All language subtitles for When.the.Levees.Broke.A.Requiem.in.Four.Acts.Acts.3.and.4.720p.10bit.WEBRip.x265-budgetbits

( theme music playing )

Father, in the name of Jesus,
We come at your hour, lord,

Saying thank you.

Thank you for being so kind
With your mercy,

Your love
And your grace.

Father, as we waded
Through the water,

My mind thought
About the song

That my old ancestors
Used to sing,

What I was raised up on.

Father, as I walked
Through that water,

All I could say was,
"Lord, wading in the water.

Wading in the water.

God's going to
Trouble the water."

Father, you troubled
That water for our protection,

And I want
To thank you, lord.

I want to thank you
For bringing us through
That water.

And as we wade, god,

You was there bringing
Us over to destiny.

And, god, you're so
Loving, kind and merciful,

And we thank you
For it, master.

In Jesus's name we pray.
Amen, amen and amen.

( score playing )

( score continues )

( score continues )

( waves lapping )

( playing jazz music )

The hot 8 brass band's
A people's band of new
Orleans right now.

Yo. Yo!
Yo yo yo!

Probably a week
After the hurricane,
I called benny pete

On the phone
Just to check on him

And, you know, he said,

"Lee, you know,
Guys are everywhere.

We lost our instruments.
We're not gigging.

We're trying
To get jobs right now."

This is not what these guys
Should be doing.

These guys should
Be playing music,
Not working in a bakery

Or a store. They should be
Playing music, you know?

( singing )

Lee arnold:
I talked to benny,
And we decided to--

You know, we said we got
To get the guys back together.

Man:
You're listening
To the sounds

Of the hot 8 brass band.
We come all the way
From New Orleans

- by way of Katrina.
- ( crowd laughs )

There's a tradition
In New Orleans-- we do
Have a tip thing over here.

I don't want everybody
To get all excited

And rush all at one time
And put something
In this case.

Please take your time
And hurry up.

We're back tonight,
And we're in the capital city

Of the state of Louisiana,
Baton rouge.

It's become the temporary home
For thousands of refugees

From the gulf coast.

We're told 12,000 people
Are going to tennessee,

An estimated 20,000 are finding
Shelter in arkansas,

And more than 150,000
Are now making their home

In the state of texas.
And most of those
Brand new texans,

As you know,
Are in houston.

The mayor of houston
Is now saying that the number

Of New Orleans people
Arriving here

Could actually reach 200,000
By the time this is over.

When you think
About the dispersal

Of black americans across,

What now, 49 states--
Nearly every state
In the union--

Even when they were
Received with open arms--

Think about houston--
Initially, it got kind of
Thick up in there.

Reporter:
In houston's
Toughest neighborhood,

Police on patrol,

Trying to stem
A rising tide of violence

Since 150,000 evacuees
Arrived from New Orleans.

Police here say
The vast majority

Of hurricane evacuees
Are honest citizens.

But a small group of violent
New Orleans criminals

Is now fighting for a share
Of houston's streets.

Evacuees are suspects
In at least 15 murders here

Since september 1st.

18 murder victims
Had also

Relocated
From Louisiana.

What amazes me is that
People said-- and even
Among black people--

"Well, these New Orleans folk
Coming down here,
Oh, yeah.

Houston was a hotbed
Of civic politeness

Before they arrived here.
There was no crime problem."

I guess scarface
And the geto boys

Were just making all
Of that stuff up:

"Never seen a man cry
Till I seen a man die."

Yeah, I guess that was
A cartoon character.

The point is that

There was huge racial
Tension introduced

As a result of this dispersal
That very few people
Speak about.

I don't think it would be
Much different if it was,

You know, people from chicago
Come down to New Orleans,

Or New Orleans evacuees
In any other major city.

There's gonna be
A conflict.

People are used
To things a certain way.

So now they're out there,
Struggling to survive.

I think it would be
Tough for anybody.

When we look at citizens
In this country,

Who are devastated
By what happened in Katrina,

Thrown to the four corners
Of this nation,

With no relationships,

With no family,

With no place to go,
Just be dropped off,

And then told to forage
For yourself

Is an overwhelming
Experience.

And they got us displaced.

Dysfunctional families
All over. Can't get
In touch with them.

My grandmother
And my uncle are
Still missing.

We're still trying
To find them. They're
From New Orleans east.

These are my stepkids.

I've been raising them
Since they was in pampers.
( cries )

I'm looking
For my son earnel.

I don't know
Where he at.

Mothers separated
From their children...

Mommy!

Man:
"Where's my mother?
Where's my grandmother?"

There's no way
That anybody can get
Records on all that.

I don't know if you know
What that's like,

To go somewhere,
And you don't know
Where your friends are.

You don't know
Where your family is.

You've lost
Telephone communication,

Because the cells
Are down.

The towers are down.
You can't call 'cause
The numbers don't work.

And it was like that
For months.

How do I feel about
A million-plus people

Being just thrown out
Of the place

They've lived
Their whole lives?

It's indescribable.

I ain't got words for that.

( sighs )

I never thought
I'd live in a place

Where that could happen.

And it--

It stuns me
To this day.

We're just-- "Ship over here,
Go over there."

And we trying to keep some
Families strong here.

- we're depressed because we
Didn't start this situation.
- that's right.

We're stressed 'cause we
Don't live in these kind
Of conditions.

You walk around the baton rouge
Convention center

Or the houston astrodome,

And you hear an almost
Uniform outcry

Of "Where's the government?
How could they do this to us?"

George bush doesn't care
About black people.

I thought kanye west
Was blisteringly brilliant,

Even as he stumbled
Toward his self-expression.

He was nervous after all.
He's going off-script.

George bush doesn't care
About black people.

Kanye west's comment
Was wonderful.

( chuckling )
I was just like...

You could see,
If you really look at it,

He's like,
"I'm going to say something.

I'm going to
Say something."

And I'm sure
He was trying

To think of something
Eloquent and wonderful

And politically astute.

George bush doesn't care
About black people.

When I went up to nbc,
I hadn't planned to
Make a statement.

I didn't know what
I was going to do.

I read what they wanted me
To read, and I felt like--

You know, I practiced,
I read the teleprompter,

And I felt like it wasn't
Heartfelt enough.

So I knew I was
Gonna speak from my heart.

Don't put me in front
Of the camera if you
Don't want me

To say how I feel.

And he said,
"George bush doesn't care
About black people."

Now the amazing thing was
To turn to mike myers,

Who was sitting there
Like a deer caught
In the headlights.

Mr. Mike myers,
"Dr. Evil,"

Couldn't
Even utter a word--

Inarticulate,
Rendered mum

And numb.

After I said it,

Just everyone in the room
Was polarized.

And it's kind of like
I had to show myself

To the elevator,

And mike myers just
Looked at me and said,
"It is what it is."

And there was a bar

Right across the street
From here

Where we went to go have
Drinks right afterwards,

'cause it was one of those
Ones, you know,

Where you do something,
You're like, "Oh, shit.

This might be
The last drink
We ever have."

My reaction was,
A: he's talking
For a lot of us.

A lot of us felt that bush
Didn't like black people.

And I was happy
Because I'd been very
Critical of a lot

Of the hip hop artists
Who have said nothing
Relevant--

In many ways,
Have said a lot
Of destructive things.

I thought it was
A breath of fresh air

That at least somebody said
Something constructive

And stood up
For their people.

Well, when I was up there,
I wasn't concerned
About record sales.

I wasn't concerned
About...

Sponsorships,

About losing
Any sponsorships,

Which,
I mean, we did.

But I was
More concerned about

You know, if I was
In these people's shoes.

Jay scully:
I can't even remember
What was what, hardly.

There was a hotel
Right there.

Ben marble:
People who follow hurricanes

Know that the primary amount
Of damage from a hurricane

Is from the northeast quadrant,
And the northeast quadrant

Of hurricane Katrina
Primarily affected hancock

And harrison
And jackson counties
In mississippi.

There was a ton
Of devastation along
The mississippi gulf coast,

Which a lot of times seems
To go unnoticed
By the media.

Scully:
This is 2nd street?
Oh my god.

Marble:
This is 2nd street.

Jay had been
Helping me move

Stuff out of my
Destroyed house,

And I had actually
borrowed a rental van.

So we were shooting
Some video, and we got
To the train tracks,

Which are literally
About 150 feet north
Of my house,

And the mps stop us.

So they tell me,
"No one can cross here,"
Quote-unquote.

Those were their exact words.
"You have to turn around."

They told me I had to
Go this alternate route,
15 minutes out of the way...

- four miles out of the way.
- ...And then come back
To my house.

So they wouldn't let us
Go down to my house

'cause the vice-president's
Going down there.

- did you see that,
That convoy?
- scully: yeah.

Dick cheney was
Down the street,
Talking to people.

So I was like, "Come on,
Jay, let's go down there.

And jay was like,
"Uh..."

This is literally, what,
150 feet from your house?

Yeah, I was thinking
Of what I was going to say,

Because, you know,
Everything that we had
Personally been through,

And we'd been hearing
Reports of what was
Going on

In New Orleans
And everything,
And just how

Completely incompetent

The response was
To this disaster.

- no weapons here.
- marble: all right.

I remember what he had
Said to senator leahy
From vermont

On the floor
Of the senate,

When he had told him
To go fuck himself.

So I thought it would
Be poetic justice
If I quoted

The dick to the dick.

Go fuck yourself,
Mr. Cheney!

After I said it
The first time,

He kind of looked at me,
And everybody was like,

"What? What was that?
I can't believe I just
Heard that."

So I was like,
"I'd better say it again
To make sure they heard it."

- marble: go fuck yourself.
- are you getting a lot
Of that, mr. Vice-president?

It's the first time
I've heard it.

And then I saw the guy
Who had wanded me down

And I waved at him
And told him to have
A nice day

- and walked back
To my house.
- ( laughs )

Basically, you told
The vice-president to go
Fuck himself, man,

In front of
About 100 media.

He says it to people
In congress,

And then he wants
To come down here

To make a photo op
For himself,

To try to make himself
Look cool or whatever.

This is how we feel.

Look at this,
House after house--

Nothing, decimation.

Where was fema

Three days
After the storm,

When everybody was dying
In New Orleans?

Reporter:
It's taken him two weeks,
But today the president

Finally ventured
Into the center
Of New Orleans

For his first close-up look
At this abandoned,

Devastated city.
People here won't forget

That initially
He stayed on holiday

While New Orleans
Was drowning.

But the floods have
Already done the damage
To New Orleans

And to the president.

George w. Bush:
Good evening.

I'm speaking to you
From the city of New Orleans,

Nearly empty,

Still partly underwater,

And waiting for life
And hope to return.

Throughout the area t
By the hurricane,

We will do what it takes.

We will stay as long
As it takes,

To help citizens rebuild
Their communities

And their lives.

And all who question
The future of the crescent
City need to know--

There is no way
To imagine america
Without New Orleans.

And this great city
Will rise again.

Joseph bruno:
When the president came
Here in New Orleans,

I passed my office building,
Where I practice law--

Lit up
Like a christmas tree.

I'm like,
"Oh, man, this is--

The power's back on.
We're going to be back
In business.

This is all right, man!
I'm calling my brothers.

The power's back on
In our building!"

So the next morning,

I go to the office
Fully expecting to be able
To turn on the light.

The lights are all off.

No power.

What happened?
What happened?

What happened was
They needed to create

A media event
For the president.

They wanted to make
The city look like it
Was coming back together.

I make that point
Because that's the game

That's been played
With us.

Reporter:
It is the day-to-day
Struggles

That still consume those
Living in ground zero

Of america's worst
Natural disaster

And kept most from watching
President bush's speech

From jackson square.

He did say
Last night, he...

- took responsibility for it?
- ...Took responsibility for it.

Two, three weeks
Into the game

It's a little late to be
Taking responsibility.

When you're in a ship at sea
Ansomebody screams,
"Man overboard!"

You got to move
And go save the man overboard.

The bush administration was--
"Oh, a lot of people overboard.

Well, let's check
With the lawyers
What we should do

And who's going to
Foot the bill, and what--

Will fema pay for this

Or will this come out
Of the state of Louisiana's
Budget?"

President bush
Can kiss my ass.

United states government
Can kiss my ass.

St. Bernard parish
Can kiss my ass,

Even though there's
Not much left.

But there's enough
To kiss.

The whole way
The president
And the congress

And the world is treating us
Is so frightening

Because it truly
Could kill the city.

And I guess,
If you could kill
This city,

You could kill any city.

And they're not doing nothing
For the Katrina victims,

Not the blacks anyway.

I've been here in new york--
Will be two months
On the 16th,

And I'm still
In a hotel.

Fema's not doing
Anything for us,

And the red cross
Have pulled out.

Tens of thousands
Of hurricane evacuees
Will be forced

To move once again
Now that fema says it will
No longer foot the bill

For their hotel rooms
After this month.

Many of them say they
Cannot pay for the rooms
On their own.

Fema, in the wee wee hours
Of the night,

Put 900 people
Out of the hotel.

I don't know if two weeks,
I'm going to be homeless

- or what I'm gonna do.
- ( chanting ) where is
The money?

Daina saulny:
It's just horrible.
It's horrible.

The aftermath, to me,
Is worse

Than the actual
Levees breaking

Because at least,
You know,

You've survived
With your life.

But getting back
On track,

It's almost like
You're stuck.

Thanksgiving was
A gut-wrenching,

Heart-wrenching situation.
They-- they--

Most of them have had
Thanksgiving dinner

With their families
For many many many
Many years.

They have never
Been away from home.

And it just broke my heart
To listen to them

Talking about
How tough it is.

Everybody crying,

Everybody saying, "I want
To go home, but I have
No home to go to."

They wanted to really be
In New Orleans.

They wanted
Their family members.

Phyllis montana leblanc:
It's christmas holidays now,
The day after thanksgiving,

Black Friday,
As they call it.

It's black for me,
Because that's all
I see right now.

It's black, 'cause everybody's
Christmas shopping but us,

Everybody's having
Family dinners but us.

I couldn't even
Eat yesterday because
My mom's in texas,

My sister's in new york.
My family's completely
Completely gone.

I have my husband.
I'm glad for that.
But it's not the same,

And I'm not leaving
New Orleans, Louisiana,

Because I was born here
In 1963 on december 24th,

And this is
Where the fuck
I'm going to die at,

Whether you try to drown me,
Or I die naturally.

I'm going to stay here
Until the end.

People of New Orleans
Stay here.

Culturally, we stay here.
We don't venture further
Than the city.

It's always hard
To get people to leave.

I want to go back home,
Because that's where I was born,

And I wanted to stay there
All my life.

And I still want
To visit other places,

But that's my main place--
New Orleans.

People from New Orleans--
We're so sick, we don't
Even know what to do.

We don't even know
Where to go.

We're so used to New Orleans.
We were born and raised here.

Where are we gonna go?

You know? I mean,
We're like, you know--

They had the nerve
To call us refugees.

Tens of thousands
Of refugees...

- refugees...
- an untold number
Of refugees...

- the refugees...
- refugees...

- refugees...
- the astrodome is
Refugee-ready.

Terence blanchard:
It's a very strange thing

To see people that look
Like people you know,

Or see people that look
Like people in your family

On television,

And they're being talked
About as if they're refugees

Or homeless people,

And that was hard to take.

When I heard they called
Us refugees, I couldn't do
Nothing but drop my head.

Because I say, "I'm a united
States citizen of america."

Calling me a refugee?

What kind of shit
Is that, man-- "Refugees"?

They were referring
To people leaving New Orleans--

They were refugees.

Damn, when the storm came in,
It blew away our
Citizenship too?

What, we forgot-- we weren't
American citizens anymore?
What kind of shit is that?

In the media, and people
On the street--

Refugees.

I thought that was folks
That didn't have
A country, man,

That didn't have anywhere.
You know, that's--

We are calling
On the media

To stop calling them
Refugees.

These are american
Citizens

That in most cases

Were very viable
Taxpayers.

And the inference,

The connotation
Of refugees

Is like they are
Some others

From somewhere lost,
Needing charity.

I think the most
Shocking display

Of insensitivity
That I saw

Was when barbara bush,
The former first lady,

The president's mama,
Let's put it straight up,

Is touring
The houston astrodome

With her husband,
Former president bush

And former
President clinton.

And in the height
Of insensitivity,

If not just
Outright bias,

She says, "Well,
These people are living
Better than they ever did.

Some of them--
It ended up good for them.

They ended up making out
All right."

( barbara bush speaking )

I mean,
And clinton says nothing,
Bush says nothing.

We have had black
Leaders denounced

By the u.S. Senate
For less.

This woman acted
Like this was

Some kind of
Social upward mobility.

My phone number is
504-919-8699.

Tell her, call me
And say that shit.

Who's better off
And why? How?

As you say,
I were poor.

Everything I got,

I got it honest.

You are rich.

How did you get there?

504-- and I ain't mike jones.
I'm phyllis montana leblanc.

Call me.
504-919-8699.

New Orleans area code.
My phone works now.

She's the present
Mama of america.

And that's
What she thinks

Of the citizens
Of New Orleans.

So you wonder why he was
Slow to responding?

Well, if he talks
To his mother,

He was
Doing us a favor.

This is such a rich country.C

It always has the money
To do what it thinks
Is very important.

If we want to put a man
On the moon, if we want
To go to mars,

We find the money.

We want to fight a war
In iraq,

Which costs billions
Of dollars every month,

We do it.

It's really a question
Of priorities

And what we think
Is important.

Martin luther king jr. Said,
"Don't flip a coin to me
As a beggar

And expect that to do.
That's generosity.
That's charity."

King said, "When you're
On the jericho road,

Don't just help the brother
On the jericho road.

That's good,
But that's charity."
He said, "Here's justice:

Ask why it is
On the jericho road

The guy still keeps
Getting mugged--

Not only him,
But other people."

He said, "Pretty soon,
You've got to transform
The jericho road."

That's what we've got
To do in america.

So this
Dispersal of black people
Only highlights the degree

To which we
Failed to transform
The jericho road.

Oh, my--
Oh, this is beautiful.

Reporter: kathy phipps signed
A lease on a house that means
A lease on a new life.

Bless your soul.

She's moving into a community
That's embracing her

With open arms.

When we first met kathy,
She was a hurricane evacuee,

Surprised to find herself
In utah.

Utah?

She learned her kids made it
To a shelter in texas.

Mama's right here.
I'm safe and I'm alive.

I'm not dead.
( sobbing )

I'm coming to get you.

- ( girl whimpers )
- reporter: and kathy
Was reunited

With her eight-year-old
Daughter

And her 11-year-old son.

- kathy had made
A huge decision--
- we got 'em.

--she'd take her kids with her
To the state that
Embraced her.

The mountains of utah
Are a long way

From the bayous
Of Louisiana.

Looks like I done went
Through this hurricane
And came to heaven.

Reporter: heaven is
A four-bedroom house
On a pristine cul-de-sac

In the aptly-named community
Pleasant grove.

Oh, this is a new
Beginning for me.

And this is what I've
Really been dreaming of

For my kids.

I think people have made
A lot of money

From keeping an underclass
In New Orleans.

And now those people
Who were in that underclass

Are now in atlanta
And houston and dallas,

And starting to say, "I got
Better opportunities here,

And the schools are
A lot better here."

My sister katherine
Is relocated

To houston, texas.

It's katherine, my mother

And my nephew nicholas.

Nicholas is nine years old.
He's autistic, non-verbal,

So they can't stay here,

Because there's no hospitals
In the local New Orleans
East area.

He's absolutely doing
Wonderful out there.

With the schooling,
He's getting close
To starting

To actually say words now,
Like "Mama" or whatever.

But when I talk
To her every day--

'cause I talk to her
And my mom every single day,

Seven days a week,
At least five to 10 times
A day--

Um, you can hear they want
To come back,

But there's nothing

To help them
To survive here.

So my family is in texas.

I'm not sure where New Orleans
Is gonna go from here.

You know, it was bad.
We're starting at
Negative 12,

And I don't know how we're
Gonna get to three.

I really don't know
What's gonna happen.

I honestly think that,
I'm hoping,

That people who had
The mind to work

And were trying to just
Give themselves a better
Opportunity

And a better situation
In life,

I hope that
They don't come back.

My uncle james
Is still in utah.

He said they're giving him
Everything--

Free rent, an apartment,
A new tv.

My roots are tied firmly
Into this place.

My parents and grandparents
Are buried here.

So this is really my home.

But it's hard to stay
In a place that you feel

That don't really want you
To be here.

I don't even want to be under
Their jurisdiction.

I don't want
The leadership

Of no one in New Orleans
Or Louisiana, nothing.

I don't think
I'll ever come back.

There's nothing here
For me.

They don't care about us here,

So I got to do the next
Best thing

For me and my family,
Which is move on.

If they wanted us
In New Orleans,

They wouldn't have tried
To drown us and kill us.

So I'm not going back
So they can finish it off.

Karen carter:
Post-Katrina,
I think we're doing...

A horrible job with respect
To getting people home.

It's very attractive for them
To stay in those places

Like houston and atlanta
And memphis.

But there comes a time
Where folks are like,

"Wait a minute,
We were just doing this

Out of the goodness
Of our hearts,

As americans who care
About americans.

When are you gonna
Take care of your people?

And what are you doing,
Louisiana, New Orleans,

To bring
Your people home?"

Ray Nagin:
People have been dispersed
To 44 different states

Around the united states

With one-way tickets.

And there's no clear
Discussion and debate,

Other than myself having
With washington,

About how
We get folk back.

The question I've asked
Fema over and over again,

My husband has asked fema
Over and over again--

"Why don't you give them
A ticket back home?"

It could be a voucher.
They can't cash it
For anything else,

But at least give them
The option of coming back.

Pre-Katrina,
The murder rate

Was approaching 200,

With african-american males
Killing each other
Over this city

Day in and day out.

Four or five people getting
Killed sometimes a night
In the same house.

The school system was one
Of the worst in the nation.

Our poverty rate
Was double that

Of every major city
In the country.

The wages
For the common man

Was below
The national average.

The wages for professionals
Was even below national
Average.

New Orleans is
Different only

In that 67% to 70%
Of people there

Are african-americans,

And that a very
Large proportion
Of african-americans

Are living in a situation
Which violates,

In my terms,

Really violates
Human rights

In a wealthy country
Like the united states.

A lot of people are
Speculating about the crime

Returning
In New Orleans,

And I don't think that
We have more crime--

And people are pointing
Towards the proportion
Of the population--

But what we're seeing is
It's about the same
As it was.

I think some people
Had that brief two-three
Weeks when it was calm,

And they figured the trash
Is out of the city,

You know, the storm came
And swept the trash out
Of the city.

But what they fail
To realize, I'm trying
To figure out,

Why they ever imagined
This new New Orleans.

Reporter:
Early Saturday,
Five teens were murdered

In a storm of automatic
Weapons fire

On a city street,
Just blocks from the central
Business district.

Among the dead--
Mona lisa hunter's two sons.

I don't care what they say--
Drugs, retaliation.

- they didn't deserve this.
- man: that's right.

- we've had enough.
- reporter: so today
An angry mayor of New Orleans

Asked for and got
Several hundred national
Guard soldiers,

And additional
State police officers

To try and stem the rising
Tide of violence.

- this is our line
In the sand.
- that's right.

We are saying we're not
Going any further.

Reporter:
In a city still pleading
For residents

To come home,
The sell gets tougher,

When crime seems

To be returning faster
Than people.

The african-american crime
On african-americans,

Particularly
Young black men,

Is a direct result

Of the educational system,
In my opinion.

If you don't give young
Brothers the opportunity

To better themselves
Individually

And then also attend
To their families,

Then it's going to continue
To be a vicious cycle.

Nagin:
This educational system
Was just killing the city.

Young brothers
Were dropping out

At the ages
Of 14, 15, and 16.

At a very early age,

They were just
Checking out,

And then they would get into,
You know, the activity

That we all wish
They never would.

Breaking news:
The national guard
Is called into New Orleans.

No, not because
Of Katrina,

Not because
Of national disaster,

Because of
The crime rate.

It's hard for me
To imagine,

After everyone
Surviving Katrina,

Now the city is being
Brought down by criminals?

And it's so bad,
You have to call in
The national guard,

For pete's sake?

"Whether grime or crime,
I'm going to get mine,"
As tupac said.

In the city
Of New Orleans, no.

When you have a 60%
Dropout rate, 55% dropout
Rate in the city,

In the public school
System,

90 of 116 schools have
Been deemed failures,

I mean,
What options do you have?

We were in a system
Of decline

Because the state revenue
Was so low,

We were not able to support
Our schools sufficiently

To ensure that every child
Got a quality education.

We didn't support
Our teachers;

Our schools weren't
Air-conditioned;

Our bathrooms
Were unsanitary.

Brian thevenot:
It was dysfunctional
In every single way

That you could imagine it
Being dysfunctional.

They hadn't been able
To produce

An accurate
Financial statement
For more than five years.

They had fbi agents
Actually stationed

At the school system
Headquarters,

Which is quite
The rarity.

But the superintendent
Had decided that it was
So out of control,

That he was just going
To open the doors
And let them in,

Let them have
Anything they wanted.

We've lost children.
We can't-- in orleans parish,

We've gone down to 1/6
Of the previous population,

So we can't fund
Education here at a time

When it's so critical
In the redevelopment
Of the community--

Until we get children.
And children don't come

Until they have a place
To live and parents have
A place to work,

And sometimes it's like
The dog wagging its tail.

More african-americans got
Dispersed than whites.

The issue gets to be:
How you bring everybody
Back home,

Give them an opportunity
To get back but to be safe,

To really fix
A neighborhood

So that it's safe
And it's sustainable,

So that the schools work.

And this is not
Going to be easy, and it's
Gonna take a long time.

We have to get the black people
Who lived here before--

We have to
Get them back.

And we're not gonna
Get 'em all back.

But we have to
At least

Offer them a chance
To get back,

And by that I mean
Something to come back to.

The roots run deep here--

That there's music
And food

That are unlike

Any other place
In the world--

Very very special.
You don't walk away
From that.

Without black people
New Orleans would be
A bad version

Of even disneyland.

I mean, the history
And culture of New Orleans

Comes out
Of the suffering,

The creativity
Of black people.

And to have a New Orleans
Without black people

Would be
To have nothing.

Harry cook:
We had social
And pleasure clubs

That dress out
In streamers and nice suits,

Gator shoes, with fans
And dobbs hats

And things
Like that.

And it ain't
Gonna be the same.

New Orleans is
A cultural gem,

A unique place

Where you can say
"Only in New Orleans,"

From the cuisine,
The music,

The mardi gras indians,
The people,

Just the way we talk
To each other.

We have a patois that
You don't see anywhere else.

It's a very strange place.
There's great segregation
And ignorance and prejudice,

But there's great integration,
'cause we're creoles.

And the kind of creole,
Light-skinned blacks,

They're always trying
To fit in somewhere.

They weren't trying
To be white. A lot of times
People don't know--

Creoles,
They only like creoles.

This is a city with roots,

Families, deep,

Way deep.

First, it starts
With the whole form
Of slavery that we had.

You know how
The french people are--
They enslave people,

But they marry them too.

Gralen banks:
The mouth of the mississippi,
Man, the curve.

The big easy, you know,
Crescent city.

It's a hell of a thing
To be known for--

As the number one place
Where you can buy a nigger.

It was like the paris
Of the south.

It was always the center
Of vice and gambling and
Different types of ignorance,

And that always draws a lot
Of people not interested
In being prejudiced.

'cause when you get far
Enough down on the bottom,
We're all here, brother.

Doug brinkley:
Tourists come to New Orleans
That go to the quaint places

Like lafitte's
Blacksmith shop.

Well, lafitte was
A slave pirate.

At one point,
The french, they had let
All the slaves go,

'cause they were starving,
They was like, "Man,
You all go

And figure out what you
Gonna do, 'cause we're not
Gonna make it here."

And the slaves,
They all went out and stayed
With the native americans.

- but they came back.
- ( chanting )

Donald harrison:
If we look at the tradition
Of the mardi gras indians,

They play the bamboula beat.
Bass rhythm is...

( singing )

( continues singing )

It's such
A direct correlation

To your ancestry,

And culturally significant,
Because--

You know, I could take you
To the very spot

Where jazz was born--
Congo square.

People chanting:
Mother, fathers,
Brothers, sisters.

Grandfathers, grandmothers,

Mothers, fathers,
Brothers, sisters...

Congo square was a plains,

A green area outside
Of New Orleans.

And today
It's armstrong park.

And it was the only place
In north america

Where slaves
Could play the drums

In the african tradition.

Banks:
Masters, in their
Infinite wisdom,

Or their own hypocrisy,
However you want
To look at it,

They decided to let enslaved
Africans have Sundays off,

Because it went in line
With no work

On the sabbath
For anybody.

Pierce:
They would dance
The bamboula,

You know, the oom-bah-bah,
Oom-bah-bah, oom-bah-bah.

Turned into
Oom bah-bah,
Oom-bah-uh, oom-bah...

( humming )

And I mean,
It's right there.

Wynton marsalis:
If you look at our culture,

Music becomes
A part of everyday life.
It's not a small thing.

( playing jazz music )

Marsalis:
People eat when
They play music.

We got songs we eat.

People get on
The street, the music is
Connected to the dance.

So there you have it.

You got a great church
Tradition, sanctified church.

( singing gospel )

Then you got
The french people.
Man, they love music.

They got the french opera.
You could be a slave,

And you could go
To congo square,

And you could go
To the opera.

Where else you going
To do that in the rest
Of the united states?

You couldn't do that
In boston.

We place a great importance
On culture.

And that's something
That you see in how
We celebrate life

And how we even deal
With death.

( slow music playing )

Marsalis:
The jazz funeral
Is a ceremony.

You bring the body out
To the grave, and you play
Slow hymns and dirges,

Traditional dirges like
"Nearer my god to thee"

And "Free as a bird."

And that's
The mourning part.

You give into your grief
And you know that you
Won't see them again,

But you just were happy
To know who they were,

And be a part
Of their life.

Marsalis:
And then they say
Some words over the deceased,

Out at the burial site,

And then you start to play
The uptempo, happy songs.

You play a parade
From there.

( upbeat jazz music
Playing )

Banks:
And that's
The celebratory part.

It's the whole
Yin and the yang
Of the beginning and the end.

Because, yeah,
I'm sad you're gone,

But damn, it sure was nice
To know you.

"Second line" is the dancers
That follow the parade.

And the dance that they do
Is called "Second line."

The thing about second line
Is everybody has their
Own style.

Some people just walk.
Some people really get down.

Some people get on the ground.
You can do what you want.

It's personal expression.
There's a certain
Freedom in it.

It's one
Of our great ceremonies

That has a lot
Of meanings.

And the christian tradition--
How it ties in with the
African tradition

Is that the afterlife
Is rich and full,

And the life on earth
Is one of travail.

So this person is dead,

But they're going on
To riches, and that's
Why we celebrate.

It also-- it's given us
The type of way

To not hush over death.

( jazz trumpet playing )

Driving around the city,
Man, it was rough,

'cause this
Was the first time
I had been back.

And I talked to,
You know,

A good friend of mine,
Wade, and he was telling me,

He says, "Man, you got
To prepare yourself."

He says, "You know,
We can talk about it,

And you can see it
On the news,

But cameras can't
Really tell you

The level of devastation
That you're going to see."

So I was trying
To prepare myself,

But it still
Was hard, man,

Because I'm looking
At a place that I grew up.

I'm looking at homes
That I used to frequent,

You know, hang out
With my boys,

You know,
And there's nothing here.
It's like a ghost town.

When I came
Back into the city,
I saw complete devastation.

I didn't think I would
Ever see anything like
That in my life.

It looked like someone
Had dropped a nuclear bomb
On every part

Possible in the city.

Louella givens:
It was as if I had walked
Through a time warp,

And I was in europe
Following a bombing

In world war ii.

Everything was gray.

There was no green,
No flowers, no birds,

No dogs, no people,
No children.

Tanya harris:
When we first crossed
The bridge and we saw

A lot of damage,
We were taking pictures

And going,
"Wow, oh my god."

And as we came over closer
To the north side

Where the breach happened,
We stopped taking pictures.

When I saw the lower nine,
I saw my neighborhood,

It was like looking
At a friend who had
Been disfigured.

You know who you're
Talking to. You just
Don't recognize them.

We are destroyed.

I've seen beirut.
I've seen calcutta.

I've seen
Downtown jakarta.

I've seen aceh.
They have nothing on us.

Wilhelmina blanchard:
Look at this.

I'm telling you,
Nothing but destruction,
Everywhere you look.

- look at over here.
- look at the car.

Mmm-mmm.

All of these houses
Are empty.

- alice douglas: oh, sure.
- mmm.

- how do you feel?
- uptight,

Just to see all
Of the devastation
Get into the house.

Look at this,
It's all boarded up here.

This is so strange.

Yesterday,
Coming in New Orleans,

I just got so full,
Because I knew I was
Going to see my house

- for the first time.
- terence: yeah.

And not knowing

What I'm going to see,

I'm just at a loss.

This arthritis is
Doing me so bad.

Okay, leave that
In there.

Take your time.

- take your time.
- ( sobbing )

Come on, come on.
Come on.

- but you're okay.
- I'll be okay.

You're okay. This is all
Stuff that can be rebuilt.

What is all of this?

( sobbing )

I'll get it.

- rence: wait wait wait.
- wilhelmina: look look look,

This thing's way
Over here.

- what is that?
- that's the thing you
Gave me-- was over here.

- what is that over there?
- what is what?

- that.
- that's a--

That looks like
Your china closet.

The china closet don't
Have any business
Being over here.

- it's in the den.
- I know.

Oh lord, the pictures
I had in there.

So, is this picture
Still up on the wall?

- there's nothing
On the wall.
- lord have mercy.

You can rebuild
This stuff, though.

( sobbing )
Yeah, that's easier
Said than done.

( quietly )
Hey, huh-uh, huh-uh.

- let's move.
- ( wailing )

Oh, lord have mercy.

I knew it was
Devastation,

But I didn't think
It was this bad.

It's unbelievable.

I didn't know
How bad it was.

Terence blanchard:
Today, you know, when
We went into the house,

That was really hard,
Because, you know,

It's like
I can't go home.

You know what I mean?
It's-- it--

I'm sorry.

The house in which I grew up,

The only home I've
Really ever known

Has now been gutted.

It's a shell
Of what it was.

3511 cecil street

Still has
A brick exterior,

But the interior,

Which contained
Not just the furniture

And the clothing,
But all of the pictures,

The family bible,

All of those things
That really remind us

Of what our lives
Have been about,

Reminds us
Of where we came from--

All of that has been
Washed away in the flood.

It pisses you off,
'cause it didn't
Have to happen.

And, uh...

I look at--
One of the things that
Made me angry last night

Is that you drive
Around the neighborhood

And you see
All of these homes,

Where people have tried
To clean out their homes,

And all of the debris
Is on the sidewalk.

So you can see
People have

A desire to come home

And a desire
To rebuild their lives,

And they can't do it.

They can't come home.

You know, they can't get
Their lives back on track.

And you have to
Ask yourself why.

I came back to nothing.

Absolutely nothing.


No help, no home,
Nothing.

I'm 59 years old.

My husband is
67 years old.

We've worked hard.
We're well-educated.

He's got a master's
From ucla,

Undergrad from berkeley.

I have a law degree,
An m.B.A., and I had nothing.

I had nothing.

I don't know how
To make you understand
The despair,

The depression,
The anxiety.

It's like somebody
Violated your mama.

You don't know what
It's gonna feel like,

'cause you might
Always prize yourself
For not having the type

Of dramatic emotion,
Or "Hey, man, you know,

Death is a part of life,"
Or kind of spiritual overview,

Or whatever you want
To call it.

But it rattled me
In a way that I could not--

I guess it's kind of what
People say when one of your
Parents dies--

You think you know
How you'll deal with it,

But when it happens
To you,

It's not what you think
It's gonna be.

My population right now,
What I'm seeing

Is that the children

Are losing weight

Or gaining weight
In huge proportions.

They are not sleeping
At all.

They're acting out.
All the children that
Had adhd,

Attention deficit
Hyperactivity disorder,

They're all being bumped up
On all the medicines
They're on,

Because this is
A post-traumatic stress
Disorder situation.

I've been on six different
Medications.

Spike lee: name them.

Seroquil, geodon...

Let's see...

Zoloft.

That's the only ones
I can remember right now,

But those are the ones
I'm on right now.

Since the storm,
I do not sleep

Without a sleeping aid--

Tylenol pm, benadryl,

If it got acetaminophen
In it or whatever,

Or dypho-whatever-it-is
That is like a mild sedative
Or whatever,

I have to
Take it every night.

I'd never been
On anxiety pills

Or any prescriptions
For bad nerves

Or anything before this.

I mean, I've had
High stress level,
But not like this.

Before I got
On the medication,

When I first got up here,
I got into an incident

Where I hemmed a guy up
And picked him up
Off the ground

About three feet
With one hand.

The guy weighed
About 220.

And that's
When I decided

I really needed
To get some help.

People lost everything.

And people are really,
You know, still struggling
With that.

And I think emotionally,
You know,

It's something that's hard
To deal with,

Especially people
That might not have
The resources

To be able to go
To a mental health
Professional,

Sit down and talk,
Or are too stubborn to.

Again, we're talking about
People who were too stubborn
To leave

In the face
Of a category five storm,

So imagine going to talk
To a doctor about why you're
A little more agitated,

Or why you're
In bed all day,
And why you're depressed.

We are seeing post-traumatic
Stress disorders now.

I think we're going to
See this

Permeate generation
To generation.

Can you imagine being
A child on a rooftop

And watching your mama
Washed away and drowned?

Can you imagine being a mama
And seeing that,

And people holding you back
And not letting you jump in?

By definition,
You're not gonna
Forget that.

You're gonna play
That over in your mind,
Have intrusive thoughts.

There are things that are
Going to remind you of that

10, 15 years from now,
Because there's no closure.

And it does,
It catches up with you.

And I find there's a lot
Of us who live here who--

You know,
We find ourselves weeping

Or we just find
Ourselves

At inappropriate moments

Just kind of going
Into these very dark holes

And very dark places
Where the things we've
Seen catch us.

And they catch us unawares,
And it's hard to deal with.

So I'm sitting there thinking,
"You know what, phyllis?

If you kill yourself,
Then you won't have to deal
With this shit anymore.

If you just
Disappear from the face
Of the fucking earth,

The pain stops,
The tears stop,

And everything else
That's going to bother you

For the rest of your life,
Which is life's issues,

Is gonna stop."

And I'm thinking
Different ways of how
I could kill myself

Without it even looking
Like it's suicide, like,
Say accidental.

So that way nobody says,
"Oh my god, she punked out,

And the system got
To her

Or big brother
Or whatever the hell
They call him nowadays."

I had a lady from texas
Call me, and says,

"I want you to know
I want my brother listed
As a hurricane victim.

He was evacuated out.

He has no medications,
And he shot himself

In the head
In our hotel room."

And you know what?
She's right. That's
A hurricane-related victim.

Dr. Minyard and I met
And tried to come

To some agreement as
To what a hurricane-related
Death was,

Because, again,
Nothing like this
Has ever happened.

We certainly looked
At some c.D.C. Criteria,

Center for disease control
Criteria,

But there were no criteria
For something like this.

In post-Katrina,
There's a number of people
That are dying

That's related to Katrina
But did not actually die

Within the hurricane.

Five weeks ago, march 28,
My father passed away,

63 years old.

Six days before that,
His wife passed away,

Which was 20 years
His junior. She was 43.

Two weeks before Katrina,

My dad was diagnosed
With lung cancer.

This was a man
Who started a business

Right here in New Orleans,
Mackie roofing--

One of the largest roofing
Companies in the city,
In the state,

For the longest time;
Employed 100 african-american
Males in the community.

So to get sick during
The middle of Katrina

Was actually
Even more sickening.

We evacuated.
It took us five weeks

To get him back
Into the system.

Once we got him back
Into the system, they didn't
Know who his doctors were.

They didn't have any records,
'cause everything
Had been flooded.

So it was six weeks
Before he could start
His treatment again.

His wife was
Taking care of him.

Sometime in january,
We noticed that she began
To lose weight.

She had been diagnosed
With cancer, like,
Six years ago,

Breast cancer,
And her cancer had come
Back with a vengeance

And spread
All over her body.

There's no doubt
In our minds that the stress
And strain

And the pain of Katrina
Aided to their sickness

And the recurring
Of her cancer.

A lot of people
Are losing hope.

The number of obituaries
In the paper supposedly now

Is running at a rate
Of 30% higher pre-Katrina.

People are coming back,
Looking at this despair
And dying.

And that was the pain
When I had to bury my dad.

Because everything
That he built was destroyed

Because of the failure
Of the united states
Army corps of engineers,

This government--
Not the mayor,
Not the governor,

But this government.

My name is kimberly polk.

I am serena polk's mother.

Serena was here
In New Orleans

Across the lower
Ninth ward

On tennessee street
With her father,

His girlfriend
And his two kids.

And she and her father
And his family did not
Evacuate.

She came to me
In a dream.

I woke up sweating
Out of my sleep.

She came to me in a dream,
And she was saying,

"Mama, I'm
Falling, I'm falling.
Mama, I'm falling."

And all I could see was
Water that she was
Falling into.

I think it was,
Like, april,

They called me
And let me know--

First I'd
Seen it on the news,

Where I'd seen
A little girl

Between the ages
Of six and 10 years old

That they found
In the lower ninth ward

That had a backpack
On her back.

And serena
Was known to everyone,
My whole family,

Everybody that knew her,

To have always
A backpack on her back.

Reporter:
The coroner is trying to
Identify a child

Found buried in debris
In the lower ninth ward.

This is the ninth body
The fire department has
Found this month.

This child could have come
From anywhere.

I mean, she could have
Floated from miles away.

This is
My daughter serena

Who drowned

During hurricane Katrina.

She was
Five years old,

And I never
Got a chance

To say goodbye.

And I miss her

So much.

( congregation singing )

( singing continues )

Kimberly polk:
I didn't want to have
The service in New Orleans

Because I blame New Orleans
For her death--

The way they went
About doing things.

I think if it
Would have been done
A little bit different

I would feel different,

But it's just not--
I don't think

New Orleans is fit
For me to live in.

( chanting )
Father, here I am
Being down on my knees

Before thee
And the holy throngs
Of angels.

- woman: yes, lord.
- man: preach, sir.

...Father, I bow down here
Because I feel so righteous.

Father, I bow
Because I feel so holy.

O a long time ago,
My heavenly father.

( all singing )

( singing continues )

...Ashes to ashes,
Dust to dust,

And torments previous,

To commend her soul

To our maker, father,
And redeemer

In the confidence
Of hope

For the coming again

Of our lord and savior
Jesus christ,

The resurrection
Of the body

From the grave

And a joyful life
Deserved

- in Jesus's name.
- congregation:
In Jesus's name.

- amen.
- amen.

( wailing )

( continues wailing )

( mournful jazz music
Playing )

Dinerral "Dick" shavers:
This is what's left.

You know,
Your whole history just...

Somewhere under
A pile of rubble.

It's really nothing.

It's like you got
Things on your mind
To remember where it was at,

But when you come
Down here, there's no landmarks
Or nothing to make you remember

Even where you're at.
You might go up a street

That you've been going up
All your life and get lost.

'cause you don't
Know where you're at,
You don't know nothing.

It's sad, man, I mean,
The church you went to

All your life,
The school you went to.

A lot of the old men
Used to always hang out
Right here on the corner,

Drinking their beer.
I mean, this is a--

A-- a good neighborhood
That's--

It's gone, man,
I mean gone.

( man singing
Jazzy hymn )

It's just unbelievable.

There's no way possible
That you can even say

You checked these
Houses to find people.

I mean, people coming home,
Going to their houses,

And they're still
Finding dead people
In these houses.

Just the other day,

There were five people
Found in the attic of a house.

Who knows? Somebody might
Be in there right now,
Laying in the rubble.

I mean, who is we to--
To know that?

But the military say
They checked every house.

This house here
Has iron bars on it.

But they have
Numbers on the window,
As if it'd been checked.

I mean, come on,
You got to keep it real, man.

I mean, they didn't
Go in none of these houses.

( crowd cheering )

Hey!

( upbeat jazz music playing )

Gralen b. Banks:
You know, a lot of people
Around the country

When they heard
New Orleans was going
To do mardi gras again,

They was like, "Well,
Why you all doing mardi gras?

You all got to rebuild
The city."

You all got stuff that's bad,"
This, that and the other.

But you got
To understand, baby.

We need mardi gras,
For our city.

This is our healing.
This is how we do. It ain't
For the rest of the world.

If you don't understand,
That's all right.

We invite you
To come down here,
Have a good time,

Do like we do,
You understand?

And we just want you
To come and have some fun.

Today is my grandfather's
Last day as grand marshal.

He's right up front,
He's been the grand marshal,

Unopposed,
For about 35 years.

I come from new york
To come here every year,

To parade with him.

Louella givens:
I am so happy that
We had this celebration,

Because it
Brought us all back.

I saw so many people
Who were in california,

They're in houston, they're
In atlanta, memphis,ashville.

It was the best thing
That happened to us,

Because it let us know
That New Orleans is still here,

And home is still here.

Woman:
We are waiting for insurance,

And look what fema
Did to my baby.

Is this a shame, or what?

Nine years old--
Six months,

Look at him... Old man.
We're still waiting for fema.

If they don't come,
We're not going to have
Another mardi gras.

I know people questioned whether
We should have it or not.

But for those people
That came, saw it, felt it
And touched it,

You found out something really
Serious about this city, which
Is the city's going to live.

It's got a heartbeat.
It's got a soul to it

That's so vibrant
That you can't kill it.

( bluesy pop music
Playing )

Hey!

Hail, zulu!

- ( crowd cheering )
- hail, zulu!

Hail, zulu!

Donald harrison:
After you leave the areas
Where mardi gras is,

You look around and you leave
Mardi gras in a different way.

I was actually
Looking at the trash,

You know there's a huge
Buildup of trash after a parade,

Which they
Clean up immediately.

And I felt
The weirdest feeling.

I was like, "Okay,
When you leave this trash,

You're usually
Going to a clean area."

But you leave
That trash, and you go

To an area
That looks the same.

Emil dumesnil:
It turns out the corps
Of engineer, for some reason,

Is in charge
Of debris removal.

And it took the corps

Probably four months
Before they even showed up

With their contractors here,
To start moving debris out.

Calvin mackie:
When you really look around,
If you were to arrive today,

You would think
That the hurricane might
Have hit yesterday.

But as of february 1st,
We had removed

Debris equivalent to 25
World trade center disasters,

And we were not
At 70%, yet.

Trymaine lee:
The city is still
Struggling.

Outside the city limits,
People are still unsure if
They can ever come back.

We still haven't
Seen that big rally.

We haven't seen
The three-mile-long

Caravan of trash trucks
Coming to clean up the city.

I find it insulting
That the streets are
Not even cleaned up.

I'm not expecting
To come back and see

New Orleans as
I knew it before, but...

I expected to see a little
More progress than this.

Right now, we had several dogs

Confirm that there still is
The scent of human remains

In those structures.

We've searched that house
As extensively as we can,

Without bringing
Danger to ourself,

And we didn't find anything.

And that's what
They're doing right now.

We've got guys on lookout
As the excavator

Peels the construction
Debris away,

Looking
For human remains.

Ruel douvillier:
The first slash of the x
Signifies

That a team
Has entered the building.

Once the team exits
The building,

They complete
The x with another slash.

At the 12:00 position is
The date that the building
Was searched.

At the 3:00 position is
The number of hazards found.

At the 6:00 position
Is the number of victims found.

And in this case,
The team found none.

At the 9:00 position is
The team that did the search--

In this case,
The florida task force one team,
Which is a fema team.

You can see
The markings on the houses,
And the markings mean nothing.

People are coming back home
And finding corpses

And mummified bodies
In their houses.

So it seems like people
Just walking down the street
And looked at the house,

Said, "Oh, it doesn't seem
Like anyone is in there."

It's so weird to go
Through my neighborhood
And see the markings:

No bodies, no bodies.
Then all of the sudden
When you see that number,

On the shell of a house,
You know, two,

You're like, "Wow, man.

Right around the corner

Two people died
In this home, you know."

And it's just
So deafeningly quiet.

Paris ervin:
My mother decided to stay
In New Orleans,

And I left.

First time I came back was
October 4th and 5th,

And it was a few days
After they opened up the city.

I found out
A few days earlier

From getting in contact
With people in the search
And rescue teams

That they had gone
To the house,

And they wrote a zero,

For-- meaning no body
Was found in there.

So I was thinking "Okay,
At least she made it out.

She may be sick, but she's not--
She made it out."

When I went to the house,
All three of the doors
Were locked

So there was no way for them
To go into the house

To search the house.

I had to bust
Through the doors.

There were a few lines
Where you can tell the water

Was at-- between
Seven and eight feet.

I just searched
As best I could,

But I didn't
Find her in there.

After the floodwaters
Let down, they were saying

That people were
Finding their relatives
And loved ones in their house,

And that their house
Had not been searched.

So I called 911,

And within a few minutes

Some police officers
Showed up,

And they searched the house,
And they had, in fact,

Found my mother's body
In the house.

I...

It was a...

The initial flood
Certainly caused

A lot of deaths,
But people were dying
Long before that.

They were dying because
The electricity was out.

There was no respirator.

They were in their homes,

Dependent on oxygen--
No more oxygen,

No way to get out,
Essentially smothered to death.

People died of heat stroke,

Dehydration,
A lack of medication.

People drowned.

People went up into attics
And drowned there

As the water rose
And they couldn't get out.

I can just tell you,

I've been up in those attics
Recovering those people,

And you can tell that they took
Their clothes off because they
Were either delirious

Or that the heat was
Getting so high.

They would look
Into the area they came up
And it was just water.

So you had this
Toxic sludge there at
The entrance into the attic,

And you had nowhere to go
When the heat's getting
Terrifically high--

110, 120°,
Whatever it gets--

The people would try
To go by the vents,

And you could see
The people were trying to
Have their faces by vents,

And ultimately
Fell back and died.

She was in the kitchen

Under the refrigerator.

Cataldie:
I think it's horrible
For a family member

To go home and find a body.
That's horrible.

Because it was either
Missed in the search,

Or overlooked,
Or the house wasn't searched,

Or the search criteria was
So stringent that they
Couldn't search it,

The bottom line is when you're
Talking to that family member,
None of that matters.

Justin hite:
So many houses they really
Haven't checked yet

To see what
Exactly's in them.

This woman came
Down the other day,

And they were just
Gonna go out and check
Her daughter's house--

I think the woman thought
That her daughter had evacuated

And hadn't been able
To get in touch with her.

But they went into the house,
Started looking around and they
Found her in there.

That was yesterday. In two
Or three days is the six-month
Anniversary of the storm,

If you can call it
An anniversary.

When the police came out
And found my mother,

They took a police report
And said it'd take about
Two weeks or so.

They said it wouldn't
Take as long

Because they
Knew who she was,

And that it wasn't just
Somebody that they found.

And that I was
The only other person
Living there with her.

But it turned out to take
Much longer than that.

"You found
That body in that house,
It must be my mom."

Well, unfortunately,
That's not true.

That's not true
For several reasons.

There was a lot of drift,
And a lot of flood and people
Did drift in and out.

Some people
Ran to other houses.

Perhaps if you were
In a one-story, you ran
To a two-story house.

Houses were moved
Everywhere which way.

I also had people that--
There were no street signs
Left.

So people couldn't
Really tell me exactly
What house they came out of.

The only way they were
Releasing bodies at that time

Was with fingerprints,

Dental x-rays
Or dna samples.

Dna testing didn't
Start until december.

I can tell you
That in september

When this mission
Was given to me,

The first thing we did
Was have a meeting with
Louisiana state police,

Because our crime lab
Has the dna resource.

At that point in time,
We knew we needed dna,

But we did not get funding
And the ability to move forward
On dna until december.

Lee:
You asked for it
In september?

We needed it in september,
We were several months behind--

And right now,
We're several months behind.

From november 11th,
It took till january 10th

To get my mother released.

This is a picture
Of me and my mother,

Mary johnell morant.

According to the medical log,
She did drown.

In her own home.

( helicopter whirring )

Cynthia hedge-morrell:
I tell people all the time.

Katrina didn't do in
New Orleans, the corps of
Engineers did in New Orleans.

If they had built those levees

Really to category three

All of the residents
Of New Orleans would
Still be here.

Joseph bruno:
As a child I grew up
At the lakefront,

And we watched
The levees go up and up.
They raised them every year.

And every time
A hurricane would come,
We'd go out to the levee,

And watch the waters lap up
Against the top and it was fun

To see how close to the top
The waves were going to get.

We never ever thought that there
Would ever be a levee break.

Robert bea:
We arrived here
In late september,

A group of about
20 engineers,

In an attempt to understand
What happened here.

The first major area
That we visited

Was out on
The 17th street canal.

It was obvious
Something had happened
That shouldn't have happened.

Since that time,
We have been working to fill in

The pieces of the puzzle
To understand

What about the hurricane
And what about the levees

And the soils--
That had backgrounded
What is, in fact,

The most tragic failure
Of a civil-engineered system

In the history
Of the united states.

This is the failed
Sheet pile and I-wall

That failed during
The hurricane itself.

And then, you can see
Right here behind me,
What's left standing

Is the existing sheet pile
From the hurricane.
So it's about 20'.

And you can imagine,
This is 17' into the ground
Below sea level.

The force of this water,
Pushing against this levee,

Against this sheet pile,
It forced this sheet pile over.

Anwhen the wall collapsed,
It let the storm surge--

Lake pontchartrain--
Into the city itself.

It was very important
To us that we knew

And we find out exactly
Why did this happen.

This is one of
Three failures we had
In and around New Orleans.

The other two were
On the orleans avenue canal
And the London avenue canal.

Arthur Morrell:
One of the breaks was
Two blocks from my house:

The london avenue canal.

And we went there
And they had some people there
From the corps of engineers.

They were saying how the water
Went under the levee.

They were only 10' deep.

They should have been
17' deep.

( clanking )

Setliff:
The way we actually
Build the floodwalls here

Along the outfall canals
Is we have sheet pile

Driven 17' below sea level,

And then they are
Actually integrated
Into an earthen levee.

That didn't happen.

So the levees just
Fell down like dominoes.

The only thing that
Were holding these
13' x 25' slabs

Was a piece of plastic.
I call them rubber bands.

And that was in the dirt--

In the levee part--

Which had been
Washed away.

And you realize that
That was the only security

To holding those
Panels together.

I wouldn't build a fence
For my dog like that.

We didn't know
Why these things failed.

There's basically three ways:
You can have water go over,

You can have water go under,
Or you can have water go
Through a flood wall.

There were so many breaches
Throughout New Orleans.

And ultimately,
We found out

There was 170 miles
Worth of damages.

The hurricane protection
System did not perform as
We would have liked.

The army corps
Of engineers

Is under heavy fire
For a report it released today

6,000 pages long.

It says, in part,
That the work was bad.

The work of humans
And not an act of god

Was what led to this
Awful destruction here.

We will begin here tonight
With my colleague martin savage
Of our New Orleans bureau,

Who is with us
Here this evening.
Martin, good evening.

Good evening, brian.
This turnabout on the part
Of the army corps of engineers,

This report is
A huge about-face.

What the corps
Is saying is that
The flood protection system

For the city of New Orleans
And southeast Louisiana

Was a system
In name only.

This is the first time
That the corps of engineers
Has had to stand up

And say, "We had a catastrophic
Failure of one of our projects."

Savage:
The $19.7 million review

Pointed out details
Of engineering

And design failures that
Led to Katrina's storm surge

Overwhelming the city's
Levees and floodwalls.

According to the report,
The walls failed

When the water pushed
The walls enough to create
A crack between them

And levee soils,
Allowing the water

To seep below the walls,
And push them aside.

You know, somebody
Needs to go to jail.

Somebody needs
To go to jail.

Because those levees were never
Really maintained the way
They should have been,

And now it's too late.

Bruno:
This is the greatest
Engineering firm in the world.

You designed a wall

Which is supposed
To hold back water

That you know will fall over
If the water goes over the top.

Now as a lawyer,
I'm sitting there thinking,

"Are we gonna have to sue
The corps of engineers?"

And we find,
"Oh, man, wait a minute.
They're immune."

Meaning, you can't sue
The corps of engineers.

The statute says,
"The united states of america

Is not liable
For damage from floods."

The next sentence says
"Provided that,

Where there is
Insufficient land

To build a levee, you have
To expropriate the land,

Or you have to buy
The flood rights."

So why is there an I-wall
And no levee?

Well, an I-wall
Is something you can build

On a tiny piece of ground,
So here we go again.

They didn't want
To spend the money

To buy the land
To put up a levee.

So they put up
This chinky I-wall.
And by the way, what's a levee?

A levee is this earthen
Piece of work--

Four feet wide
For every one foot of height.

That's what
Holds back the water.

( exhales deeply )

The levee--

It's the same thing, man.
I mean...

They better knew
That this could happen,

You know what I'm saying?

They knew it, before--
When I was a child,

They knew if
A hurricane came through

Or large mass like that,
That it could happen.

And I'm wondering,
You know, damn, I mean...

Why nobody never fixed it

Or nobody never--
Not only fixed it

Or made an attempt,
You know,

Just if they didn't
Have the money or whatever,

Make some noise about,
"Hey, this could happen."

I ain't hear nothing
About this from the government

Or anyone from our town,
The mayor

Or anyone ever say
Something like, you know,

"We need money because
Hurricanes always come

And they're always a threat
And we need help to fix this."

So it's like, to me,
If they knew it could
Have happened,

It's almost like
They let it happen.

( crickets chirping )

John barry:
To understand the situation
New Orleans is in,

You've got
To understand the power
Of the mississippi river.

As the river deposits sediment
In the delta,

This creates, often, sandbars
That block shipping channels.

To get through
These sandbars,

The engineers
Built jetties

That go two miles
Out into the gulf of Mexico

And drop all the sediment
Into deep water

So it is no longer
Building up land.

The main reason
That New Orleans

Has become vulnerable
To hurricanes

Is because the wetlands
Have been eroding.

Ivor van heerder:
Those wetlands are
Responsible

For reducing storm surges
When a hurricane comes along.

To expand oil and gas
Infrastructure,

We've dredged thousands
Of miles of canals

For pipelines, for drilling
And for navigation purposes.

If you imagine,
In the old days, we had
All these distributory channels

That were kind of like
The arteries in your hand.

Man came along,
And cut off that supply.

So over the last 70 years,

We've starved our
Wetlands to death,

Like putting a rubber band
Around your hand.

Michael schlacter:
On top of that,

We have global warming,
Which is a very big issue.

It's causing
Sea level to rise.

It's basically making
These coastal cities

More vulnerable
To the storm surge

And the eventual flooding
When these storms come.

Today the government
Will release its national
Hurricane forecast.

And so far,
It's not looking good.

The next hurricane season
Is bearing down,

And forecasters said today
It could be a bad one.

Male reporter:
Worse than usual, again.

That's the prediction
From every respected
Forecaster out there.

After 24 hurricanes

And 11 making
Landfall in the united states
In the past two years...

Today's prediction
For this year's atlantic
Hurricane season

Is unsettling:
13-16 named storms,

Eight to 10 becoming
Hurricanes,

Four to six becoming
Major hurricanes

With winds
Of 111 miles per hour
Or higher.

The research meteorologists
Are telling us

That we're in this
Very active period

For major hurricanes

That may last at least
Another 10 to 20 years.

That's not good news,
And the message is very clear

We need to be prepared.

Schlacter:
With global warming,

You're now making
A new york climate

More like
A north carolina climate,

And we know how often
They get hit,

And how warm
The waters are there.

So the prospect
Of a severe storm

Hitting the d.C.
To boston metroplex corridor

Is very high
In the ensuing decades.

Jeffrey david schultze:
When you have a storm surge
From Katrina,

Say, of 20 feet
Above sea level,

It's not going
To help things when you
Have global warming

Throwing in an extra
12" on top of that.

Barry:
25% of all
The natural gas

Produced
In the united states

Is actually produced
Offshore of Louisiana.

20% of all the oil
Produced domestically

In the united states
Is produced off the coast
Of Louisiana.

And it's ironic,

'cause one of the few things
In the country

That environmentalists
And the oil industry agree on

Is that you have
To rebuild the wetlands

Around New Orleans.

Not only to protect
New Orleans,

But even if
New Orleans didn't exist,

You would need
To rebuild those wetlands

To protect
The production of energy.

I understand, in a way,

Why they're going
To abandon us--

No political power,
Very little money, black city.

We can't influence much.

And then I thought,
"But how stupid

Does a president
And a congress have to be

To say, 'oh, wait a minute.

They control 30%
Of our oil and gas.

If it doesn't
Come to us,

Our security
Is threatened,

And $6-a-gallon gasoline
Is there overnight'?"
Nobody can argue that.

Do you know that

Because these
Offshore oil companies

Go more than three miles
Off the coast,

We don't get a dime
In this state?

The federal government
Takes it all.

Do you know
That if Louisiana seceded
From the united states

And started collecting
All the royalties from these
Oil and gas companies,

We'd be like saudi arabia?
We'd be riding around
In bentleys.

We wouldn't need anything
From the united states.

So we're pumping this money
Into the government.

We're not asking for a handout.
We're asking for a return on
What we're handing out.

The state of Louisiana
Has long been used

As almost a colony or a place
To extract resources

By the rest
Of the united states,
Particularly texas.

It's extremely oil rich,
Has natural gas,

And if you can
Deal with the ragged
Boot heel of Louisiana,

You have
The seafood coming in,

It's where
The oil platforms are.

But the money
Doesn't stay in Louisiana.
The money goes out of state.

It goes to anywhere else
In the so-called "New south"
But Louisiana.

I mean, cities
Like memphis, now,

Have federal express,
And they're booming and--

And the carolinas have
All this banking going on.

Atlanta's got the home depot
And delta airlines.

Texas has halliburton
And other construction,

And oil companies.
There's nothing left here.

Up the mississippi
In st. Paul and minneapolis,

You have at
Any given time

About 18
Fortune-500 companies.

We had one pre-Katrina--
Entergy-- and now that
Company's bankrupt.

If they'd give us
Our percentage

Of oil and gas
Like texas gets,

New Mexico gets,
Wyoming gets, colorado gets,

Alaska gets,
If they'd give us that,

We can build
Our own wetlands,

Rebuild them, we can build
Our category-five levees.

We can, instead of
Having to cut out

The neighborhoods
That are our culture

Because we no longer
Can afford them--

We could bng those
Neighborhoods back too.

Give us our
Goddamn money.

Give us our
Oil and gas money:
We'll help ourselves,

And you can
Kiss our ass.

Governor blanco
Is making good

On a promise to play hardball
With the federal government.

Today the state
Filed a lawsuit to prevent

Offshore oil and gas
Lease sales in the western
Gulf of Mexico.

Blanco says
The sale would damage

Louisiana's
Coastal environment.

The state hopes
The lawsuit forces
The federal government

To share profits from the sale
To protect wetlands.

It's about our
Federal government

Sharing the royalty
Revenue stream

From the exploration

And the production
That occurs

In our coastal waters.

If we don't get
Significant help,

Louisiana people are
In danger for a very long time.

Woman:
I want to come home.

I was born here, and I always
Said I wanted to die here.

But things been so rough,
I almost had two heart attacks,

Had to go to hospital,
But you know what?

God is good.
He's able, and I'm
Going to keep my faith.

Brinkley:
I've never seen
Such a time

When the u.S. Government
Turned its back on people
In need to this degree.

To have a people
In such dire need

Getting such little help
From the federal government

While they're
Screaming for help,
I think it's unprecedented.

We need lights,
Water and houses.
I got a little daughter

She asks me every day,
"Dad, when can we go back
To New Orleans?"

- Nagin: which section
Of the city do you live in?
- east New Orleans.

Let's get rid of
All the bureaucracy.
I don't understand.

- the government can go to iraq
And help people in iraq--
- ( applause )

--and we can't take
Care of New Orleans.
And we have a problem.

Woman:
I need somewhere
Where they can put

And place me
And my grandkids at.

'cause I'm living here
In the shelter.

Parking $14 a day,

We can't afford.

We got to
Survive on food.

You got to eat out,
'cause there's nowhere
For you-- no icebox,

No stove, no nothing,
So you're bringing the kids out

And you eating
Every day it's $60.

So I need some kind of closure,
That's all I'm asking for.

This was my home
Prior to Katrina.

It was a two-story home.
I've only been living
In it for two years.

Just recently
Finished remodeling it.

This, all over here,
Along here,

This wall here
Was bookshelves, my tv,

My couch and everything.

Over here was
My refrigerator,

My stove, my sink.

Up the stairs,
You went up the stairs here,

You go up--
You went up this way.

- woman: duck your head.
- duck your head,
It had a low beam, yeah.

And then
It went up here.

Nagin:
Probably the biggest challenge
We have right now is housing.

There's hundreds
Of millions of dollars

That have been raised,
And we still have people

Out around the country,
Still haven't gotten their
First fema check,

Nor can they get
A travel trailer on their home.

We're still homeless.
We still have nowhere to live.

The lady called me again,
She said "We have a trailer."
I said, "Okay, I'll take it."

"Okay, give me
An address to put it."

"Anywhere, just put it somewhere
So I can go live in it."

"I'm sorry, we'll have
To put that on hold and list
You as 'still pending.'"

Of course, I've been pending
Since august 29th, bitch.

I mean,
I have nowhere to live.

- ( sighs )
- reporter: 62-year-old
Florence jackson

Has been waiting
For help from fema.

Where is my government?

I'm so disappointed.

Reporter:
She has called fema
Day and night,

And is told her application
Is still pending.

And I want
Somebody to know...

( crying )
That I'm suffering.

Our idea was, man,
After the storm,

They would have trailers
On every lawn,

And you'd
Get up in the morning,
Wave at your neighbor

Coming out their trailer
And you'd just hear
A cacophony of like

Hammers and nails
All day long. We still
Don't have any trailers.

When you fly in
To New Orleans,

You look
Across the street

In the extended
Parking lots,

Nothing but trailers,
Just sitting there empty.

Sitting there empty.

Barry: in mid-january,
Both New Orleans
And mississippi

Had asked for about
40,000 trailers from fema.

In mid-january
Mississippi had 33,000,

Louisiana had 3,000.

Now some of that is because
Of some internal politics

In the city
Of New Orleans itself.

But most of that
Is because of fema.

You can call fema
Five times,

And ask them
The same question,
And get five different answers.

You're constantly
Going back and forth.

"Come back tomorrow,
The computers are broke."
"Oh, we lost your application."

- fema's a disaster.
- "We tried to get in touch
With you on your cell phone,"

Which 3/4ths of the time,
Our cell phones don't work.

- fema's a joke.
- "We called you,
You didn't respond,

So that means you
No longer need any help."

Blah blah blah blah.
You'd call every couple of weeks
And try and be nice.

You don't want to scream
At them, and--

"Your trailer's being ordered,"
And all that.

And I finally
Found an apartment,

And called them up and told
Them I didn't need the trailer,

And I'll be damned
If the trailer didn't
Show up the next day.

Fema's a dirty word.
It's just a four-letter word.

I just say fema now instead
Of the other nasty words.

And now, still, here it is
Six months after the storm

And there's still no help.

Now I've lost all my--
Every bit of information

That could have proved
That I owned this home,

That I've ever lived here.

I had to--
I had to--

Put-- I had to get
Duplicate copies

Of utility bills

Stating that
I had utilities here,
That I lived here.

I had to go to
The clerk of courts office,

And get whatever information
They had to say I owned this.

Then I had to go
To an attorney--

Who actually did the sale--

And he had to swear--
I had to swear in an affidavit
That I owned this.

Who the hell goes
Through that?

Who goes through that crap?

I mean, my god, this is--
Would I come here and say I
Owned this, if I didn't?!

You know,
We need help. Look.

See these little pink flags,
These little orange flags here?

I have been marked
For a fema trailer.

I'm still waiting
For a fema trailer...
Six months, six months.

People got trailers
Over on that side.
Give us a trailer.

Look how big
This yard is.

Get us a little
Raggedy trailer,
You know.

Well, we'll need
A few of them.

- for the ole crew.
- ( laughs )

You're all big enough.
The sewer right there.
It's big enough

For like about
Four good trailers.

The people in the block,
I can call them, they can
Come home.

That is my fema trailer
Right there.

I still have no power.

I do have water,
And I do have sewage,

And I have a toilet
That I could sit on

Rather than
A five-gallon bucket.

Lee:
When is the power coming?

Uh...

Whenever I decide to give
Somebody a blowjob, I guess.

( laughing )

- why you say that?
- because that's the way
I look at it.

When you get a fema trailer--

Which I'm fortunate
To have one,

And most people
In this neighborhood
That have one,

I would say 1%
Of them are usable.

- they don't have electricity
Connected to them.
- ( scattered applause )

And I've called
City councilmen,

My senators,
Jay blossman,

I left a message
With the pope even.

And I'm thinking
That may be the answer.

We're here in my
Fema condo trailer.

It took us--

We put in for it
In december,

And we got it,
I think, one, two, three,

About four months later,
Which is really not
A long time to wait.

'cause, I mean,
There were people that
Waited longer than that.

So four months
Really wasn't that long,

But it was long enough.
We've been in here two months.

It's not bad,
But we had a couple

Of mild thunderstorms
Last weekend,

And it's not too stable.

I mean
It's sitting on bricks,

So light winds
Or mild-to-strong winds

Are kind of like
Run-for-your-life shit.

But we do have a house
In the back of us, in case
We need to run out of here

And run into
A solid foundation.

Shawn kael:
Me and my father

Have been living here
Since about december.

Come on, I'll take you
On a tour of the fema trailer.

It's so well-made.
There you go.

Luxurious, spacious cabinets,

One of the doors to separate
The room, you know.

It used to stick up here,
But now we just have it

Held on with safety pins
And twine.

This is the--
The dining room table.

It's not very well-built.

- it just-- comes--
Comes apart, and--
- ( clanks )

You know, this is
A bed area.

This is where I sleep.
You know--

I'll show you the view.

Look!

Another fema trailer.

( drum rolling )

Fred johnson:
It's straight bullshit.

These people have been sitting
Out here for nine months.

( playing jazz music )

Johnson:
I think these politicians
Forget who they work for.

They work for the people.
They think it's about
Themselves.

There's no reason in the world
We should have this.

Louisiana is still
Ass-backwards,

And we still
Have people

Who are scattered
To the wind,

And don't understand
What's next

Or what's coming next
Or where to even find it at.

So it's a lot
Of bullshit, man.

It's a lot of bullshit,
And it's time

For the politicians
To quit the bullshit

And understand
Who they work for.

I don't care who you are.
I don't care what color you are.

You could be orange.

You've gotta remember
Who you work for,

And you working
On the backs of poor people

Who work everyday,
Pay their taxes.

Ain't everybody here
Looking for welfare.

People are working,
And working two and three jobs.

And these fools
Running around here,
They don't know their head,

They don't know four dogs
Got four assholes.

Can we move
Onto something else?

'cause this--
This is not working for me.

- ( crew laughing )
- fuck.

I think that this is a great
Moment in american history

Because I feel
That in this moment

We see a lot
Of what's wrong with us.
It's a signature moment.

It's like, sometimes you
Walk past a mirror

And you see yourself
In a position you don't like?

"Damn.
Man-- I know I was--

I thought I was
10 lbs overweight,
I'm 50.

This is like you stayed
In front of the mirror

And you couldn't
Turn away from it.

You stayed
In that pose.

And everything in that pose
Shows us what's wrong with us.

Blanco:
I'm here today because
Louisiana needs your help.

Most homeowners' policies
Will not pay flood losses.

We have an estimated
$20 billion to $30 billion

In uninsured losses.

If congress
Fails to help,

Our people will have
No money to rebuild.

The first lawsuit we filed was
The insurance lawsuit.

And that was born

Out of the idea

That most
Of the insurance companies,
We knew in advance,

Were not going
To want to pay the claims.

And as an aside,

20 years ago,
There weren't many exclusions.

As time goes by,
After the big cold war,

They started putting in
"We're not going to pay
For nuclear war."

Then they said they weren't
Going to pay for asbestos.

Then they said they're
Not going to pay for lead.

Then they said they're
Not going to pay for pollution.

Now they have something called
They're not going to pay
For "Water damage."

In mississippi today,
The opening moves

In a landmark lawsuit
That pits victims

Of hurricane Katrina against
Their insurance companies.

As you may know,
This is a hot issue
In the storm zone.

The question
At the heart of this

Is whether water damage
From Katrina

Is classified
As hurricane damage
Or flood damage.

The stakes here
Are huge.

$75 billion in flood
And storm-surge damage

Was reported in
1.7 million claims.

I was told by my agent
That I had a policy

That would protect me
For hurricanes,

'cause I asked
Specifically for that.

Reporter:
But nationwide mutual
Concluded

That most of the damage
Was caused by flooding,

And because leonard
Did not have a separate
Flood insurance policy,

Denied most of his claims.

We think
The facts clearly show

That the coverage
That the leonards purchased

Did not cover flood,
But the damage was
Primarily flood.

This groundbreaking trial
Over wind-versus-water damage,

And which policy
Covers what,

Could affect thousands
Of other families along
The gulf coast

Who were denied
Their insurance claims

And have also
Filed suit.

( laughs )
Insurance companies
Are another joke.

I mean, you pay
Your premiums,

Don't ever be late paying
The insurance premium,

And then you say,
"Well, I'm covered.

I've got flood insurance.
I've got wind insurance.

I've got loss of use.
I've got loss of income."

Oh, insurance companies...

Insurance companies has--

Been playing hell with me
The whole fricking time.

The argument could be made,

Which came first,
The chicken or the egg?

I think it rained
Before the levees broke.

So it's quite possible
That your house was flooded
If you had no roof

Before the levees broke
On Monday evening.

And the insurance carriers
Are not honoring

Their promise
To cover you.

Those "Good hands" people
And the "Good neighbor" people,

I don't believe
Anything they say because
They're the worst offenders.

Pierce:
My street, it's like
A ghost town.

Nobody's here.

It's hard to see

A neighborhood
So full of life

Without any life
In it anymore.

My father, I knew it was
Going to be hardest for him.

He came back
From world war ii,

Took his $10
To hold that contract,

Took all that 30 years to pay
That $13,000 for that house.

And he had broken
His leg, so he was

Shuffling around the car.

Then he turned
And he saw the house

And he just broke down.

And he said,
"My whole life."

And that's the moment that I--
I'll always remember,

Because...

To see--

To see my father,
You know,

In his 80th year of life

Go through...

His darkest hour,
It was hard.

This is it.

This is my
Childhood home.

It's totally wiped out

By Katrina.

I could care less
About the house, almost,

It's just the fact that,

You know, I saw
This young man,

Young black man
Come back from world war ii,

To take his last $10--

He'd always talked about
The day he bought the house.

He came back
To my mother and said,

"I bought a house today
For $10 to hold the contract."

So for him, he said,
"I've-- I have--

I had all my sons
In this house here."

Jesus.

The insurance
Companies are...

There's a special special
Circle in hell for them.

Dante would--

Would promote them
To a very special place in hell,

Because...

You know, you sit there,
And you see everything damaged

And they just come up
With any way to say "I'm not
Going to pay you."

So luckily
We had flood insurance,

But the way they sell it is,
"You have homeowner's insurance.

So get a little
Flood insurance.

Between the two,
You'll be made whole."

But when it came to it,
It was just flood insurance.

Thankfully,
We had a little bit,

But it was like maybe
40, 50% of the value
Of the house.

Then they said,
"Well, we'll give you wind

On your homeowner's insurance
Above the water line."

Then they came back and said,
"Everything above the water
Line was damaged

From the flood anyway.
We're not going to cover that."

I said, "Well, we had
$12,000 insurance

On the shed
In the backyard.

There's a tree fallen on it,
Totally destroyed."

They came back and said,
"It's repairable.

So we're only going
To give you 25% of that.

Then we're going
To take the deductible
Of the full value of the house,

And your check
For $670 is in the mail.

Along with the check for $400
For the time you were out.

You know, it was 10 days,
$40 a day, so it's in the mail.

So thank you very much."

My father's
Hard of hearing,

So...

The adjustor was there

And as he was leaving,
He goes, "Hey, man"--

My father--
"I-I can't hear,

But I just
Want you to be fair.

Be fair with me."
You know?

And the guy had
Already told us,

"I'm not paying you
Anything."

So the guy turns beet red
And he goes,

"Just be fair, thank you."
So we drive 70 miles
To baton rouge.

I said, "Wait until we get
To baton rouge to tell daddy."

So we said "Listen,"

I said, "Really, we got
To explain to you,

The insurance company's
Not going to pay you anything.

You are not 'in good hands
With allstate.'

You're done."
My father said, "What?

No, man.

I've been paying them people
For 50 years, no."

I said, "No, daddy,
They're not giving you."
He said, "What?"

He said, "Man,
Don't tell me that, man.

I-- why you didn't
Tell me in New Orleans?
I would have killed that man."

I said, "That's why
I didn't tell you."

Pastor pullings:
The master plan
For New Orleans

Is to bulldoze down
The 9th ward.

The 9th ward
Is a place

Of predominantly
Black people,

And you got these
Land grabbers down there,

The trump land grabbers

Who want to go down there
And buy up all the land,

And you know-- regentrification,
You know how that goes,
And urban renewal.

In the name of those things,
Take this place and change it.

Hewi
People, basically,
Are being told

What you have
Is of no value.

You won't have an opportunity
For the intergenerational
Transfer of wealth,

Of property, of assets,
From one generation to the next.

And this is particularly
Affecting african-american
Communities in New Orleans.

As soon as
The planning process is done,

Which I say to you,
Should have been done by now.

Other communities that have been
Devastated along the coast

Have already done that,
So that people can
Make their own

Individual property decisions
Based on fact.

This is 2310 delery street,

And these are the three lots

That my grandparents
Bought in the late--

Like in 1949 to build
Their dream house.

When we came down,
My sister and I snuck in

And we were looking left,
Looking for the house.

We were like,
Do you see it?
Did it move?

Did it crush?
What happened?

We didn't see the house
And that's odd because
The house is big.

I want you to know this:

The persons
Who live in the lower 9,

They were homeowners.

- I was a homeowner.
- ( person applauding )

35 years I worked

To pay for the property
That I own, plus my rentals.

Not only that,
I paid my tax bill.

I got the tax bill
In december,

And I paid it january--
Before january 31st.

And on the back of that
It said police and school,

- and now I can't even get
A school open in the lower 9.
- ( crowd applauding )

This is what's
Left of the house.

The house actually lifted,

And floated across
The street over here.
We were like, "Oh my god.

I don't know how
I'm going to break
This to my grandmother,"

That the house that
She loves so much,

That my grandfather built,
Is like--

At this point,
It's not going to make it.

What really
Bothered me was this risk,

"Building at my own risk."

Do you know--

I just want to call this
To your attention--

The geography?

New Orleans
Is surrounded by water.

If you go north,
It's the pontchartrain lake.

If you go west,

It's the bonnie carrie
Spillway.

If you go south,
It's the mississippi river.

And if you go east,
You've got lake bourne

And all of
The little tributaries

In the wetlands out there.
So who's at risk?

I pulled my grandmother
To the side and I said,

"Nee, listen, sit down.
We have to tell you
What's going on."

And she says,
"What's going on?"

I said, "Well,

The house is gone.
It moved."

And she said,
"What do you mean
The house moved?"

I said "The house-- it's--
Floated across the street."

And, you know--
And I said,
"I don't think--"

I said,
"It was kind of tilted,
So I don't think that

It's going to make it.
I don't think it's
Going to stand."

And she said,
"Where is it?"

I said, "I don't know.
I think it's in
Mr. Johnny's yard."

I couldn't see
From where I was,

And mr. Johnny's yard is
Down there, but I thought
It was in his yard.

But I really couldn't tell.
I said, "I think it's
In mr. Johnny's yard."

And my grandmother
Just paused for a second

And she sits down.

And she looks up at me
And she says,

"Well, johnny
Can't never say

I ain't gave him nothing.
I gave him a whole house.

And I thought, "Oh g--"
I mean, we're standing there
Nervous and laughing

'cause we're
Relieved that she
Didn't fall to pieces.

New orleanians
And louisianians
Are a resilient people.

And so they're going to find
A way to come back home.

I'm telling everybody
Hold tight,

Don't give up your
Property for anything.

We fought too long
To get our property,

So even if you
Don't do anything with it,
Gut it and sit on it.

Everybody knew
The property value in
The 9th ward was going up.

And when this
Disaster happened,

They went
"Here's our opportunity."

So developers
Are now getting in bed

With politicians
To come up

With all these schemes
To take people's land.

Harris:
Nine months after Katrina
And the lower 9

Still looks like
A bomb hit it.

I think that it's
Meant to discourage

The neighbors
From coming back.

I mean, most people
Have lived in
The lower 9th ward

With a solid...
Thought...

In the back
Of their minds

That, "Straight up,
We're not wanted here,"

In some way,
Shape, form or fashion,

That this area could be used
For industrial purposes.

We live on a waterway.
There are a lot of companies
Who could use this area

For industrial purposes,
Warehousing and things
Like that,

And so a lot of people
Have always felt like

That's been the goal
For a long time.

But most of the lower niners
I talk to are like "Hell no.

You're not going to take
Anything from me.

You're not going to run us
Off like that. You're not
Going to just shoo us away."

The people try
To buy us out.

I'm not going nowhere.
I'm keeping my little
Raggedy house.

I'm going to stay right there
And get me some sheetrock
And I'm going to be there.

Now they can come
Visit me if they want,

But I'll be right there
On the front porch,

Waving at people when
They pass like I always do.
"How you all doing?"

We're probably going
To end up a small city,

Gentrified,
Primarily white,

Primarily well-to-do.

I think the rest
Of the united states
Thinks that's just fine.

I have publicly said,
And I will continue to say,

We plan to rebuild
Every area of this city

Including the 9th ward.

And we're going to do it
Regardless of

If there's
A small group of people

That may have other plans
And other agendas.

New orlean
Is not New Orleans

Without the mix of people
That were here before.

And it would not be
The kind of city

That I think
Most people would treasure.

But it's all
Predicated upon what
The corps of engineers

Is going to do as it
Relates to levee protection.

June 1 is
A very significant date
To the people of New Orleans.

It's the beginning
Of the next hurricane season

And task force guardian,
The corps of engineers--

We are trying
To make these repairs

To provide a level
Of protection that
Existed prior to Katrina,

Before the hurricane
Season starts.

Bea:
The army corps of engineers

Has been
Promising the people

They would have
The levees back

To pre-Katrina conditions
Prior to the first of june.

When we heard that,
A cold chill ran down our back

Because we knew pre-Katrina
Conditions were not okay.

New Orleans, as we begin
The hurricane season '06,
Has lego levees.

I mean, these things will
Crumble with a strong wind.

Our obligation to the public
Is to base our conclusions
On science,

On facts, on engineering
And tell the truth.

Do I trust them? No.

They knew those
Levees had issues
10, 15 years ago.

The corps of engineers knew it,
The federal government knew it,

The state government knew it,
The city government knew it
And they turned their head.

We've been honest
With the public and we
Have to tell them,

"Look at what we're building.
It's stronger than what
You had before."

I want to caution
All residents

That after much probing
And questioning,

The army corps of engineers
Has warned me

That some of our lowest-lying
Areas of New Orleans east

And the lower 9th ward
Will have some flooding

From levees overtopping

If another hurricane travels

Along the same path
As Katrina.

The fact of the matter is

That no one really
Takes it very seriously.

All right? They just--

"We're going to put
A little paste on it,

Put a little band-aid
And we're going to deal
With it that way."

The reason why they're
Doing that is because

Our president
Sees us as

Not quite
Much of a threat.
You know?

( mimics bush )
"Louisiana, I'm going
To get them anyway,

Because they
Buying my bullshit.

So why should I
Spend billions of dollars
Fixing these levees

Given the political
Environment that we're in?"

We need
A different government.

We need
Somebody in there

That actually
Really and truly cares

About the people,
About their property,

About their homes.

You know? Somebody who
Really and truly cares.
But who's it going to be?

Van heerden:
After Katrina, I had
The opportunity

To go to the netherlands
To look at their
Defense system.

And I was actually
Embarrassed

To talk about ours,
When you look at their system.

Number one,
They've built substantial
Levees and they armor them.

They protect them
From waves and overtopping

And all the problems
We saw at Katrina.

But more importantly,
This is a very small country.

It's 14 million people.

65% of the netherlands
Is below sea level,

But they have
The will to go out

And build high enough
And strong enough to withstand

A one-in-10,000-year
Storm-surge event.

We can do the kinds of things
The dutch engineers have done,

And, in fact,
We should learn from them.

But we haven't
Mobilized the will.

The army corps of engineers
Had 40 years to build
A protective system

Around the city
Of New Orleans.

The hurricane
Hits august 29th.

It takes them approximately
Eight weeks to two months
To drain the water out.

So you mean to tell me,
They're going to repair--

What they couldn't
Build in 40 years,

They're going to repair it
In eight months,

Or 10 months,
To be up to a point

Where people
Should feel secure?

I would caution people

To not be delude

To go forward in a way

That they understand,

Not to buy promises
That could be false promises,

Because it could mean
That they could lose their
Lives and their homes again.

Reporter: with the tropics
Heating up, the work at
The 17th street canal

Can't move quickly enough.
The gates are in place,

But the pumps still
Aren't operational.

New delays make
Old deadlines dicey.

Unfortunately, to a large
Degree, our fate is
In the corps' hands.

Reporter:
The corps is now blaming rain,
And not enough working space,

And they say residents
Need to keep their guard up.

I do believe that they should be
Concerned, because...

We don't know what kind
Of hurricane event we could
See in this year.

Reporter:
With the temporary
Pumps on the bridge,

The corps can pump less than
15% of the canal's capacity,

If it needs
To close the gates.

The corps says it's getting
Little sleep too,

Having put in place
$1 billion worth

Of flood protection
Since Katrina, a work
Still in progress.

- lee: what's going to happen
When hurricane season comes?
- we're screwed.

They don't have to tell me
19 hours anymore,

'cause if it's
Predicted on Monday,
I'm leaving Friday.

I'll admit, I'm scared.
You don't know what's
Going to happen.

Be prepared to run
And have your place
To run to.

Lee:
If someone came to you,

Has a house
That's near the lake,

Or a levee,
Or a floodwall,

And says "Is it safe
For me to move back in?"

- ( laughs )
- is it safe?
Remember "The marathon man"?

Oh, I remember.

- sir lawrence olivier?
- yep.

- is it safe?
- the answer is no.
It's not safe.

( score playing )

"Not just the levees broke,
The spirit broke,

My spirit broke.

The families broke apart.

I want my mama back,

I want my sister back,
I want my nephew back.

The auction block broke

From so many
African-american bodies.

The sense of direction
Was broken

Because of the darkness.

There was light
From time to time,

But they broke away
And left us.

My being together broke

When I fell apart.

The smell broke away
From my skin

When I came
Out of the waters.

The waters
That came and stood,

Still, with the bodies
Of my people,

The dogs, shit, piss,

Rats, snakes,
And "Heard of" alligators.

The broken smiles,
The broken minds,
The broken lives.

And you know something?

Out of all of this
Brokenness,

I have begun to mend.

With god

And my deep deep
Commitment

To infinite strength,

To never give up,
I am mending.

I am coming back,

God willing,
For a long long time.

So when you see
The waters,

When you see
The levees breaking,

Know what they really broke
Along with them."

( playing uptempo jazz
Music )

Banks:
When you were
Born in this,

And your first breath
When the doctor slaps you

Is tinted with
Magnolia blossoms,

And you drink
Mississippi river tap water

In your first formula,
It's a thing that you won't
Find anywhere else.

And folks who
Had to evacuate know

You might go somewhere,
And you might have a good time,
But it's nothing like home.

And when you can call
New Orleans, Louisiana, home,

Baby, you know what it means
To miss New Orleans, trust me.

( jazz music
Continues playing )

Darleen asevedo, born in
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jay asevedo, born in
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Shelton shakespear alexander,

St. Bernard parish,
Violet, Louisiana.

Lee arnold, tour manager,
For New Orleans' own
Hot 8 brass band.

My name is
Gralen bryant banks,

Born and raised
In New Orleans uptown

In the 13th ward.

I'm the director
Of safety and loss prevention

At the hyatt regency
New Orleans,

At Louisiana superdome.

John barry,

Author of "Rising tide,
The great mississippi
Flood of 1927,

And how it
Changed america."

I'm professor robert bea,

University of california
At berkeley,

Department of civil
And environmental engineering.

Actor-activist
Harry belafonte.

I'm wilhemina blanchard,
I'm terence's mother.

And I'm terence blanchard,
And we're both born and raised
Here in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm kathleen babineau blanco,

Governor of
The state of Louisiana.

Douglas brinkley,
American historian.

Joseph bruno, I live
In a section of the city

Called carrollton,
And I'm a trial lawyer.

State representative
Karen carter,

District 93,
New Orleans.

I'm doctor louis cataldie,

I'm the state
Medical examiner
For the state of Louisiana.

Judith morgan, yscloskey,
St. Bernard, Louisiana.

Cheryl livaudais, yscloskey,
St. Bernard, Louisiana.

Will chittenden,
Born and raised
In New Orleans,

Lower 9th,
St. Bernard projects.

Eddie compass,
Former superintendent,

New Orleans
Police department.

How you doing?
I'm harry "Swamp thing" cook,

And I'm the bass drummer
For the hot 8 brass band.

Sarah dean,
St. Rock, New Orleans.

Petri laurimaa,
St. Rock, New Orleans.

Emil dumesnil,
From the lower 9th ward,

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Michael eric dyson, author
Of "Come hell or high water:

Hurricane Katrina
And the color of disaster,"

Professor at the university
Of pennsylvania.

My name is felton earls,

I am professor
Of social medicine at harvard
Medical school,

And professor
Of human behavior
And development

At the harvard school
Of public health.

I'm paris ervin.
I'm a resident of New Orleans.

My name's
Sylvester francis,

I was born and raised
In New Orleans, Louisiana.

My name is
Herbert j. Freeman, jr.

I was born
In New Orleans, Louisiana,

In the garden district.

Dale girard, gentilly,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

My name is
Louella givens,

And I'm a lawyer
In orleans parish.

Anita gupta,
Assistant counsel

At the naacp legal defense
And educational fund.

My name is glenn hall,
I am 10 years old, and I play
The trumpet.

I'm tanya harris
From the lower 9th ward.

I'm josephine butler
From lower 9th ward.

Donald harrison,
Jazz musician from
Uptown, New Orleans.

Darnell harrington,

Born and raised
In New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dr. Corey hebert
Pediatrician,

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Damon hewitt,
Assistant counsel,

Naacp legal defense
And educational fund,
And a native of New Orleans.

Freddie hicks,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Justin hite,
Berkeley, california,

Common ground
In the lower 9th ward.

Fred johnson, born in
New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm michael katz,
Walter h. Annenberg
Professor of history

At the university
Of pennsylvania.

Michael knight,
Lower 9th ward.

Mitch landrieu,
Lieutenant governor,
State of Louisiana.

My name is
Mrs. Phyllis montana leblanc,

Born and raised
In New Orleans.

Trymaine lee,
Staff writer,

"New Orleans times-picayune,"
From south jersey.

Brendan loy, blogger
And hurricane buff,
Irishtrojan.Com.

Dr. Calvin mackie, professor
Of mechanical engineering

At tulane university,

Member of the Louisiana
Recovery authority,

Born in the 7th ward
In New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm dr. Ben marble.

I'm an emergency room physician
Along the mississippi
Gulf coast,

And I live
In long beach, mississippi.

Wynton marsalis,
Pigeontown, New Orleans,
Louisiana.

Kevin a. Martin,

Pumping and power plant
Operator,

Melpomene pumping
Station number 1,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

My name
Is hassan mashriqui.

I'm an assistant professor

At Louisiana
State university
Hurricane center.

I'm mother audrey mason
From New Orleans,

Born and raised,
63 years.

Betty mchale.

And charles mchale,
Three park island,
City of New Orleans.

I'm david meeks, city editor
Of "The times-picayune"
In New Orleans.

Yes, my name
Is joseph melancon,

From New Orleans,
Louisiana.

I'm from
The 3rd ward, which is
Called the magnolia project.

Gina montana,

Mid-city,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Henry morgan,
St. Bernard, Louisiana.

I'm marc morial,
Former mayor of New Orleans,

A son of New Orleans,

And now the president
Of the national urban league.

My name is
Cynthia hedge-morrell.

I'm the newly-elected
Councilperson from district d,

New Orleans, Louisiana,
Born and raised.

I am arthur morrell,
State representative

From district 97,
In New Orleans, Louisiana.

I was born and raised
In New Orleans.

My name is joycelyn moses.

My name is anthony dunn.

And we both are
Residents of New Orleans.

We've been here
All our life.

Ray Nagin, mayor
Of the city of New Orleans.

My name is linda novak,
And I live in holy cross,

Lower 9th ward.

Soledad o'brien, co-anchor,
"Cnn american morning."

- sean penn.
- my name is benny pete

And I'm a tuba player
For the hot 8 brass band.

Wendell pierce,
Born in pontchartrain park,

New Orleans.

Kimberly polk,
I lived in the bywater community

Of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Pastor james pullings, jr.,

Of the leviticus church of god
In christ, queens, new york.

Garland robinette,
Wwl radio,

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Robert rocque,
Born and raised in
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Junior rodriguez,
St. Bernard parish president.

Daina saulny,
Born and raised,

New Orleans, Louisiana,
7th ward.

Michael scott schlacter,

I am the founder
And chief meteorologist

Of weather 2000
In new york city.

Jeffrey david schultze,
Chief climatologist
At weather 2000.

Jay scully,
Long beach, mississippi.

Mike seelig,
Uptown New Orleans.

I am colonel louis setliff,
Commander task force guardian,

U.S. Army corps of engineers,
Here in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm reverend al sharpton,

President of national
Action network.

Brian thevenot, staff writer
At "The times-picayune."

I live in uptown,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Charley varley,
Photojournalist,

Citizen of the world,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ivor van heerden,
Deputy director

Of the Louisiana state
University hurricane center.

My name is
Elder william walker, jr.,

Pastor of the noah's ark
Missionary baptist church,

Located in central city,
New Orleans, Louisiana.

Rhonda Washington,
Registered nurse,

High-risk ob/gyn,
University hospital.

Kanye west, artist.

Roy Williams, director,
Louis Armstrong New Orleans
International airport.

( '50susic playing )