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I can say also good video and if you haven't may want to look into this interesting disaster that's described as the modern Vesuvius, Mt. Pelee of the Saint Pierre eruption of Martinique with really interesting survivors like a prisoner who survived through the impossible anyway Google, TH-cam or find out all you can about this.
I was there for Katrina and Ida. Ida was a worse storm. It hit the suburbs where actual productive people live. We're still struggling and no one is helping bc there's not muh black victims all over tv. Same goes for Lake Charles, no one cares if it's white lower or middle class Americans. Not enough victim points to go around.
Typically whenever natural disasters happen, we're left to fend for ourselves. People seldom mention that Mexico sent us a lot of aid from military to supplies. The Mexican marines were deployed to assist US forces in rescue and cleanup efforts. The first time that the Mexican military was deployed to the US in like 150 something years.
Not to take away from the Mexican Government stepping up, but other neighbours helped out too. Granted Mexico may not have the resources of other countries so their contribution is more significant.
When Katrina hit, I remember the children the most. Thousands of displaced children who weren’t sure if their families were dead or alive, and most of them had PTSD from it too. We fostered a little boy until his aunt was found and he would have horrible terrors and flashbacks when he saw trees… so sad.
I was young when the storm hit, and my family evacuated to Hattiesburg, and then to Memphis after the storm so we could know what happened, (HBG power was out for a week). That's how we learned about everything. I remember seeing a boy who looked a lot like a classmate of mine and my sister's. He was on the news with the faces of a dozen other children, the caption reading "Children with lost parents"
One of the main characters in my stories is a woman who survived Hurricane Katrina when she was 10. (I was 5 when it hit, 12 when I made up the story) She was in NOLA visiting her grandmother when the storm struck. Her grandmother drowned in the storm surge and she was left to fend for herself for several days, and although she was the daughter of a wealthy real estate tycoon, she was abandoned just like all of the poor children she was surrounded by. It was then that she realized her own privilege. She developed PTSD from her ordeal and, as the story is planned, will also survive the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami in the future. I'm here to learn more for my story, but it hurts to remember that actual, real-life humans faced this horror.
I had moved from Huntsville AL to Houston earlier that year. Some friends in NO had to come stay with us for awhile. Then Rita came. Houston began evacuating and I was given the week off to go back home and get the rest of my stuff. It took 24 hrs just to get to the Tx La state line. At one gas station that had fuel, there was a couple of officers trying to keep the peace. One sat indifferent, the other losing patience. He had signaled that I would be the last before he shut it down. When my turn came, he forced me off. When I responded that he had given me permission, he threatened to arrest me. I made it to the next available place but had to push my truck 3 car lengths to the pump since I ran out right then. It took another 12 hours to get to my father's house. A 12 hr trip that took 36. When we got there my uncle was watching it go down on the weather channel. A Texan was live on a phone, and in typical texas fashion said "yeah it's raining, but where's the hurricane?" About an hour or 2 later the tornado warning sirens went off. The woman who had traveled with me freaked out asking what it was. My uncle and myself were unphased. That's just a tornado, we're fine. Typical Bama fashion lol. End of the week I put her in a plane to go back and rented a uhaul for my truck. I didnt account on the gas shortage happing. On my way back, at about 3AM I ran out. I got out and abandoned my stuff and started walking. A man from Mobile saw my truck and trailer then found me a few miles down. He stopped, with his young daughter, and picked me up. He had several gas cans full and took me back to my truck, which took 2 overshoots to get to on the interstate. We filled my tank with enough and he followed me to the nearest working station that was about 35 miles away. He wouldnt accept any payment for the fuel he donated. To this day I help strangers in the same way. Once even getting a standing ovation from a womans group, Mommies of the Heights, after I helped one change a tire early one morning. She happened to be running for a school council seat and knew where I worked. Didnt ask for the owner, although she had heard what I did, and didnt ask for the head chef. My mother warns that I'm gonna get hurt or robbed doing this but I remind her that I've been stranded worse and a good man helped me. It is my duty and honor to pay it forward. Wherever you are, Sir, I won't forget. Bless
That’s a beautiful story. We see the best in humanity when the kindness and generosity of strangers triumphs over unexpected or traumatic situations. Being able to pay it forward later is a great feeling.
We traveled from calcasieu parish to pearl, Mississippi what is normally a 6 hour trip took us 12 & my grandparents 36. I was too young to drive back then so I have no clue how my dad did it, but the only time I remember getting on the interstate was through Alexandria.
that reminds me of a story I once heard, with the moral being "today you, tomorrow me". In other words, help someone now because tomorrow it may be you needing help.
I spent a few weeks in New Orleans after that disaster helping rebuild homes. It's hard to describe the deviation but one thing I will say is that you learn a lot about people from the stuff they leave behind. All the junk we hauled out of an abandoned apartment used to be people's treasures and possessions and I got to know the previous owners by what they used to eat, the DVDs they had, the posters, what kind of clothes they liked. It was surreal. I will never forget the sight of a refrigerator stuck in a tree that became home to a squirrels nest. That was in the 9th ward. Crazy stuff.
I understand what you mean. I wasn't at Katrina, but during the 08' housing crisis, and everyone was losing their homes, I was around 12. My dad lost his job, but managed to get a job working for a bank doing a "trash outs" through a friend. My dad, brother, and I, would go into repossessed homes, and have to throw out anything that was left. If we didn't do it, we would've lost our home as well, I'd say I learned a lot about people at that young age as well. It definitely is a surreal feeling throwing out people's memories, and one that has stuck with me since
@@averagemcgee8604 I hear ya, had that same job sort of here in Canada. People that didn't pay their rent in apartments and just abandoned them. The owners had a big dumpster out back and the manager told us to throw it all away and keep anything you wanted. All kinds of irreplacible things like family photos and what not, definitely a depressing job.
thank you for your help. one thing that came out of the storm for my wife and I was a renewed sense of humanity. So many amazing people, coming together to help people in need. As a life long New Orleanian, thank you for your help, it is much appreciated.
Could you imagine if this was a law enforcement that existed in New York during 911? Lol they would have just run the other way like Monty Python with the killer rabbit instead of going in to the dangerous situation😂😂😂😂😂
I was stuck at Loius Armstrong airport during this whole thing, it was insane - the sound was unreal. And when those us stranded at the airport were airlifted out the next day we could see all the flooding from the air.
I've never been in a hurricane or any TRUE natural disaster, so forgive me if this is a dumb question but did you fear for your life during the storm itself? An airport just feels like it'd be full of way too much breakable glass and flimsy terminal walls, I'd be praying for my inevitable end to be fast at that point.
@@Replicaate Louis Armstrong's ticketing area and food court were thick AF concreate. The concentrated us all there as the glass roofs in the concourse were coming down. I was less than a year out of a Tour in Iraq - I stayed pretty calm tbh. I wasn't terrifed of the storm, it was the people that were sketchy.
The entire response to this disaster was sad. Our National Guard was at the border of Mississippi the next day to help with search and rescue but the Governor of the state refused to let them in. That was followed by finger pointing in the media at the President because, "The National Guard wasn't there in time! Where were they!?!?" (even though they were ready and stalled by the Governor). Sad state of affairs when we have elected leaders and the media playing politics instead of saving lives. Opened my eyes. The following reports on the "looting and raping" were just as bad. Cherry picking a few bad apples to make a story. Katrina made me realize just how pathetic politics can really be. We literally have elected leaders in our country on both sides who treat it like a game.
When it comes to natural disasters, politics MUST be set aside immediately with "how do we help our citizens as fast as possible" being the sole motivation. It's a stain on our country that even natural disasters go through the political games. If a politician isn't actively helping (whether it's their district or elsewhere in the country), they need to get out of the way or just f'n resign.
The whole situation surrounding Katrina is a masterclass in Bureaucracy, Ass Covering, Greed and General Callousness. Every person in a position of authority completely screwed the pooch on this. It still hurts my soul, to this day, to think that this all happened and that basic human decency ceased to exist for the entire effected area of Katrina's war path.
Agreed. What i'm more shocked by now is the realisation that we allowed ourselves to believe such obvious lies about security/safety/infrastructure/understanding/planning/basic human decency from the engineers, the administrators, the politicians, and fellow citizens when they said they'd taken precautions. We just 'believed' they did it right... like we didn't see what kind of people they were. That's the weirder part of this experience, after all the surreal visuals are laid aside. It's like believing you'll be safe on an airplane, or on foreign soil. I lived in China and Kazakhstan, and it never once occurred to me I was 'at risk' at home to simple, natural problems. IDK if that's white privilege laid bare, but it's horrifying to confront.
Human decency seems to have vacated the U.S. some years ago. I remember when Katrina happened people from states all across the country opened their homes to those who had been displaced. I don't think people would do that today. Sadly. As a matter of fact, I think everything you mentioned has gotten worse not better (bureaucracy, ass-covering, greed, and callousness). I do have hope that'll change but it's gonna take time and understanding which I don't think is available right now. Again...sadly. Here's to a better future.
@@ingridfong-daley5899 It would start with little to no assistance for the poor black areas, either to evacuate, or to rebuild, and the complete lies that the media said were happening (mentioned in this video briefly). If you do a Google Scholar search (or regular Google but you'll get different results) for "racism during Katrina" there's a lot of great resources.
Speaking as a guardsman who served on operation Katrina i can say that the looting wasn't as bad as the media made it sound but it was bad. The salons were hit first before almost every other business. The policemen who stayed behind were either looting themselves or completely, laughably undertrained. I've been hit with rocket fire and mortar fire but the one thing in my military career I would never want to relive is my time in New Orleans.
A group that rescued many people were the "United Cajun Navy". This was a group of Air boat owners that have helped with rescues not only affter Katrina, but also during other emergencies. Maybe you should do a SideProjects video about this group.
They're just called the 'Cajun Navy' as far as I know, but they're a real entity of locals who make a real difference rescuing locals in boats and keeping their Southern cool in times of crisis. LaPlaaaaaaace, checkin' in! ;)
Yep, Cajun Navy for the win. Good people who come together to help others, but technically not an officially recognized group as they are often just whoever has the ability to jump in and help. Organized mostly in times of need through social media.
It's sad that no one ever speaks of the actions of other parishes. No one talks about people trying to escape on foot, and were turned back by armed citizens. I wonder if any of them realized or wondered about what happed to the people they treated that way.
@@artman2oo3Nope! Actual atmed citizens. The pretext was that they were keeping their parrish "safe." Nevermind how this affected others' health and safety.
@@cherylwiggins17 It would be kinder for you to explain exactly why they felt that the groups of people trying to enter their neighbourhoods ought to be turned back. Could it be that even on a normal day, these people were armed to the teeth out of fear that groups of men would enter their houses and kill their families in brutal, sadistic ways?
@@Kuingar I don't know where you're from, but what kind of normal day would have you standing on a highway bridge over Lake Ponchatrain armed to the teeth. Then to take that further, what about the escaping group would make that assumption violence seem reasonable? What could be possibly the difference between the groups?🤔🙄
I was living in Long Beach, Mississippi at the time. Lost my house and my job. Turned out to be the best thing for me as I got hired into a great position with a construction company that I moved up in and am celebrating my 16th work anniversary with them this week!
A close friend of mine was 4 when it hit and his family still lives in Long Beach. They were remodeling the kitchen recently and rediscovered 7-8ft high water marks behind the cabinets
When this disaster happened, a number of people relocated to Lubbock, Texas where I was in Junior High School. I think there were about a dozen students that went to my school alone. Very sad what happened.
@@DonLicuala it makes plenty of sense. New Orleans was -and IS- a vital port city. Storms happen. Flooding happens. People live there because there is economic incentive to do so. But the problem isn’t with the notion of reclaiming land nor being below sea level. Know who else reclaims land from the sea? The Dutch. It’s a matter of engineering. If they’ve figured it out, surely American brilliance is sufficient to do the same. Right? Right.
There were some Katrina evacuees who came to my hometown following Katrina. One was a girl who was in my Algebra I class for a month or so during 8th grade. She and her family gradually made their way back to New Orleans.
The "THESE PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS & DESERVE TO DIE" tone of the "news" that my parents listened to juxtaposed with the reality was an eye opener as to how much of a horrible alternate reality they were voluntarily getting themselves into. When even Top Gear is kinder to the victims of Katrina, you're pretty bad.
Let me guess fox News? Il never forget how much they avoided talking about the actual reasons for the flood and just blamed the local democrat councilors who somehow were the monsters that killed everyone. They couldn't even let the dead rest had to jump right into pushing a narrative. And CNN was no better
@@Aztesticals I was about to get real pissed at you for only mentioning Fox news until I saw the end of your post because I'm sick of people thinking conservative viewpoints are the problem. Katrina and its aftermath had little to do with politics and was more about how the media misled, misinformed and outright lied to people across the world. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, etc etc. all had their hands stained with blood on how they misreported the events of Katrina. The media back then had really changed compared to how it was in the 80s and 90s and was now all about sensational reporting and throwing journalistic integrity out the window, regardless of which side of the political spectrum the media was on. It goes to show you nowadays at how the media has literally done all it can to divide this country further and further and to keep people from coming together by trying to paint American life as full of racism, sexism, murder, rape, robbing, etc. The media keeps its power by keeping people scared and scared people start to only look at the media for advice rather than just stepping out their front door and finding out the world isn't nearly as bad as the one the media paints.
I was 8yo when Katrina hit. I evacuated to Hammond where my grandmother lived. I remember the left side of the eye went directly above us. We went outside for a few minutes and I can remember the eerie stillness of the air, the clear sunlight above. I couldn’t comprehend the amount of damage at that age. We eventually returned about 5 weeks later. Our brick house on the outskirts of NOLA wasn’t hit too bad, maybe a foot of water and like 1/4 of the roof missing. The trip back home was haunting. As we got closer and closer the damage was more obvious. I saw empty lots where houses used to be. Trees fell and basically cut houses in half. In the end no one I personally knew died, but a two of my fathers coworkers died. It was a horrible event I will remember for the rest of my life…
I remember Time Magazine, in the weeks after Katrina, printed some of the horrific images that came out of it. One in particular is burned in my memory, of a man, face down, in the water, bloated and stretched and slightly discolored, but still obviously a middle aged black man. Idk why, seeing as I know I'd seen dead bodies before, but that was the first time I remember being really disturbed by a corpse. This picture was taken maybe a week after the storm, but he was still there... floating. I was 15 at the time, and the stories that came out of the south that summer were impactful on my teen years.
It’s kinda horrifying that my morbid curiosity made me google this and even with your description I’m not sure which image you were referring to because it could be one of half a dozen images of the dead that are just free for anyone to see. I kinda feel wrong now. I’ve seen something I had no right to see
Water and heat do strange things to the dead.. it was probably the first time you'd seen that sort of thing, plus it was an image of a body in a situation most of us would feel it never should have been in
I was 13 at the time. It wasn't until a few years ago when I started to learn about some of the gruesome discoveries people made following Katrina. I'm kinda glad I've yet to see that Time picture you're talking about.
The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season was at the time the most active hurricane season ever recorded. It was so active not only did we use the Greek Alphabet to name storms after Wilma, the last storm Zeta formed in late December and continued into January of 2006.
Indeed, and 2005 had far more intense hurricanes than 2020, including four Cat 5s. Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the strongest hurricane ever in the atlantic.
I went to the New Orleans area 2 years after Katrina (my church youth group helped put the finishing touches on new houses for people). There were still so many destroyed houses & buildings and people living in FEMA trailers. Everyone was so friendly, grateful for even the small amount of help we gave and willing to help each other.
It's so weird seeing this incident being shown as 'history'. Maybe since it happened in the digital age it feels so much more recent than it really is now, even though I was a middle schooler when it happened. As a side note, there's an excellent little documentary by Bright Sun Films called 'Closed for Storm' about the fate of Six Flags New Orleans, which was refurbished just in time to get absolutely demolished by the hurricane, and its graffiti'd, rusted corpse has been sitting in east NOLA ever since. If you're into urban ruins it's a must-see.
I know that feeling well. I was 13 when 9/11 happened, and it's weird when your brain shifts an event like that from "That very bad thing that happened and that I was traumatized by" to "History that's important enough to put in school textbooks".
@@LyralioRC I was 14 when 9/11 happened, you're so right about how it went from our horrible realty to now being taught in schools. I have a 14 yo and I believe she learned about it in 7th grade, she's in 9th grade now.
I remember being a small child when katrina hit. My family lives in northern louisiana so if any hurricanes do hit us theyre usually not a threat, so we had family from new orleans stay with us. When we were watching the news and footage showed of the neighboorhood they lived in, they completely broke down. They had to move across the state from their home.
I was 13. I'm in South Arkansas and we had some Katrina evacuees come here. One was in my Algebra I class for a time that year until her family started to make their way back. Like you and your family, hurricanes aren't much of an issue when they get to AR. Aside from Rita and Laura, the hurricanes I've lived to see come through didn't cause any issues. When Ida was coming through, the most we got was wind (didn't get any rain).
Random additional comments from a local that experienced Katrina: 1.) The Royal Canadian Mounties were the first responders to appear in St. Bernard Parish, beating all American agencies/aid. 2.) The storm surge was so high on the Mississippi coast that some two-story buildings were completely swamped by water. 3.) Fixing the levees remains a constant struggle to this day. You cannot keep building a levee vertically without horizontally expanding the base, but people were allowed to rebuild along levee lines and fight to keep their property from being annexed for levee expansion. 4.) The levee flood gates have manual controls to open/close them in case the power goes out. This would be good thinking, except that in some cases a genius decided to put the manual cranks in a hole in the ground. So using them in flood conditions is... interesting.
Your two points about the levees are incredibly ominous and upsetting. New Orleans is a great city it’ll be a shame when it get hits again if it’s not prepared
As someone who lives in LA but in the southwest part, I know all too well how bad hurricanes can get. Sad part is, ever since NOLA got destroyed by Katrina a lot of news focuses on that area when any storm comes through, leaving a lot of areas totally unrecognized and in need of help. It really sucks to be trying to rebuild and be completely ignored by your own government.
Hurricane Ida was stronger and stayed over New Orleans longer than Katrina, but the Levees held. The city did lose power for a week but that's nothing compared to flooding. Unfortunately, Katrina made this "improvement" possible through blood, as many things in life have been.
I wasn’t living in Louisiana at the of Katrina. Recent transplant from California and just experienced my first hurricane. But I’ve been told that Ida was definitely stronger than Katrina and if the levees had held.. I’m just in awe of the resilience of the people of the south. I did ask myself, hurricane or earthquake?
@@elsawilson4418 the entire USA is basically deciding which natural disasters you're okay with. Blizzards: North East, Tornadoes & Hurricanes: Deep South, wildfires & earthquakes: West Coast, Corn: Midwest But yes, much of the South and especially NOLA has a "we will rebuild" attitude.
As a Dutch citizen I think New Orleans is fucked right now. It's not enough to be able to withstand the current level of storms. The water is rising, the temperature is getting warmer, storms are worsening. If your city is not preparing right now for the storms of 50-100 years from now you're just waiting for a repeat. And if the flooding was bad then, what do you think will happen when the flood protection fails with the risen water level? The Netherlands has a state of the art flood protection system and even that will not be good enough 30 years from now. 'Hier gaan over het tij - de maan, de wind en wij' or 'Here rules over the tide - the moon, the wind and us' it says on a plaque at one of our flood protections. I'm very proud of that phrase, but it requires (and will continue to require) a lot of effort to be able to keep saying that. It'll take only one more 1953 for that phrase to be turned from prideful to arrogant
@@rinus454 You're likely right. I'm from the River Parishes region of Louisiana, but climate evolutions are more reliable than my egocentrism. But human nature being what it is, we'll make it 'float' as long as possible--'mankind is more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed' as some American patriot once said. We stay with what we know, ultimately... the 'devil you know' versus the devil you don't, knowing how to adjust/adapt/excuse. We're like America's Edinburgh, but with maybe 800 years' less 'tangible' history but just as much high-romantic gore. :)
I have lived in Long Beach, MS my entire life and my home, in which I stayed during Katrina, was less than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the coast line. We took a direct hit. When the eye passed over, there was what seemed to be a deafening silence. Although we took a harder hit in terms of wind and surge than NOLA, no one seems to speak of this. Maybe this is due to the fact that the concentration of structures and people is much greater in NOLA giving the illusion that we didn’t take as much damage. Or maybe it’s because the area where I am from isn’t nearly as iconic as the city of NOLA. Whatever the reason, I can assure you the result of the storm was nothing less than total destruction. There wasn’t a single structure standing south of the railroad tracks and the things I saw when I took a walk after the storm, I will never be able to unsee. My family was very lucky. Our home had almost zero structural damage after the storm and we didn’t realize just how bad it was until we took that fateful walk once the storm had passed. Every detail of that day will be burned into my memory until the day I die.
I'm right there with you brother. I was born and raised on Henderson Point, 2 blocks off the beach. Having trouble knowing where you're at in the neighborhood you grew up in was a very unsettling experience.
Houston took in a majority of New Orleans refugees and evacuees. We housed them in the Astro Dome. People came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I remember when the kids were sent to our local highschools too. It's was heart breaking to hear what they went through. A lot of the refugees and evacuees ended just staying in Houston or other parts of Texas.
I grew up right by the astrodome. It was common for people to have their homes broken into by people desperate and looking for food. Most of the cases resulted in the home-owner and trespasser breaking bread and staying forever friends. Countless people I know share christmases now. Many never left Houston and ended up buying houses in those same neighborhoods saying “Houston gave me a better chance than NOLA ever did.” Storms have a way of washing over the past. If you arts willing to look forward - life can surprise you. I am proud of my city. We ignored the media & just did what was right. Guess who was first to help us during Harvey? You couldn’t keep Louisiana away. They came running.
Nagin pissed me off when he asks for Grayhound busses after the storm. Meanwhile school busses were left to get flooded instead of evacuating residents. You're supposed to be the freaking leader of the community. Use your resources to help people before it becomes a problem.
My sister was in college and got out to Jackson MS in time. When she got back in January to the city she helped gut several houses in the closet parishes.
This event was a horrific experience for so many. The response was even worse. But one thing that is just as disturbing for this disaster and so many more even today, is that these miserable conditions go on for months, years...while the focus shifts to the newest front page story. There are people left with nothing, desperate and invisibly struggling with nothing or advocate.
Add in the eastern side of the storm as well. What happened in MS was just as catastrophic without the extreme flooding that louisiana did. I was here in south mississippi when katrina hit. Its probably the main reason im so interested in these storms in the first place. The devastation was unbelievable.
I saw the video of the guy who filmed Katrina in the Beau Rivage parking garage. Me and my parents were slated to go down there for a vacation in early June that year, but a tropical storm postponed it. We had to wait until June 2007.
I’m born and raised in New Orleans.It’s been 15 years and I can say with 100% certainty that some homes still haven’t been repaired. And we just went through another bad storm last month.
Am I the only person who is surprised that Simon actually goes to a studio to film these videos? I seriously thought he just had a bad ass living room to film in
Mr. Whistler hosts a dozen channels. That takes staff and support. Dude is a money-making *machine*. I was more surprised to find out he lives in Prague, Czech Republic.
My wife went to NoLa the following November to help fill in the lack of nurses. She saw a lot of the devastation and helped treat a lot of people. Then earlier this year we visited the city for a few days and it's right back to being a terrific place.
I used to live in bay saint louis MS and let me tell you about some destruction. My house was on stilts 12 feet up in the air. The 30 foot storm surge broke the connection between the stilts and the house and picked it up, then pushed it into the pine trees in my back yard
"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win." Ivor van Heerden - deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center
Literally the whole 2010-2012 series of storm seasons. Shits was legendary. Would especially love to see a video on TS Debbie, which virtually destroyed my hometown.
Seeing that image of the city flooded brought back a pretty God awful memory. I lived far away from New Orleans, but seeing a major American city under water and looking like a 3rd world disaster zone with so many trapped, missing, or dead left me heart broken. Even a year later when my church sent a group of us to nearby Biloxi, Mississippi to help do some cleanup, the effects of Katrina were still very much evident.
Katrina hit Biloxi head on. The MS Gulf Coast was devastated. From the beach to the Interstate was hit with a 25 foot storm surge and power was out all the way to Meridian. You couldn't even recognize any of the cities from Waveland to Biloxi. I know what happened in NOLA was terrible and tragic but they weren't the only area that suffered.
Me and my parents went to Biloxi almost 2 yrs after Katrina and while the area was back to normal, you could see some remnants of Katrina's damage. I remember us driving past a billboard sign that was damaged and pretty much abandoned.
@@finchborat Biloxi was far from normal two years after the storm. To this day there are concrete slabs of buildings swept away and empty lots yet to be redeveloped all along the beach.
Thank you for this video. As someone who lived in Mississippi around that time, this hits close to home for me. Lucky for me and my family we didn't lose anything but we have encountered so many people that left New Orleans and the southern part of Mississippi who lost everything to that storm. Remember to never take the people you love for granted because in a matter of time it can all be gone. Stay safe everyone. Peace and love ❤
It breaks my heart hearing this, no matter how many times. New Orleans is an absolutely magical place with such a unique and rich culture, there is no place like it. Poverty and graffiti hide the most beautiful courtyards I've ever seen and the complexities of the neighborhoods within neighborhoods, combined with the unique heritage, history, food, art, music, and architecture gives it such an ethereal quality. These people continue to try to preserve this place because they know there is nothing else like it and are the epitome of resilience. ❤
@@ingridfong-daley5899 my bad bro/chick… or whatever it is that you identify as. I’ll fix that auto correct for you. It’ll just make my statement more true than it already is. Thanks fam.
Living in Florida I remember Katrina being a cat 1. When it hit the golf, it immediately turned into a cat 5 before hitting New Orleans. When it hit Florida we all saw it basically a joke. After that we were shocked that it grew so quickly, and the damage it caused.
I lived in Slidell that took a direct hit... couldn't go home for nearly 4 months due to no power and water. I was lucky though, house only took roof and siding damage and had 1 busted window.
I tell you you never want to be in a storm like this. I was in Yapoon, Australia when cyclone Yassi hit. It was a cat 5 storm, 200mph+ wind gusts. We ensure buildings are cyclone proofed here and with this one it still picked up entire houses up and threw them fown the street like tissue boxes. The entire landscape afterwards looked like bikini attol after castle bravo. My heart goes out to everyone who survived this. They are truly terrifying storms to survive.
I took an ICS-300 class this year, one of the classes needed to command an emergency response incident in the US, and they used Katrina the case study for planning our disaster response.
I was 10 years old when this happened. I lived, and still live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our first responders, national guard, charities, non profits, and everyday citizens went to help. It was so much more of a disaster than words can describe. It's still in the forefronts of those who live/have lived on the southern shores.
I was 13. I live 20 miles from the AR-LA state line and we had some Katrina evacuees come up here. One was in my Algebra I class for a couple of months. One guy was a professor and served as the writing lab instructor at my junior high that year. He stuck around for several years before he made his way back to the Gulf Coast.
It’s been a series of corrupt, incompetent, out of touch old codgers who’re either blatantly unqualified for the presidency (the us electing TWO film/TV stars to a political role never fails to get me) or career politicians who’re not much better at their job than the movie starts
@@emilybarclay8831 that’s because it doesn’t matter if there movie stars, businessman, or career politicians regardless of party none of them care about us they only care about themselves and making themselves richer and more powerful
One of my cousins evacuated with his family during Katrina and stayed with friends out of state. The city bulldozed their house afterwards since it was so damaged, but they did so without notifying my cousin until after it was done.
I also heard that refused to evacuate because they didn't want to leave beloved pets behind. I think they have since changed shelter rules so people can bring pets into emergency shelters.
Simon, thanks for that great video on Katrina. I have always been a huge fan of your channels, and this was one of the best videos i have ever seen on this event. Having lived in New Orleans my entire life, and experienced the storm first hand, as well as the rebuilding, you did an amazing job of summing up the history, the culture, the struggle, and the rebirth of our city. If anyone would ask about it, i would tell them to watch this video first before talking about it. Last thing, side projects episode idea, Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Bridge? Thanks again for the beautiful video and all the content you post.
Actually it was Bay St.Louis/Waveland in Mississippi is where Katrina hit directly. New Orleans suffered because of severe flooding due to the levies failing.
I worked with the Corps of Engineers, (in 1979 - well before Katrina), under an engineer walking the levies to evaluate the CoE's proposal for a project to significantly strengthen and improve the levy system. The CoE's project, estimated to cost (I remember about) 5 billion, was never funded as the politicians didn't wish to risk their jobs over requesting this money from Congress. I loved living in that city, but any taste for that fled, along with the politicians and other authorities who abdicated their responsibilities (before, during, and after).
I was a resident of Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish that was displaced by the storm. I can say that my hometown is not the same as it was before Katrina. It seems more run down and crime ridden than ever before. I didn't move back, but I still miss Chalmette terribly and the way that it used to be. This was a great video. It was very emotional for me and brought back alot of memories. Thanks for taking the time to cover this event.
Hurricane Katrina literally spawned a government job: Emergency Management Specialist. Cause, for some reason, no one before ever thought we'd need people who study disasters and are experts on them. These folks fall under Homeland Security's umbrella and are usually found working for FEMA. Personal and private sectors also employ these people to do everything from real estate risk management research to corporate-sponsored disaster preparation training for employees.
@@eriklakeland3857 Ugh, right? At least the new profession also has the option for training in counter-terrorism. Just in case you have to deal with a bomb threat *and* a hurricane at the same time, I suppose.
One of the few places in the US I have always wanted to visit. My grandmother visited there quite some time ago and told me "It felt like France, like home, though with an utterly different flavour.".
2004-12 was crazy in terms of natural disasters. 2004 Boxing Day tsunamis, The entire 2005 hurricane season, Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010, 2011 saw the super outbreak in the US which included the El Reno, Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes, and finally superstorm Sandy. All would make great videos and would love for Geographics to cover them.
There are many reasons people couldn’t leave. One thing about New Orleans: when there is a storm, it’s panic mode for the local meteorologists. Given the city’s geography, it’s a fair assumption that even a minor storm would be a potential catastrophe. However, there were people like me. Did not want to abandon my home. Didn’t think it’d be THAT bad. It will jink east at the last moment. In absence, “Wolf!” Had been cried too many times. Then, many people couldn’t afford to leave. Couldn’t afford hotels, had no relatives. Their choices were minimal. One thing not many realise is that there are only a handful of ways out of the city, all susceptible to being blocked or flooded. The I-10 bridge between the city and Slidell was destroyed. The roads were death traps if you’d been stuck. I lived in an area that wasn’t even badly hit, and my damage was minimal, but it was still 6 weeks before I could return home through the floods. I was lucky.
I had my home, an apartment building in Bay St. Louis, MS, destroyed by this hurricane, displacing me and my mother for a couple years after. (I rode thru at my grandmother's tho, who was a good half-hour drive or so from where we lived.) I was 12 at the time, and remember all of us hunkered down in the living room, watching shingles fly off the roof and a few of the support beams on my grandmother's house, the ones that held up her porch roof collapse (one of them broke the window of the room where my dad (who died a month after from cancer) was sleeping. That woke us all up since he yelled "Oh shit!" at the top of his lungs.) We've since built back, but it took a few years.
I was living in St. Bernard Parish and I stayed for Katrina. It was wild, and I would say an adventure. We got 20ft of water ... some house you could go over the roof in a boat. Some houses were floating. I'm an artist now, primarily because of Katrina and ultimately led me to get my Master's Degree in sculpture. It was a horrific event in everyone that lived there life's but, not all of it was terrible. Thank you Simon and team for a great video. Love you St. Bernard!
Hey Simon loved this video. As a Texan I'd love to see a video on hurricane Harvey. Another huge storm but it's an amazing story. People caravaned with boats from all across the south of the United States to come help and rescue people. It was incredible. I'd never been more proud to be an American than in that moment.
My parents had just moved us to the mississippi gulf coast not even 3 weeks before katrina. The house they were going to buy across hwy 90 ( runs along the beach ) was turned into a concrete slab and still sits that way today 16 years later. Alot of stuff was completely obliterated and stayed that way for a long time. News coverage zereod in on new orleans and often times misslabeled locations being shown as other cities, but the entire gulf coast received catastrophic damage. New orleans being a soup bowl , had a unique problem to deal with trying to keep the water out. Ultimately, the local government decided to unleash the levies on the lower 9th ward and other extremely poor districts in order to save the rich well to do people higher up. All around bad situation . So far we havent seen anything anywhere as severe as katrina since, god willing we hopefully wont again. The only positive i can say about that storm, is as a kid i saw humanity come together in a way i had never seen. People who had nothing left were just so happy to be alive, that they would give anything they could to help their fellow neighbors . People fed one another, took in complete strangers to stay with them . Thousands of relief teams came from all states to lend help. I remember having about 20 people from hawaii living in my house for a month just to help other people rebuild . Crazy time to be alive.
I never thought about it, but you're totally right--the amount of 'mis-labelled' local news locations I've seen in national coverage is laughable. It feels morbid that i'm finding humourous irony in that, but since I'm laughing heartily, I'll not question it for now. :)
I just want to say thank you for this video, I especially want to thank you for mentioning St Bernard parish, being as I grew up there and was 16 when katrina wiped out everything my family owned. People all heard about new orleans, but no one heard about St Bernard, even though we were almost a total loss under 6-20 feet of water. We just rode out huricane Ida at my home on the northshore of lake pontchatrain, we dealt with very little damage here but my heart and mind go out to all the familys whom have lost everything like we did so few years ago.
I am a Floridian and have been through several hurricanes... Nothing like the destruction on Katrina though. I felt so horrible for those people trapped in the areas hit hard. One interesting fact about Mardi Gras... New Orleans was not the first city in the US to celebrate it.... Mobile Alabama was the first city to do it. Mobile had a Mardi Gras celebration in 1702 or 1703. New Orleans was not established until 1718.
Technically yes that’s true about mobile- However what Alabama doesn’t like to say about the historical fact is that Mobile was a part of the Louisiana purchase treaty and owned by the officials of New Orleans. Mobile only had Mardi Gras for a few years before it was permanentlymoved to New Orleans because of border jurisdictions and Royal decree. Had Mobile not fought with the Royals they would instead be the present day Mardi Gras city but they chose not to bend the knee as it were
@@lesliebear9907 Mobile now loves Mardi Gras. I lived in Pensacola for a while before moving to Tampa. I went to the Mobile celebration many times. I guess they got over the issues eventually. I loved going to downtown Mobile on Mardi Gras... Lots of good food, parades and floats, people, and just overall feeling of fun.
Countries sent aid that was never accepted. People stole buses to help evacuate their neighbours when no one else would come. Children being evacuated from rooftops were strip searched by police, little kids, six and seven years old. The scale of the mismanagement was of epic proportions, with roots reaching back a hundred years. And the Bush administration’s response to the disaster is probably best summed up by Barbara Bush’s comment on the subject. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this is working very well for them." She said this about people living in a football stadium. And over a decade later, it’s the same as it’s ever been.
@@jessigirlrae1688 sorry, it was a picture that came out not long after the disaster. I think it was in national geographic? But ppl were talking about it. It was an image of a little child being searched by a fully armed soldier.
The media coverage and emergency response regarding the storm was just atrocious and I'm glad you talked about it. I feel what needs to be highlighted the most is the incredible kindness and resilience of the people of the city and surrounding areas. When a disaster like Katrina happens, everyone is your neighbor. Everyone is your family. I was 8 at the time, in neighboring St. Charles Parish, and we saw a lot of refugees since we got back up and running relatively quickly. Even at that age, the volunteer work, fundraising, and community outreach was very visible. We've watched the same happen now from the other side with hurricane Ida. The Bayou and river parishes were hit hard, and its a very different world now with the pandemic, but the sense of community is the same.
It can seem heartless because so many people have died, but each time there is a major problem, I can’t help to think of the animals trapped in the zoos, the farm animals and the pets.
Many towns and cities along the Mississippi coast were wiped out. Nobody also talks about the hurricane that hit the west part of the state two weeks later.
@@stephd2607 I’m originally from Lake Arthur. Yeah Laura did a number on Lake Charles and Cameron. I was in Iraq when Rita hit. But all my family was still there when it hit. It was heart breaking to see lake Charles so tore up last summer.
How about you do a part 2 to this where you highlight what Mississippi had to go through. We didn't have the loss of life, but our gulf coast was completely annihilated. To put it into context for anyone who hasn't seen pictures of Gulfport, and Biloxi: those cities looked more like Hiroshima, and Nagasaki post atomic bombs after Katrina went through. I'll never forget the image of the Grand Casino hotels' upper floors, having been torn off the building, left on the interstate by Katrina. Other smaller towns were completely wiped off the map. Always remember: parts of New Orleans got flooded. The entire Mississippi gulf coast was destroyed.
This was an emotional one for me. Thank you for this, for not flinching from how bad our so-called authorities screwed up, and screwed us over. I lived through Katrina, in Mississippi. As others have mentioned and as your video also acknowledges, New Orleans got a lot of the focus, but the ywere hardly the only victims and even as far inland as Hattiesburg (which is just shy of a hundred miles from NOLA) the destruction was insane. People here got the wind in the teeth, and it was two weeks before ANYBODY had power; the county hospital is here and nurses were saying that they were doing their best with what amounted to third world medicine, because there were no stockpiled supplies. No one was ready, no one was even taking the storm very seriously. Folks worried for the people in NOLA, and everyone - EVERYONE - knew those damned levees were going to break. Maybe not to the extent of the actual failures, but it was not a secret that the city and the state both had utterly failed to properly maintain a single mile of the flood control system. Period. They took money for it, and that money vanished, and people KNEW that. I lost my home in the storm, and being among those poor folks who could not leave - I was damned lucky to be able to shelter with someone who had a "real house" (i.e. wood frame, brick walls, all that jazz). And even so, it was three weeks before I could even get to my place to assess the damage. And FEMA? They were supposed to help people like my family, supposed to make it simple and quick to get repair money or at least a temporary shelter of some sort. I never saw a penny of help, never even got an acknowledgement that I applied for help in the first place. Around here FEMA is a four letter slang still - Fix Everything My Ass. It's been a long time now since Katrina destroyed so much - it felt like (and still feels like) half the Gulf Coast was ripped apart. If not by the storm, then by the anger and mismanagement and corruption; the race and class hatred that was blatantly on display was just salt in the wounds. There were stories about gigantic alligators roaming New Orleans and other places, and half of them ended with "At least the gator was honest." I would say that though the flood waters receded, the damage is still here. What makes me cry so much even now is that none of those wholesale, sweeping changes have taken place. Not really. The hate is still here, beating down the poor and the people of color. The wounds of not just a few decades but hundreds of years, are still here. Still festering. Even though they're not hidden at all, no one is really moving to fix that, just like the efforts to rebuild the levees in NOLA have been patchy at best.
Never thought I'd see one of my favorite TH-camrs covering my favorite topic (hurricanes in general). Please do more hurricanes like the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Also I survived Katrina, she was no joke people
Katrina was nuts, I was in high school and I went to bed one night after a party with my friends thinking everything was fine and then the next morning I evacuated (while quite hungover) and didn’t see home again for months. Pretty wild!
A friend of mine was in New Orleans as a photographer for the A.P. He became stranded during the Katrina storm and was robbed and beaten. What a literal flying shit show. 😳
I was hired to handle registration via phones after Katrina. One thing that was stark? The bureaucracy that held up aid because the system wasn’t set up for not being inspected or for such a wide area. In the end nearly all of the state of LA was a a disaster area.
I’m British and was 5 when this happened so naturally my knowledge of this disaster was ‘a city flooded and it was bad’ so this video was super interesting and horrifying in equal amounts
For an interesting perspective on the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans, check out the book "1 Dead in Attic" by Chris Rose. He was a writer for the local paper, it is a collection of his work from the first few months immediately following the hurricane hitting the city.
I never read it, but my grandparents led a Winnebago-exploring group for rich white people that was based out of N.O., and i remember my grandma telling me about a couple from their camping group that drowned on the second floor of their house in Lakeview--they were just 'too old' to get up the stairs fast enough to escape the water, and it really stayed with me. I have a kinda 'creepy video' where i use images that i shot post-Katrina, and I don't share the link with anyone because the photos bring those friends of my grandma's back into my mind. It's just a little too 'real' for me.
My family evacuated last minute, we were initially going to stay, but my sister was only 3 months old at the time and my mother's coworker took her shift at the hospital and said "Get that baby out of here," so we could get out. Nobody really expected things to get as bad as they did, we barely packed anything, just expected to be back within a few days. We lost everything, the water was above our house, (we lived in Arabi) it drowned our dog, the only things we were able to keep were a few pots and pans. We ended up staying with our grandparents for about a year, and came back to NOLA, and when we moved away again, came back and visited our house slab every few years until it was demolished. I was 5 years old at the time, so I don't really remember much, but I know I'll never forget.
My daughter lived in Houma during cyclone Ida. Right the inside of house is just wall studs. All floors, ceilings and walls had to be stripped out. Roof now repaired. She had to find accom. 250 miles away and can’t commute to work because of distance. Lack of income major problem.
Most were NOT stealing food, they were stealing wigs, hair products, shoes, whatever electronics were still functioning, i personally watched a bar get looted, tvs ripped off walls, all booze, including kegs. They were stealing pretty much everything but food. I was there immediately after to help. Most people were grateful, a lot were not bc when my group went in we brought cops with us.
Also saw a gamestop after it was looted... gamestop doesn't sell anything edible. Unfortunately the worst kinda people saw the opportunity to get away with crime
@@oliverwells8011 is that supposed me sympathize with the cops? They could have stole all the TVs and junk in the city and I wouldn't give a fuck. The cops cared more about theft than people's lives.
@@oliverwells8011 ok.... all of which was covered by insurance. Or should have been and if it wasn't then the business owners were stupid for not having that coverage.
I was a toddler when Katrina hit. At the time my family was living in Wisconsin due to my dads job as a pilot, but both my parents were Florida natives and much of my extended family lived in Florida. Our house was full of people due to majority of my relatives deciding to evacuate. Even though I was young I still remember watching the news with my family and seeing the destruction.
Thanks to Bespoke Post for sponsoring this video! New subscribers get 20% off their first box - go to bspk.me/geographics20 and enter code GEOGRAPHICS20 at checkout.
How about an episode about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis?
Hmm his kid is not in the B-Roll someone got it trouble. What comes after the basement?
Fact Check: 5:15
SUBSIDENCE
Not subsistence!
I can say also good video and if you haven't may want to look into this interesting disaster that's described as the modern Vesuvius, Mt. Pelee of the Saint Pierre eruption of Martinique with really interesting survivors like a prisoner who survived through the impossible anyway Google, TH-cam or find out all you can about this.
I was there for Katrina and Ida. Ida was a worse storm. It hit the suburbs where actual productive people live. We're still struggling and no one is helping bc there's not muh black victims all over tv. Same goes for Lake Charles, no one cares if it's white lower or middle class Americans. Not enough victim points to go around.
Typically whenever natural disasters happen, we're left to fend for ourselves. People seldom mention that Mexico sent us a lot of aid from military to supplies. The Mexican marines were deployed to assist US forces in rescue and cleanup efforts. The first time that the Mexican military was deployed to the US in like 150 something years.
Awesome point. Mexico really rode in on a white horse when we needed them most.
I never actually knew that.
I remember reading an article about that when it happened. I covered it for homework in social studies where we had to present a current event!
I’ve never heard of this before. Thank you.
Not to take away from the Mexican Government stepping up, but other neighbours helped out too. Granted Mexico may not have the resources of other countries so their contribution is more significant.
When Katrina hit, I remember the children the most. Thousands of displaced children who weren’t sure if their families were dead or alive, and most of them had PTSD from it too. We fostered a little boy until his aunt was found and he would have horrible terrors and flashbacks when he saw trees… so sad.
My friend knew someone who was adopted from the tragedy. We live in Canada
I was young when the storm hit, and my family evacuated to Hattiesburg, and then to Memphis after the storm so we could know what happened, (HBG power was out for a week). That's how we learned about everything. I remember seeing a boy who looked a lot like a classmate of mine and my sister's. He was on the news with the faces of a dozen other children, the caption reading "Children with lost parents"
Poor kid, wonder where he is now and if he's doing okay..
One of the main characters in my stories is a woman who survived Hurricane Katrina when she was 10. (I was 5 when it hit, 12 when I made up the story) She was in NOLA visiting her grandmother when the storm struck. Her grandmother drowned in the storm surge and she was left to fend for herself for several days, and although she was the daughter of a wealthy real estate tycoon, she was abandoned just like all of the poor children she was surrounded by. It was then that she realized her own privilege. She developed PTSD from her ordeal and, as the story is planned, will also survive the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami in the future. I'm here to learn more for my story, but it hurts to remember that actual, real-life humans faced this horror.
@@zurirobinson2749 If you ever publish that, or have already, I'd love to read it
I had moved from Huntsville AL to Houston earlier that year. Some friends in NO had to come stay with us for awhile. Then Rita came. Houston began evacuating and I was given the week off to go back home and get the rest of my stuff. It took 24 hrs just to get to the Tx La state line. At one gas station that had fuel, there was a couple of officers trying to keep the peace. One sat indifferent, the other losing patience. He had signaled that I would be the last before he shut it down. When my turn came, he forced me off. When I responded that he had given me permission, he threatened to arrest me. I made it to the next available place but had to push my truck 3 car lengths to the pump since I ran out right then. It took another 12 hours to get to my father's house. A 12 hr trip that took 36.
When we got there my uncle was watching it go down on the weather channel. A Texan was live on a phone, and in typical texas fashion said "yeah it's raining, but where's the hurricane?" About an hour or 2 later the tornado warning sirens went off. The woman who had traveled with me freaked out asking what it was. My uncle and myself were unphased. That's just a tornado, we're fine. Typical Bama fashion lol.
End of the week I put her in a plane to go back and rented a uhaul for my truck. I didnt account on the gas shortage happing. On my way back, at about 3AM I ran out. I got out and abandoned my stuff and started walking. A man from Mobile saw my truck and trailer then found me a few miles down. He stopped, with his young daughter, and picked me up. He had several gas cans full and took me back to my truck, which took 2 overshoots to get to on the interstate. We filled my tank with enough and he followed me to the nearest working station that was about 35 miles away. He wouldnt accept any payment for the fuel he donated.
To this day I help strangers in the same way. Once even getting a standing ovation from a womans group, Mommies of the Heights, after I helped one change a tire early one morning. She happened to be running for a school council seat and knew where I worked. Didnt ask for the owner, although she had heard what I did, and didnt ask for the head chef.
My mother warns that I'm gonna get hurt or robbed doing this but I remind her that I've been stranded worse and a good man helped me. It is my duty and honor to pay it forward.
Wherever you are, Sir, I won't forget.
Bless
Love Joy Blessings 🙏
Sad and beautiful story. Thank you for sharing ❤️
That’s a beautiful story. We see the best in humanity when the kindness and generosity of strangers triumphs over unexpected or traumatic situations. Being able to pay it forward later is a great feeling.
We traveled from calcasieu parish to pearl, Mississippi what is normally a 6 hour trip took us 12 & my grandparents 36. I was too young to drive back then so I have no clue how my dad did it, but the only time I remember getting on the interstate was through Alexandria.
that reminds me of a story I once heard, with the moral being "today you, tomorrow me". In other words, help someone now because tomorrow it may be you needing help.
I spent a few weeks in New Orleans after that disaster helping rebuild homes.
It's hard to describe the deviation but one thing I will say is that you learn a lot about people from the stuff they leave behind. All the junk we hauled out of an abandoned apartment used to be people's treasures and possessions and I got to know the previous owners by what they used to eat, the DVDs they had, the posters, what kind of clothes they liked. It was surreal.
I will never forget the sight of a refrigerator stuck in a tree that became home to a squirrels nest. That was in the 9th ward.
Crazy stuff.
I understand what you mean. I wasn't at Katrina, but during the 08' housing crisis, and everyone was losing their homes, I was around 12. My dad lost his job, but managed to get a job working for a bank doing a "trash outs" through a friend. My dad, brother, and I, would go into repossessed homes, and have to throw out anything that was left.
If we didn't do it, we would've lost our home as well, I'd say I learned a lot about people at that young age as well. It definitely is a surreal feeling throwing out people's memories, and one that has stuck with me since
@@averagemcgee8604 I hear ya, had that same job sort of here in Canada. People that didn't pay their rent in apartments and just abandoned them. The owners had a big dumpster out back and the manager told us to throw it all away and keep anything you wanted. All kinds of irreplacible things like family photos and what not, definitely a depressing job.
thank you for your help. one thing that came out of the storm for my wife and I was a renewed sense of humanity. So many amazing people, coming together to help people in need. As a life long New Orleanian, thank you for your help, it is much appreciated.
Could you imagine if this was a law enforcement that existed in New York during 911? Lol they would have just run the other way like Monty Python with the killer rabbit instead of going in to the dangerous situation😂😂😂😂😂
I was stuck at Loius Armstrong airport during this whole thing, it was insane - the sound was unreal. And when those us stranded at the airport were airlifted out the next day we could see all the flooding from the air.
I was inside Lance Armstrong one time when he started flooding below sea level if you know what I mean.
@Atriya Wadhwani Thats what the fire fighters that were there said.
I've never been in a hurricane or any TRUE natural disaster, so forgive me if this is a dumb question but did you fear for your life during the storm itself? An airport just feels like it'd be full of way too much breakable glass and flimsy terminal walls, I'd be praying for my inevitable end to be fast at that point.
So tragic.
@@Replicaate Louis Armstrong's ticketing area and food court were thick AF concreate. The concentrated us all there as the glass roofs in the concourse were coming down. I was less than a year out of a Tour in Iraq - I stayed pretty calm tbh. I wasn't terrifed of the storm, it was the people that were sketchy.
The entire response to this disaster was sad. Our National Guard was at the border of Mississippi the next day to help with search and rescue but the Governor of the state refused to let them in. That was followed by finger pointing in the media at the President because, "The National Guard wasn't there in time! Where were they!?!?" (even though they were ready and stalled by the Governor). Sad state of affairs when we have elected leaders and the media playing politics instead of saving lives. Opened my eyes.
The following reports on the "looting and raping" were just as bad. Cherry picking a few bad apples to make a story. Katrina made me realize just how pathetic politics can really be. We literally have elected leaders in our country on both sides who treat it like a game.
When it comes to natural disasters, politics MUST be set aside immediately with "how do we help our citizens as fast as possible" being the sole motivation. It's a stain on our country that even natural disasters go through the political games. If a politician isn't actively helping (whether it's their district or elsewhere in the country), they need to get out of the way or just f'n resign.
@@johnchedsey1306 Totally agree. Couldn't have said it better myself.
"cherry picking"- we have all seen since that it is not "cherry picking" but typical and standard behavior for certain populations
@@Nichole-wd5ceSo what's your solution?
The whole situation surrounding Katrina is a masterclass in Bureaucracy, Ass Covering, Greed and General Callousness. Every person in a position of authority completely screwed the pooch on this. It still hurts my soul, to this day, to think that this all happened and that basic human decency ceased to exist for the entire effected area of Katrina's war path.
Agreed.
What i'm more shocked by now is the realisation that we allowed ourselves to believe such obvious lies about security/safety/infrastructure/understanding/planning/basic human decency from the engineers, the administrators, the politicians, and fellow citizens when they said they'd taken precautions. We just 'believed' they did it right... like we didn't see what kind of people they were.
That's the weirder part of this experience, after all the surreal visuals are laid aside.
It's like believing you'll be safe on an airplane, or on foreign soil.
I lived in China and Kazakhstan, and it never once occurred to me I was 'at risk' at home to simple, natural problems.
IDK if that's white privilege laid bare, but it's horrifying to confront.
And massive racism.
@@celticlass8573 Probably.
I oddly don't feel like i even know, but it seems likely.
Human decency seems to have vacated the U.S. some years ago. I remember when Katrina happened people from states all across the country opened their homes to those who had been displaced. I don't think people would do that today. Sadly. As a matter of fact, I think everything you mentioned has gotten worse not better (bureaucracy, ass-covering, greed, and callousness). I do have hope that'll change but it's gonna take time and understanding which I don't think is available right now. Again...sadly. Here's to a better future.
@@ingridfong-daley5899 It would start with little to no assistance for the poor black areas, either to evacuate, or to rebuild, and the complete lies that the media said were happening (mentioned in this video briefly). If you do a Google Scholar search (or regular Google but you'll get different results) for "racism during Katrina" there's a lot of great resources.
Speaking as a guardsman who served on operation Katrina i can say that the looting wasn't as bad as the media made it sound but it was bad. The salons were hit first before almost every other business. The policemen who stayed behind were either looting themselves or completely, laughably undertrained. I've been hit with rocket fire and mortar fire but the one thing in my military career I would never want to relive is my time in New Orleans.
I can't begin to imagine the things you've witnessed. I just want to say thank you for your service. ❤️
The salons?
Shampoo?
My wife was deployed there as well. They looted the absolute dog shit outta that place.
@@parisite99 I'm still just infinitely confused by the 'salon/shampoo' references?
A group that rescued many people were the "United Cajun Navy". This was a group of Air boat owners that have helped with rescues not only affter Katrina, but also during other emergencies. Maybe you should do a SideProjects video about this group.
They're just called the 'Cajun Navy' as far as I know, but they're a real entity of locals who make a real difference rescuing locals in boats and keeping their Southern cool in times of crisis.
LaPlaaaaaaace, checkin' in! ;)
Yep, Cajun Navy for the win. Good people who come together to help others, but technically not an officially recognized group as they are often just whoever has the ability to jump in and help. Organized mostly in times of need through social media.
Never heard of them. It would be good to hear a positive story about the "real" people doing the real work 💜
Good on them, but they need a better name
Cajun Navy is overwhelmingly white, so no, Simon won't do a video about them
It's sad that no one ever speaks of the actions of other parishes. No one talks about people trying to escape on foot, and were turned back by armed citizens. I wonder if any of them realized or wondered about what happed to the people they treated that way.
Armed citizens? Wasn’t it actually members of the armed forces and/or police forces that actually prevented people from evacuating?
@@artman2oo3Nope! Actual atmed citizens. The pretext was that they were keeping their parrish "safe." Nevermind how this affected others' health and safety.
It was the 'American Sniper', keeping all the 'good folks' safe during Katrina!
@@cherylwiggins17 It would be kinder for you to explain exactly why they felt that the groups of people trying to enter their neighbourhoods ought to be turned back.
Could it be that even on a normal day, these people were armed to the teeth out of fear that groups of men would enter their houses and kill their families in brutal, sadistic ways?
@@Kuingar I don't know where you're from, but what kind of normal day would have you standing on a highway bridge over Lake Ponchatrain armed to the teeth. Then to take that further, what about the escaping group would make that assumption violence seem reasonable? What could be possibly the difference between the groups?🤔🙄
I was living in Long Beach, Mississippi at the time. Lost my house and my job. Turned out to be the best thing for me as I got hired into a great position with a construction company that I moved up in and am celebrating my 16th work anniversary with them this week!
Heck yeah. Good to hear these kinds of stories. Up here in MN we had refugees here who were still trying to get their feet under them 10 years later.
Sorry for your loss. But great that you've found a way to bounce back from this awful disaster.
Im in gulfport. I was only 7 then, but it was a crazy experience. Learned alot living through that
A close friend of mine was 4 when it hit and his family still lives in Long Beach. They were remodeling the kitchen recently and rediscovered 7-8ft high water marks behind the cabinets
It was a blessing in disguise for you. Blessings.
When this disaster happened, a number of people relocated to Lubbock, Texas where I was in Junior High School. I think there were about a dozen students that went to my school alone. Very sad what happened.
Yes. I was in college station and we had lots and lots that moved in after Katrina (and Rita).
@@DonLicuala it makes plenty of sense. New Orleans was -and IS- a vital port city. Storms happen. Flooding happens. People live there because there is economic incentive to do so. But the problem isn’t with the notion of reclaiming land nor being below sea level. Know who else reclaims land from the sea? The Dutch. It’s a matter of engineering. If they’ve figured it out, surely American brilliance is sufficient to do the same. Right? Right.
@@BrandyHoelscher The one major difference between NOLA and the Dutch is that the Dutch don't gave to contend with hurricanes.
@@QBCPerdition They get the odd tidal surge, which compared to a Hurricane makes the odds look pretty bad!
There were some Katrina evacuees who came to my hometown following Katrina. One was a girl who was in my Algebra I class for a month or so during 8th grade. She and her family gradually made their way back to New Orleans.
The "THESE PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS & DESERVE TO DIE" tone of the "news" that my parents listened to juxtaposed with the reality was an eye opener as to how much of a horrible alternate reality they were voluntarily getting themselves into. When even Top Gear is kinder to the victims of Katrina, you're pretty bad.
Let me guess fox News?
Il never forget how much they avoided talking about the actual reasons for the flood and just blamed the local democrat councilors who somehow were the monsters that killed everyone. They couldn't even let the dead rest had to jump right into pushing a narrative. And CNN was no better
@@Aztesticals Even comedians were being really insensitive, I remember Tosh saying, "if any city ever needed a bath".
@@emigrator08 They call it "dark humor" but I'm not sure who's laughing.
@@Aztesticals I was about to get real pissed at you for only mentioning Fox news until I saw the end of your post because I'm sick of people thinking conservative viewpoints are the problem. Katrina and its aftermath had little to do with politics and was more about how the media misled, misinformed and outright lied to people across the world. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, etc etc. all had their hands stained with blood on how they misreported the events of Katrina. The media back then had really changed compared to how it was in the 80s and 90s and was now all about sensational reporting and throwing journalistic integrity out the window, regardless of which side of the political spectrum the media was on.
It goes to show you nowadays at how the media has literally done all it can to divide this country further and further and to keep people from coming together by trying to paint American life as full of racism, sexism, murder, rape, robbing, etc. The media keeps its power by keeping people scared and scared people start to only look at the media for advice rather than just stepping out their front door and finding out the world isn't nearly as bad as the one the media paints.
@@Kastev30 Are you saying there is no racism, sexism, murder, rape, robbing, etc.
I was 8yo when Katrina hit. I evacuated to Hammond where my grandmother lived. I remember the left side of the eye went directly above us. We went outside for a few minutes and I can remember the eerie stillness of the air, the clear sunlight above. I couldn’t comprehend the amount of damage at that age. We eventually returned about 5 weeks later. Our brick house on the outskirts of NOLA wasn’t hit too bad, maybe a foot of water and like 1/4 of the roof missing. The trip back home was haunting. As we got closer and closer the damage was more obvious. I saw empty lots where houses used to be. Trees fell and basically cut houses in half. In the end no one I personally knew died, but a two of my fathers coworkers died. It was a horrible event I will remember for the rest of my life…
There was an interview with a soldier, who upon return from Iraq he said NOLA looked just like the wartorn areas he patrolled
Would love to see a piece done on The Great Storm of 1900 that basically destroyed Galveston
With the Railroad Miracle when a signalman halted an incoming train on foot on the bridge.
@@blueberrypirate3601 Also how Galveston was, at the time, building itself up to become the "Los Vegas" city before Los Vegas.
I remember Time Magazine, in the weeks after Katrina, printed some of the horrific images that came out of it. One in particular is burned in my memory, of a man, face down, in the water, bloated and stretched and slightly discolored, but still obviously a middle aged black man. Idk why, seeing as I know I'd seen dead bodies before, but that was the first time I remember being really disturbed by a corpse. This picture was taken maybe a week after the storm, but he was still there... floating. I was 15 at the time, and the stories that came out of the south that summer were impactful on my teen years.
I think I saw this image too, heartbreaking.
It’s kinda horrifying that my morbid curiosity made me google this and even with your description I’m not sure which image you were referring to because it could be one of half a dozen images of the dead that are just free for anyone to see. I kinda feel wrong now. I’ve seen something I had no right to see
Water and heat do strange things to the dead.. it was probably the first time you'd seen that sort of thing, plus it was an image of a body in a situation most of us would feel it never should have been in
I was 13 at the time. It wasn't until a few years ago when I started to learn about some of the gruesome discoveries people made following Katrina.
I'm kinda glad I've yet to see that Time picture you're talking about.
I had that edition and thats the first image I think of too when I think of Katrina. I was 15
The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season was at the time the most active hurricane season ever recorded. It was so active not only did we use the Greek Alphabet to name storms after Wilma, the last storm Zeta formed in late December and continued into January of 2006.
Aye, and then 2020 happend 😔
@@angelitabecerra Last year's season beat 2005 by one hurricane.
Indeed, and 2005 had far more intense hurricanes than 2020, including four Cat 5s. Emily, Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, the strongest hurricane ever in the atlantic.
I went to the New Orleans area 2 years after Katrina (my church youth group helped put the finishing touches on new houses for people). There were still so many destroyed houses & buildings and people living in FEMA trailers. Everyone was so friendly, grateful for even the small amount of help we gave and willing to help each other.
@@DonLicuala All of the new homes in the area were being built on stilts.
It’s 2022 and there are still areas that remain uninhabited in New Orleans East. Stores empty, houses abandoned.
It's so weird seeing this incident being shown as 'history'. Maybe since it happened in the digital age it feels so much more recent than it really is now, even though I was a middle schooler when it happened.
As a side note, there's an excellent little documentary by Bright Sun Films called 'Closed for Storm' about the fate of Six Flags New Orleans, which was refurbished just in time to get absolutely demolished by the hurricane, and its graffiti'd, rusted corpse has been sitting in east NOLA ever since. If you're into urban ruins it's a must-see.
I know that feeling well. I was 13 when 9/11 happened, and it's weird when your brain shifts an event like that from "That very bad thing that happened and that I was traumatized by" to "History that's important enough to put in school textbooks".
I drive by that rusted six flags corpse every day lol
@@erktrs6146 I had actually just gone to that Six Flags for my 8th grade field trip, the year before Katrina hit.
@@LyralioRC Nothing like a Red Flag to process at that age!
@@LyralioRC I was 14 when 9/11 happened, you're so right about how it went from our horrible realty to now being taught in schools. I have a 14 yo and I believe she learned about it in 7th grade, she's in 9th grade now.
I remember being a small child when katrina hit. My family lives in northern louisiana so if any hurricanes do hit us theyre usually not a threat, so we had family from new orleans stay with us. When we were watching the news and footage showed of the neighboorhood they lived in, they completely broke down. They had to move across the state from their home.
I was 13. I'm in South Arkansas and we had some Katrina evacuees come here. One was in my Algebra I class for a time that year until her family started to make their way back.
Like you and your family, hurricanes aren't much of an issue when they get to AR. Aside from Rita and Laura, the hurricanes I've lived to see come through didn't cause any issues. When Ida was coming through, the most we got was wind (didn't get any rain).
Random additional comments from a local that experienced Katrina:
1.) The Royal Canadian Mounties were the first responders to appear in St. Bernard Parish, beating all American agencies/aid.
2.) The storm surge was so high on the Mississippi coast that some two-story buildings were completely swamped by water.
3.) Fixing the levees remains a constant struggle to this day. You cannot keep building a levee vertically without horizontally expanding the base, but people were allowed to rebuild along levee lines and fight to keep their property from being annexed for levee expansion.
4.) The levee flood gates have manual controls to open/close them in case the power goes out. This would be good thinking, except that in some cases a genius decided to put the manual cranks in a hole in the ground. So using them in flood conditions is... interesting.
Your two points about the levees are incredibly ominous and upsetting. New Orleans is a great city it’ll be a shame when it get hits again if it’s not prepared
As someone who lives in LA but in the southwest part, I know all too well how bad hurricanes can get. Sad part is, ever since NOLA got destroyed by Katrina a lot of news focuses on that area when any storm comes through, leaving a lot of areas totally unrecognized and in need of help. It really sucks to be trying to rebuild and be completely ignored by your own government.
America keeps showing south Louisiana we aren't American enough to be worth their time or resources, when are we going to listen?
Hurricane Ida was stronger and stayed over New Orleans longer than Katrina, but the Levees held. The city did lose power for a week but that's nothing compared to flooding.
Unfortunately, Katrina made this "improvement" possible through blood, as many things in life have been.
I wasn’t living in Louisiana at the of Katrina. Recent transplant from California and just experienced my first hurricane. But I’ve been told that Ida was definitely stronger than Katrina and if the levees had held.. I’m just in awe of the resilience of the people of the south. I did ask myself, hurricane or earthquake?
@@elsawilson4418 the entire USA is basically deciding which natural disasters you're okay with. Blizzards: North East, Tornadoes & Hurricanes: Deep South, wildfires & earthquakes: West Coast, Corn: Midwest
But yes, much of the South and especially NOLA has a "we will rebuild" attitude.
As a Dutch citizen I think New Orleans is fucked right now. It's not enough to be able to withstand the current level of storms. The water is rising, the temperature is getting warmer, storms are worsening. If your city is not preparing right now for the storms of 50-100 years from now you're just waiting for a repeat. And if the flooding was bad then, what do you think will happen when the flood protection fails with the risen water level?
The Netherlands has a state of the art flood protection system and even that will not be good enough 30 years from now. 'Hier gaan over het tij - de maan, de wind en wij' or 'Here rules over the tide - the moon, the wind and us' it says on a plaque at one of our flood protections. I'm very proud of that phrase, but it requires (and will continue to require) a lot of effort to be able to keep saying that. It'll take only one more 1953 for that phrase to be turned from prideful to arrogant
@@rinus454 New Orleans is fine
@@rinus454 You're likely right. I'm from the River Parishes region of Louisiana, but climate evolutions are more reliable than my egocentrism.
But human nature being what it is, we'll make it 'float' as long as possible--'mankind is more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed' as some American patriot once said.
We stay with what we know, ultimately... the 'devil you know' versus the devil you don't, knowing how to adjust/adapt/excuse.
We're like America's Edinburgh, but with maybe 800 years' less 'tangible' history but just as much high-romantic gore. :)
I wonder if the Saffir-Simpson Scale, Richter Scale, and other strength-measurung scales could make a Side Projects video.
That's a good idea. Discuss the people that the scales are named after and what inspired them to create those scales.
The word is subsidence, not subsistence, and beaded necklaces, not beheaded.
Not as a sideprojects topic, rather one for Today I found Out...
Who cares which channel it is put on, i'll watch anything if it is presented by Simon.
Don’t forget the Advanced Fujita Scale
I remember being 8 watching the news reports. Seeing bodies floating in the streets really shattered my view of the world at that time.
I have a similar memory, I got up for school and my morning cartoons were replaced by the news playing footage of 911
I have lived in Long Beach, MS my entire life and my home, in which I stayed during Katrina, was less than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the coast line. We took a direct hit. When the eye passed over, there was what seemed to be a deafening silence. Although we took a harder hit in terms of wind and surge than NOLA, no one seems to speak of this. Maybe this is due to the fact that the concentration of structures and people is much greater in NOLA giving the illusion that we didn’t take as much damage. Or maybe it’s because the area where I am from isn’t nearly as iconic as the city of NOLA. Whatever the reason, I can assure you the result of the storm was nothing less than total destruction. There wasn’t a single structure standing south of the railroad tracks and the things I saw when I took a walk after the storm, I will never be able to unsee. My family was very lucky. Our home had almost zero structural damage after the storm and we didn’t realize just how bad it was until we took that fateful walk once the storm had passed. Every detail of that day will be burned into my memory until the day I die.
I'm right there with you brother. I was born and raised on Henderson Point, 2 blocks off the beach. Having trouble knowing where you're at in the neighborhood you grew up in was a very unsettling experience.
Nobody every mentions Mississippi despite the entire coast being destroyed.
Houston took in a majority of New Orleans refugees and evacuees. We housed them in the Astro Dome. People came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I remember when the kids were sent to our local highschools too. It's was heart breaking to hear what they went through. A lot of the refugees and evacuees ended just staying in Houston or other parts of Texas.
I grew up right by the astrodome. It was common for people to have their homes broken into by people desperate and looking for food. Most of the cases resulted in the home-owner and trespasser breaking bread and staying forever friends. Countless people I know share christmases now. Many never left Houston and ended up buying houses in those same neighborhoods saying “Houston gave me a better chance than NOLA ever did.”
Storms have a way of washing over the past. If you arts willing to look forward - life can surprise you. I am proud of my city. We ignored the media & just did what was right.
Guess who was first to help us during Harvey? You couldn’t keep Louisiana away. They came running.
3:15 - Chapter 1 - The big easy
6:00 - Chapter 2 - Poseidon' wrath
8:35 - Chapter 3 - Bracing for impact
11:05 - Chapter 4 - Disaster
14:15 - Chapter 5 - Aftermath
17:25 - Chapter 6 - Rebuilding in the crescent city
20:10 - Chapter 7 - A city in recovery
Hey, thank you!
Nagin pissed me off when he asks for Grayhound busses after the storm. Meanwhile school busses were left to get flooded instead of evacuating residents. You're supposed to be the freaking leader of the community. Use your resources to help people before it becomes a problem.
He’s doing 10 years in federal prison for taking bribes and money laundering related to contractors before and after Katrina.
@@RyanB1987 True but he mostly failed the people of New Orleans when he was needed most and tried to cover it by blaming others.
Man, an inept politician. Never heard of one of those before. I live in NJ all of our politicians are grade A scumbags.
My sister was in college and got out to Jackson MS in time. When she got back in January to the city she helped gut several houses in the closet parishes.
I worked with the gutting crews on four different occasions in '06 and '07. I came down from Canada to volunteer. NOLA changed me.
This event was a horrific experience for so many. The response was even worse. But one thing that is just as disturbing for this disaster and so many more even today, is that these miserable conditions go on for months, years...while the focus shifts to the newest front page story. There are people left with nothing, desperate and invisibly struggling with nothing or advocate.
Add in the eastern side of the storm as well. What happened in MS was just as catastrophic without the extreme flooding that louisiana did. I was here in south mississippi when katrina hit. Its probably the main reason im so interested in these storms in the first place. The devastation was unbelievable.
I was in Biloxi, MS when Katrina hit. I'll never forget sitting through the eye wall of that monster.
I saw the video of the guy who filmed Katrina in the Beau Rivage parking garage.
Me and my parents were slated to go down there for a vacation in early June that year, but a tropical storm postponed it. We had to wait until June 2007.
I’m born and raised in New Orleans.It’s been 15 years and I can say with 100% certainty that some homes still haven’t been repaired. And we just went through another bad storm last month.
Am I the only person who is surprised that Simon actually goes to a studio to film these videos? I seriously thought he just had a bad ass living room to film in
Mr. Whistler hosts a dozen channels. That takes staff and support. Dude is a money-making *machine*. I was more surprised to find out he lives in Prague, Czech Republic.
My wife went to NoLa the following November to help fill in the lack of nurses. She saw a lot of the devastation and helped treat a lot of people.
Then earlier this year we visited the city for a few days and it's right back to being a terrific place.
I used to live in bay saint louis MS and let me tell you about some destruction. My house was on stilts 12 feet up in the air. The 30 foot storm surge broke the connection between the stilts and the house and picked it up, then pushed it into the pine trees in my back yard
"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win."
Ivor van Heerden - deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center
Most people have no idea how many things have to not go wrong every single day for them to just stay alive.
"George Bush doesn't care about black people!" Huge missed opportunity not showing that clip, just saying...
Yes! I just responded with that quote to someone else.
I was expecting more from Simon. When it comes to Katrina the Mississippi Coast is always forgotten. 😔
Yep. Always the “land mass” between Louisiana and Alabama as they famously say.
Hey, just a thought, but maybe u guys could do a video about the 2011 Tornado outbreak? Alternatively, maybe the 2013 El Reno Mega Twister?
Oh that was a hell of a storm. Killed the twistex team
Literally the whole 2010-2012 series of storm seasons. Shits was legendary. Would especially love to see a video on TS Debbie, which virtually destroyed my hometown.
Highest windspeed ever recorded on earth. It destroyed CVVT.
Seeing that image of the city flooded brought back a pretty God awful memory. I lived far away from New Orleans, but seeing a major American city under water and looking like a 3rd world disaster zone with so many trapped, missing, or dead left me heart broken. Even a year later when my church sent a group of us to nearby Biloxi, Mississippi to help do some cleanup, the effects of Katrina were still very much evident.
Katrina hit Biloxi head on. The MS Gulf Coast was devastated. From the beach to the Interstate was hit with a 25 foot storm surge and power was out all the way to Meridian. You couldn't even recognize any of the cities from Waveland to Biloxi. I know what happened in NOLA was terrible and tragic but they weren't the only area that suffered.
Me and my parents went to Biloxi almost 2 yrs after Katrina and while the area was back to normal, you could see some remnants of Katrina's damage. I remember us driving past a billboard sign that was damaged and pretty much abandoned.
@@finchborat Biloxi was far from normal two years after the storm. To this day there are concrete slabs of buildings swept away and empty lots yet to be redeveloped all along the beach.
Thank you for this video. As someone who lived in Mississippi around that time, this hits close to home for me. Lucky for me and my family we didn't lose anything but we have encountered so many people that left New Orleans and the southern part of Mississippi who lost everything to that storm. Remember to never take the people you love for granted because in a matter of time it can all be gone. Stay safe everyone.
Peace and love ❤
It breaks my heart hearing this, no matter how many times. New Orleans is an absolutely magical place with such a unique and rich culture, there is no place like it. Poverty and graffiti hide the most beautiful courtyards I've ever seen and the complexities of the neighborhoods within neighborhoods, combined with the unique heritage, history, food, art, music, and architecture gives it such an ethereal quality. These people continue to try to preserve this place because they know there is nothing else like it and are the epitome of resilience. ❤
Spoken with love and clarity.
Thanks for that :) Much love in kind.
As a New Orleans native who lived through this, you just made me tear up. Much love.
New Orleans is alright, but the majority of the residents are trash.
"No more or less trash than your grasp of vocabulary and/or subject-verb agreement," said the native Louisianian detritus in response.
@@ingridfong-daley5899 my bad bro/chick… or whatever it is that you identify as. I’ll fix that auto correct for you. It’ll just make my statement more true than it already is.
Thanks fam.
Living in Florida I remember Katrina being a cat 1. When it hit the golf, it immediately turned into a cat 5 before hitting New Orleans. When it hit Florida we all saw it basically a joke. After that we were shocked that it grew so quickly, and the damage it caused.
I lived in Slidell that took a direct hit... couldn't go home for nearly 4 months due to no power and water. I was lucky though, house only took roof and siding damage and had 1 busted window.
I tell you you never want to be in a storm like this. I was in Yapoon, Australia when cyclone Yassi hit. It was a cat 5 storm, 200mph+ wind gusts. We ensure buildings are cyclone proofed here and with this one it still picked up entire houses up and threw them fown the street like tissue boxes. The entire landscape afterwards looked like bikini attol after castle bravo. My heart goes out to everyone who survived this. They are truly terrifying storms to survive.
Fellow New Orleanian here. 6 Flags is still there albeit overrun by woods now. It’s a spooky site.
I took an ICS-300 class this year, one of the classes needed to command an emergency response incident in the US, and they used Katrina the case study for planning our disaster response.
I was just 5 when Katrina hit recently lived through hurricane Ida. If you get the chance you should do one about it. Keep up the good work!
Katrina and Rita gave us a one-two punch to the gut and I sometimes wonder if the areas hit will ever fully recover.
Being from the south, it’s very refreshing hearing these words in an English accent.
I was 10 years old when this happened. I lived, and still live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our first responders, national guard, charities, non profits, and everyday citizens went to help. It was so much more of a disaster than words can describe. It's still in the forefronts of those who live/have lived on the southern shores.
I was 13. I live 20 miles from the AR-LA state line and we had some Katrina evacuees come up here. One was in my Algebra I class for a couple of months. One guy was a professor and served as the writing lab instructor at my junior high that year. He stuck around for several years before he made his way back to the Gulf Coast.
“A modern American Disaster” perfectly describes every politician we’ve elected for the last couple decades.
No, no, no! There was that one guy; I'll remember his name any minute.
.
.
.
... ok; never mind. I got nothing.
It’s been a series of corrupt, incompetent, out of touch old codgers who’re either blatantly unqualified for the presidency (the us electing TWO film/TV stars to a political role never fails to get me) or career politicians who’re not much better at their job than the movie starts
@@emilybarclay8831 Politicians aren't characterized by _being_ better, but by _sounding_ better.
they are selected
@@emilybarclay8831 that’s because it doesn’t matter if there movie stars, businessman, or career politicians regardless of party none of them care about us they only care about themselves and making themselves richer and more powerful
One of my cousins evacuated with his family during Katrina and stayed with friends out of state. The city bulldozed their house afterwards since it was so damaged, but they did so without notifying my cousin until after it was done.
I also heard that refused to evacuate because they didn't want to leave beloved pets behind. I think they have since changed shelter rules so people can bring pets into emergency shelters.
Simon, thanks for that great video on Katrina. I have always been a huge fan of your channels, and this was one of the best videos i have ever seen on this event. Having lived in New Orleans my entire life, and experienced the storm first hand, as well as the rebuilding, you did an amazing job of summing up the history, the culture, the struggle, and the rebirth of our city. If anyone would ask about it, i would tell them to watch this video first before talking about it. Last thing, side projects episode idea, Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Bridge? Thanks again for the beautiful video and all the content you post.
Actually it was Bay St.Louis/Waveland in Mississippi is where Katrina hit directly. New Orleans suffered because of severe flooding due to the levies failing.
Thanks a lot Geographics, this storm is what we had to analyse and make a report on, this helped a lot. I and my team couldn't have done it without u
I worked with the Corps of Engineers, (in 1979 - well before Katrina), under an engineer walking the levies to evaluate the CoE's proposal for a project to significantly strengthen and improve the levy system. The CoE's project, estimated to cost (I remember about) 5 billion, was never funded as the politicians didn't wish to risk their jobs over requesting this money from Congress.
I loved living in that city, but any taste for that fled, along with the politicians and other authorities who abdicated their responsibilities (before, during, and after).
Now it cost them 20x because the leeves failed
I was a resident of Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish that was displaced by the storm. I can say that my hometown is not the same as it was before Katrina. It seems more run down and crime ridden than ever before. I didn't move back, but I still miss Chalmette terribly and the way that it used to be. This was a great video. It was very emotional for me and brought back alot of memories. Thanks for taking the time to cover this event.
Hurricane Katrina literally spawned a government job: Emergency Management Specialist. Cause, for some reason, no one before ever thought we'd need people who study disasters and are experts on them. These folks fall under Homeland Security's umbrella and are usually found working for FEMA. Personal and private sectors also employ these people to do everything from real estate risk management research to corporate-sponsored disaster preparation training for employees.
Why prepare for natural disasters when terrorism was all the rage?
@@eriklakeland3857 Ugh, right? At least the new profession also has the option for training in counter-terrorism. Just in case you have to deal with a bomb threat *and* a hurricane at the same time, I suppose.
One of the few places in the US I have always wanted to visit. My grandmother visited there quite some time ago and told me "It felt like France, like home, though with an utterly different flavour.".
The HBO documentary When The Levees Broke goes into great detail on the Katrina disaster.
2004-12 was crazy in terms of natural disasters. 2004 Boxing Day tsunamis, The entire 2005 hurricane season, Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010, 2011 saw the super outbreak in the US which included the El Reno, Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes, and finally superstorm Sandy. All would make great videos and would love for Geographics to cover them.
There are many reasons people couldn’t leave. One thing about New Orleans: when there is a storm, it’s panic mode for the local meteorologists. Given the city’s geography, it’s a fair assumption that even a minor storm would be a potential catastrophe. However, there were people like me. Did not want to abandon my home. Didn’t think it’d be THAT bad. It will jink east at the last moment. In absence, “Wolf!” Had been cried too many times. Then, many people couldn’t afford to leave. Couldn’t afford hotels, had no relatives. Their choices were minimal.
One thing not many realise is that there are only a handful of ways out of the city, all susceptible to being blocked or flooded. The I-10 bridge between the city and Slidell was destroyed. The roads were death traps if you’d been stuck.
I lived in an area that wasn’t even badly hit, and my damage was minimal, but it was still 6 weeks before I could return home through the floods.
I was lucky.
I had my home, an apartment building in Bay St. Louis, MS, destroyed by this hurricane, displacing me and my mother for a couple years after. (I rode thru at my grandmother's tho, who was a good half-hour drive or so from where we lived.)
I was 12 at the time, and remember all of us hunkered down in the living room, watching shingles fly off the roof and a few of the support beams on my grandmother's house, the ones that held up her porch roof collapse (one of them broke the window of the room where my dad (who died a month after from cancer) was sleeping. That woke us all up since he yelled "Oh shit!" at the top of his lungs.)
We've since built back, but it took a few years.
I was living in St. Bernard Parish and I stayed for Katrina. It was wild, and I would say an adventure. We got 20ft of water ... some house you could go over the roof in a boat. Some houses were floating. I'm an artist now, primarily because of Katrina and ultimately led me to get my Master's Degree in sculpture. It was a horrific event in everyone that lived there life's but, not all of it was terrible. Thank you Simon and team for a great video. Love you St. Bernard!
I remember exactly where I was when I told my friend to evacuate. Cat 5 is no joke.
Hey Simon loved this video. As a Texan I'd love to see a video on hurricane Harvey. Another huge storm but it's an amazing story. People caravaned with boats from all across the south of the United States to come help and rescue people. It was incredible. I'd never been more proud to be an American than in that moment.
My parents had just moved us to the mississippi gulf coast not even 3 weeks before katrina. The house they were going to buy across hwy 90 ( runs along the beach ) was turned into a concrete slab and still sits that way today 16 years later. Alot of stuff was completely obliterated and stayed that way for a long time. News coverage zereod in on new orleans and often times misslabeled locations being shown as other cities, but the entire gulf coast received catastrophic damage. New orleans being a soup bowl , had a unique problem to deal with trying to keep the water out. Ultimately, the local government decided to unleash the levies on the lower 9th ward and other extremely poor districts in order to save the rich well to do people higher up. All around bad situation . So far we havent seen anything anywhere as severe as katrina since, god willing we hopefully wont again. The only positive i can say about that storm, is as a kid i saw humanity come together in a way i had never seen. People who had nothing left were just so happy to be alive, that they would give anything they could to help their fellow neighbors . People fed one another, took in complete strangers to stay with them . Thousands of relief teams came from all states to lend help. I remember having about 20 people from hawaii living in my house for a month just to help other people rebuild . Crazy time to be alive.
I never thought about it, but you're totally right--the amount of 'mis-labelled' local news locations I've seen in national coverage is laughable.
It feels morbid that i'm finding humourous irony in that, but since I'm laughing heartily, I'll not question it for now. :)
@@ingridfong-daley5899 they do it all the time.
I just want to say thank you for this video, I especially want to thank you for mentioning St Bernard parish, being as I grew up there and was 16 when katrina wiped out everything my family owned. People all heard about new orleans, but no one heard about St Bernard, even though we were almost a total loss under 6-20 feet of water. We just rode out huricane Ida at my home on the northshore of lake pontchatrain, we dealt with very little damage here but my heart and mind go out to all the familys whom have lost everything like we did so few years ago.
I am a Floridian and have been through several hurricanes... Nothing like the destruction on Katrina though. I felt so horrible for those people trapped in the areas hit hard. One interesting fact about Mardi Gras... New Orleans was not the first city in the US to celebrate it.... Mobile Alabama was the first city to do it. Mobile had a Mardi Gras celebration in 1702 or 1703. New Orleans was not established until 1718.
Technically yes that’s true about mobile- However what Alabama doesn’t like to say about the historical fact is that Mobile was a part of the Louisiana purchase treaty and owned by the officials of New Orleans. Mobile only had Mardi Gras for a few years before it was permanentlymoved to New Orleans because of border jurisdictions and Royal decree. Had Mobile not fought with the Royals they would instead be the present day Mardi Gras city but they chose not to bend the knee as it were
@@lesliebear9907 Mobile now loves Mardi Gras. I lived in Pensacola for a while before moving to Tampa. I went to the Mobile celebration many times. I guess they got over the issues eventually. I loved going to downtown Mobile on Mardi Gras... Lots of good food, parades and floats, people, and just overall feeling of fun.
Excellent as Always
Countries sent aid that was never accepted. People stole buses to help evacuate their neighbours when no one else would come. Children being evacuated from rooftops were strip searched by police, little kids, six and seven years old. The scale of the mismanagement was of epic proportions, with roots reaching back a hundred years.
And the Bush administration’s response to the disaster is probably best summed up by Barbara Bush’s comment on the subject.
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this is working very well for them."
She said this about people living in a football stadium.
And over a decade later, it’s the same as it’s ever been.
Oh man! Can you cite the source for the kid strip searches! I'd love to know more.
@@jessigirlrae1688 sorry, it was a picture that came out not long after the disaster. I think it was in national geographic? But ppl were talking about it. It was an image of a little child being searched by a fully armed soldier.
The media coverage and emergency response regarding the storm was just atrocious and I'm glad you talked about it. I feel what needs to be highlighted the most is the incredible kindness and resilience of the people of the city and surrounding areas. When a disaster like Katrina happens, everyone is your neighbor. Everyone is your family. I was 8 at the time, in neighboring St. Charles Parish, and we saw a lot of refugees since we got back up and running relatively quickly. Even at that age, the volunteer work, fundraising, and community outreach was very visible. We've watched the same happen now from the other side with hurricane Ida. The Bayou and river parishes were hit hard, and its a very different world now with the pandemic, but the sense of community is the same.
I remember going to help immediately after the storm and thought the place looked like a post apocalyptic scene, so many pets left behind.
It can seem heartless because so many people have died, but each time there is a major problem, I can’t help to think of the animals trapped in the zoos, the farm animals and the pets.
@@cathyb1273 Same.
Nobody ever talks about the damage to Mississippi. New Orleans flooded, we were decimated.
Many towns and cities along the Mississippi coast were wiped out. Nobody also talks about the hurricane that hit the west part of the state two weeks later.
Yep, I live in Lake Charles now. Rita did a number there. And now Laura last year. But the only city that ever gets coverage is New Orleans.
@@stephd2607 I’m originally from Lake Arthur. Yeah Laura did a number on Lake Charles and Cameron. I was in Iraq when Rita hit. But all my family was still there when it hit. It was heart breaking to see lake Charles so tore up last summer.
The city is below sea level and surrounded 3/4 by water...what could go wrong?
Learn from our mistakes?
Rebuild
The Netherlands seem to manage being below sea level just fine.
A video on Hurricane Hugo in 1989 would be awesome. I lived through that one. What it did to SC was crazy ridiculous
How about you do a part 2 to this where you highlight what Mississippi had to go through. We didn't have the loss of life, but our gulf coast was completely annihilated.
To put it into context for anyone who hasn't seen pictures of Gulfport, and Biloxi: those cities looked more like Hiroshima, and Nagasaki post atomic bombs after Katrina went through. I'll never forget the image of the Grand Casino hotels' upper floors, having been torn off the building, left on the interstate by Katrina. Other smaller towns were completely wiped off the map.
Always remember: parts of New Orleans got flooded. The entire Mississippi gulf coast was destroyed.
Over 200 people died in Mississippi
My cousin, who I'm godfather to, was born the day Katrina struck. I remember being in the hospital with her watching all the coverage.
Subsistence? Perhaps subsidence?
You guys should do a video on the la brea tar pits!!
This was an emotional one for me. Thank you for this, for not flinching from how bad our so-called authorities screwed up, and screwed us over.
I lived through Katrina, in Mississippi. As others have mentioned and as your video also acknowledges, New Orleans got a lot of the focus, but the ywere hardly the only victims and even as far inland as Hattiesburg (which is just shy of a hundred miles from NOLA) the destruction was insane. People here got the wind in the teeth, and it was two weeks before ANYBODY had power; the county hospital is here and nurses were saying that they were doing their best with what amounted to third world medicine, because there were no stockpiled supplies. No one was ready, no one was even taking the storm very seriously. Folks worried for the people in NOLA, and everyone - EVERYONE - knew those damned levees were going to break. Maybe not to the extent of the actual failures, but it was not a secret that the city and the state both had utterly failed to properly maintain a single mile of the flood control system. Period. They took money for it, and that money vanished, and people KNEW that.
I lost my home in the storm, and being among those poor folks who could not leave - I was damned lucky to be able to shelter with someone who had a "real house" (i.e. wood frame, brick walls, all that jazz). And even so, it was three weeks before I could even get to my place to assess the damage. And FEMA? They were supposed to help people like my family, supposed to make it simple and quick to get repair money or at least a temporary shelter of some sort.
I never saw a penny of help, never even got an acknowledgement that I applied for help in the first place.
Around here FEMA is a four letter slang still - Fix Everything My Ass.
It's been a long time now since Katrina destroyed so much - it felt like (and still feels like) half the Gulf Coast was ripped apart. If not by the storm, then by the anger and mismanagement and corruption; the race and class hatred that was blatantly on display was just salt in the wounds. There were stories about gigantic alligators roaming New Orleans and other places, and half of them ended with "At least the gator was honest."
I would say that though the flood waters receded, the damage is still here. What makes me cry so much even now is that none of those wholesale, sweeping changes have taken place. Not really. The hate is still here, beating down the poor and the people of color. The wounds of not just a few decades but hundreds of years, are still here. Still festering. Even though they're not hidden at all, no one is really moving to fix that, just like the efforts to rebuild the levees in NOLA have been patchy at best.
Fantastic work as usual guys.
Never thought I'd see one of my favorite TH-camrs covering my favorite topic (hurricanes in general). Please do more hurricanes like the 1900 Galveston hurricane.
Also I survived Katrina, she was no joke people
Katrina was nuts, I was in high school and I went to bed one night after a party with my friends thinking everything was fine and then the next morning I evacuated (while quite hungover) and didn’t see home again for months. Pretty wild!
A friend of mine was in New Orleans as a photographer for the A.P. He became stranded during the Katrina storm and was robbed and beaten. What a literal flying shit show. 😳
I was hired to handle registration via phones after Katrina. One thing that was stark? The bureaucracy that held up aid because the system wasn’t set up for not being inspected or for such a wide area. In the end nearly all of the state of LA was a a disaster area.
Casual Criminalist Simon: "Why are there so many French names in Louisiana???"
Geographics Simon: "...Ohhhhhh!"
I was thinking the same thing watching this.
I’m British and was 5 when this happened so naturally my knowledge of this disaster was ‘a city flooded and it was bad’ so this video was super interesting and horrifying in equal amounts
For an interesting perspective on the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans, check out the book "1 Dead in Attic" by Chris Rose. He was a writer for the local paper, it is a collection of his work from the first few months immediately following the hurricane hitting the city.
I have that book. A chilling read.
I never read it, but my grandparents led a Winnebago-exploring group for rich white people that was based out of N.O., and i remember my grandma telling me about a couple from their camping group that drowned on the second floor of their house in Lakeview--they were just 'too old' to get up the stairs fast enough to escape the water, and it really stayed with me.
I have a kinda 'creepy video' where i use images that i shot post-Katrina, and I don't share the link with anyone because the photos bring those friends of my grandma's back into my mind. It's just a little too 'real' for me.
My family evacuated last minute, we were initially going to stay, but my sister was only 3 months old at the time and my mother's coworker took her shift at the hospital and said "Get that baby out of here," so we could get out. Nobody really expected things to get as bad as they did, we barely packed anything, just expected to be back within a few days. We lost everything, the water was above our house, (we lived in Arabi) it drowned our dog, the only things we were able to keep were a few pots and pans. We ended up staying with our grandparents for about a year, and came back to NOLA, and when we moved away again, came back and visited our house slab every few years until it was demolished. I was 5 years old at the time, so I don't really remember much, but I know I'll never forget.
the entire US is completely unprepared for most disasters... it's all about commerce and infinite growth... nothing put away for a rainy day.
Moreover, spending $5 billion on levee upgrades is deemed way too expensive even though it will prevent hundreds of billions of dollars in damage
My daughter lived in Houma during cyclone Ida. Right the inside of house is just wall studs. All floors, ceilings and walls had to be stripped out. Roof now repaired. She had to find accom. 250 miles away and can’t commute to work because of distance. Lack of income major problem.
Cops caring more about stopping people from stealing food than actually helping people in danger?? Well color me shocked
Most were NOT stealing food, they were stealing wigs, hair products, shoes, whatever electronics were still functioning, i personally watched a bar get looted, tvs ripped off walls, all booze, including kegs. They were stealing pretty much everything but food. I was there immediately after to help. Most people were grateful, a lot were not bc when my group went in we brought cops with us.
Also saw a gamestop after it was looted... gamestop doesn't sell anything edible. Unfortunately the worst kinda people saw the opportunity to get away with crime
@@oliverwells8011 is that supposed me sympathize with the cops? They could have stole all the TVs and junk in the city and I wouldn't give a fuck.
The cops cared more about theft than people's lives.
@@oliverwells8011 ok.... all of which was covered by insurance. Or should have been and if it wasn't then the business owners were stupid for not having that coverage.
@@benvaun1330 flood insurance is notoriously bad.
I was a toddler when Katrina hit. At the time my family was living in Wisconsin due to my dads job as a pilot, but both my parents were Florida natives and much of my extended family lived in Florida. Our house was full of people due to majority of my relatives deciding to evacuate. Even though I was young I still remember watching the news with my family and seeing the destruction.