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. Blanco says, "Mr. President, thank you thank you, thank you. At 10 a.m., the Thorntons headed together to the Superdome. It has been nearly six years since Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf of Mexico cutting a swathe of devastation and shock through the psyche of the American people. 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. 49 But it was the subsequent flooding of New Orleans that imposed catastrophic public health conditions on the people of southern . Listen 7:57. "I'm telling you the number of reported rapes we had.". Around 9:30 a.m. Mayor Ray Nagin issues a mandatory evacuation. Listen 7:57. I don't know why. There's this lunch. " Troops poured in to restore order after almost a week of near-anarchy. Its just rawits a look at the poorest people of the Ninth Ward, and those who couldnt afford to leave, and if you have a heart in your body, you will feel this film 100 percent. "The fact that something wasn't reported to the police doesn't mean it didn't happen," Benitez says. Victims of Hurricane Katrina fight through the crowd as they line up for buses to evacuate the Superdome and New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005. Before Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans residents gathered to ride out the storm in what seemed like a pretty safe place, the Superdome, the city's football stadium . [Governor Blanco] probably should have asked sooner. '", Mayor Ray Nagin People continue to head towards the Superdome, which is now surrounded by water. 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. They cast a wide net over this important event and "We did meet with [Mayor Nagin] Tuesday morning. Other people call me the Dr. Phil of the streets.. Tonight, the Oscar-nominated Trouble the Watera documentary by filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, premieres on HBO. The Coast Guard mobilizes to respond after the storm hits. Conditions are deteriorating with bathrooms overflowing, no power for air conditioning and little food and water. Where is water? And the mayor began to tell us some of the things that he needed. "We're all looking at each other like, 'Why aren't we getting orders to move on this? ", In Washington, President Bush publicly acknowledges the inadequacy of the federal government's response: "Many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orlenas. Widespread looting continues. Benitez and others interviewed for this report believe that police authorities -- who were anxious to discount initially exaggerated reports of mayhem -- are downplaying violent crimes that happened in the anarchy after the storm. The skies darkened, and the wind started to pick up. A hurricane warning is issued for the Southeast Florida coast. Last September, when Trouble the Water first premiered in New Orleans, I remember thinking, "I have to go down to Canal Place Cinema and support this." Patrice Taddonio. "It was that terrible. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana: web site copyright 1995-2014 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. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, causing catastrophic flooding as numerous levees failed around New Orleans. As the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, explore three different FRONTLINE documentaries about the disaster, its lingering aftermath and the lessons learned. But a growing body of evidence suggests there were more storm-related sexual assaults than previously known. 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. 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 . So I can assume what the criminals were thinking, and that's exactly what happened.". We do our video conference calls before and during disasters. to support FEMA disaster relief efforts, but it will be two days before the troops arrive in the city. Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis. Interstate 10 is shut down with damage to 40 percent of its Twin Span Bridge over Lake Ponchartrain. After her rape, Lewis says, there were no clinics open, so she washed herself with bleach. Refuge of last resort: Five days inside the Superdome for Hurricane Katrina. In what looked like a scene from a Third World country, some people threw their arms heavenward and others nearly fainted with joy as the trucks and hundreds of soldiers arrived in the punishing midday heat. Officials said the complete evacuation of New Orleans two days earlier was necessary, citing the prospect of diseases caused by rotting bodies and polluted waters as well as other risks caused by Hurricane Katrina. I've never seen a hurricane like this in my 33-year career. will never be the same. It was late August, and some of the staff of the NREMT and I were attending the combined NAEMT conference and EMS Expo in New . . " Do You Have News to Share? [Secretary of Homeland Security Michael] Chertoff is there. But for five days in the midst of the storm, about 20,000 of these . And if you dont trust the system to deliver the money to the right places, call a school yourself and ask them what they need. I think the American Red Cross already had shelters and was already feeding people. "I think that that was probably over-reported," he says. The expected storm surge is 15 to 20 feet, locally as high as 25 feet. The situation begins to improve. She contacted the New Orleans police in October and filed a report that she was beaten with a bat and raped on Sept. 6th in broad daylight next to a flooded McDonald's at Gentilly Boulevard and Elysian Fields, near her father's house. Crime is at an all-time high. Katrina first made landfall in South Florida. She says as she watched New Orleans descend into chaos after Katrina, she knew what would happen. The city floods further. A suicide did occur inside the Superdome, . When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. In his speech, he calls on all federal, state and local agencies to review their performance. Buckles, who wrote and directed the documentary . Mississippi and Louisiana governors declare states of emergency. And [FEMA Director] Michael Brown was with me at that time. 1) At least 1,800 people died due to Hurricane Katrina. The Times-Picayune reports the Convention Center evacuees are still being loaded onto buses and evacuated and search-and-rescue operations continue. " After Katrina passed, we thought we're pretty much out of the woods. Female victims, now displaced from New Orleans, are slowly coming forward with a different story than the official one. During Hurricane Katrina, then known as the Louisiana Superdome, the arena was used as . 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. The Superdome is an intrinsic part of the city of New Orleans. With all due respect, Mr. President, if you and the governor don't get on the same page, this event is going to continue to spiral down, and it's going to be a black eye on everybody -- federal, state and local.' If we arent talking about what we still need, how can we be sure people wont forget?. 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 . There is a belief that the city has avoided a direct hit. He escaped the chaotic shelter a few days . I am still going out into the streets every day to talk to people about their experiencesI call it getting phyllisophical. He also announces that the Superdome will be "a shelter of last resort for evacuees with special needs." These three documentaries and nearly 190 more are all streaming online at pbs.org/frontline. Judy Benitez, of the Louisiana rape crisis group, says the non-report rate would be far higher given the nightmare of Katrina. ". The choice was either run the risk of becoming stranded or take a detour to wait the storm out for a day or two in the Superdome. And they hadn't. I n the HBO documentary Katrina Babies, young teen Meisha Williams recollects her experience surviving the 2005 hurricane that displaced approximately 200,000 New Orleans residents. Blanco is there. Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation. 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. We had pre-positioned supplies, medical teams, Meals Ready To Eat, and food in the Superdome. These defenses held for Hurricane Ida, a category 4 storm, in August 2021. We arent looking for a handout, but its hard to believe that the city that we love (and everyone lovesthe Mardi Gras, the jazz, the hospitality!) ", "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!' A decade later . I had all the police, the firefighters in rescue mode, so the looting thing started to rear its head. At a press conference in Baton Rouge, 80 miles away, Gov. The following year, during an interview with Tom Brokaw at Columbia Journalism School, Williams said, "We watched, all of us watched . New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. Expressed my concerns, my frustration He needed to really get us resources to save people. "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. 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. The Times-Picayune reports that Jefferson Parish residents are allowed to return to the area to inspect the damage to their homes.The breach in the 17th Street Canal is finally repaired, and engineers continue to work on other levee breaks.
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