Lewis and others had taken refuge in the Redemption Elderly Apartments, in the Irish Channel section of New Orleans. Some parts of the city already showed slipping floodwaters as the repair neared completion, with the low-lying Ninth Ward dropping more than a foot. President Bush flies over the area on his way back to Washington. Thousands more were unable to evacuate, including the nearly 25,000 who sheltered in the Superdome. The city's buses have been positioned around the city in locations that have never been flooded. And I wanted to cut to the chase because I knew what the real issue was. I've heard some terrible stories since that the stuff wasn't getting there. "[On Air Force One] we gave the president a briefing on everything that had gone on. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets you closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what's possible.Get More National Geographic:Official Site: http://bit.ly/NatGeoOfficialSiteFacebook: http://bit.ly/FBNatGeoTwitter: http://bit.ly/NatGeoTwitterInstagram: http://bit.ly/NatGeoInstaHurricane Katrina Day by Day | National Geographichttps://youtu.be/HbJaMWw4-2QNational Geographichttps://www.youtube.com/natgeo Kathleen Blanco. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, causing catastrophic flooding as numerous levees failed around New Orleans. " Troops poured in to restore order after almost a week of near-anarchy. If we arent talking about what we still need, how can we be sure people wont forget? City officials say 80 percent of New Orleans is flooded. The groups went in shifts, sneaking down over to the. At 1:30 in the morning, Denise Thornton walked with her group up to the helipad, out in the open air, and there it was. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. 1. If we arent talking about what we still need, how can we be sure people wont forget?. Find out in the 2015 documentary Outbreak, newly available to stream on FRONTLINEs YouTube channel. I mentally moved on from the storm after I wrote the last page of my book, but this documentary has opened some old wounds and moves me to action, and I can only hope it does the same for others. I said, 'All of us are going to leave right now, and they're going to work this out right now. In a documentary aired in October 2005 on the Sundance Channel, "In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina," Williams said, . After Katrina, the spectacle of a Black refugee population in the Superdome, along with the short-lived plan from Mayor Nagin's committee to wipe out some Black neighborhoods, revived these . But while the Superdome has been reclaimed, those stories of trauma remain, and some roil pretty close to . More than four days after the storm hit, the caravan of at least three-dozen camouflage-green troop vehicles and supply trucks arrived along with dozens of air-conditioned buses to take refugees out of the city. I am still going out into the streets every day to talk to people about their experiencesI call it getting phyllisophical. She sits on the edge of a bed in a dingy, dimly lit room in a motel in Baton Rouge. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; the Heising-Simons Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen. The Army Corps of Engineers attempts to plug breaches in the 17th Street Canal and Industrial Canal levees. Even $20, if thats all you can afford in the recession, that helps. Widespread looting continues. We go to Sam's and Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie and gather up food and water and start distributing it because we had 60 hours' worth of resources that we had stored, but now we're out of it. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. "We'd heard the story of a man killing himself, falling . And that rap song she sings at the end of the film about growing up so poor, with her mother on drugs and being forced to stealit just shows that she is a strong woman, and so honest, real, determined, courageous, and intelligent. Ms. Blanco, she left and walked out. Around 9:30 a.m. Mayor Ray Nagin issues a mandatory evacuation. The film features 15 minutes of live hurricane video shot by Kimberly Roberts, an aspiring rapper whose family was too poor to leave New Orleans, and follows Kims family and others through the horrific aftermath of the storm. My sense now is there are victims out there whose stories haven't been heard.". "What you had was a situation where you've got a tremendous number of vulnerable people, and then some predatory people who had all of the reasons to take their anger out on someone else," Benitez says. and catcalls of 'What took you so long?,' a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled through axle-deep floodwaters Friday into what remained of New Orleans and descended into a maelstrom of fires and floating corpses. Female victims, now displaced from New Orleans, are slowly coming forward with a different story than the official one. At the peak of the Katrina recovery effort, 51,039 National Guard soldiers from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and three territories worked in Louisiana and Mississippi, making Katrina by far . I was able to get Governor Blanco to sit with me several times in the office that she had and talk about what needed to be done. She was featured in Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke and is author of Not Just the Levees Broke: My Story During and After Hurricane Katrina. But a growing body of evidence suggests there were more storm-related sexual assaults than previously known. In downtown New Orleans, some streets were merely wet rather than swamped. He didn't care where the help came from, he just wanted it to be there. "Coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out A direct hit could wind up submerging New Orleans in several feet of water At least 100,000 people in the city lack transportation to get out Louisiana and Mississippi make all lanes northbound on interstate highways". With a death toll of more than 1,800, Katrina was the third-deadliest hurricane in US history after Galveston in 1900 (which killed 8,000 to . And then he was gone after a while.". In television interviews, Michael Brown, FEMA director, states that he only just heard about the suffering at the Convention Center, when in fact, he tells FRONTLINE, he misspoke; he was told the previous day about the situation. Listen 7:57. The film features 15 minutes of live hurricane video shot by Kimberly Roberts, an aspiring rapper whose family was too poor to leave New Orleans, and follows Kim's family and others through the . Nearly two decades after Hurricane Katrina, Edward Buckles Jr. asks what happened to the generation of kids who grew up with that trauma in the documentary "Katrina Babies" on HBO Max. "I'm not gonna go on television and publicly say that I think that the mayor and the governor are not doing their job, and that they don't have the sense of urgency. There are still gangs of armed criminals roaming the city; police and National Guard, now numbered at 16,000, have a better handle on the situation than earlier in the week. It doesn't make any sense.". New Orleans's flood-protection system was improved by increasing in the heights of earthen berms and upgrading floodwalls and floodgates. But one man then-82-year-old Herbert Gettridge was determined to rebuild the house he had built more than 50 years earlier in the Lower Ninth Ward, with or without government support. Every little thing helps. I just sent President Obama 10 letters the other day ( I remember Oprah saying persistence pays off) saying that since Katrina, we still only have two medical trailers in this part of town, and they arent equipped to handle emergencies or even basic lab work. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Theme Foto Blog by, Hundreds Evacuated as Vanuatu Braces for Second Cyclone in 2 Days. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New . Katrina Cop in the Superdome. To get food out. Required fields are marked *. "It was that terrible. Reports put the population there in the tens of thousands. Ten years ago this Saturday, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast. and catcalls of 'What took you so long?,' a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled through axle-deep floodwaters Friday into what remained of New Orleans and descended into a maelstrom of fires and floating corpses. The vast majority of them were elderly. hurricane katrina anniversary: 40 powerful photos of New Orleans after the storm. Military planners are considering setting up a permanent rapid reaction unit designed to respond to domestic disasters. In an effort to get victims to come forward, the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault asked Charmaine Neville, a popular New Orleans jazz singer, to tape a public service announcement for national airplay. ", Leo Bosner, FEMA watch officer: by JOHN DORN. ISIS is in Afghanistan, But Who Are They Really? There is a documentary about . Plus, if you lived in a FEMA trailer for three years like I did, the last thing you want to do is go to a trailer for medical care. Crime is at an all-time high. Neville says she was sexually assaulted early the morning of Aug. 31st, while she was sleeping on the roof of Drew Elementary School in the Bywater Neighborhood, where she and others had taken refuge. Here's the things I think we need to focus on. The Coast Guard mobilizes to respond after the storm hits. In the decade since Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which came under harsh criticism for its response to the storm says it has improved its preparedness for future natural disasters. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and . And I think thats whats going to help us rebuild the mosttalking about what happened and how we can move onand why documentaries like Trouble the Water are still so relevant. Their communications center was useless. I aint about to leave, Gettridge said. Lewis says she was raped on Monday, Aug. 29, the day of the storm. ', So they went into another section of the plane, had a meeting. And the guard unitspent most of the next 24 hours saving itself. Several parishes and the city of New Orleans announce emergency responders will stop venturing out once the wind exceeds 45 mph. Find out more about how we use your personal data in our privacy policy and cookie policy. Watch it: To learn about questionable police shootings and cover-ups in Katrinas wake. Visit us at HISTORY.com for more info. You can change your choices at any time by clicking on the 'Privacy dashboard' links on our sites and apps. We, Yahoo, are part of the Yahoo family of brands. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. One woman told me she was going to commit suicide after Katrina, and that she saw Spike Lees documentary, and I saved her life. In Louisiana, New Orleans is of particular concern because much of that city lies below sea level. ", "Coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out A direct hit could wind up submerging New Orleans in several feet of water At least 100,000 people in the city lack transportation to get out Louisiana and Mississippi make all lanes northbound on interstate highways", Note: In the last hours before Katrina made landfall, dozens of copies of the, "To cries of 'Thank you, Jesus!' The Katrina images we see in the film -- people on rooftops, the Superdome being shredded by hurricane winds, dogs stranded in attics -- are ones that once would have been guaranteed to put lumps . Hurricane Katrina becomes Category 2 by 11 am, with 100 mph maximum sustained winds. People can say that writing a check doesnt mean anything, but honey, it does. At least 1,800 lives were lost in Hurricane Katrina, often considered one of the worst hurricanes in US history. They cast a wide net over this important event and As Katrina hit, Alexander found himself in a desperate situation. She gripped my arm at the store, and she told me, the way you shared with everybody so openly, you helped me to heal. After the genocide in Rwanda and atrocities in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in the 1990s, the world vowed never again. Then came the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, which began 20 years ago. His death came nearly two years to the day after his wifes passing. Katrina becomes a Category 3 with 115 mph maximum sustained winds. Flew into the city. Television reporters, live on the scene at the Convention Center, report on the growing crisis. Victims of Hurricane Katrina fight through the crowd as they line up for buses to evacuate the Superdome and New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005. He announces FEMA is moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas. Persons, pets, and livestock exposed to the winds will face certain death if struck. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. Hurricane Katrina, tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. We need you to take over logistics, distribution of commodities, etc. About 2,000 medical evacuees remain at Louis Armstrong Airport, which has become a staging area for responders and injured refugees. Katrina Cop in the Superdome. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. In the 2005 documentary "In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina," Williams indicated that he wasn't a witness to the suicide. The spot urges victims to report their assault by calling 1-800-656-HOPE. Hurricane Katrina created enormous public health and medical challenges, especially in Louisiana and MississippiStates with public health infrastructures that ranked 49th and 50th in the Nation, respectively. On that first night after the storm, the city had lost power, and she was sleeping in a dark hallway, trying to catch a breeze. In New Orleans last year, there was a rape every other day on average. special video+discussion+teacher's guide+readings & links And he said: 'No, you don't have to leave. Exploring the experiences of a black member of the New Orleans Police Department and assorted other New Orleans residents during their stay in the Louisiana Superdome during and after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005. After suffering heavy damage during Hurricane Katrina, the Superdome was re-opened on September 25, 2006 for the Saints' Monday night game against the Falcons. Lt. Dave Benelli, commander of the sex crimes unit with the New Orleans Police Department, denies that. He escaped the ch. Anastasia is a petite, 25-year-old hairdresser who asked that her last name be omitted. I wasnt poor before Katrina, and Im certainly not poor afterward, but Trouble the Water pisses me off all over again, in a good way. At 7 am Katrina is a Category 5 with 160 mph maximum sustained winds. To get medical teams and search teams out the door and get 'em down there. Lewis says that later in the week, national guardsmen forced evacuees out of the building at gunpoint. The line to get in was already a quarter-mile long. First categorized as a tropical storm, Katrina hit New Orleans, flattening buildings, breaking levees, and flooding the city with terrifying 125 mph winds. Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish emergency manager: Richard Falkenrath, Homeland Security Adviser (2001-2004): In Fight Against ISIS, a Lose-Lose Scenario Poses Challenge for West. Here's a [powerful] hurricane. ", Michael Brown, FEMA director: Blanco announces New Orleans must be evacuated because of the still- rising water and uninhabitable conditions. 11:09. . " Victims of Hurricane Katrina fight through the crowd as they line up for buses to evacuate the Superdome and New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005. And I forget whether it was on Saturday or Sunday, I told my staff that I was sick to my stomach because I could see that some things weren't looking quite right. Interstate 10 is shut down with damage to 40 percent of its Twin Span Bridge over Lake Ponchartrain. Katrina makes landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with winds near 127 mph. It is 45 miles northwest of Florida Keys. Officers were walking off the job by the dozens. And Michael Brown tells FRONTLINE that in order to quell panic, he misled the public in saying that everything was going fine at the local level. In fact, at the headquarters of the Louisiana National Guard, located in the Lower NinthWard, soldiers were not yet aware that the levees were giving way. In his speech, he calls on all federal, state and local agencies to review their performance. Power outages will last for weeks water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.". Team members said they delivered babies, treated gunshot and stab victims, and ultimately fled for their own safety. Nicola Mann and Victoria Pass. FRONTLINE reports from Iraq on the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS. Michael Brown, FEMA director: Residents are bringing their belongings and lining up to get into the Superdome which has been opened as a hurricane shelter in advance of hurricane Katrina. Follow a day-by-day account of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, from its birth in the Atlantic Ocean to its catastrophic effects: flooded streets, flattened homes,. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, Congress appropriated an unprecedented $126.4 billion for relief, recovery and rebuilding efforts. So I went to the premiere, knowing Danny Glover was hosting it, and I couldnt get into the screeningso I texted Spike Lee, who directed When the Levees Broke, the documentary I was in, and asked him to pull some strings, but he didnt have Dannys number. (48) 7.4 1 h 13 min 2010 13+. But by late morning, when FEMA director Michael Brown arrives in Baton Rouge, water is already coming over levees in the 9th Ward and there are reports of breaks in the Industrial Canal and 17th Street Canal levees. Pack carefully. We'll put a couple of medical teams on standby. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. Locals adopt it in their idea of the city. But Mayor Nagin goes on radio and castigates state and federal officials for their inaction and demands they "fix the biggest god-damn crisis in the history of this country." I think we both should have asked sooner.". [He] came on site, I think it was Monday after the event. The hurricane caused billions of dollars of damage to the city, and killed thousands. U.S. Cities and States Are Suing Big Oil Over Climate Change. And why it wasnt stopped sooner. Several thousand National Guard troops start reaching the thousands of evacuees at the Convention Center and elsewhere. Having largely emptied the cavernous Superdome, which had become a squalid pit of misery and violence, officials turned their attention to the Convention Center, where people waited to be evacuated as corpses rotted in the streets. When presented with the additional cases collected by victims' advocates groups, Benelli acknowledges that the police simply doesn't know the extent of sex crimes after the storm. Why would we think there was less rape typical of any given week in the city? Bring enough to sustain yourself, your family, your children. Inside the four triage tents, medical personnel tended to people who had gone for days without their medication. By the evening of August 25, when it made . Then, the airman hesitated a minute, and asked Landreneau to hold. And New Orleans itself has worked to rebuild. By. Heres What the Claims Say and Where They Stand. And he was the first guy that told us about the amount of devastation and the levee breaches. In the six weeks since the Web site has been up, with almost no publicity, it has received 42 reports of sexual assaults. Gov. The mistake that I made was not doing that sooner and not giving them the orders that we needed them to do all of that immediately. Visit us at HISTORY.com for more info. FEMA Situation Update: They didn't have communication. Blanco tours the area Tuesday evening and announces that the Superdome should be evacuated. , "Law and order all but broke down in New Orleans over the past few days. The California Disaster Medical Assistance Team spent 24 hellish hours inside the Superdome. Katrina becomes a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph maximum sustained winds. On June 4, 2006, Pamela Mahogany was interviewed for her personal experience involving the events following Hurricane Katrina. Producer Martin Smith: So we're just eating sandwiches and making nice while people are stranded on rooftops? And it was a very good meeting, I thought. Commander Dave Lipin says they saw two women who said they'd been raped -- different women than those the police attended to. Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis background photo copyright 2005 corbis Explore FRONTLINEs collected and ongoing reporting on Russia's war on Ukraine. 'Rebirth in New Orleans' reflects on . That is why the first place we picked to do an exercise and planning was New Orleans. Gov. But there were also profane jeers from many in the crowd of nearly 20,000 outside the Convention Center, which a day earlier seemed on the verge of a riot, with desperate people seething with anger over the lack of anything to eat or drink. In the first few hours after Katrina hit, many people believed that New Orleans had dodged a bullet. By afternoon, officials issue a citywide call for more boats to help. will never be the same. Later, his charred remains were discovered on the banks of the Mississippi River, inside a car that had apparently been set on fire. And he said: 'Mr. Watch it: For a powerful story of resilience and determination in the face of tragedy. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana: As of Nov. 22, 2005, more than 900 people are known to have died in New Orleans. I probably should have asked sooner. ISIS' growing foothold in Afghanistan is captured on film. But we need something really big, like a hospital, that shows where the $25 billion in recovery money is going. It hit land as a Category 3 storm with winds reaching speeds as high as 120 miles per hour. A New Orleans house submerged in floodwaters. Panels blew off and the roof was severely damaged, but it was the only shelter . Photo. Because of the ensuing . Sept. 27, 2005, 12:58 PM PDT / Source: The Associated Press. Gov. The Times-Picayune reports that the breaches in the 17th Street and Florida Avenue Canals have been repaired and power is restored to the Warehouse and Central Business Districts. "We're not downsizing anything," Benelli says. He came right back and he said, I dont know why, but theres probably a foot of water on Claiborne Street, Landreneau said. The following year, during an interview with Tom Brokaw at Columbia Journalism School, Williams said, "We watched, all of us watched . Floodwaters keep rising. "Some bad things happened, you know. Refuge of last resort: Five days inside the Superdome for Hurricane Katrina. The city floods further. I talk to her every other day, and thats her main question How long is it going to be? By the end of the day, there are 30,000 people at the Superdome. By the end of the day, it is upgraded to Tropical Storm Katrina, with 50 mph maximum sustained winds. Henry Glover was last seen alive in the backseat of a white Chevy Malibu on Sept. 2, 2005, days after Katrina hit. Very shortly, he said, Cars are beginning to float out of the parking lot. "All I could do was pray, pray for rescue, pray that I didn't have any type of transmitted disease," she says. Rapid Transit Authority buses pick up citizens and bring them to the Superdome, where the Louisiana National Guard has stocked enough MREs to feed 15,000 people for three days. And the impression given in those four days is basically indelible. We've all feared a catastrophic hurricane striking New Orleans. The Most Risky Job Ever. Reporting on ISIS in Afghanistan. Michael Brown, FEMA director: At 7 pm it makes landfall north of Miami. And it is injurious to the president. Hurricane Katrina first made landfall on Aug. 25, 2005, in Florida, weakening to a tropical storm as it briefly passed over land.