hurricane katrina: superdome documentary

And I knew it wasn't true, because 8:00 or 10:00 that morning, I received a report from one of my staffers that either a levee had been topped or had actually broken. (48) 7.4 1 h 13 min 2010 13+. by JOHN DORN. 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. The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. so you had a very dynamic situation.". Several parishes and the city of New Orleans announce emergency responders will stop venturing out once the wind exceeds 45 mph. We knew we were gonna have to shelter people. She says she tried to report the assault at the time, but authorities weren't listening. The Times-Picayune reports that 4,600 active duty troops under the command of Gen. Russel Honor arrive in New Orleans. Looting becomes more widespread; hotels begin turning out guests. [2] Approximately 10,000 residents, along with about 150 National Guardsmen, sheltered in the Superdome anticipating Katrina's landfall. And nothing happened. 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. 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. 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 . According to a New York Times article of September 29, "During six days when the Superdome was used as a shelter, the head of the New Orleans Police Department's sex crimes unit, Lt. David . Female victims, now displaced from New Orleans, are slowly coming forward with a different story than the official one. They were very civil and very cordial. I said, 'If you guys don't get together and work this out, this is going to get worse.' FEMA Situation Update: 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. "A week after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans state officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say once the canal level is drawn down two feet, Pumping Station 6 can begin pumping water out of the bowl-shaped city. 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. Evacuating hospitals is a top priority: Patients and staff are stranded and supplies and power are dwindling. They lost power. 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. producer's chat+tapes & transcript+press reaction+credits+privacy policy / 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. A decade later . At landfall, Katrina's maximum winds were about 125 miles per hour (mph) to the east of its center. Commander Dave Lipin says they saw two women who said they'd been raped -- different women than those the police attended to. About 16,000 people . Her husband [Raymond Blanco] is there. Tonight, the Oscar-nominated Trouble the Watera documentary by filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, premieres on HBO. The expected storm surge is 15 to 20 feet, locally as high as 25 feet. At least 1,800 lives were lost in Hurricane Katrina, often considered one of the worst hurricanes in US history. FEMA National Situation Update: "They didn't have no food. Pack carefully. FEMA was doing what it's supposed to be doing. In the first few hours after Katrina hit, many people believed that New Orleans had dodged a bullet. Hurricane Katrina: Caught on Camera Over three days in August 2005, a cataclysmic storm brought flooding and disaster to the Gulf Coast of America, leaving over 1,800 people dead in Louisiana and Mississippi. National surveys show that half of all sexual assaults are never reported. Michael Brown, FEMA director: Some electrical substations serving downtown New Orleans are repaired, but Entergy, the local energy utitlity, must first ensure that buildings can receive the electricity safely before the power is restored. "I was told that they could mobilize immediately 2,500 National Guards members. A hurricane warning is issued for the Southeast Florida coast. Refuge of last resort: Five days inside the Superdome for Hurricane Katrina. The storm has ripped a hole in the Superdome where the power has gone out. We can only deal with what we know.". Mississippi and Louisiana governors declare states of emergency. Visit us at HISTORY.com for more info. Mahogany describes her actions before deciding to evacuate her home, her trip to the New Orleans Saints' Superdome, her horrific time at the Superdome, and finally her decision to leave New Orleans. Ten years ago this Saturday, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast. ', We immediately did turn to the military and mission-assigned them to start doing airlifts, start bringing things in. The death toll in the city is not known, but the dying continues as people succumb to illness, exhaustion and days without food and water. It is 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. We have Brad Pitt and Chris Rocks wife here now, and I think collectively its making a huge, huge difference. 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. 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. And New Orleans itself has worked to rebuild. We talked about it. He Says He Paid a Price. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and permanently . "With the evacuee situation stabilizing somewhat, and increasing numbers of armed soldiers and police on the streets, officials said Saturday they would start aggressively dealing with the bands of armed looters who pushed the city to the brink of complete breakdown. Left to right: Mayor Ray Nagin, President Bush, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Director Michael Brown, Gov. Several thousand National Guard troops start reaching the thousands of evacuees at the Convention Center and elsewhere. At least one half of well constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. What I hope people will realize when they see Trouble the Water is that we still have so much to do here, and that Katrina really changed so many lives, but we are a really resilient people and we want our city to come back. 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. My sense now is there are victims out there whose stories haven't been heard.". Marty Bahamonde/FEMA. The Times-Picayune reports the Convention Center evacuees are still being loaded onto buses and evacuated and search-and-rescue operations continue. "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. 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. 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. These three documentaries and nearly 190 more are all streaming online at pbs.org/frontline. He had been shot by a rookie police officer while walking through the parking lot of a run-down strip mall, and his brother had brought Glover who was curled up and bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest to a temporary SWAT compound seeking medical attention. And the bosses say, 'Oh, okay. Looting breaks out in parts of the city. Exclusive: A Former MPD Lieutenant Reported Another Cop. By Chris Edwards. Its efforts fail. Nicola Mann and Victoria Pass. "I know more sexual assaults took place. But we need something really big, like a hospital, that shows where the $25 billion in recovery money is going. Driving in from the popular suburb of Metairie, it's the first building you pass. "I realized how serious things were on Sunday. Power outages will last for weeks water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.". Michael Brown, FEMA director: Victims of Hurricane Katrina fight through the crowd as they line up for buses to evacuate the Superdome and New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005. An estimated 25,000 angry and exhausted people are still at the Convention Center; buses begin arriving to evacuate them. Surviving the Superdome. Katrina Cop in the Superdome. ', And the president was a little stunned, and he kind of stepped back, and he recovered. 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. "At that stage, we had mission-assigned the Department of Defense to start giving us everything they could in terms of air-lift capability. 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. In downtown New Orleans, some streets were merely wet rather than swamped. We'd sent them all the information they needed. Producer Martin Smith: So, although you said that, you didn't feel that way at that time? New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis 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. Katrina anniversary: Inside the Superdome during Katrina. ", Michael Brown, FEMA director: 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. ' Gettridge told FRONTLINE. . The Superdome is an intrinsic part of the city of New Orleans. President Bush flies over the area on his way back to Washington. Military and Coast Guard helicopters flew a steady stream of evacuees from hospitals and rooftops to the airport southwest of downtown. At daybreak, rescuers set out on boats to help others still stranded. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty. She gripped my arm at the store, and she told me, the way you shared with everybody so openly, you helped me to heal. And the president comes, and we have this meeting. As of Nov. 22, 2005, more than 900 people are known to have died in New Orleans. Anastasia says thugs were still wandering the streets of her neighborhood more than a week after the flood. But prosecutors have struggled to hold officers accountable. [Secretary of Homeland Security Michael] Chertoff is there. Very shortly, he said, Cars are beginning to float out of the parking lot. Newly rescued people are still being brought to the Superdome. Watch it: For a powerful story of resilience and determination in the face of tragedy. 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. Inside the four triage tents, medical personnel tended to people who had gone for days without their medication. Michael Brown, FEMA director: Thats why films like Trouble the Water are so important, and why its great that its making it to a wide audience via HBO. Photo. "I went into New Orleans and stood beside Mayor Nagin and emphasized the need to leave. 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 . 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. Judy Benitez is executive director of the Louisiana Foundation Against Sexual Assault, a statewide coalition of rape crisis centers. I went to the Adjutant General [Landreneau] and I went to 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. 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. There is a belief that the city has avoided a direct hit. Walter Maestri, Jefferson Parish emergency manager: Katrina becomes a Category 3 with 115 mph maximum sustained winds. Katrina first made landfall in South Florida. Where is water? The police department -- reeling from desertions, flooding and the immensity of the disaster -- was in a survival mode itself. Expressed my concerns, my frustration He needed to really get us resources to save people. (Weather forecasters classify hurricane strength on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the strongest.) Floodwaters keep rising. At 7 pm it makes landfall north of Miami. I've expressed many times that we're willing to investigate any sexual assaults that happened in this city at any time. She requests President Bush to declare a state of emergency in Louisiana. Listen 7:57. "I remember reading [that New Orleans had dodged a bullet]. Military planners are considering setting up a permanent rapid reaction unit designed to respond to domestic disasters. Lipin says when he arrived in Baton Rouge and turned on the TV, he was surprised by reports of rampant violence in New Orleans. 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. 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. More than a million people were displaced in the days leading up to and following . That's where Katrina Babies comes in. At a press conference in Baton Rouge, 80 miles away, Gov. On Sept. 15, 2005, in an address to the nation, President Bush declares, "It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice.". And when I saw it then, and watching it again now, I think that Trouble the Water is an amazing accomplishment, and something everyone should see about the people who had to live through what we all went through here in New Orleans. Recalling her attack, she sobs, "They just left us to die. Gettridge,a fifth generation New Orleanian, would go on to die from a heart attack in 2014 at the age of 91 at the home he had successfully rebuilt. Find out in the 2015 documentary Outbreak, newly available to stream on FRONTLINEs YouTube channel. Thousands of displaced residents take cover from Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome in New . Twenty-five thousand miserable people - many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina - hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the . Flooding grows as water surges over levee breaks from Lake Ponchartrain; the 9th Ward is almost entirely submerged. Patrice Taddonio. But for five days in the midst of the storm, about 20,000 of these . to support FEMA disaster relief efforts, but it will be two days before the troops arrive in the city. "A close eye will be kept this system could strengthen ". And the guard unitspent most of the next 24 hours saving itself. The vast majority of them were elderly. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and . Hurricane Katrina made landfall off the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005. "I admit that rapes are underreported," Benelli says. Thats just one of the chain of catastrophes at the local, state and national level brought to vivid life in FRONTLINEs Emmy Award-winning 2005 documentaryThe Storm. But I am happy to help, even if it takes me an extra two hours at the grocery store. 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. And then they'd gone around the room, and everybody's talking to the president and giving their opinions. An Unfiltered View: Producers of Police on Trial on What the Documentary Reveals 2 Years After the Murder of George Floyd, From the Archives: How the World's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak Unfolded, Russias Invasion of Ukraine, One Year Later, War Crimes Watch Ukraine: More Than 650 Documented Events, From the Archives: How the U.N. & World Failed Darfur Amid "the 21st Century's First Genocide". And I said, "We're doing one in the morning.". Theme Foto Blog by, Hundreds Evacuated as Vanuatu Braces for Second Cyclone in 2 Days. Mayor, what do you need?' Producer Martin Smith: So we're just eating sandwiches and making nice while people are stranded on rooftops? Some parishes order mandatory evacuations. There's this lunch. ', So they went into another section of the plane, had a meeting. Gov. Here's the things I think we need to focus on. Gov. If you would like to customise your choices, click 'Manage privacy settings'. We do our video conference calls before and during disasters. They were making suggestions about we need to do this and that. I don't think that's the proper thing to do. August 27, 2015, 2:18 PM. Mayor Mitch Landrieu last week hailedNew Orleans as Americas comeback city,citing efforts to reduce crime, decrease homelessness and improve educational outcomes for area students. [He] came on site, I think it was Monday after the event. After her rape, Lewis says, there were no clinics open, so she washed herself with bleach. August 29, 2005. I just expressed to her my concern about the lack of unified command, and the need to have more of a structure of what was going on. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. Within five hours I start to get reports from my staff members, who are out doing assessments, the water's rising. 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. 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 . "What we did -- under Louisiana law the parish presidents, the head of the counties, have the authority to use private resources. 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. 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 Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, says he is "extremely pleased with the response of every element of the federal government and federal partners to this terrible tragedy." Where is all the things that we need to get out of here?"' special video+discussion+teacher's guide+readings & links As the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, explore three different FRONTLINE documentaries about the disaster, its lingering aftermath and the lessons learned. Katrina makes landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana as a Category 3 storm with winds near 127 mph. One of the victims is Ms. Lewis, a 46-year-old home health-care worker from New Orleans East, who asked that her first name not be used. And then somebody came and called me and said, 'The president would like to see you.' Police Chief Eddie Compass admitted even his own officers had taken food and water from stores. Over 1,800 people lost their lives in the hurricane and an estimated 1 million people were displaced from their homes. Some 11,000 National Guardsmen are now on duty in Louisiana and increased security begins to have an effect on lawlessness in New Orleans, although some violence continues. At 10 a.m., the Thorntons headed together to the Superdome. By afternoon, officials issue a citywide call for more boats to help. One woman told me she was going to commit suicide after Katrina, and that she saw Spike Lees documentary, and I saved her life. Issues of race, class, government response and responsibility, and political rivalries interweave with personal stories of challenges faced and decisions made. There are still areas that look like Katrina hit yesterday. And why it wasnt stopped sooner. I talk to her every other day, and thats her main question How long is it going to be? In downtown New Orleans, some streets were merely wet rather than swamped. In all, more than 1,500 died either duringthe storm or inthe famouslybungled aftermath which saw local, state, and federal officials uncoordinated and overwhelmed. Troops poured in to restore order after almost a week of near-anarchy. "As I have said, I think that one of the biggest mistakes that I made as the FEMA director during Katrina was not immediately turning to the military and saying: 'We have been overwhelmed. 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 . ISIS is in Afghanistan, But Who Are They Really? And the mayor began to tell us some of the things that he needed. He announces FEMA is moving supplies and equipment into the hardest hit areas. ", President Bush arrives in Louisiana. We need you to take over logistics, distribution of commodities, etc. FEMA organizes 475 buses to be sent in to transport many of the estimated 23,000 people from the Superdome to the Houston Astrodome. Kimberly Roberts is the star of the filmif you can call her thata 24-year-old aspiring rapper who did not have the finances to get the hell out of New Orleans when Katrina hit, and still, she managed to film all of her harrowing experiences on a Hi-8 camerathe water rising, being trapped in the attic with her husband and neighbors, the fear they felt. The storm flooded New Orleans, killed more than 1,800 people, and caused . Watch it: To understand what went wrong in the governments response to Katrina. New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. Panels blew off and the roof was severely damaged, but it was the only shelter . Then we kind of figure out ways that we could coordinate. ", Leo Bosner, FEMA watch officer: Phone service and electricity to some 770,000 people in the area is cut off. The Army Corps of Engineers projects it could take 80 days to pump the water out of the city. "All I know is on Wednesday night I was convinced that there were no FEMA buses. 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. But more and more people were being evacuated from their rooftops after being in the sun for long periods or overnight and being put on highways on high ground. "There was a period of days when we weren't sure who was directing the federal response and were all the actions being taken. Anastasia is a petite, 25-year-old hairdresser who asked that her last name be omitted. City officials say 80 percent of New Orleans is flooded. 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. 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. "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". U.S. Cities and States Are Suing Big Oil Over Climate Change. "The fact that something wasn't reported to the police doesn't mean it didn't happen," Benitez says. Hurricane Katrina [ edit] Refugees on the field inside the Superdome, August 28. There was nobody there to protect you," Lewis says. Copyright All rights reserved. "[Michael] Brown I did not see the first couple of days. The interviews done as part of this project reflect the disaster's painful, chaotic, and murky aftermath. Lewis says she was raped on Monday, Aug. 29, the day of the storm. 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.'

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