All language subtitles for When.the.Levees.Broke.A.Requiem.in.Four.Acts.Acts.1.and.2.720p.10bit.WEBRip.x265-budgetbits

( jazz standard playing )

( louis armstrong singing )

( bell dings )

( singing continues )

( clamoring )

( waves splashing )

Mayor c. Ray Nagin:
We come to you with facts.

We come to you
With eyewitness accounts.

We come to you
Because we were there
Before the storm hit,

We were there
When the storm hit,

We were there after the storm,
And we're still there.

Are your teams,
Is fema ready for this?

Because you guys have been
Pretty taxed lately, with all
The hurricanes of last year,

- and this year's
Busy hurricane season.
- well, we have been taxed.

Right now we're still
Doing recovery operations
In florida,

And I've got a long-term
Recovery office down there.

And some people have been
Trying to second-guess

How fema responded
And recovered in florida.

Let me say
To all those critics:

We are ready,
We're going to respond

And we're going to do exactly
What we did in florida and
Alabama and the other places.

We're going to do whatever
It takes to help victims.

That's why we've already
Declared an emergency.

President bush had no
Reservations about doing that.

We're going to lean forward
As far as possible

And do everything we can
To help those folks

In Louisiana or alabama
Or mississippi.

Brendan loy:
New Orleans in peril,

Friday, August 26, 2005,
1:57 P.M.

There were forecasters
Out there--

There were legitimate
Meteorologists who were
Saying this is a threat.

And the national hurricane
Center was saying

There's a wide range
Of area that could be
Hit by this hurricane,

Ranging from
The florida panhandle
All the way over to Louisiana.

So New Orleans was
Within their strike target.

I first heard about
Hurricane Katrina--
I want to say,

Because it was on the 29th--
Maybe the 26th--

Kind of like word
That it was out there,

And what it was building to,
The strength it was
Building to.

Calvin mackie:
Anytime a hurricane gets
Into the gulf,

We become very aware
Here in New Orleans.

Friday morning
I was in detroit,

And Saturday morning
When I saw that the hurricane

Had reached category five,

I began to call
My family members

And pretty much implored them
To leave out of town.

I had flown in for the funeral
Of clarence barney,

Who had run the urban league
Of greater New Orleans.

About 2/3rds
Through the funeral,

My communications director
Michele moore,

Who was with me,

Slipped me a note up
At the front of the church,

And the note said,
"We must leave.

The storm is
A category five now."

Will chittenden:
I was living in metairie.

I was living there
With my ex-fiancee,

Her three kids,
And two grandchildren.

Saturday,
Before the hurricane,

That morning at 11:00 a.M.,

I sent her, two cars,
All the kids, the grandkids

And two friends that had
Come down from illinois,

And sent them away
To get to a safe spot.

I came down here
That Saturday for a vacation

Before I was going
To work in baltimore,

And arrived, and at the rport
Everyone was just trying
To get out.

There was this huge exodus
Trying to happen. And I'm like,
"What's going on?"

They said, "Oh, you didn't
Hear about the hurricane?"

And I actually hadn't
Been in touch with the news
Or weather or whatever.

So I came to my parents' house
And we just said, "Look,
Let's just wait."

I think it was probably
About Saturday about noon,

They really started saying that
It was going to come and hit us.

And my house was
Kind of unprepared.

I had stuff in the yard,
Windows needed to be boarded up,

All of that.
So I just started going to it.

I was here during
Hurricane Katrina

Because my
Mother-in-law decided--
As many new orleanians did--

That they could weather
The storm.

We haven't had a major
Hurricane since 1965.

I remember
I was five years old.
It was called hurricane betsy.

I remember driving
And the water coming up
Behind us and surviving that.

So I have always been
Afraid of hurricanes.

Herbert freeman, jr.:
My mother had been
Bedridden

For a while,
So she was in good spirits.

I told her, I said,
"There's a hurricane coming."

She said, "Oh yeah,
Well, we survived betsy.
You remember that?"

I said, "Yeah, I remember that.
But I'm going to board up
The windows and things.

We're just going to try
To survive it out."

You know, on the 26th,
As I recall,

The governor and I
Had talked

A little bit about this
Particular situation,

And we were
Already in the mode
Of evacuating people.

I signed a declaration
Of emergency for the state
Of Louisiana,

To begin activating
All of the assets

That could be
Brought to bear,

So that we could petition

The federal government
To help us

To also pay for the big things
That needed to happen.

Reporter:
Katrina is now
In the Gulf of Mexico

And growing stronger
Rapidly,

After leaving
At least six people dead
In south florida.

Many heavily-populated
Areas there

Are in deep water
And without power.

New computer information
Just coming in

Tells us that now
There's a possibility

Of this storm even
Shifting further west,

Perhaps even
Involving the New Orleans
Metropolitan area.

Of course, new orlea is
One of the most vulnerable
Hurricane places,

If not the most vulnerable
In the country.

I was having dinner
With my family,

Getting ready to evacuate them
The next morning.

Got a call
From max mayfield.

He said, "Mr. Mayor,
I am calling you.

I just finished talking
To the governor.

This is one
Of the worst storms

That I've ever seen
In my 33-year history.

The conditions are
The worst I've seen,

And this storm is one
Of the worst that I've seen.

If I were you, I would issue
A mandatory evacuation,

And try and get everybody
Out that you can

'cause this is
The real deal."

This is very serious.

This is the storm that
Everybody was afraid of.

And when you get
Somebody like the head
Of the hurricane center

To say that in 33 years
They hadn't seen
Anything like it,

We should
Take heed to it.

The city of New Orleans
Had never in its history

Issued a mandatory
Evacuation.

There's all sorts
Of legal concerns,

Because you have
So many residents

Who rely upon
Public transportation,

And there's a question about
Whether you can really deliver

On that order.

I basically called
My city attorney

After that Saturday night
Conversation with max mayfield

And said, "I don't care
What you have to do,

Figure out a way for us
To order mandatory evacuation."

And we did that
The next morning.

I pretty much just
Disregarded the fact

That hurricane Katrina was
Headed towards New Orleans.

A few of my friends seemed
To be particularly worried.

But I guess I'd been through
Enough of them, that I just--

And I'd never particularly
Been very worried about it.

It was a Saturday night
At 4:00 in the morning.

I went to bed that night,

And my son-in-law called me
About 4:00 in the morning,

Said "Father-in-law,
You better get up and watch tv,"

And turned on margaret orr,
And we watched her.

And when they showed you
What was happening--

That thing was
Covering the gulf.

Nagin:
Hurricane Katrina will likely
Affect the Louisiana coast

With tropical-force winds
And heavy rainfall
By this evening.

Governor blanco and I,
Mayor c. Ray Nagin,

Have each declared
A state of emergency.

Every person
Is hereby ordered

To immediately evacuate
The city of New Orleans.

Hurricane Katrina
Is now designated
A category five hurricane.

We cannot stress enough
The danger this
Hurricane poses

To gulf coast communities.

I urge all citizens
To put their own safety

And the safety
Of their families first
By moving to safe ground.

My name is
Tanya Harris,

And I'm a lower
9th ward resident.

This is-- actually,
This is three generations
Of us right here.

This is my grandmother
Josephine butler,

And that's my mother
Chirrie Harris.

We evacuated the Sunday
Before the storm.

My sister's van
Had broken down,

And basically
She didn't want to leave;

She just had
No desire to leave,
Because, you know,

Evacuating can get
Kind of costly.

And a lot of times,
We'd always just leave
And nothing happens.

So she didn't
Want to leave.

And my grandmother said,
"You know,

I think this is going to be
A pretty strong storm.

And so I think we ought
To get out of here."

And my sister
Still wouldn't leave.
But if one of us doesn't go,

None of us will go.
We all stay.

I told them-- I got a stick,
I went around there,

I said, "Y'all going
To leave out of that house."
I said, "Right now."

I said,
"Come on, get in the car.
If you don't have anything,

Get in the car.
Let's go. We got to go."

So they got in the car.
We all packed up in the car
And then we left.

We begin with two words
Coastal residents

Never want to hear:
Category five.

Hurricane Katrina now threatens
To bring catastrophic damage

To coastal Louisiana
And mississippi.

This monster
Of a storm is now

At the most powerful
Level for a hurricane,

And it's taking aim
At a wide swath of
The gulf coast.

And that includes
New Orleans--

A city six feet
Below sea level.

When I heard
The category five
Was coming,

I decided to evacuate.

I took my entire family

And I went
To north Louisiana,
Stayed with my brother.

They said,
"Well, we got to leave.
The hurricane coming."

I said, "Listen, man,

Everybody who's afraid
Should leave,

But I ain't
For that leaving.

I'm going to stay
Right here."

The main reason that
I decided to leave is

I hadn't gone shopping;
I had intended to.

So I was out of food
And I knew the grocery stores
Would be shutting down.

I left late, once I took
A good look inside my ice box,

And that was
Sunday evening.

I had never evacuated
From New Orleans
For a hurricane.

We've had others.
And we didn't know how severe

This one was going to be.

But my wife and my sons
Convinced me--

"Well, just leave the house
And let's go downtown
To a hotel,

Then you can
Come back tomorrow."

So I said,
"Fine, I'll do that."

The same thing was happening
That happens with a lot

Of hurricanes coming
To New Orleans.

There's a group that says,
"I'm going to leave;

You don't have
To tell me twice."

And then there's
The other group that says,
"I rode out betsy,

And I'm going to stay here
And it's going to be okay."

We left the city
That Sunday, when they made it
A mandatory evacuation.

I was at a hotel,
Right across the street

From the convention center
And the superdome.

Went to get my bags,
And as I was driving back home
To pick up my parents,

There was lines of people
Already going into
The superdome.

And they were holding them
Back, saying this is a place
Of last resort

So don't go yet.
So people were just
Lined up like a parade,

Waiting for the superdome
To open and go into it.

Nagin:
As the storm was
Bearing down on us,

We had opened up the superdome
For people with special needs,

Medical needs,
Which we always do.

The superdome is used

Because there's
No other facility

In the New Orleans area

That is capable
Of sustaining winds

Higher than a category
Three storm.

Nagin over p.A.:
We have been very fortunate

To get food

For you tonight.

( applause )

Shelton shakespear alexander:
The mood in the beginning

Was kind of like,
"Okay, we're okay."

You know, we was cheering
When they were speaking,
You know?

It was kind of exciting
To know they had food.

We wanted to see the tvs.

We wanted to know
What was going on
With the news out there.

And so everybody
Kind of like, was kind of,

I guess, accepting
Where they was at

At that particular time,
Even though the storm
Was coming.

Reporter: at 7:38 this
Evening, we are continuing
To track hurricane Katrina,

As we are now starting to feel
Some of the effects of Katrina.

This right here is a,
Well, empty street here
In New Orleans.

It actually looks
A little eerie, you know?

To see our city looking
Like this on a Sunday evening.

Montana leblanc:
I started praying a lot.

And I called my sister cheryl
In california--

She could see the news--
'cause we had already
Lost power.

So she could see the news
In california on cnn and she was
Giving me the update.

This was before it actually
Full-blown hit us.

And she said, "Phyllis,
It's 30 minutes away."

So I hang up, I'm praying,
I'm praying, I'm praying,

I'm getting
My husband prayed up,
I'm getting me prayed up.

I'm like, "Ron, you know what
I never thought about?
God's will.

What if this is
Actually god's will,

For us to die right now;
For this to be the time,
For us to die like this?"

Gina montana:
We both knew how to swim,

But jahiya's a better
Swimmer than I am.

And I talked to her about
If the storm starts hitting,

We found ourselves in the water
And having to swim,

If she could get to safety

And if I was trailing
Behind her,

To keep going.

Don't worry about me.
Get herself to safety.

And she said, "Mom, you know
I wouldn't leave you."

You know?

Because we knew it was
A life-or-death situation.

The potential danger,

The threat of the storm
Was enormous.

Reporter:
Cnn is your hurricane
Headquarters.

We are watching
A category five hurricane,
Hurricane Katrina,

As it makes its way towards
The city of New Orleans,

The expected landfall
About 5:00 to 8:00 a.M.
Tomorrow morning.

I wasn't in good
Physical condition,

But it was about 12:00
Before I left.

And I really was--

Had anticipated
Not leaving the house.

I was going to ride
This one out.

And so-- but then
I made a decision

That I needed to go up
To the complex.

So I asked my wife,
After I got in the car,

I told her, we only live
About a block away from...

The chalmette back levee
That surrounds st. Bernard,

And the area I live in
Is verret.

I told my wife just
To take the back road,
And she asked me why.

I said, "Well,
It's a sceniroute."

And I said, "I just want you
To look at it and just
Remember," I said,

"Because if this thing hits,
That's all you going to have
Is memories of this place."

Well, everybody left.
I went out, ran 10 miles,

Came back,
Boarded up my house,

Called my man,
We went to the hospital
To see my brother,

And then we went
Up to the hyatt,

Parked the car,
Went up to the 27th floor.

About 11:30, a guy came
On the p.A. System,

Says, "Everybody place your
Belongings in the bathrooms,

Grab your spread, your pillow
And come to the fourth-floor
Ballroom."

I guess about
2:30 in the morning

It got rough.

;

Eddie compass:
We started listening
To the wind,

And that sound--
I'll never forget that sound,

The wind hitting the glass
At the hyatt.

And those glasses
Started breaking.

And that's when you could see
The true power of mother nature.

The winds woke me up and I
Got up and looked outside,

And saw trees
In the courtyard across
From me just like swaying.

Rhonda washington:
You could hear the squall
Through the window,

Going "Shhhh,"
Like a tornado.

I thought a tornado
Was by the hospital,
It was so loud.

Moved all our patients
Out into the hallway,

Because we didn't want
Any windows cracking on them,
Any windows breaking.

Alexander:
This is August 29t
, 2005.

About 6:00 in the morning,
Everybody kind of sleeping.

And then, all of a sudden,
You just hear--

( thunderous crashing )

Reporter:
It sounded like
A new york city subway train.

Others said they
Thought it was thunder
Or someone hammering.

And in a way, it was.
It was Katrina

Hammering away at the roof,
Trying to get in.

And then this: the first break
Visible in the roof.

That is
Daylight coming through,
And the rain soon followed.

Blanco:
There are reports
About the superdome.

Some reports that we have
Gotten from people in the dome

Tell us that there has been...
( clears throat )

A portion of the roof
That is leaking.

The structure is sound.

Right now there is
No structural damage.

They have moved the people

Who were on the floor
Of the superdome

In a very orderly fashion
To get them

Out of the water
That's coming through.

Now having said that,
We have several more
Hours to go,

Watching
The situation and...

The rains are
Pretty heavy.

Montana leblanc:
The wind is roiling.

It's roiling too much.
I mean, there's tin
Flying off this.

Everything is ripping,
The whole aluminum siding
Of the building--

You can actually hear it
Being peeled like--

Like somebody-- it's just like
That darryl hannah movie

From a long time ago,
"The 50-foot woman" or whatever
The hell she was.

That's what Katrina was;
She was peeling our shit apart.

Seelig:
And it just got worse
And worse and worse.

I mean, it was
Just incredible, the sound.

It was like having
A freight train

In your ear
For hours on end.

Just this-- ( growls )

You can't describe it
'cause it's deafening.

You can't even hear
Yourself think after a while.

Montana:
All I could think of was one
Word and I said it out loud.

And I remember my daughter
Looking at me like, "What is
She saying?"

But all I could say was,
"Stabilize."

I just wanted the winds

And the house to stop shaking
And to stabilize.

Cameraman:
What's up?

How you doing, man?
I had to leave out
Of my house, man.

I don't know whether
That water's coming over
That levee or what.

- cameraman:
The storm missed us.
- I can't hear you.

- the storm went east.
- so you haven't heard
About that water

Coming over
That levee from the lake?

- no. I'll check it out.
- 'cause the water start
Rising so high

In my two-story apartment,
I had to get out, man.

- where's that at?
- right across from
Robinson's overpass.

- okay.
- around clouet
And louisa street.

Around 9:00, we heard
A big boom noise.

Boom-- and it was
Loud loud loud.

Yes, I heard the explosion.
We heard it first,
The echo from here.

Then it was here.
I said, "Oh my god,
It's the end of the world."

We heard some explosions--
Two, three.

We thought about--
I thought maybe it was
An electrical transformer,

Or something popping
In the distance.

First I heard one boom.
I though it was a big
Transformer.

'cause fred said,
"It's a transformer."

But I said, "We've been sitting
In the dark now for about
Two hours, three hours."

But it went again,
Boom boom.

I think the levee cracked

And they helped it
The rest of the way.

They had a bomb;
They bombed that sucker.

I didn't only
Hear the explosion,
I felt the explosion.

And there should be
Somebody else heard

And felt the explosion
Besides me.

I don't believe that
The levees were blown;

I believe that my people
Heard explosions

When the water gushed
Through a gaping hole.

You know, you have
A crack that goes

From being a crack
To a gaping hole--

You're going to hear
Some type of sound.

The levees gave.

I don't think it was blown up;
I'll be honest with you.

I think what they heard was--
It was a possibility--

They could have heard
The snapping of the ropes

That hold
These barges together.

I almost have to believe
That they heard the barge hit

That concrete wall,
Because it just looks
To me like that barge

Was the thing that
Knocked that wall down.

I'm 45 years old.
I'm a New Orleans native.

I've been in New Orleans
All my life.

My mother was born
In New Orleans; my father
Was born in New Orleans;

My grandmother was born
In New Orleans.

And I was there
When hurricane betsy hit.

Montana:
In 1965, during
Hurricane betsy,

There was an intentional
Dynamite of the levees,

And that caused
The lower 9th ward
To flood.

People were
On their roofs.

Several people
Lost their lives.

They dynamited the levees
And flooded the lower
9th ward,

In order to save some
Of the more expensive property

In the lakefront area.

They're not going to never
Leave nothing

Happen to this
French quarter.
Okay?

Nothing is going to happen.
If the french quarter go,
Everything go.

They blowed that levee

So the water could release
On that side of the city.

Morial:
During hurricane betsy,
There were rumors,

And it became almost
An article of faith

With people in the community,
That the 9th ward flooded

Because there was
An intentional breach
Of the levee.

It was never
Investigated.

It was neither proven
Nor disproven.

In this case,

For the government
And others

To sort of dismiss it
Without looking
Into all of it,

Is not doing the people

Or the public a service.

These people that live
Along where it flooded,

That believe
It was dynamited,

Have a long experience
Of being ripped off.

The 1927 flood,

When black communities
Were dynamited,

What happened during betsy
Was on their mind,

It's not a far jump
To believe

The urban myth
That it got dynamited.

I think there are
Too many similarities

Between the 1927 flood
And Katrina.

For one thing,

The levee policy
Of the federal government--

The flood protection policy
Of the federal government

Was directly responsible.

I mean, it was
Deeply flawed in 1927,

And had been
Widely criticized.

The city of New Orleans

Had exercised
Its political muscle,

And dynamited the levee
Outside the city,

Flooded out its neighbors.

And this wasn't about race;
It was about money.

The people who were
Flooded out of their homes

Were in
St. Bernard parish.
They were almost,

All of them, were white.
So, as I say, it had nothing
About race.

It was an enormous event.

It flooded the homes
Of over a million people,

Which back then was almost
1% of the entire population
Of the united states.

In Louisiana alone,
There were 200,000 people

Who were fed
By the red cross

For months after the flood.

More than half of them
Were living in tent cities.

Until Katrina, it was
The greatest natural disaster

The country
Had ever seen.

Two years ago, fema actually
Funded a study called "Pam,"

Where they did a study,
A numerical study,

Computer simulation model
Of what would happen

If a hurricane category five
Hit New Orleans.

Hurricane pam was
A fictitious hurricane

Engineers
And the federal emergency
Management agency designed

To see what happens
If we flood New Orleans.

What we are looking at here

Is as the storm moved
Toward New Orleans,

It started to flood New Orleans
From east and west,

And eventually entire bowl
Gets flooded.

Hurricane pam
Came up with some very
Very significant findings.

And unfortunately,
These seem to have been ignored

By many many agencies
As we move forward.

One of the most significant

Was that we had identified
Through our own research

That there were 127,000 people
In New Orleans

Who didn't have access
To motor vehicles.

In addition, there were
A large number of homeless

And the disabled.

So you were talking about
A significant percentage

Of the population
That couldn't evacuate.

Rodriguez:
In 1965,

They started
Those levees.

They haven't
Finished them today,

And that's 40-something
Years later.

They haven't
Put the last lift
On these levees.

It's like the guy that
Used to get up there with--

Years back,
Hold that oil filter
In his hands,

Say, "Pay me now,
Or pay me later."

Well, this is the pay me later.
This is the payback.

It's like, "Oh, it costs
Too much money."

Now they've failed
And now look how much money
They got to spend.

You know the old saying,
"A stitch in time..."?

Well, we don't
Deal that way.

We said,
"If we look the other y,
It'll go away."

And now it's just coming back
Home to roost, you know?

All the stuff they've
Done for the last 40 years

Came home in a big way.

President hoover in 1947,
In a famous speech about
Engineers said,

He said that engineering
Is a great profession.

He said, but engineers,
We build stuff.

He said, politicians may put
Their name on it, but we can't
Deny that we did it.

He said an engineer is
Unlike a doctor who can
Bury his mistakes.

He said an engineer is not like
A politician who can blame it

On his opponent on the opposite
Side of the aisle,

Or hope that
The public forgets.

He said, an engineer
Is not like a lawyer,

Who could blame it on the judge,
Or try to argue their way.

He said, an engineer is
Unlike an architect

Who can hide his mistakes
With trees and shrubbery.

He said when an engineer makes
A mistake, he is damned

Because his mistake is there
For the world to see.

The engineers should have
Designed those

Much better
And much stronger.

And we haven't seen that.

As for example,
17th street canal--

The sheet pile
Was too shallow

And didn't go all the way
It should go.

In st. Bernard parish,
Where the levees overtop,

Levee material
Was not strong enough,

And those were
Not armored.

My understanding is people
Think we got hit by a hurricane.

We got missed by a hurricane.
The hurricane went east.

But the water
Backed up the lake.

My understanding is
The lake backed up

A category one
Into our levees,

And then they failed.
Not a category three;

Category three came up
The industrial canal
And the m.R.G.O.,

Breached the levees,
Topped the levees,

But the two main ones
That broke,

Broke under category one,
Category two, tops.

So we've been lied to
All these years

By the federal
Government.

And it cost the people,
Not just New Orleans
And the 9th ward,

But the whole
Freakin' southeast
Louisiana.

It cost the people
Their homes and
Their lives.

I hope the politicians,
Whoever did this,

The corp of engineers,
Whoever's responsible,

I hope that they can
Sleep at night.

I hope they can sleep
At night...

Knowing that
They're the ones
Who's responsible.

And that's not this talking,
That's the freakin' truth.

Deejay:
Let's go to anita
In uptown.

Anita, are you
Seeing any water

In the streets
Where you are now?

Anita:
Yes, it's actually up to
The top step, and we have--

Deejay:
How many steps do you have?

Anita:
We only have four. And we
Have 12 people in our house,

Including a senior citizen
And two babies.

Seelig:
I walked over
To the sewer drain,

The storm drains on the side
Of the street,

And I could hear this low
Rumbling gurgle coming at me.

It sounded like...

Just bubble and boil.

And it just spit out all over,
Spit all over my shoes.

Then I started hearing
Clang clang clang
Down the street,

And it was the manhole covers
Popping off,

And the water was just
Blowing out the manhole covers,

And it was coming out
Of the storm drains

And it was filling up.
And you could see it coming
Down the side streets.

You know, it wasn't like
A wall of water, but it
Was coming out quick,

And you could see it was
Starting to rise up real quick.

Judy come and woke me up,
And says, "Hey, go out and look
At the street."

When I went
And looked at the street,
The water was pouring in.

I run back in the house,
Told them

To put on their
Life jackets and everything.
We had to get out of the house.

And henry was trying to open
The back door for us to get
Out of the house,

Because the water was
Coming up so quickly.
It was up to the window.

I got up and I went
To my front door,

And I had water

Up over my head.
If I'd have stepped
Out on my step,

I'd have drowned.

I'm going to throw you
A life preserver, okay?

There it is; you see it?
Put your feet on anything.

Go for that life preserver
Right there. Don't let it
Drift away from you.

- man: grab that life jacket.
- all right,
Take the life jacket.

Now the water's
Going to be deep.
Come on, ma'am.

Come on; you can do it.
Let go. Let go, come on.

- I can't.
- yes, you can!

- the life preserver
Will help you.
- don't panic.

Don't panic.
Just come to us.

- don't make me fall.
- once you get to us, we can
Get you into the boat.

Come on.

- there you go.
- don't panic, don't panic!

Hang on, just go right
On the top of that.

I went out on the second-floor
Porch to look over,

And see the water just
Kept rising and kept rising.

So I went in the room,

And I broke down, got on
My knees and I started praying.

I was like, "I'm not going
To let nobody die,

So I got to get myself together
And get my mind right

To focus on how I'm going
To do this here."

So I'm steady dialg
On my cell phone 911.

You can't get through,
You can't get through.
I got so desperate

And lost a sense
Of intelligence

That I dialed zero
For the operator and asked her
Could she transfer me to 911.

She said, "I can't do it."
I said, "Why not?"

She said, "Because they're
Not taking any calls."

"What do you mean they're
Not taking any calls?
I'm dying.

I'm fucking dying in here;
We're about to fucking drown,"

Because I'm here in the water,
And I'm sorry for cursing,

But the more I think about it,
The more angry I get.

Because I'm like...

"I'm here talking to you,
So if you can hear my voice
Talking to you,

Then you know a heart must be
Beating inside of a body,

Which means there's a life here.
So you mean you can't
Connect me,"

Even though I know,
They told me,

"If you stayed, we're not
Going to help you."

They told me point blank,
Channel after channel

Saying fill your tub
Up with water

So you can
Flush the damn toilet
If you survive this.

Woman on phone:
My family and I are
Stranded here,

Along with about 100 other
Tenants and their families.

The street water-- we have been
Monitoring it all day

On the front of gravier--
Is increasingly rising,

And it's now coming
Through the lobby door,

And it's filling up
The basement.

- ( cries )
- and I expect that our lobby
Is going to fill up,

And we have
Nowhere to go.

Kevin martin:
This is actually the first
Pumping station

Built in New Orleans,
Right here.

It was built here because this
Is the lowest area in the city.

There are about
27 pumping stations,

And we were
One of the last ones
To shut down here.

When the levee broke,
When it got to its
Highest point,

It was off the chain.
It was off the level up there.

This is 16 feet here.
It was much higher,

Because it was
Lapped around the back,

And we could
Hear it pulling.

Alexander:
People was getting reports

That st. Bernard parish
Was underwater;

The 9th ward was underwater;
New Orleans east was
Underwater.

And you could only hear stuff
Over the radio.

And you can hear the callers
Calling in, like, "I'm stuck
In the attic,"

You know, "Me and my kids,"
And it was kind of like,

We was almost safe
Inside the superdome,

But we still felt
For the people outside.

And you didn't know
What was going on.

You didn't know what happened
To your family at that time.

Terence blanchard:
I turned on the news,
And the commentator said

That 80% of New Orleans
Is underwater.

And they hadn't shown
Any pictures yet.

And I'm still thinking--
When they say 80%

Of the city's underwater,
I'm still thinking,

"Okay, they mean like
Two feet of water, three feet
Of water, something like that.

We're used to that. I grew up
With that. Water would come
Right up to the doorsill.

We'd sit there and look at it,
Make little paper boats and
Throw in it, you know?

But, man, I looked around

And I saw there was a picture
Of the circle food store.

And the water was
Midway to the door.

And I couldn't believe that.
And what messed me up
About that picture

Was the fact that
That was more inland;

That wasn't near the lake,
It wasn't near the river.

If the water was that high
At the circle food store,

I knew we had a problem
In the city.

( trumpet music continues )

What you looking at?
What you looking at?!

Moses:
This is the barge.
When it came,

And we thought
We were going to die,

And I remember
The number: ing4727.

If they would have took
That away, I would have
Remembered the number

Because I wrote it down
And I put it in my pocketbook.

And the couple
That lived there,

They couldn't get a boat
To get out either.

They're still in there,
If they're still there.

They had a man
That lived in here.

He tied hisself to beer kegs.
They may still be in the yard.

And he floated in the water
Just-- for three days.

And I just kept
Talking to him,

And telling him,
"God's going to make a way.
God's going to make a way.

You going to make it."
( sobbing )

And he would say,
"I'm so tired." I said,
"I know you're tired."

And I wanted to feed him
What I had, but I couldn't
Get to him

'cause I didn't
Know howo swim.

( singing blues )

( chuckles )

Yep.

St. James infirmary.

St. James
Infirmary.

We were vacationing
In Italy at the time.

It was on a Monday morning,
And the driver picked us up

From our hotel
On the amalfi coast,

And said, "Would you
Like to go see the ruins
Of pompeii?"

And we got in the limousine.
They took us over to right
up outside of Naples.

You know, it's right across
From the bay of Naples?

And Mt. Vesuvius
Was in the background.

And that morning, we went in
To visit the ruins of pompeii,

And didn't know anything
At all about the flood strike
In New Orleans.

We saw dead people lined up
Back in 66 a.D.

We learned about
6,000 people being

Smothered to death
With the ashes of mt. Vesuvius.

We saw all the things
That were preserved.

Walked out
Of the ruins of pompeii--
And it's most ironic--

We sat down, having a little
Lunch in the little square,

The little town there.
And they turned on cnn,

And I could see the flood
In New Orleans.

And I think the mayor said
Possibility of 10,000 people
Drowning.

And, you know, it's quite ironic
To be in a place like this

Where the greatest tragedy
Ever happened in europe,

And see your own city
Being flooded.

We slept that night,
And then we decided

To make a move the next
Morning to the superdome.

We walked through tonti street,
Which is my mother's street,

To esplanade avenue,
To claiborne,

Where the circle
Food store is.

There's my mom
Which is 85,

My daddy which is 84,

Miss emma--
Miss emma's got
To be in her 70s.

We had one guy--

I can't think
Of his name right now--

He had a colostomy bag
That needed to be changed.

So we had all these people were
Just going to the superdome.

Originally the day
After the hurricane

I went walking around
Throughout metairie
And kenner area.

I went around,

Swam through water--
Some of it was eight feet;

Some of it, you couldn't
Touch the bottom.

You'd see the levels
At the malls that you knew
Were more than 20-feet high,

And the water was
Higher than that.

And I waded through to see
If there was anybody around,

Anybody anywhere,
And there was nothing.

Helicopter pilot:
Right now, what we're showing
You is memorial hospital here,

West of downtown
New Orleans.

We'll show you the parking lot
Of the hospital

And give you an idea
How deep the water is.

( woman on phone )
We have some concerned
Employees

That want to check
On two locations.

- deejay: okay.
What are you looking for?
- okay. The first one is

- the lakefront area.
- I think there's very
Little doubt.

- lakefront got a lot of water.
- deejay #2: yeah.
And especially out there

- in that area
By lakefront airport...
- help! Help us, someone!

In the New Orleans east
Part of the lakefront.

From what we've been hearing
A lot of New Orleans east
Has been inundated.

Woman:
The heights
In avondale?

Deejay:
Avondale did fairly well
As far as the water.

( helicopter blades
Whirring )

I think the winds had just
Died down to a reasonable level,

Where it was
Pretty safe to be out.

And I walked
Over the bridge

And there was 10, 15,
20 feet of water everywhere.

And you could start to hear
The people screaming from
The balconies and rooftops.

And we could actually
Physically see some of them.

Montana leblanc:
A helicopter came by.

He came in the middle
Of the complex.

I mean, I'm standing there
With a mop stick,

With a towel
That I found somewhere,
A white towel,

With "S.O.S."
And on the back of it,
"Help me please."

And I'm waving thithing
Like I'm going crazy,

And he looks at me
And he does this,

Like get up and go.
And they left us!

Oh, yeah, they passed.
They were going to the
White neighborhood.

They didn't care about me.
They were going somewhere else.

I kept trying to flag them
Down with-- man, we had lights,
Everything to try and stop them.

People did not come.
They came here the fourth day.

They gave me some water.
I was in a boat--

They dropped the water so hard,
They tried to sink my boat.

I asked for some water;
They gave it to me--

Betcha you don't want it
No more.

I will say though,
In the backdrop of it all,

And I want to say this,
Is that I think that
There's one agency

That we should single out
For a job well done,

And that's the united states
Coast guard.

They moved in very quickly.
They were in there on tuesday.

They did numerous

Very difficult helicopter

And boat
Rescue operations.

Brinkley:
Because the coast guard
Threw out the books.

The head
Of the coast guard said,
"There are no rules here, guys.

This is all
Improvation now.
Let's go."

For example,
Pilots were only supposed

To be able to fly
Eight hours a day legally,

Because you have
Flight fatigue.

They said, "Screw it.

Go 16 hours."
People were going 16 hours,

So the coast guard,
Both with their helicopters

And then with boats
Could not have done more
For their resources.

Seelig:
I started noticing
That I've got neighbors

All over the place
On their roof.

Because I'm on a second story,
I can see.

I can see three or four
In front of me.

I can hear people yelling
And screaming at any given
Direction you want to go to.

And it was hot.

It was so hot.
It was like a 95°-100°

In the shade.
The wind never blew.

And they say that New Orleans
Has humidity down there

Which kind of cools
Us off-- that's bullshit.
It was death heat.

Inside of the convention center
Was so stifling hot, people
Tried to stay outside.

Hot as hell,
100°-something.

- it's hot.
- it was very very
Hot at that time.

It was 97°, 98°.

- it was hot.
- the heat radiating
Off the highway,

At night
Was intensely hot.

- it's hot as hell.
- that was the worst summer.

I mean, that-that was--
That heat was ridiculous.

- hot as heck in here.
- it was beyond africa heat.

If africa heat was
Anything like that,

Like I said before
And I'll say it again,

They keep saying go back
To africa-- hell no.

Freeman: for a minute,
When I seen the water,
I knew we had to get out.

And she said,
"Well, why we have to go?"
And I explained it to her

That the water was
Coming up, rising up.

Because she said we didn't have
To leave for hurricane betsy.

I said, "No we didn't,
But we got to leave now."

So I had to get a guy
That lived in the neighborhood
To get someone with a canoe,

A little boat, and I took her
And put her in the boat

In her wheelchair.
And I had to get her

From the house all the way
Till st. Charles avenue

Where the water had
Subsided a little bit.

I ain't seen this many boats
In the project, bro.

It was like cars, man.
I'm telling you,

Everybody in the project
Had a boat.

It was like cars, bro.

And we was just going,
Get the stuff, helping
The people out.

And day by day,
We was bringing people
To the bridge.

We found some refrigerators,

Opened the tops of them,
Put the kids--

We had an elderly lady
Back there

And nicholas my nephew,
And another two kids-- I think
It was three kids altogether.

We put them
In the refrigerator
And we floated

To what's called
Hayne boulevard,

Which is close
To lake pontchartrain.

Morial:
There were citizen
First responders.

There were people
In neighborhoods who were
Carrying children

And women and older people
Out on their backs,

On their shoulders,
Making makeshift rafts.

The sense of sadness
And anger that I felt,

To see

The people I love so much
In my own community suffering,

And abandoned is just something
That will remain with me

Every day of my life.

I got you, I got you.
I got you.

- don't go out that way.
Don't go--
- which way?

- that way.
- okay.

Compass:
I remember captain timmy bayard
Had organized the boats

Because there weren't
Any other boats,

So police officers
Were using their
Personal boats

And boats that we had
Commandeered to start the
Rescue missions immediately,

Because people were
Out there drowning.

And we had a lot of guys
Thinking on their feet.

I mean, many people
In the police department
Acted very heroically.

- great to see you.
- I'm glad you're all right.

Brinkley:
What was inspiring is
People that stayed.

It was all citizens.
I mean, people call it
"The cajun navy,"

Or you call it
Just the locals
Stepping to the plate,

But a lot of just everyday
People were out there,

From all walks of life,
Really puttin' their life
On the line,

Diving in water, bringing out
Particularly

People with alzheimer's
And dementia.

Pastor willie walker, jr.:
That afternoon with sean penn,

We must have pulled out
About 30 or 40 people.

And everybody that we
Pulled out, sean made
A promise:

"If I can just
Get you out of here,
I'll take care of you."

I've never seen anything
Like it before in my life.

I met sean penn
On my sixth day out,

Went up,
Boldly talked to him,

And said, "Hey, how you doing?
Nice to meet you.

I'm pastor walker.
How can I help you here?"

He said, "Well, I'm trying
To save some people."

He told us that-- and you'd
Have to check with him

If he was
Fibbing or not,
But it was a good fib,

And I understand
Why he told it.

He told us there were
40 children stuck
In this one place,

So we went to that place.
Really what we were doing is

Checking out
His neighborhood.

He was concerned
About his people
In his congregation.

We came together,
Organized,

And we drove from st. Charles
To napoleon avenue.

We used that spot
As a launch spot,

To go out into the middle
Of the city.

It was only after
I took his lead

That I was willing to wade

Seven blocks in this stuff,
Past a cemetery,

To get to these couple--
He was very driven.

And it was, you know,

It just seemed so poetic
That his church was called
The noah's ark church.

I live in the 9th ward,
Not the lower 9th ward,

But it's still a part
Of the 9th ward.

So the day after the storm,
The ward had been flooded.

Okay, so we had to stay there
Till the rescue boat came.

And when the boat came,
They took us to I-10 and louisa.

And when we got
On the bridge, on I-10,

Everybody was
Telling us to walk
To the convention center.

Compass:
No one knew everyone

Would gravitate
To the convention center,

But as people started
Dropping people off at
The convention center,

Then it just spread
Like word of mouth,

And then that area was
Kind of high and dry,

As it relates to the area
Around the superdome.

So it was easy for people to get
To the convention center.

I saw a guy at
Convention center boulevard

Who retired from our newspaper,
Disabled guy, walks with a cane,

Had diabetes, sitting there
In the hot sun for three days.

He was in bad shape.

Man:
20-30,000 people,
Just in the streets.

I mean, it was everywhere.
People were everywhere.

No food, no water, I mean,
The bare necessities.

- what do we get? Nothing.
- they won't even bring water;
They won't bring food.

Where's fema?
Where's the mayor?

My mother is 83 years old.
She's in dire need of
Her heart medication.

There's no
Medical services here.
She's on the floor.

She's dying right now.
She needs help to get
Her out of here.

Freeman:
My mother kept
Asking me, you know,

Where were we,
And I told her we was
At the convention center.

She knew a lot of people
Was around, but she didn't
Know how many.

So I told her, I said,
"Ooh, it's a lot of people
Out there."

I said everybody's trying
To evacuate for the hurricane.

She said, "What they going
To do with all these people?"

I said, "They're supposed
To have buses coming,"

I said, "But I don't see
Any buses," which I didn't.

So with all the noise,
That was kind of getting
To her, you know.

So I kept trying to tell
The policeman what was going on,

He told me, he said,
"Look, I'll tell you what to do:

Take all this stuff
And we gonna roll her outside
Way down to the end,"

He said, "'cause that's
Where the bus is going
To be coming.

When the bus comes,
She'll be the first to load up."

So I was checking on her
And checking on her,

And last time I checked on her,
She had asked me was
The bus coming yet.

I said "No, the bus
Hasn't came yet.

It should be coming
Any minute now."

So I sit back down--
I was sitting on the curb;

She was in the wheelchair.
So after a while,

She hadn't said nothing
For about maybe 10 minutes,
15 minutes.

It looked like she was
Asking me questions--

Looked like every five minutes,
Something like that.

So I said, "Well let me see,"
You know,

'cause it looked like
She had fell asleep.

'cause she was
Nodding out, you know.

Every so often,
She would nod out.

So I seen her
With her head down
Like she was asleep.

So I went to go shake her
And she didn't respond.

So I shook her again;
She didn't respond.

And then I said, "Oh lord,
It looks like my mom
Died out here."

And then, you know,
I just waited till
Daylight came,

Then another guy was
Out there, and he told me,

He said, "Man, we got to put
Something over her," you know.

'cause I had like
A little towel over her.

He said, "Wait a minute.
I might have a blanket
Over here by me."

So he went and found the poncho
That we throwed over her.

And after we
Throwed it over her,

They had someone that was
Working at the convention center

Said that when they was
Dying like that,

They was pushing them
To the side-- 'cause they had
Another body back there,

By that doorway I had
Pushed her at anyway.

Said you have to push her there,
You know, leave here there.

So I didn't want
To really do it,

But I had to push her
Out the way, do something.

So what I did,
I pushed her back there,

And I got a piece of paper,
Put her name on it,

My name,
My telephone number
And everything.

You know, letting them know
I was her son, to contact me
Whenever they come,

'cause I thought they was
Going to put her in, like,

A freezer or something
They had back there.

The guy said that
The electric was off,
The freezer wasn't working.

- that's why they
Had them outside.
- lee: the bus never came?

Freeman:
It never came--
Came four days later.

There's no place where
Anyone that was elderly

Or sick or handicapped--
That wasn't no place to be.

Really wasn't no place
For anyone to be,
Any human being.

British reporter:
We're asked to go to a house

Where there are children
Without their mother.

We pull the boat to the door.
Inside, a daughter explains

- her mother couldn't breathe.
- she needed oxygen to breathe.

Boy:
She needed oxygen.
She ain't had none.

But she didn't have any.

Reporter:
In a back bedroom,
We find her mother dead.

There are five children,
And a neighbor insists

They can't stay in the house
In the heavy heat.

And we agree to take
Them out in our boat.

See if you can sit
Closer to the back.

Damon hewi
In the days after Katrina,

Many many of us cried.
I'm not afraid to say that.

I cried because I was sad
About what I was seeing.

And I cried because people
Were losing their lives,

And I cried because
There was such chaos,

And I cried because
I felt helpless and I didn't
Know what I could do.

Woman:
I have me and my children;
Nothing else matters.

Clothes, all that
Is materialistic things;
I can get that back.

My life-- I'm just glad
We got out alive.

That's all that matters to me,
Getting out in one piece.

Montana:
When I saw that
There were people...

Being treated like animals

In my city--

It could have been
In any city,

I would have been
Grief-stricken and
Heartbroken--

But it hurt
Even more so

That this was
From my hometown,
Where all of my generations,

My great-grand--
Great-great-great-grandparents
Come from--

And I was so hurt
And devastated

To see human beings
Being treated like cattle.

It was like--
When I grew up,

The nickname of New Orleans
That I knew

Was not the big easy.

People used to call it
"The city that care forgot."

And it was like nobody cared.

Look at how hot he is.
He's not waking up very easy.

I'm not--
This is not about
Low-income.

It's not about rich people,
Poor people, it's about people.

Well, I fully understand
People wanting things to have
Happened yesterday.

I mean,
I understand the anxiety

Of people on the ground.
I can imag-- I just
Can't imagine

What it's like to be
Waving a sign that says,
"Come and get me now."

So there is frustration.
But I want people to know

There's a lot of help coming.
I don't think anybody

Anticipated the breach
Of the levees.

My grandmother is a diabetic.
She's 76 years old.

She out of her insulin.
What is she going to do?

She don't know if she's going
To live or die.

We all don't know
What we're going to do.

So we just need
Some help and support.

Blanchard:
You have to worry
About a country

That can look

At a vast number
Of mistakes

That this administration
Has made

That has directly affected
People's lives--

You have to worry about
A country that can look
At all of that

And still not see this guy
For who he is.

I know I'm going
To get mail,

I know I'm going to get
Ostracized,

But you got to say that,

Because I'm worried
About the country.

When you look
At an organization like fema

That was passing
The buck about, you know,

How to just bring in
Normal stuff--
Water, man.

Water and food,
How hard could that be?

I still haven't heard
Any answers about that

That convinced me

That it couldn't have
Been done differently.

On the fourth day,

I was sitting in my office
At the refinery,

And in walks a guy

And shakes my hand,
And I shook his hand.

The guy said,
"Can we help you?"

I said, "Certainly.
Where are you from?"

"Well," he said,
"I'm canadian mounted police.

We're from vancouver,
Canada."

I said, "How the hell
Did you get here?"

He said, "I come
Across the ferry." where was
The federal government?

One of the things that came
To my attention very early on

Was how many nations had
Extended their... Offers

To step in
And make a difference,
Who had resources

And capacities to lend
Assistance immediately
To the citizens of the region.

One of those places
Was Venezuela.

And as a consequence,
I went with 15 of my colleagues

down to Venezuela to have
a meeting with Chavez,

which we had,
to discuss particularly

what he would be able
to do to help

specifically the people
of the region of Katrina.

And while we were at it,
To take a look and see

If there were anything else
He could do

For a host of needy
Black people and latino,

And people of color,
And poor people in general

In the united states
Of america

Who were being wholly
Underattended

By the united states
Government,

And particularly by bush's
Will and mandate.

Reporter:
This is the center of one

Of the great cities
Of america-- New Orleans.

Here we have a virtual
Refugee camp

With thousands
Of people waiting
For some sort of help:

Medical, food, water,
You name it.

And then, over there,
The police;

Scores of police officers
All concerned

About one looter
Who's in that supermarket.

Compass:
You did have people
Breaking into stores,

Some for survival,
And some for some
Felonious deeds.

Thevenot:
There seemed to be in general
Two classes of looters.

There were the looters
Who were taking things

That I would think are
Very understandable:

Food, water, clothes,

Socks, t-shirts, whatever,
What have you.

And then there were
People who had, like,

Assembly-line operations
Coming out of the electronics
Department.

You had one guy who also told me
They took a 60-inch tv and they
Threw it in the water.

They thought it would float
And it sunk to the bottom;

Which was crazy.
You know, one of those
Flat-screen tvs?

They're not really heavy,
And I guess he thought he
Could float away on it.

- I mean, it was crazy.
- meeks: so we get off
On tchoupitoulas,

And terri troncale,
Our editorial page editor,

Says, "We can go to my house."
She lives uptown.

"Let's go there and set up
A base and we'll report
From there."

I head up tchoupitoulas.
Before we even get
To her house,

I drive right into
The wal-mart looting.

Thevenot:
There was basically
Traffic jams at the doors,

With looters trying
To get out with their loot

And other looters
Trying to get in.

Meeks:
So we go in,
And we report the story,

And a couple of
My reporters, mike perlstein
And brian thevenot,

Had the guts to walk
Right up to these cops and say
"What are you doing?"

I'm doing my job.

Thevenot:
Our photographer
John mccusker

Took a picture
Of a cop coming out
With an armload of dvds,

Which didn't strike us

As necessary equipment
For the hurricane.

Meeks:
No doubt there was
Looting going on in town,

But that is by far
The number one crime
That occurred.

Just as true is that

The vast vast majority
Of people

Needed help.

Anchorman:
Ed, if you could explain,

At what point
Was it obvious

That the conditions
In the superdome were
Deteriorating

To the point that
Everybody was going to have
To eventually leave?

Ed:
The running water stopped,

And then no sewer,

And then with all that
Humidity and heat--

Body heat, that's creating
All that internal humidity
In there.

It's crazy, man.
I've seen some strange shit
Up in here.

All the bathrooms got
Shit flooding everywhere
To the top, man.

It's nasty already.

You know, it's been real
Crazy up in here, man.

It was like being in a sewer.
It truly was like being
In a live sewer.

Because there was
Nowhere else to go.
Everything was backed up.

Things were overflowing.
People were hot.

They were agitated.
They were irritated.

Special needs people
Were very very sick.

As time went on, of course,
People who came in died.

It was a horrific time.

It was something truly
That you never would think
Would happen in america.

There was no way
For you to take a bath.

There was no way for you
To brush your teeth.

There was nowhere
To change clothes.

No food.

So over at the arena
They had those little...

Food that come in the box
For the military.

It was days
That we didn't eat.

No ice;

No nothing.

It was deplorable
At that--

That dome.

They had this brother
Named radio,

A kind of big brother,
You know,

He was
A spiritual brother too.

And he started clapping it up,
Like for basketball games,

When the people just
Clapping up and warming it up.

It just was a spirit,
It was a big big big spirit,

And this was one of
The proud moments for us.

Because as we started
Clapping it up,

People just started
Shouting out praises.

It was like, we have
To do something.

- ( clapping )
- ( singing gospel song )

We went around the dome
And we started singing

"This little light of mine,
I'm going to let it shine."

And to explain it--
It was powerful because
It was a sad time,

And you didn't know
What was going to happen,
But you only had faith in god.

And we gave him the glory
And we marched around the dome

And the people was coming
From the inside of the dome

And they was joining in.
And after we marched
Around one time,

We go on the outside.
At that time,

I felt the movement,

Like the civil rights movement.
It was real powerful.

It was like powerful when you
Watch a movement like that.

After that march,
Things kind of settled
A little bit.

( singing continues )

( score playing )

Michael seelig:
By wednesday, we realized
That the floodwaters

Weren't going
To be going down
Anytime soon.

Meanwhile, the across-the-street
Neighbor, the cab driver--

Well, he'd run out
Of food and water

'cause all his kitchen stuff
Was downstairs,

So he had, like,
Half a thing.

He couldn't make it
Anymore,

So he came busting out
Of his house and he
Swam across.

And he just about
Didn't make it,

And I kind of had
To jump in a little bit

And grab him
And pull him out.

Got him hydrated

With a little bit
Of ice I had left,

Made a cold drink,
Got him outside,

And we were just talking
About how crazy this all is,

And what are
We going to do?

Also, on the radio
They were having reports

That they were rescuing peopl,
But they were bringing them

To the superdome,
Or the convention center

Or they were sticking them
On some expressway
Ramp somewhere.

I never did find out
Where that was.

But they were just
Saying it was god-awful.

There were thousands of peopl,
They have no food and water.

There's no police,
Or military presence,

Or something
To help and all that.
These people are stranded.

Will chittenden:
I heard advertising on--

I think it was q93.

They were advertising that
They were doing pickup points

At various points
On I-10 and 210.

So I got my lantern,
A few supplies
That I needed,

And I started swimming
Through the water,

Wading through the water,
To get out to the pickup point.

I got to the pickup point,

Where the I-10/210
Split was,

And they had already had
Some commotions going on

With people a little
Fidgety from waiting.

There were people
That had been waiting there

Since the day
After the hurricane.

I ended up waiting about
Six and a half hours

Before they finally
Got the buses running

To take people
To southern university.

Let me tell you
All something:

You know, we've been
On this bridge about
Five fucking days.

British reporter:
Most of them are black
And poor--

America's underclass,

The real victims of what
Has become a human storm.

Woman:
Three whole days...

Ray Nagin:
During the event,
Or right after the event,

We were rescuing
Lots of people

Using lots
Of different resources,

And they would leave people
On the interstates

To go complete the rescue
Missions and get other folk.

For the most part,

Individuals were left
On those interstates

For several days
With little water,
Little food.

We started
To get a sense

From people
At the convention center

And on those interstates

That they were getting tired
Of just sitting.

So they wanted
To walk across the
Crescent city connection

Which is the
Mississippi river bridge.

To meet the buses that
Were supposedly coming.

So, we started
Walking up the highway,

And we passed
All these people.

And got up towards
The bridge.

And when we were
In shouting distance
Of the bridge,

All of a sudden there
Was a line of guns
Across the bridge.

We yelled back at them
That they told us

We could walk
Out of town.

And they said,
"Turn around."
So we're like,

- "Okay, men with guns,
We turn around now."
- yeah.

It's interesting how things
Kind of broke down,

Because the president
Of jefferson parish--

We've got parishes here
Instead of counties--

Declared jefferson parish
"Jeffersonia,"

And blatantly said
On the radio

That they were not
Going to allow anybody

From orleans parish to cross
The parish line to get out.

They were going to put
Armed police there.

They were going to turn
You back at gunpoint.

This was jefferson
Parish police

Lined up with shotguns,

Would not let us
Cross that bridge,
Made us go back.

A guy told me
That harry lee said that

That wasn't
His police officer.

If that wasn't
His police officer,
I'd like to know who it was.

People were walking.
There were elderly
People walking.

There were people
Who were injured.

There were people
Who had driven through,

Who had been carjacked
On the way,

Just seeking refuge,
Who could not get through

And who were told by
Their own government

That they were
Not allowed in.

The convention center

Was completely accessible
The whole time.

You come over the bridge
And it's right there.

It's like the manhattan bridge
In new york.

It's as if people were
At metrotech in brooklyn,
And people were

In manhattan saying,
"Can't we just cross the bridge
And help those people?"

And they said, "No, you can't"
Well, people are going out.

Then when the people took
The initiative themselves

To walk out,
They were met by

These redneck ps in gretna
Saying, "Turn back."

I can give you a take
On the gretna bridge thing.

It wasn't
An isolated incident.

I'm going to tell you
That during that storm

The national media
Reported rampant rumors

That have now turned out
Not to be true.

They were flying all over
The place and nobody
Could verify them.

One of the rumors was
There was a hostage crisis

At children's hospital.
That wasn't true.

One of the rumors was that
There was a jailbreak, right?

And that all the guns

From all the gun stores
Had been looted, right?

So people were terrified.

African-americans and whites
Were terrified on the street.

So in my estimation,

That gretna thing
Was a way overreaction

To rampant rumors
That were being pushed

In the mainstream media.

They were calling the people
Who were trying to cross--

They were calling them "Thugs"
And in today's language

We know that when people
Are referred to as thugs
And looters

That they are talking--
They were clearly
Talking about

The african-american citizens
Of New Orleans

Who were trying
To escape.

It was a race thing.
I don't know how anyone

Could see it
Anything but that.

I thought that
I lived in america

Until shortly after Katrina,

And the crescent city
Connection was blocked off

From people being able
To walk freely

On united states soil.

Very disheartening,
Unacceptable.

I hope that the lawsuit
Is successful

For all of those involved.

There is no question

That the officials
There were wrong,

Absolutely wrong,

And they need to be
Reprimanded accordingly.

It was unjust.

It was inhumane
And unacceptable.

British reporter:
Late afternoon in the sky
Over New Orleans,

And a moment of life
And death is unfolding.

Here, a helicopter rescue
Brings relief.

A child is plucked
From the wreckage--

One little life saved.

Today's evacuees
Have survived

For three days
Without food or water.

Some just stare
Into space.

Everything they knew
Is gone.

This is now the biggest
Domestic relief operation

By the military
In america's history.

Thousands are making
It out of the city.

Many who couldn't get out
In the initial rush

Have been crowding
Onto buses.

Henry morgan:
We wound up underneath
That overpass

With a handful

Of not niggers,
But animals.

They were dead set on
A handful of people leaving.

They jammed us up against
The fences and everything else

To keep us
From being evacuated.

I really thought
I was going to die
Under there.

I thought that
I was going to die.

I thought I was
Going to be killed
Or something else.

There was fighting.
There was drugs.
There was alcohol.

There was everything
Going on there,

And there was not enough
People to take care
Of the people.

The first time I came
Back to New Orleans

Was the thursday
After Katrina.

And, like everyone,
We were

Not sure what to expect,

So we were
Sort of loaded--

.9mm, shotguns,
The whole thing.

Spike lee:
How many guns do you have?

I had a .9mm
And two shotguns.

But all I had to do
Was get to the house
And I had a couple more.

- and--
- yo, were you looking
For bin laden?

( laughs )
No, I wasn't,

But I wasn't sure what
I was going to find here.

I mean, it was like I drove
Into shootin' and lootin'

And carrying on,
And the buildings were burning.

I could see the dome,
And the dome--

The roof was ripped
Off of it.

The hotels and businesses,
The high-rises

All had the curtains
Blowing out and the
Windows went in.

There was
A church's chicken
Down the corner.

It looked like
It was on fire.

I kind of stopped

In the middle
Of the neutral ground.

You take that in,
Because you're just
Not ready for that.

You're just not ready
To think, you know,

"It's all screwed up."

And while I was there,

They had some kids
Coming over,

And they managed
To grab the car door,

And they were
Opening it up.

I didn't see it
Because I was too busy
Looking there,

But my dog saw it,
And he jumps over me,

And he just flipping out--
( mimics barking )

Complaining,
Barking and growling.

I think it scared him.
Because I turned around
And I looked

And there was like
Four or five kids,

And they had pipes
And everything else.

I think they were getting in
On all that crazy.

Darnnell herrington:
We were walking down
The street,

Which is in algiers,

And I'm talking to my cousin.

I had a bottle
Of water in my hand.
I'm talking to him,

And we're talking
About different things

And before you know it,
I heard a boom, a blast.

- ( gunshot )
- my body lifted up in the air

And I hit the ground.

My cousin, he was
Standing over me,

He was hollering--

He was hollering my name
And asking me if I was okay.

He was hysterical
At this time.

He was looking
At the blood

On my shirt and my arms.

I looked up
And I saw a white guy,

With a white t-shirt,

With a shotgun in his hand,
Coming toward me.

So I managed to get up--
Like I said,

By the grace of god,
I managed to get up,

And they had some debris
In the street.

So when I turned away
From the guy,

He coming toward me
With the shotgun,

It looked like he was
Trying to reload.

So as I turned away from him,
I jumped over the debris

And I heard
Another bang.

Yeah, some of the buckshots

Caught me in my back
And I hit the ground again.

And, uh, this is, uh--

This is the buckshots
From the shotgun.

This is the incision
From the surgery.

From the buckshots
That penetrated my neck

And hit my jugular vein.

Usually,
Disasters like this

Bring out the best
In everybody,

And that's what
We expected to see.

Now we've got people

That it's bringing out
The worst in.

And we're going to restore
Law and order.

We are not going to put up

With the kinds of things
That we have heard.

These troops know how
To shoot and kill,

And they are
More than willing
To do so if necessary.

And I expect they will.

Kathleen blanco:
We never could find
Clear evidence

That the city was
Totally out of control.

We know there was
Some looting going on.

We knew that there was
A little bit of that activity.

I kept trying
To get information,

Solid information
Through the state police.

That's the law enforcement
Agency that I depend on.

They were here.

They were working
With the city police,

And they could not
Verify those reports.

( on bullhorn )
We've got food and water
On the way

...Our lives...

I've got this
Food and water
Here for you.

We've got medical
Attention on the way.

We're gonna do
Everything we can to
Keep you out here safe.

What I'm trying to do
Right now is save
People's lives.

I'm trying to get
People out of this
Convention center.

I don't get involved
With the bureaucracy
Because I'm a police chief.

I am someone who tries
To protect and serve

The citizens of this city.

I need somebody
To get me a cruise boat,
Or some type of boat,

A cruise ship,
Or some kind of ship,

So I can put my people
In some comfort, so I
Can help the people.

We have people
In here who have
Lost their families,

And they have not
Gotten out of this fight.

I didn't know where
My daughter was at for
Two days and we endured.

I'm so tired of this,
But it's finally
Almost over.

That's it.
I don't want
To talk no more.

Trymaine lee:
I'll tell you about
Eddie compass.

This dude is from
The lafitte housing projects.
He's a street cop.

And he's a very
Emotional type of dude,

And when you talk to him,
He gets amped up.

I think his emotions--

I think he was just emotional
Under the circumstances.

This is his city.
His wife was eight
And a half months pregnant.

He got caught up
In the whirlwind,

And I guess he lost
Some of his composure.

What eddie was trying to do
Was tell the truth

Because there had been--
Nobody trusted the police.

His view was,
"I'll tell you everything
You want to hear."

Unfortunately,
He was spreading rumors

And started becoming
A celebrity and media star.

And couldn't-- loved to be
On with doctor phil
And oprah winfrey,

And on those programs
He would exaggerate
The problems,

Such as
Hundreds of helicopters
Being shot at by looters

And babies being raped
In the superdome.

And that's the scene
They kept showing--
"They're raping babies!"

That just didn't happen.

Now I don't know
Why he was doing that.

Maybe it to draw attention
To how much the city
Needed help,

But it had a very negative
Impact on our city.

I've got family
All over the place

And they're contacting
Me via e-mail.

They think like this is
The end of civilization
Down there.

There was reports of rapes,
And children being raped.

And I even got a report
At the ritz-carlton

Where my daughter
Was a concierge

That my daughter was raped,
And it tore me up.

What happened was
Some individuals

Tried to break
Into the hyatt regency--

I'm sorry,
To the ritz-carlton,

But the police were there
And they fought them back

And so my daughter
Wasn't harmed.

But by the time
Word got back to me,

You tell one person
Who tells one person,
Who tells one person--

And the person that relayed
The information to me,

They were so distraught
When they told me,

I just thought they
Were telling the truth.

It was really difficult.

And I guess in hindsight--

I guess I heightened
People's fears

By me being
The superintendent
Of police

Reporting these things
That were reported to me,

But there was
Really no way for me
To check definitively.

So instead of erring
On the side of caution,
Saying nothing,

I didn't want people
To think that we were trying
To cover anything up,

So I reported these things
Without them being
Substantiated

And it caused
A lot of problems.

I'm not looking forward
To this trip.

I got a feel for it
When I flew over before.

For those who have not--
Can't poss--

Trying to conceive
What we're talking about,

It's as if the entire
Gulf coast were obliterated

By the worst kind of weapon
You can imagine.

Brinkley:
You had to have
Your heart broken

If you love this country

And watched the slow federal
Response to Katrina.

You had the specter

Of the president
Of the united states seeming--

First off, he was totally
Not curious.

He goes to san diego
And gives a speech on iraq,

Comparing it to japan
After world war ii.

And barely
Mentions Katrina,

And then starts doing
A giddy air guitar skit
On the stage there...

...Which is almost like
Pouring salt in the wound.

And then when he
Finally addressed it,

He said that he had
Not been informed.

First of all,
The government did know,

Had been amply warned
By agencies,

By people who
Are meteorologists,

People who study
Weather patterns,

That this catastrophe

Was headed towards
The gulf region,

And that it had
The capacity to be bigger

Than anything else
The region had ever
Experienced.

Max mayfield:
Everyone, let's go ahead and
Get started. It's noon.

We have a lot of
Business to cover today.

If the really
Strong winds

Clip lake pontchartrain,

That's going
To pile some of that water
From lake pontchartrain,

Over on the south side
Of the lake.

I don't think anyone
Can tell you with any
Confidence right now

Whether the levees
Will be topped or not,

But that's obviously
A very very grave concern.

I do want to thank
The good folks in the offices

Of Louisiana
And alabama and mississippi

For listening
To these warnings

And preparing
Your citizens for--

This, uh--

This, uh--
Huge storm.

So there was
Information.

Why the government
Of the united states,

And particularly bush,
Decided not to respond,

Not to pay attention
To that,

I think was based
Upon a host of reasons.

First of all,
The arrogance of power.

Huge arrogance on the part
Of the government.

It didn't mean that much
To other things

That were capturing
His attention

And that he thought
Was far more important.

And when it did
Finally happen,

He just felt
That the people

Who were caught
In this terrible tragedy

Were, first of all,
Socially of no importance,

And certainly racially
Of no importance as well.

There are going to be
Plenty of opportunities
To help later on.

But right now
The immediate concern
Is to save lives

And get food and medicine
To people

So we can stabilize
The situation.

Again, I want to
Thank you all for--

And brownie, you're doing
A heck of a job.

--and brownie,
You're doing a heck
Of a job.

--and brownie, you're doing
A heck of a job.

Calvin mackie:
I'll never forget
Turning on the television

And seeing interviews

When george bush
Was saying,

"Good job, brownie."
And then they flipped
To the screen

With george bush
Flying over,

Looking out
Of the airplane

At the devastation below.

He needed to have put
His boot heels on the ground,

To have touched
The floodwaters,

To have smelled
The death.

Lyndon johnson, in 1965,

Came down to the 9th ward,

And in the pitch
Blackness of night
In his awkward texas way,

Had a big old
Flashlight with him.

He went out there
And put a flashlight on
And said,

"This is your president.
I am here."

In some ways,
That's a funny l.B.J. Story,

But what johnson was
Saying is, "We care.

I represent
The american people.

You may have lost
Your home,

You may have lost all
Your heirlooms,

But we care.
You mean something to us."

How could it be
That in a country

That is supposedly
The richest country
In the world,

Where the 82nd airborne
Are prepared to be

Anywhere in the world
In a day and a half,

Where we were
In the region of sri lanka

When the tsunami hit
In less than two days,

Here we are--
Day four, day five--

And the federal government
Still had not made it
To New Orleans?

Soledad o'brien:
You were unaware
Of the situation

At the convention center
Until yesterday.

When yesterday
Did you become aware?

Michael brown:
I think it was
Yesterday morning

When we first found out
About it.

We were just as surprised
As everybody else.

We didn't know that
The city had used that
As a staging area.

That shows how difficult
Communications are.

Fema has been on
The ground for four days
Going into the fifth day.

Why no massive airdrop
Of food and water?

In banda aceh in indonesia,
They got a food drop

Two days after
The tsunami struck.

We're feeding those people
In the convention center.

We have fed
Over 150,000 people

As of last night.
That is happening.

- soledad o'brien: the point
Is as of last night--
- you're witnessing--

Forgive me, I have
To stop you here.

What we are hearing
Is people's frustration.

There are people beginning
To manifest themselves

Out of the community
We didn't know were there.

Why are you discovering
This now?

It's five days that fema's
Been on the ground.

The head of police
Says it's been five days

That fema's been there.

The mayor,
The former mayor,

Putting out s.O.S.S
On tuesday morning,

Crying on national
Television,

Saying, "Please send in
Some troops."

So the idea that--
Yes, I understand that

You're feeding people
And trying to get
In there now,

But it's Friday.
It's Friday.

It was baffling to me
How you could have,

What was at point a sort
Of official estimate

Of 50,000 people
At the convention center,

And not know about it,
And have no idea.

The other thing that
Was surprising to me

Was that he seemed
To have no intelligence.

At one point I said,

"How can we have better
Intel than you have?

Because I have
A research file

Prepared by my 23-year-old
Research assistant,

My production assistant,

And I'm getting
Better intelligence
Than you're getting?

How is that possible?"
It was really baffling.

It was really one
Of the more baffling
Interviews,

Because they seemed so

Out-of-touch
With the reality

That I think a lot of people
Had been watching day
After day after day.

Brinkley:
Michael brown is kind of
A valet for the oil lobby.

His specialty was doing
Junkets for the oil crowd.

He'd get them a hunting
Lodge up in wyoming.

Where they could have two
Perfect weeks to get away.

So he slowly worked his way
Up the ladder in that way.

He was given fema
Which is like giving somebody

The ambassadorship
To luxembourg

Or something
As a patronage.

Who knew that bush had
Appointed the head

Of the arabian horse
Association to run fema?

New Orleans was
On the hit list

Of three worst
Disaster zones--

A terrorist attack in new yor,
Earthquake-- san francisco,

Breached levees
In New Orleans.

Instead fema
And homeland security

Treated the hurricane

As if the levees
Never breached.

They never understood

The complexities
Of a city 80% underwater,

Which is what happened
To New Orleans by the end
Of that first week.

Michael brown,

And I never thought
I'd live to see this day--

To defend michael brown,
But he was scapegoated.

Because michael brown
Was not the main problem.

It was michael chertoff
Who was the head

Of the department
Of homeland security.

Chertoff had
The responsibility

To name this an incident
Of national significance.

Once he did that,
That was the golden key

To unlock federal
Resources to make sure

That the federal government
Would respond to a disaster.

Since he didn't do that,
Michael brown's hands were tied.

In the bush administration,

If you go through
Each one of them,

And say, "Where were you
When the golden hour came?

Dick cheney?
Fly fishing.

Karl rove?
Nowhere around.

You have chertoff
Going to atlanta

On a disease
Prevention kick.

You see condoleezza rice
Shopping.

Dyson:
What was dr. Condoleezza
Rice doing

That looked very poorly?

She was at ferragamo's
Buying shoes.

I think a white patron
Came up to her--

Maybe a white woman,
And said,

"How dare you?! While people
Are down there drowning!"

It was like
The sandman hook. Whoop!

She got pulled off,
Brother,

That was
A mini-apollo stage,

And she wasn't
Hitting it.

So they pulled her
Offstage.

Then she goes to "Spamalot"
That night.

And when the cameras frame
Her familiar figure,

I can tell you that
This response

Is not a response
About color.

This is a response about
Americans helping
Americans.

No american wants to see
Another american suffer.

- what do we want?
- we want help!

- what do
We want?
- we want help!

- what do we want?
- we want help!

We want help!

We want help!
We want help!

Mackie:
When you consider
The situation--

If you wasn't rich,
If you wasn't middle class,

If you didn't have an explorer,
If you didn't have a car--

Right now,
I don't know what plan
Was put in place

For those people tget out.
That's the real question.

If there was
A mandatory evacuation,

And there was
A mandatory evacuation,

Then that means
That everyone had to leave.

And those people,

Who could not otherwise
Do for themselves,

Supposedly the government
Was supposed to do for them.

That's the responsibility
And role of the government--

To do for those otherwise
Who cannot do for themselves.

Nobody chose to go
Through what they did!

If anybody
Would have known,

God knows everyone
Would have left.

But again, some people
Don't have the means.

You can't keep evacuating.
People don't have the funds.

They don't have
The places to go.
They don't have vehicles.

And they say that
This was all

Available to people.
That's crap.

The whole deal was
A bad experience, man.

But I think it could have
Been done much better, okay?

And just to me,
You know,

The city on the whole
Didn't do what they were
Supposed to do,

And you've got
To fault the mayor.

- we want help!
- all these people
You see here dying?

- it's your fault.
No more.
- we want help!

Where are
The policemen at?

Where are the national guard
That can control all this?

Nagin:
I think we probably
Have evacuated

75% to 80% of the citizens
Out of this city.

And normally,
People would say

If you can get 60%
Of the people out,
You're doing a great job.

Ray Nagin was warned
On Saturday night

That this was
The worst storm ever.

The head of the national
Weather service

Said, "You've got to get
These people out of there."

Ray Nagin consulted first
With the business community.

I found that remarkable.

His first instinct was not
To protect his own citizens

But to go out and protect
The business community,
Because he felt

That if he
Faced the reprisals
Of the business community,

He would lose
His economic base.

Understandable,
But still lamentable.

Carter:
He is supposed to be
That first line of defense,

And organize
The police department,
The fire department,

And all other emergency
Response folks.

And if he didn't--
There was a plan in place,

But I'm not sure if he knew
What was in the plan,
To be quite honest.

I'm not sure if
He'd ever read it before.

- Nagin: I...
- Judge: Ray Nagin.

Nagin:
...Clarence R. Nagin, Jr.

Otherwise known
As "C. Ray Nagin..."

( audience chuckles )

- ...Do solemnly swear...
- ...Do solemnly swear...

...That I will support
The constitution and laws
Of the united states.

...That I will support
The constitution
And laws...

Melancon:
Ray Nagin done what
He could do.

Ray Nagin's only a mayor.
He's not no governor.

He's not no
Vice-president.

He's not no
President.

He only have
So much power.

You know,
I voted for Nagin,

And I think
He was just confounded

By the tremendous import
Of the problem here.

Things got on him,
And he should have gotten his
People out of the city faster,

But what else
He was going to do

But put them in the superdome
And the convention center?

The pictures of these
Poor people

With nothing to eat

And without their clothes,
And people looting the city,

I don't think you can
Attribute all that--

It's easy in hindsight
To say what you would have done

Under the same
Or similar circumstances.

If I had to grade mayor Nagin,
I would say this--

I would say there has not
Been a man in america

That has been challenged
The way he's challenged.

Many people want
To talk about giuliani,

But 9/11 was
16 square acres--

This is 90,000
Square miles.

Giuliani went home
Every night.

Giuliani had
His police, his firemen.
He had communication.

That's right.
Rudy would have tramped out
There in the midst of the storm

And walked on water
Like jesus.

The reality is
That the entire city
Of New Orleans was flooded,

So to his credit,
Mr. Nagin attempted
In the aftermath

To get resources
Available for his city.

Nagin:
I'm not trying
To be rudy.

I don't think
I can be rudy.

I don't get
The giuliani pass
For a lot of different reasons,

Some good
And some bad.

The 9/11 situation
Was a very contained event.

This event in New Orleans
Was totally different.

You've never had a city
Totally devastated.

You never had a city
With 80% of it underwater.

You've never had a city
With communications gone,

With electricity gone,

With the media
For the most part gone,

Because of fears
Of what was happening
In the city.

Well, as I was
Dealing with the crisis
Right after the storm,

There was two major
Flood events.

The first one happened
Right after the storm

With the florida avenue.

And then right
Close thereafter,

We had breaches
At 17th street

And the london avenue

And we were in crisis.

Everything that we did
Was basically

To try and get
As many people out,

And then to put people
In shelters of last resort,

To basically allow them
To spend a couple of days,

And then we always thought
The cavalry would come--

The state police,

National guard,
The feds.

And then
After two or three days,
They didn't show up.

Woman:
They've been making
Promises to us

That they were going
To move us, move us
And move us,

And we've been
Believing in it,
And people just really been

Getting frustrated
At this point.

Woman:
No red cross or nothing.

( crowd shouting
Angrily )

This is terrorism
America-style.
Help us!

To try to figure out
Why there was

A slow federal response
Is still a puzzle to me.

I look at that time,
And it was so desperate.

And as governor,

I had thrown every asset
That we had

Against the fury
Of the storm,

And the aftermath
Of the storm.

We had 400 boats

From wildlife and fisheries
Ready to deploy--

In fact, deploying,
While the winds

Were still blowing
30 and 40 miles an hour--

That's not real safe.
If you're a boater,
You know that.

But they were doing that
Because we understood

There was going to be
A big lifesaving mission.

We understood, though,
As events unfolded,

That that was not enough,
And we continued to ask

In every way possible
To get more help.

Robinette's voice:
What do you need right now

To get control
Of this situation?

Nagin's voice:
I need reinforcements.
I need troops, man.

I need 500 buses, man.
We ain't talking about--

You know, one of
The briefings we had,
They were talking about

Getting public school
Bus drivers

To come down here
And bus people out of here.

I'm like, you've got
To be kidding me!

This is a national
Disaster.

Get every doggone
Greyhound bus line
In the country

And get their asses
Moving to New Orleans!

The interview
With mayor Nagin has
Some historic proportions,

But primarily,
It was an accident.

I had broadcast
Through the hurricane...

Into the couple of days
After the hurricane,

And then taken
A couple of days off

To go find my family.

And when I came back,
I hadn't been listening
To the news,

And I just figured
The president was here,
The army was here,

Things were starting
To turn around.

And in my drive in,
I listened to

All of these
Public officials--

The governor,

Parish officials--
In hysteria.

And when I got
Into the studio

I said,
"What the hell's going on?"

And they said,
"We don't know."

And the mayor
Called in.

Nagin's voice:
You know the reason why the
Looters got out of control?

Because we had
Most of our resources
Saving people,

Thousands of people that were
Stuck in attics, man--

Old ladies.
When you pull off
The doggone ventilator vents

And you look down there,
And they're standing in there

In water up to their
Frickin' neck.

And they don't have a clue
What's going on down here.

They flew down here
One time

Two days after the doggone
Event was over

With tv cameras,
A.P. Reporters,

All kind of goddamn--
Excuse my french,

Everybody in america,
But I am pissed.

That was the moment
I think we started
Getting help.

Everybody else was being
Politically correct,

Racially correct,

Economically correct,
Class correct,

And nobody
Had the balls

To say what
Was happening.

And until he did,
Nothing did ppen.

This is the thing
That people have
To understand--

That america
Can no longer--

( choked sobs )

I'm sorry.

It's been a long
Few months.

I'm sorry, um--

It's, uh--
( sighs )

I kind of went off, man.
After I did it...

I said to myself--
I was really emotional.

I said,
"Man, I have really
Screwed up.

This is the end
Of my business career,

My political career,

And maybe the cia
Is going to swoop in here,

And inject me with something
I don't know about,

Where in two months
I'm going to be history."

And I really
Believed that.

And after I kind of
Got over it, man,

It kind of started
The ball rolling.

You know,
Air force one was

Something that was
Pretty amazing.

I've never been on...

What I'm calling
A pimp-mobile, man.

This thing is incredible.
It's like--

It's like nothing
You've ever seen.

It's a penthouse
In the sky.

They called me and said,

"Look, the president would
Like to meet with you."

I said, "Look,
I haven't taken a bath.

I've been doing this
Military bathing thing.
I haven't shaved."

They said, "No problem,
We're going to set you up."

I go on air force one.

This brother from new york
Takes care of everything.

He said, "Look, man,
We're going to hook you up."

Sent me to the back,
In the president's quarters,

And I get in the shower,

And he knocks on the door
And says,

"Mr. Mayor, five minutes.
They need you."

And I'm like, to myself,
"There's no way I'm getting
Out of this warm shower

In five minutes.
They're going to wait on me."

So he comes back
And knocks on the door again

And basically says,
"They need you.

The president is
Waiting for you."

So I took
Another five minutes
And eventually got out.

We have lunch
On the plane

With the president,
Senators

And congressmen.
Chertoff is there,

Brown was there,
The governor was there.

Mayor Nagin was still
Very upset about

Everything going on,
Very justly.

We were all upset.
I mean, you know, let's be
Frank about it--

None of us were
Happy and content.

As everybody's going
Around the room and they
Kind of get to me,

And I cut to the chase.

I said, "Mr. President,
With all due respect,

If you and the governor
Don't get on the same page,

This thing is going
To continue to degrade
Into something

That's going to further
Embarrass the nation."

So he and the governor
Went in another room.

They had a meeting
For about 15 minutes.

Somebody came and got me
And said, "The president
Would like to see you."

So I go in this room,
This little private room,
The governor's coming out.

He said, "Mr. Mayor,
The governor and I talked.

I took your advice.

I offered her somebody
Who could run this thing

And have ultimate
Authority.

And she did not want
To go in that direction,

So I gave her
Two options."

And he basically said,
"I'm sad to say

That she said she needed
Some time to think about it."

I didn't say,
"Give me 24 hours

To decide
If I want your help."

I had said from day one,

"Mr. President,
I need your help."

Nagin:
Well, you know,
From my perspective,

The big problem
In this catastrophe

Was who ultimately
Had the authority

To make the final calls.

And the feds,

The federal government,
In my opinion,

Was dancing around
This whole issue
Of state rights.

And the state
Had to call the feds in

For the resources
That they needed.

And the state was kind
Of hesitant in doing that,

Because the governor
Wanted to look like

She was in charge
And in control.

And that's what I'm
Talking about when I say

There was this dance
About final authority.

And people were suffering.
It was frustrating me.

Brinkley:
Governor blanco, I think,

Was in many ways
Angry at Nagin,

Because Nagin,
As a democrat,

Backed the republican
Bobby jindal

When she
Ran for governor.

He didn't think she
Had a chance to win,

And he did in politics,
Which is one of those
Unthinkable things,

He broke out and said,
"I don't want the democratic
Candidate.

I'm going to vote
For a republican,"

Who is a great friend
Of the bush administration,

So Nagin backed
Bobby jindal.

Well, blanco won,
And she's harbored

A great deal of animosity
Towards Nagin ever since.

I don't care what
The political relationship is

Between a gornor
Or a mayor.

When there's a crisis,
Like a hurricane crisis,

Or a weather crisis,

All political b.S.

Has to go to the side.

"Ray Nagin,
What happened?

You dropped the ball."

Then I would say the same
Thing to the governor.

"Ms. Blanco, what were
You thinking about?

What the hell
Was going on?"

Then I would ask bush,

"You're out of touch,
And you don't have a clue."

You know,
He's the type of person

That gives "C" students
All over the world
A bad name.

British reporter:
And here he was in biloxi,

Feeling the pain of
Some of the survivors.

He's very good at this,
But many feel he should have
Done it much earlier.

Then the question that
May well come to haunt
Him in his second term--

The war in iraq
And hurricane Katrina--

The perfect storm.

Reporter:
What do you say to
The people who say there's

Too much money being
Spent on iraq, and it's
Time to bring it home?

I-I-I just completely
Disagree.

We've got a job
To defend this country
In the war on terror

And we've got a job
To bring aid and comfort

To people
Of the gulf coast--
And we'll do both.

I'll never forget.

I went to one of the shelters
In shreveport, Louisiana,

And I met a man
Named daniel webster.

I'll will never
Forget him.

And he was sitting there,
And he said to me,

"You know, reverend,

My wife was
Wheelchair-bound.

When I heard
The storm coming,
I ran to the door.

I knew I was in trouble
Because I took my finger
And tapped the doorknob,

And I tasted the water.
It was salt water,

So I knew that the waters
From the river was coming."

He said, "But before
I could run back

To where my wife was,

I looked outside
And saw my car floating,

And before I could
Reach my wife,

The door came off
The hinges and water
Was everywhere."

He said, "I finally
Grabbed her chair,

And pushed her up
To the roof of the house,

And I held her as long
As I could. And I couldn't
Hold no longer,

And I watched my wife's
Wheelchair just go
With the flow,

And watched her drown

As a tree branch
Held me for 12 hours."

He said, "The only thing
I don't know is why god
Didn't just let me die.

I have nothing
To live for."

These are the kinds of things
We had to listen to,

And then turn on the news
That night,

And george bush
And michael brown

Are talking politics.

They didn't have
Information.

They were waiting
On reports.

They could have done
What we did:

Go right there
And talk to the people.

Activate the national guard,
Activate the military.

Oh. I forgot.
They were in iraq,

Making democracy free
For those abroad,

While those at home
Had nothing.

- I'm her daughter.
- man: how old is your mother?

86. She have
A heart condition.

Cynthia hedge-morrell:
The feeling that residents
Had about the national guard,

And the state police,
And the visiting police

That they were in
An armed, occupied city.

I can't help but believe

That's the same way
They treated people

In any city
That we go in and invade,

Or kosovo,
Or wherever.

I don't know.

I guess maybe that's
The way the iraqis
Feel sometimes.

Good morning.

Yesterday was a good day.

We made much progress
In building our capability

In the area of operation,
In mississippi,

As well as in Louisiana.

Nagin:
Next thing that happened
Was I get this call.

I need to meet
This general

And he's at
The heliport.

So I walk in,
And I'm waiting,

And his aircraft
Was a little late.

And I'll never forget this
As long as I live.

This brother walks
In the room,

And he's got all these
Military guys around,

And he takes-- he's got
This little tammy on,

And he takes
His dark shades on,

And gets his little pad,
And his pen.

He says, "All right.

What are we going to do?
What's going on?""

Weapons down!
Weapons down, damn it!

Nagin:
They started giving
Him a bunch of b.S.,

And he started cussing,
And things started happening,

And that's when
Things changed.

Put those damn
Weapons down!

I'm not going
To tell you again,
God damn it.

Get those goddamn
Weapons down.

The black
John wayne dude--

General honore.
That's a bad man.

He was the guy
That did it.

He wasn't stuck on stuck.

I want that on the ground
So the trucks can go
Get another load.

- yes, sir.
- you can make that happen?

- I can make it happen.
- you the man.
I'm depending on you.

- I'm gonna make it happen.
- I got something for you
At the end.

All right. Thank you.

Honore:
The next 24 hours
Will be critical to us,

As we are trying
To evacuate

The 25,000 people
At the convention center.

This will be tough work,

But we have
The conditions set,

And we will
Get that done.

We'll continue
To flow forces in
And capability,

So we can sustain
This operation

And continue
The enormous search
And rescue mission

That runs from
I-20 to the gulf coast
Of mississippi,

And in and around
The greater New Orleans area.

So we will do our best
And continue to do that

Over the next 24 hours.
Over.

Reporter:
Right now we're being told

That this is
A convoy of food,

Possible food
And supplies coming in--

Maybe we can slow it down
A little bit here--

Into the area
Of the convention center.

Relief is finally
Arriving here on large

National guard
Or army vehicles

Around the superdome.

Dale girard:
In the lines for the people

To evacuate the superdome,

They had no direction

Or no clue of what
Was going on.

You couldn't hear
Anything

Because there
Was no sound system.

When you did get

Something that somebody
Was telling you--

The men in one line,

The women in one line,

The family
In another line,

The elderly
In another line.

It was just so chaotic

Trying to get out
Of that dome,

Because no one
Had any clue

Or direction
How we were

To get out the dome
At the time.

Man:
Grab her--
Grab her legs.

Gralen banks:
The hyatt is located
Right next

To the superdome.
We were actually called

The hyatt regency New Orleans
At Louisiana superdome.

We were right
In the vicinity,

But it was like
Being miles away,

Because there was water
And everything else

Separating us from
The folks at the dome.

They evacuated all
The folks from the dome,

Probably about 40,000 people,
Through the hyatt,

And we had no idea
What to expect.

The day that the folks
Were going to be

Evacuated from the dome
Through the hotel,

I found out about it,

And I was told
That I would have

National guard,
State and local police
To do the security.

Because...

Gralen was
Afraid that the guys

Who were in there
Doing what they weren't
Supposed to do

Would fan out into the hotel,
And it could be a problem.

So we were on our way

To go and speak to
This major-- state police,

When I saw this
Brother in a uniform--

Just a brother
In a uniform happened
To be walking by.

I said, "Excuse me, sir.
Are you with the
National guard?"

He said, "Yes, I am."
I said, "Listen, this is
What I need, man.

I got a problem, because
The state troopers--"

And I just started
Going off, right?

And the brother said,
"Wait a second.

Stop.
Take a deep breath.

Tell me what it is you want
Me to do. Tell me what
I could do for you.

Well, in the meantime,
The crew I'm with,

We looking
At each other like,

"Okay let's get these
People out of the dome,"

Cause gralen
Didn't cut the deal,
Him and the other folk,

They didn't cut the deal.

And the military
Created a line

From the entrance
Of the hyatt,

From the entrance
Of the New Orleans center

All the way
Through the hyatt,

All the way down
To the loyola street door.

And I mean,
A physical line,
Like a chute.

He said, "Mr. Banks,"
He said, "Will this do

So I dapped him off,

Dapped the brother off,
Give him a hug,

And I had
To call my mom,

Because I saw
The significance.

I never told you
His name. You know
What his name was?

Captain christian.

His name was
Captain christian.

And as they came through,
The military was good and bad.

Because I guess as
A trained soldier,

You have to see things
And act like you
Don't see it.

You're oblivious to it.

And for much pain--
I mean, people were
Carrying people

And dragging,
And dragging bags
Of clothes,

And crippled people,
And people bleeding.

I mean, it was just
Horrific conditions.

Horrific conditions--

Women, periods was
Down on them,

They had shit on them,
Piss on them.

Children were
By themselves.

You would have
Thought we were
In the middle of a war,

And everybody took out
Running and hiding,

And all of a sudden
They were able to flee.

And I saw that,

And all I could
Do was cry

And stand up there
And feel helpless

Until I looked
On the sidewalk and saw

All of this water
That the military
Had stacked up,

And I began to bust
The cases of the water,

And put a bottle of water
In everybody's hand,

Just to give it
Some humanistic side.

Not a lot,
But something.

I mean, we had
To do something.

If he sees this,
Captain christian,
I owe you one.

Thank you, brother.
Thank you.

He looked out, man,
And it was just the idea--

When I told my mom,
She said the same thing.

She said,
"Lord have mercy.
God is good."

My mother died
September 1st,

And she had to
Stay out there in
The heat for four days.

Because I left
On the 4th,

She was still there.

I wanted to go
And be with her.

The national guard told me
I had to get on the bus.

And they all had ak-47s.

He told me he was
Doing his job.

I said, "Let me
Just go back there just
To see her before I leave."

He said, "No, you're not
Going to do anything.

You're going
To get on this bus
And stay on this bus."

Just like that,
So I had to make
A decision

Whether to go
Against authority
And get myself in trouble

Or to just
Leave it alone,

And I can handle it
A little better later on.

So I prayed to myself,

And the voice within me

Told me just
To get on the bus,
Don't do anything,

Just stand still
And watch my salvation.

Here we are in what's
Real the oldest part

Of the airport terminal,
Built in 1959,

And today it's doing
Its normal function,

Which is being
A quiet waiting area

Before you go
Through security
And go to your plane.

A few shops are open,
And it looks pretty normal.

But at the height
Of the evacuation

This was an entirely
Different facility.

It was filled with people,
People hoping to get out,

Hoping to get away
From the disaster
That was Katrina.

Phyllis montana leblanc:
When we got here, we had
Blisters on our feet.

So on top of the blisters
We stood for 15 hours.

I counted them.

There was a group
Called "The ice unit."

They weren't here
When we got here,
They were brought in,

And this was
To keep "Order,"

Because we were
Getting out of order,

Because people were yelling,
"My child is dying,"
"My mother is dying."

We were getting
Out of order.

By day, the ticket lobby
Was filled with evacuees
Waiting,

Standing in line patiently,
Hoping to make that
Next flight.

But as the day
Would come to an end,
Each night again,

All of the folks
In this lobby--

We estimate
In these two lobbies
At peak 8,000 people--

Would have to find
Someplace to bed down
For the night.

Right now, no firm numbers
On the number of people

Inside of this main terminal.

About 4,000 is what
They are guesstimating
At this point.

O'brien:
The first week, we actually
Were in the studio.

When the hurricane hit,
We reported on it,

We were on the air
As it was making landfall,

And then we
Went to New Orleans
Right after that.

And then we got
Into the airport,
And that was the real shocker.

It was just full
And full of people.

Every hallway in this
Part of the airport,
Full of people.

And then upstairs was
The sort of hospital
Triage area.

So what you had was
A lot of really old people

Either on gurneys,
Or in wheelchairs,

Or with canes,
Hooked to I.V.S.

The stench
Was unbelievable.
It was just filthy.

And so many people
That just went on
And on and on.

They had to...

Basically corral us

In an area where there
Were children fainting.

I had to keep coming
In the cool area,

Because I kept getting
What I'm thinking were
Panic attacks,

Anxiety attacks,
Because there was no air.

People were packed
In here from this wall
To over here.

And when I say
"Wall-to-wall"--

Four, five times over
Wall-to-wall.

The line was, like,
20-people wide,

And it was just snaking
Through the entire airport--

From the downstairs
Through the upstairs
Through the security.

Thankfully,
Despite the vast crowds,

Despite the uncertainty,
Despite all the pressure

On all of these folks
That all of them were feeling,

We did not have
Any significant crime,

Any significant violence.
It was an orderly process

To, I think,
Everyone's amazement,
And thankfully so.

Petri laurimaa:
And then it's like--

At these checkout points
You get a little sandwich

And something to drink.
There's a cardboard box,

And the guards go,
"Throw your
Guns there.

- no questions asked."
- yeah, guns, knives,
Whatever.

"Just get rid
Of them,"

And all the way,
There was maybe

Seven or eight
That kind of points,
And there were actually--

Yeah, they kept just yelling
Out the different things you
Couldn't take on the airplane.

It was a great list,
Because it covered
Everything.

We finally got able
To go to the door. Hour 15--
We walked through the door.

And I'm walking through,
Like, "Okay, we're finally
Through this shit."

Metal detector
For what? We have nothing.
What metal detector?

"Do you have any drugs on you?
Do you have.-"

If I did,
I'd smoke them. Fuck.

But at any rate,
We get through the door--

So I'm just like trying
To get through the shit.

She's standing
There looking at me.
What they call,

I learned this in d.C.,
"Gritting" on me.

Like she wanted to fight,
Which is not a good thing.

I mean, I don't know
Who I am,

So when I whip your ass,
I'm not going to know
Who you are either.

So I'm like,
"What the fuck are you looking
At me like that for?" right?

So she's like,
"Um, do we have a problem?"
"Not fucking yet,

But come here,
Let me whisper something
In your ear.

You know what?
You're on your job and I'm
Not on my job.

Let's take this
Fucking shit outside."

You whisper something
Where nobody else can hear,

Because I'm that angry,
I just want to take you
Where nobody else can see you,

Fuck you up
And go on about my business.
You know what I'm saying?

Because you're standing here
In air conditioning with
A goddamn uniform on,

Never mind how much they
Pay you, but the stupid-ass
Attitude behind it.

We're out here suffering--
And not just because your skin
Is black like mine is,

But some fucking sympathy,
Some compassion, empathy,
Anything.

Sarah dean:
They told us they thought
It was going to san antonio.

- so then we
Got on the plane...
- we called everyone.

- we're trying to get--
- trying to get a pick-up
From san antonio.

"Does anybody have
A friend in san antonio?"

We wound up getting up

On the dallas-Louisiana-
Shreveport welcome station,

Where we got off the bus,
Because we was too scared
To go further.

Told my bus driver, said,
"Where are we going?"

He said, "They didn't tell us
Where we're going."

They had 56 buses
That convoyed us to...

Muskogee, oklahoma.

Then I realized they
Were trying to ship us off
To utah in an airplane.

I was like, "No no,
I don't want to go to utah.
I want to go to baton rouge."

We got on a plane
And we didn't know
Where we were going.

They didn't tell us
Where we were going
Until we actually got there.

And figured out.
We saw a sign that
Said "Texas," okay?

And san antonio
At that.

So they took us
Up to oklahoma.

- lee: oklahoma?
- oklahoma.

- how long is the bus ride?
- 30 hours. 30 hours.

Some of my family
Is in utah.

Some of my family
Is in colorado.

First place I headed,
I made it to tennessee,

Slept there for a night.
And then I went

To some relatives
Of my girlfriend in evergreen.

Then I wen-

- lee: where's that?
- evergreen, alabama.

We've been to lafayette,
Gonzales, baton rouge,

South carolina, orlando.

And some went to eugene,
Some went to baton rouge,

Some went to atlanta.

My mom was in houston.

My sister phyllis was
In san antonio, texas.

And then I went
To pensacola, florida.

And then I went back
To evergreen.

Then I made it
To atlanta.

Some of 'em is
In houston, texas,

Some of 'em is
In fort worth, texas.

My uncle james was
On an army base in utah,

My niece alicia
And her mother carla,

They were
In Lafayette, Louisiana.

Jahiya and I
Were in new york.

They went to lafayette,
They went to hammond,

And the worst part
About that--

They were sending you
Where they want to send you.

They'd tell you,
"I've got relatives in atlanta.

It'd be great if I
Could get to atlanta."

Knowing what I knew,
Knowing that if they waited
For the atlanta plane,

They might be there
Two or three more days,

And whether they got
To dallas or oklahoma city
Or wherever,

They were
At least getting back
To civilization.

With the evacuation

Scattering my family

All over
The united states,

I felt like it was
An ancient memory,

As if we had been up
On the auction block.

Some people suggested that
This was akin to slavery.

"Oh no,
You're being hyperbolic.

You're just engaging
In all forms

Of racial
Inflammatory rhetoric.
Calm down."

Well, the fact is,
They were treating them

Like slaves
In the ship.

Families were
Being separated.

Children were
Being taken from their
Mothers and fathers.

Those who were
More weary

And those who
Were more likely
To be vulnerable

Were separated
From those who
Were stronger.

Babies literally ripped
Out of the arms of their
Mothers and fathers.

The separation
Of the evacuation,
Where people lost sight

And lost sound
And lost sense
Of their loved ones.

A lot of people
Have been asking us,
"What's it like now?"

And it's essentially
A ghost town.

Choppers fly
Overhead as well,
And it's relatively quiet.

We wanted, though,
To take a tour of a center

That many people heard about--
The convention center--

To show you what it looks
Like right now.

The first thing
You notice-- the smell.

It smells like--
It smells like dead bodies.

It smells like urine.

It smells like
People who've waded
Through sewage...

O'brien:
The moment I knew
How bad it was

Was when I was covering
The convention center.

I was doing a story.
We walked through.

It was weird.
There was just
Nobody there.

It's empty,
And everything's open,

And just filthy.
All the garbage was
Still there.

As we walked back
Across the street from
The convention center--

Which is a huge
Convention center.

It goes on for blocks
And blocks and blocks--
A dead guy.

Under this comforter--

Someone has covered up--
It's a dead body,

And at some point
They'll figure it out
And move it off.

Two days later,
I come back to do
A stand-up--

Same backdrop...
Dead guy still there.

And that to me was
A sign of just
How chaotic--

I mean that a dead man
In the middle of the street
In New Orleans,

Which is a major city,
Didn't merit being
Cleaned up,

And picked up,
Because there were so
Many other priorities.

People stopped us
Because they knew--

We had "Times-picayune"
Written on our truck.

They wanted help.
They were pointing
Out stuff--

"There's dead bodies up
On top of the interstate.

Is anyone going
To come and get them?"

I saw them with my own eyes.
There were dead people.

People's family members
Had taken them up
On the interstate

Because they didn't want
To leave them in the houses,

And they were laying there,
Covered with blankets,

Up on I-10,
And no one's coming
To pick them up.

It's a mess now.

I've seen a lot of dead
People floating.

My buddy was over the gate,
Round the corner.

He swolled up this big, man.
His name was eddie.

Alexander:
Blessed are the ones
Who sacrificed

Their lives to save us--
You truly are dedicated.

And blessed are the ones
Who cried-- your tears
Will not be wasted.

And blessed are the ones
Who were lost and displaced

And whose houses were
Knocked off its foundation
By winds and tidal waves.

Cemeteries
Turned into mazes.

Caskets coming
Out of their graves,
Like they was in texas,

And they was
Sitting sideways.

Days for days,
I'm seeing skeletal remains,

Remains scattered
And unclaimed,
That's a shame.

Bush said he accepted
The blame, so tell me
Why they playing games

With the money,
Trying to give us
The change?

Our neighborhoods are being
Reconfigured to be rearranged.

Everything is strange.
I know you can, because I...

( singing )

...They done signed my name,
I proclaim, and jesus
Done led me

Through the fire,
The storm, the hurricane,
And the rain.

Broke off the chains.
Loosen up their hands
Then kicked in the frame.

You don't even have
To remember my name.

I told you
I would be here,

With some partners
That I came.

I'm leaving,
But I'll be back again.

Will you be there?

( score playing )

( '50s music playing )