The numbers are not dramatic, but they are significant when seen in light of the official number of post-Katrina rapes and attempted rapes: four. New Orleans's flood-protection system was improved by increasing in the heights of earthen berms and upgrading floodwalls and floodgates. At 10 a.m., the Thorntons headed together to the Superdome. 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. And I had a piece of paper where I wrote down like a five-point plan of the things that we needed to do. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. HBO. There is a documentary about . Inside the four triage tents, medical personnel tended to people who had gone for days without their medication. Stranded victims of Hurricane Katrina rest inside the Superdome September 2, 2005 in New Orleans. We have got to start getting people out.' The California Disaster Medical Assistance Team spent 24 hellish hours inside the Superdome. FRONTLINE home+WGBH+PBS, FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of wgbh educational foundation. 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. And then they'd gone around the room, and everybody's talking to the president and giving their opinions. And Michael Brown tells Louisiana officials, "What I've seen here today is a team that is very tight knit, working closely together, being very professional and making the right calls.". I probably should have asked sooner. These defenses held for Hurricane Ida, a category 4 storm, in August 2021. ', And we left and had a press conference. And there seems to be this dance about who has ultimate authority. [Secretary of Homeland Security Michael] Chertoff is there. The city's buses have been positioned around the city in locations that have never been flooded. 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 . Widespread looting continues. Hurricane Katrina Superdome. Refuge of last resort: Five days inside the Superdome for Hurricane Katrina. 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. The groups went in shifts, sneaking down over to the garage, up the stairs and to the helipad. Orders volun-tary evacuation where residents in low-lying areas encouraged to evacuate Sunday, August 28, 2005: Hurricane Katrina becomes a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds Superdome opens as a shelter of last resort Acadian personnel are deployed to the Superdome to help triage special needs patients and staff the rst aid station Nagin . Issues of race, class, government response and responsibility, and political rivalries . I said, 'All of us are going to leave right now, and they're going to work this out right now. [Note: The information in this timeline is drawn from the news and government agencies' reports, as published daily during the crisis, and from FRONTLINE's research and reporting.]. Buckles, who wrote and directed the documentary . "[Michael] Brown I did not see the first couple of days. According to the New Orleans Data Center, racial disparities in income and employment are more pronounced in the city than they are nationally; the poverty rate is 11 points higher than the national average; and the incarceration rate is approximately three times the national average. The Army Corps of Engineers projects it could take 80 days to pump the water out of the city. 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. With camera lenses and lights abounding, the . Believing the authorities abandoned her after the storm, she wonders why they would care about her now. For my part, I am still going out into the streets every day to talk to people about their experiencesI call it getting phyllisophical. Other people call me the Dr. Phil of the streets. Kathleen Blanco: At daybreak, rescuers set out on boats to help others still stranded. FRONTLINE reports from Iraq on the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS. But prosecutors have struggled to hold officers accountable. ", "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!' In the 2005 documentary "In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina," Williams indicated that he wasn't a witness to the suicide. Where is water? Several parishes and the city of New Orleans announce emergency responders will stop venturing out once the wind exceeds 45 mph. Hurricane Katrina, tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. National surveys show that half of all sexual assaults are never reported. Kathleen Blanco. President Bush's Sept. 15th address to the nation. And, in 2004, FEMA sponsored a disaster planning exercise in which the scenario was a major hurricane striking New Orleans. The police department -- reeling from desertions, flooding and the immensity of the disaster -- was in a survival mode itself. Gov. 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. And that this could potentially be the big one that we had planned for in Hurricane Pam.". Lipin says when he arrived in Baton Rouge and turned on the TV, he was surprised by reports of rampant violence in New Orleans. Kathleen Blanco: (48) 7.4 1 h 13 min 2010 13+. And he had flown in a helicopter. Katrina anniversary: Inside the Superdome during Katrina. His goal: To make it possible for his wife of 65 years, Lydia who had gone to live with one of their nine children in Wisconsin after Katrina to return home. FEMA organizes 475 buses to be sent in to transport many of the estimated 23,000 people from the Superdome to the Houston Astrodome. They were very civil and very cordial. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. The Most Risky Job Ever. Reporting on ISIS in Afghanistan. Blanco announces New Orleans must be evacuated because of the still- rising water and uninhabitable conditions. My old high school, Joseph S. Clark, shut down, and we dont even have parks yet for kids to hang out inthats what we did in the 70s, at leastIm still trying to petition for these things, to organize our community, and these fool ass people have not yet gotten down here to rebuild. Because of the ensuing . 'Rebirth in New Orleans' reflects 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 But problems persist. 1. Phyllis Montana-Leblanc is a Hurricane Katrina survivor. [He] came on site, I think it was Monday after the event. He co-wrote the novel,"The Spencer Haywood Rule," and he was co-producer of the "Katrina Cop in the Superdome," a 2010 documentary about the experiences of a black New Orleans police officer and other citizens as they sheltered in the Louisiana Superdome during the Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005. (Weather forecasters classify hurricane strength on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the strongest.) 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. We'd sent them all the information they needed. Newly rescued people are still being brought to the Superdome. At 7 pm it makes landfall north of Miami. Crime is at an all-time high. A New Orleans house submerged in floodwaters. 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. Law-enforcement authorities dismissed early reports of widespread rapes in New Orleans during the lawless days following Hurricane Katrina. A suicide did occur inside the Superdome, . ISIS' growing foothold in Afghanistan is captured on film. Gov. But they're designed for short hauls.". Tonight, the Oscar-nominated Trouble the Watera documentary by filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, premieres on HBO. During Hurricane Katrina, then known as the Louisiana Superdome, the arena was used as . ' Gettridge told FRONTLINE. 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. 1) At least 1,800 people died due to Hurricane Katrina. The Superdome is an intrinsic part of the city of New Orleans. We do our video conference calls before and during disasters. We could either go with your suggestion' -- which, my suggestion was, if you don't give me the final authority give it to Gen. [Russel] Honor. The storm traveled the Gulf of Mexico and then made landfall on the Gulf Coast in southeast Louisiana near the town of Buras, on Aug. 29, 2005. Ultimately, more than 300 soldiers would be trapped inside their own headquarters. A decade later . 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 you had a very dynamic situation.". "I think that that was probably over-reported," he says. ". A final, official tally of those killed in the disaster is still not in. And nothing happened. In October 2005, The Historic New Orleans Collection initiated Through Hell and High Water: Katrina's First Responders Oral History Project, partnering with local, state, and federal agencies to document their experiences. As the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, explore three different FRONTLINE documentaries about the disaster, its lingering aftermath and the lessons learned. Sept. 27, 2005, 12:58 PM PDT / Source: The Associated Press. The National Weather Service writes that Hurricane Katrina is "one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States." Hurricane Katrina caused up to $161 billion worth of damage, largely due to the fact that the breached levees led to flooding in 80% of New Orleans. They lost power. Now, other than media reports, I don't know what's happening at the other end. The 42 reports include assaults that happened inside New Orleans and outside the city, for instance, in host homes. Glover, you dont know me, but Im Phyllis, and I was in another Katrina documentary and I have to see this film! He grabbed onto me and I wouldnt let go until I got a seat insidethats the way I am. They didn't have communication. And he said definitively, "Mr. Mayor, the storm is headed right for you. Rescuers drop them off wherever there is high ground; many are dropped at interstate overpasses and the Superdome. Find out more about how we use your personal data in our privacy policy and cookie policy. In the first few hours after Katrina hit, many people believed that New Orleans had dodged a bullet. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. All I can tell you is that in the city of New Orleans we had maybe 250 guardsmen that we could account for. By Chris Edwards. Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish emergency manager: The outer ends of the hurricane also produced tornados . Anastasia is a petite, 25-year-old hairdresser who asked that her last name be omitted. Thats why films like Trouble the Water are so important, and why its great that its making it to a wide audience via HBO. The price tag has not yet been determined. Two national crime-victims' groups have reported a spike in the number of reported rapes that happened to storm evacuees. He escaped the chaotic shelter a few days . Lewis and others had taken refuge in the Redemption Elderly Apartments, in the Irish Channel section of New Orleans. "I realized how serious things were on Sunday. She sits on the edge of a bed in a dingy, dimly lit room in a motel in Baton Rouge. Benelli says his team investigated two attempted rapes inside the Superdome, and two additional reports of rapes that happened in the city, one of which was the 25-year-old hairdresser. home+introduction+watch online+interviews+analysis+14 days 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. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana: She says as she watched New Orleans descend into chaos after Katrina, she knew what would happen. In Louisiana, New Orleans is of particular concern because much of that city lies below sea level. Surviving the Superdome. And I wanted to cut to the chase because I knew what the real issue was. Power outages will last for weeks water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.". Storm refugees reported being raped, shot and robbed, gangs of teenagers hijacked boats meant to rescue them, and frustrated hurricane victims menaced outmanned law officers. There's no question.". That is why the first place we picked to do an exercise and planning was New Orleans. And we need to get these people out of the Superdome because it's a shelter of last resort, and they only have a limited amount of resources.". Mississippi and Louisiana governors declare states of emergency. And the impression given in those four days is basically indelible. Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis Their communications center was useless. After being damaged by. Find out in the 2015 documentary Outbreak, newly available to stream on FRONTLINEs YouTube channel. The expected storm surge is 15 to 20 feet, locally as high as 25 feet. The Army Corps of Engineers renews work to fix the breach in the 17th St. Canal. Do You Have News to Share? " Troops poured in to restore order after almost a week of near-anarchy. "Louis Armstrong International Airport served as a massive clearing house for some of the storm's sickest victims Saturday. 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. He came right back and he said, I dont know why, but theres probably a foot of water on Claiborne Street, Landreneau said. I'm just not going to go on, on public television and bash in the middle of a disaster what I think people should or should not be doing. FEMA Situation Update: "The police was stressed out themselves," Lewis says. But for five days in the midst of the storm, about 20,000 of these . Katrina Babies is an assertion of presence, a proclamation that the devastating hurricane is not simply a past story, but a present one too. If you would like to customise your choices, click 'Manage privacy settings'. 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. Issues of race, class, government response and . New Orleans resident climbing through roof of house. At landfall, Katrina's maximum winds were about 125 miles per hour (mph) to the east of its center. I don't know why. City officials say 80 percent of New Orleans is flooded. Conditions are deteriorating with bathrooms overflowing, no power for air conditioning and little food and water. "And so now I think it's swung the other direction and it's underreported. 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. Directed by New Orleans native Edward Buckles Jr., who was a teenager when Katrina struck, the documentary, which premieres Thursday on HBO, reminds us of the storm's real-life ramifications. / HBO Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and permanently changed life for thousands of people across the country. 49 But it was the subsequent flooding of New Orleans that imposed catastrophic public health conditions on the people of southern . He escaped the ch. There are still areas that look like Katrina hit yesterday. "I know more sexual assaults took place. 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. Recalling her attack, she sobs, "They just left us to die. Gov. August 28, 2015, 2:21 PM. Since many New Orleans streets are still filled with stagnant, fetid waters smelling of garbage and raw sewage, the military was considering using planes to spray for mosquitoes.". Listen 7:57. Around 8 a.m. the storm's eye passes eastern New Orleans. [Congressman] Bobby Jindal is there, the senators Landrieu and [David] Vitter, and Congressman [William] Jefferson. An estimated 25,000 angry and exhausted people are still at the Convention Center; buses begin arriving to evacuate them. And I said, "We're doing one in the morning.". I've expressed many times that we're willing to investigate any sexual assaults that happened in this city at any time. It doesn't make any sense.". Hurricane Katrina [ edit] Refugees on the field inside the Superdome, August 28. I had all the police, the firefighters in rescue mode, so the looting thing started to rear its head. We knew we were gonna have to shelter people. 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. So I can assume what the criminals were thinking, and that's exactly what happened.". 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. ". Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis. Gallery. '", Michael Brown, FEMA director: The storm has ripped a hole in the Superdome where the power has gone out. He estimates 5,000 to 10,000 people are still in the city, with many of them still waiting to be rescued. A hurricane warning is issued for north central Gulf . I said, 'If you guys don't get together and work this out, this is going to get worse.' Then, the airman hesitated a minute, and asked Landreneau to hold. The hurricane caused billions of dollars of damage to the city, and killed thousands. FEMA Situation Update: 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." With Glovers story as a jumping-off point, FRONTLINE partnered with the Times-Picayune and ProPublica in 2010 to investigate six questionable shootings by police revealing that, in the midst of post-Katrina chaos, law-enforcement commanders issued orders to ignore long-established rules governing the use of deadly force. By the end of the day, the projected storm surge is 18 to 22 feet, locally as high as 28 feet. Looting becomes more widespread; hotels begin turning out guests. Watch it: For a powerful story of resilience and determination in the face of tragedy. 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. Under the best of circumstances, rape is one of the hardest crimes to solve. Rescue efforts are delayed because of the inability of rescuers to communicate with each other. 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. HBO. I don't think that's the proper thing to do. "I at least wanted a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes [on Saturday]. By the evening of August 25, when it made . Team members said they delivered babies, treated gunshot and stab victims, and ultimately fled for their own safety. Left to right: Mayor Ray Nagin, President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Director Michael Brown, Gov. We all did. Within five hours I start to get reports from my staff members, who are out doing assessments, the water's rising. WGBH educational foundation, "A close eye will be kept this system could strengthen ", "Media reports attribute Katrina with four fatalities [in Florida], more than a million customers were without electricity", "Katrina will regenerate on Friday over Gulf of Mexico, head west-northwest then turn northward. The Louisiana Superdome, once a mighty testament to architecture and ingenuity, became the biggest storm shelter in New Orleans the day before Katrina's arrival Monday. And New Orleans itself has worked to rebuild. The situation begins to improve. 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,. 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. Oh, absolutely not. 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. Flew into the city. special video+discussion+teacher's guide+readings & links And he passes, literally, hundreds of school buses lined up to come and get these folks. I've got to know. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, causing catastrophic flooding as numerous levees failed around New Orleans. Where is food? Another group, Witness Justice, a Maryland-based non-profit that assists victims of violent crimes, claims to have received 156 reports of post-Katrina violent crimes; about a third of those involved sexual assaults. And I said [to the president], 'Look, we talked about that option, and then we also talked about another option, that we would federalize, and the governor said she needed time to think about it. The Times-Picayune reports that an estimated 112,000 people do not own cars. 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, and horrific loss of life. Subscribe: http://bit.ly/NatGeoSubscribe#NationalGeographic #HurricaneKatrina #StormsAbout National Geographic:National Geographic is the world's premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. The line to get in was already a quarter-mile long. Michael Brown, FEMA director: A shaft of light falls throught an opening in the fully evacuated Superdome on Sept. 5, 2005 in New Orleans, La. The interviews done as part of this project reflect the disaster's painful, chaotic, and murky aftermath. The top-notch special effects are alarmingly realistic and frightening, particularly when the 17th St. Canal levee breaches and when Katrina rips the roof from the Superdome, where in the days . In a documentary aired in October 2005 on the Sundance Channel, "In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina," Williams said, . Victims of Hurricane Katrina fight through the crowd as they line up for buses to evacuate the Superdome and New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005. Concerned over unreported and underreported rapes, her organization, together with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center -- which is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- created a national database to track sexual assaults that happened after Katrina.