who still wants to plot the season by hand. If you are in town, grab a copy of the latest issue of Antigravity and pull the centerfold. If you are not, stop by either of our stores or download it from the link circulating on our channels.
If you want the K&B nostalgia in something a little more wearable, our K&B Love tee is the long-running love letter to the drugstore that helped raise a city. Pair it with our Be A New Orleanian Wherever You Are shirt, the one we sketched on a napkin during the Katrina evacuation, and you've got the full uniform for hurricane season in New Orleans.
The Bigger Picture
Hurricane prep is community work. It is checking on your neighbors. It is knowing where your aunt lives. It is having a chainsaw and being willing to lend it. The K&B map worked because it was free, useful, and everywhere. The new AG Map works the same way. It is not for sale because it is not supposed to be for sale. It is supposed to be on every refrigerator in the city by June 1.
If you want the deeper read on what hurricane prep actually looks like in this city, we just posted a companion New Orleans Hurricane Prep: A Local's Guide that gets into the rituals, the rules, and the unwritten ones. And if coastal restoration is part of why you stay ready (and it should be), our Make Wetlands Not War shirt is the slow-burn version of hurricane prep, paying respect to the coalition keeping our marshes alive.
K&B is gone. The purple lives on. The map is back. The city is still here. So are we.
FAQ
What is the AG Hurricane Track Map?
A free, two-sided hurricane tracking poster co-produced by Dirty Coast and Antigravity Magazine, inspired by the K&B hurricane handouts of the 1980s. The front is a NOAA tracking grid with instructions on how to plot a storm by hand. The back is a hurricane preparedness checklist built with Emergency Legal Responders.
Where can I get one?
Pick up a copy through Antigravity Magazine's regular distribution stops, in print at Dirty Coast's stores at 5415 Magazine Street and 630 Chartres Street, or as a downloadable PDF for at-home use.
What was K&B?
K&B was a New Orleans drugstore chain founded in 1905 and beloved for its signature K&B Purple branding, its house-brand ice cream, and the free hurricane tracking maps it handed out every summer. The chain was sold to Rite Aid in 1997, but it remains one of the most deeply missed institutions in the city's commercial history.
Who is Emergency Legal Responders?
Emergency Legal Responders shares plain-language disaster rights information and recovery guidance to help households and communities navigate complex recovery systems before, during, and after emergencies. They are not a legal aid entity and do not provide direct services. Follow them at emergencylegalresponders.org or @emergencylegalresponders.
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