01x01 - The Coming Storm

[bunniefuu]

-If you're still hearing us
and you haven't left yet or you,

haven't made plans
on leaving, please leave.

You know, I hate to say this,

but I just don't
have enough body bags.

-Here it comes,
it broke the front door.

[wind and debris clatter]

[♪ dramatic music playing]

-In order to prevent
something from happening again,

you got to understand
why it happened in

the first place.

[operator] 911,
what's your emergency?

-The water is coming up.

[operator] Are they
trapped in the house?

-Yes, they are.
They're trapped in.

-Hello.
Are you upstairs?

-Katrina was a wake-up call.

-We got you, baby.

-Well, we had
fell back to sleep.

[reporter] They are the lucky
ones saved from what FEMA now

calls the most significant
natural disaster ever to hit

the United States.

-Yeah, it was a disaster.

We gonna be
faced with disasters.

But the tragedy of
Katrina was manmade.

-We got a baby out here.

They don't have no formula,
no water, and they,

and they want us to
survive out here.

Where's FEMA?
Where's the mayor?

-Katrina was a hurricane
of governmental failure.

And it was a hurricane of
mistruth and injustice.

[reporter] One of the police
officers told me was it is a

w*r zone out there.

People are losing their minds.

-Ma, my grandma, or one
of y'all, if y'all out there,

you hearing me, and
y'all hear your son,

just let me know y'all living.
You heard me?

-It didn't have to
happen like that.

Not in America.
We can't justify this.

Can't justify what
happened after Katrina.

[♪ ominous music playing]

[reporter] Tropical depression
number 12 is churning tonight

near the Bahamas.

[reporter] It's gonna be
moving very slowly for the

next two to three days.

Moving in the general
direction of Florida.

[reporter] If it does
grow in strength and

become a tropical storm,
it'll be named Katrina.

-Katrina was unlike
any other hurricane.

[reporter] Thousands of
people in south Florida have

their eyes on Katrina
as the storm has just now

reached hurricane status.

[reporter] Still pounding
Miami-Dade County area,

southern Broward County.

-All of a sudden now, it's
starting to come towards us.

[reporter] Katrina
is expected to become a

very intense hurricane.

[reporter] That's what's
developing with a hurricane

now in the warm waters
of the Gulf of Mexico.

[reporter] As you know,

hurricanes feed
off of warm water.

-In the days before Katrina,
everything was going well.

Even the sun was shining.

It was, like, um,

my kids was swimming
in the swimming pool.

See her little pool.

She done for the day, huh?

Yeah, so when we first found out
they had the hurricane coming,

that don't too much faze
the people in New Orleans.

You know?

So many times that hurricanes
was supposed to be coming here

and they never came or
turned off or we might have

got some of the water,
some of the winds.

Or you know, we might
have not got nothing.

I just felt like, you know,

if the hurricane
did come through,

maybe it'd just pass through.

And then, the next day,

you got to go home
and everything good.

Because I still was preparing
my suit for Mardi Gras.

In New Orleans, people
start preparing months

ahead of time.

I still remember my
piece that I was working on.

I still see it
laying on the table.

[reporter] Everything that
we're looking at indicates

this hurricane has the
potential to strengthen even

more than it already has.

-We're not trying
to frighten people

-No, no.

-But this is one that,
that we are, quite frankly,

very frightened of.

-We're, we're concerned,
obviously, it concerns us

a great deal.

-My siblings who
live away from the city,

they were talking
about the storm.

And they were like,
come on, you got to get Mama.

Y'all come.

And I'm like, I ain't leaving.

You know, this, this is,
you know, they,

every time it happens,
they trying to make me leave.

I said I'm not
leaving my property.

This spot, it had history.

My grandmother was
born two doors from here.

So, my family has
roots in this bad boy

way before the 1800s,
all right?

New Orleans is
identified by the wards.

If you ask somebody
where they're from,

they'll say the Lower
Nine or Upper Nine,

the Seven, the Eight.

New Orleans East, the Tremé.

-What neighborhood you
were from basically tells

a story about us.

[Kevin Goodman] The 7th Ward,
that was our whole family.

-And in the Lower 9th Ward,

there was a lot of poverty here.

However, there was
always a lot of community.

Where people looked
after each other.

[Kevin Goodman] The people
put their heart and soul

into this city to make it grow
and to make it a better city.

-That yearning, that culture,
that music,

that language that no
one else could understand.

That close-knit community.

Everything,
everything changed that day.

[spanning radio dial]

[reporter] WWL First News.

Southeast Louisiana
is now in the direct path

of Hurricane Katrina.

[radio static]

-The way I remember it, it
started moving further west.

[reporter] Hurricane Katrina
continues to move west in the

Gulf of Mexico.
The big question is--

[reporter] Look at
this cone of error here.

It basically runs from
Pensacola out to south central

sections of Louisiana.

-Fear started to seep into
everybody here in the city.

And certainly, at the
station that I was working at.

[reporter] From WWL-TV.

[Thanh Truong] It was like,
okay, this is really serious.

This could turn out
to be the big one.

-Here's the projected path
on Katrina... Right now--

-What the weathermen were
forecasting by Saturday was

that this hurricane
is too big to turn.

It's gonna hit us.

-At the LSU
Hurricane Center,

from early on the
Saturday morning,

we were running
storm surge models as

Hurricane Katrina
was approaching.

And we knew then.

We knew then and there this
was going to be a catastrophe.

-I had obtained a model from
Louisiana State University of

the potential for storm
surge from that morning's

hurricane predictions.

Storm surge is
that elevated water that is

pushed in advance of
the winds of the storm.

In New Orleans' case,

when that water comes in
either from the Gulf of Mexico

or from lakes to the
east and to the north,

especially Lake Pontchartrain,

flood walls and
levees surround the populated

areas to protect them from
flooding.

But it was very clear that
Hurricane Katrina's storm surge

could overtop levees and
cause dramatic disaster.

[Ivor Van Heerden] For years,
I tried to warn about

something like Katrina.

That we were sitting
on a ticking time b*mb.

-Storms in the Gulf,
you typically had three,

four days to watch them.

But on Saturday,

Katrina took a swivel
toward us and that meant we

were in full throttle mode.

-This is not a test.
This is the real deal.

Board your windows
with plywood if you can.

Make sure your car
has enough gas in it.

Do all the things that you
normally do to prepare for a

hurricane but treat this
one differently because it is

pointed toward New Orleans.

-We are advising people
to evacuate probably at

daybreak on tomorrow.

-St. Bernard.

It's not looking good for
us down here in St. Bernard.

I don't think I
can go anywhere.

First of all, I really
don't have the money.

Uh, the reason I
had a video camera,

I'd been performing slam poetry.

Screen wide.
Poet scream.

Poetry wide.
Kids scream--

So, anywhere I would have
went at that point in time,

I was, like,

still in the mode of,
like, recording myself.

This storm look like
it's definitely coming, man.

I mean, like,
straight towards us.

So, that's a bad
situation to be in.

But I know God is gonna
keep us from the storm.

He said He's
gonna protect us.

Me being in Marines, you know,
I'm a pretty good swimmer.

Like, survival skills.

If the water came, like,
I knew I could survive it.

But I didn't want
my moms to be here.

You can see my moms

is kind of tired.

She been cooking.

I actually told my mom, I said,

Ma, if I have to crack
you over the head with a pot,

knock you out, put
you on my shoulder,

you're gonna leave.

She finally got out of there.

But for myself,

I didn't want
to leave because I didn't know

what we was gonna
be coming back to.

We had three
houses on that property,

including the home
that I was starting to remodel.

Make over my crib.

It's coming along.

So I stayed
behind and I just was praying.

-Saturday night, I received
a Blackberry ping from

the mayor that said SOS.

Hurricane Katrina was
now projecting to become

a Category 5.

And that meant a
tale of destruction.

[reporter] That major
hurricane barreling toward

the Gulf Coast of
the United States,

Hurricane Katrina, is
now a Category 5 hurricane.

[reporter] Category 5, which
is the strongest hurricanes

we know of.

Only three times
before in U.S. history have

Category 5 storms
hit the U.S. mainland.

-This thing is
a very strong Category 5,

170-mile-an hour winds.

-People don't realize
how big Katrina was.

It covered the
entire Gulf of Mexico.

[reporter] As perfect a
hurricane as you've ever seen

if you can call a
hurricane like this perfect.

[Shelton Alexander]
She ain't turning.

She coming now.
Y'all pulling out, huh?

-Yeah.

[Shelton Alexander] They done
been around and seen so many,

but they ain't
never seen this kind.

This a five, man.
A full five.

A five is not a
good situation.

It's a code red.

[Ray Nagin] Good morning,
ladies and gentlemen.

We're here for our
update on Hurricane Katrina.

I am, this morning,

declaring that we will be
doing a mandatory evacuation.

Every person is hereby
ordered to immediately evacuate

the city of New Orleans.

This is very serious and
it's of the highest nature.

And it's, that's
why we're taking

this unprecedented move.

I do hereby--

[Lynette Boutte] When
the mayor announced a

mandatory evacuation,
it was Sunday.

[chuckles]

It's kind of late,

because the storm was
coming in that night.

[Sally Forman] Never before
in the history of New Orleans

had a mandatory
evacuation taken place.

So we needed to do some
legal work to ensure the city

was not liable in the
long term and that we were

keeping the people we
needed to keep in the

city of New Orleans.

And at the same time,
ensuring everyone else left.

-So, when the mayor makes
the call to evacuate the city,

we were more concerned
from a police standpoint with

the evacuation process
giving people a warning.

[officer] The city
of New Orleans is under

mandatory evacuation.

Everyone is advised
to leave the area.

We have a Category 5
hurricane coming.

[Sally Forman] What the mayor
did was he sent the

police force into the area,
using their PA systems,

telling people to evacuate.

And if they were
unable to evacuate,

that buses would be
stationed throughout each

neighborhood to take
them to the Superdome,

which is a sports
arena in New Orleans,

as a refuge of last resort.

[Ray Nagin] The Superdome
will be opened up as a refuge

of last resort.

But let me emphasize,

the first choice for every
citizen is to figure out a way

to leave the city.

-If the mayor is saying,
hey, you need to leave,

yes, they do.

It makes our job a lot easier.

But how can they do that
if they can't afford to?

-Within New Orleans, you
have a high poverty rate.

If you're going to
tell poor people to leave,

where are they going?

-Katrina hit at the worst
time to be poor in America.

By the end of the month,
you ain't got no money.

[Shelton Alexander] We
didn't get hit with a big one

for a long, long time.

But this one felt different.

We don't want to stay here, but.

For this one,
I had this strange feeling.

This vision in my head,
like, foreshadowing.

This one's gonna happen, man.
I, I seen water.

But I do know
the water is gonna come.

[reporter] The time
to go is right now.

Get on the road.
Because if you don't,

the window is gonna
close on you pretty soon.

[Kevin Goodman] On Sunday
when we all went down by my

mother's house in
the 7th Ward to go and

check on her.

It was, like, five of us.

We had the twins.

The twins was, like,
three and a half months.

And then, there was my
brother and my niece, Precious.

At the time, she had Lupus.

But she was doing,
she was in good health.

By the time we got
to my mother's house,

the clouds and
stuff start coming in.

[Shelton Alexander]
You can see how the skies

is moving across.

So what it's like right now,

the Category 5 about
to come through.

Man, I'm, like, ready to go.

I was gonna try to
get to Baton Rouge, man,

with a half a tank of gas.

Hopefully, we don't get too
trapped in traffic.

One of my mama relatives,

our cousin, he just walked
through the cut and was like,

I was, like, man,
where you going at?

Me and my cousin got enough gas.

Just enough to get us down,
don't know if we can get back.

But if we can
get some shelter,

we'll be all right.

So I was able to get him and
we was able to move forward,

I would say.

We wasn't completely
out the woods,

but just moving forward.

Now we about to leave home, man.

We about to, me and cuzzy
headed to Baton Rouge.

But I don't think

handle down here.

-During the time of Katrina,

there was a
evacuation ordered.

And what frightened me was
the number of people that were

still in the city.

[Paul Hellmers] Obviously,
firemen need to be ready

to rescue people.

And if you're in a fire
station that's not well located,

you're not gonna
be able to rescue people.

So, for our
area of last refuge,

we were going to
Lake Marina Tower.

-That's the building
we're gonna be in.

Right up there.

[Paul Hellmers] Lake Marina
Tower is at the northernmost

part of Lakeview area.

That was higher ground than
most of the surrounding area.

[Thanh Truong] As the
city was emptying out,

I was on Interstate 10.

These thousands of cars going
past me and my photographer,

all going one direction,
which was out of town.

Then, we got back
on the eastbound lane and

went into the city.

We went to the Hyatt downtown.

We stayed there because
the mayor was staying there,

and the police chief was
staying with him as well.

-The Hyatt Regency had areas
where we could hunker down

and actually spend the night.

So we brought our families
over to the Hyatt Regency.

And at the time,

my wife was eight months
pregnant and I had

a three-year-old.

So I was happy that
we had somewhere where

they could be safe,
and I could do my job.

[reporter] Already,
hundreds of people have made

their way to the Superdome,

driving cars, walking,
taking buses, getting here by

any means they can.

[reporter] There's at least

are continuing to
pull up as we are here,

bringing more people.

-I get a phone call pretty
last minute letting me know

that they had made a decision
to open up the Superdome

as a shelter of last resort.

And that the National Guard
had gotten the mission,

initially, to screen, making
sure that anyone who came into

the dome wasn't
bringing things that

were potentially hazardous.

You're thinking in terms of,
hopefully, the, the dome

turns out to be a safe
place for all of us to be.

And be prepared to maybe
stay there for a day or so.

Until it's safe for people to,
to go back to their homes.

[Shelton Alexander] The
circumstances changed;

when I got to Airline Highway,

the traffic was so jammed up.

We sitting there.
We sitting there.

And I've noticed the gas meter
only going down a little.

And that's when it
started to rain.

[reporter] They are experiencing
some rain right now.

[reporter] The effects of
this hurricane just starting

to be felt here.

[reporter] If you can
still get out, get out.

[reporter] It is time to run.

[reporter] And so, things are
gonna continue to go downhill

and I think to the
surprise of some of you

in traffic right now,

it's going
downhill very quickly.

[reporter] The worst place,
actually, that you could

possibly be would
be in an automobile.

[Shelton Alexander] That
thought was just running

through my head, like,
man, what we gonna do?

We gonna run out of gas.

I'm stuck on side the highway,

my cousin,
he couldn't swim.

What are we gonna do?

[hard rain]

[reporter] Take a look at the
Twin Spans in terms of rain,

we've got some
heavy cells around,

especially over
Lake Pontchartrain.

A couple have just
passed the Twin Spans.

They continue to
rotate out over the lake.

Once you get toward eastern
sections of New Orleans.

[Shelton Alexander] I heard
on the news that the Superdome

would be a
shelter of last resort.

[reporter] The city has
opened up several shelters,

the biggest one
being the Superdome.

-So, I was like, why
don't we just turn around?

I mean, how could we go wrong?

The Superdome is huge.

They have parking, you know,
all around the place.

We were some of the
last to actually get in

that particular night.

-Just take your time, ma'am.

[Shelton Alexander] Here we are
amongst the general population.

[Shelton Alexander]
It's all Black folk, bruh.

It's just a sea of Black folk.

I'm telling you,
that's all there is in here.

-When I first got there and
I started gauging the crowd.

Yeah, put you in
the Superdome.

I looked around I seen
some whites here or there.

But they did stick
out like a sore thumb.

It was mostly, like,
Black people.

So I was like, oh, man.
We all in here together.

[reporter] We're here at
the Louisiana Superdome.

Inside right now, an
estimated 12,000 people are

going to ride out the storm.

[Tranh Truong] Sunday night,
as the storm's coming in,

we hunkered down
at the Hyatt Hotel.

Most of the team was, like,
on the 23rd or 27th floor.

We were just gonna
ride it out there.

That was the initial plan.

[Lucrece Phillips] The
calmness before a storm...

...is one of the most peaceful,

scariest things that
a person can experience.

That quiet calmness,

it was, like...

...deafening.

It was a eerie
feeling that you knew,

oh, this is gonna be bad.

[reporter] Right now,
Hurricane Katrina looks like

one of the biggest,
baddest storms ever recorded

in U.S. history.

[reporter] Because we have
so many people that aren't

able to leave the city,

I cannot think of a
worst case scenario than,

than what's panning out.

[reporter] What a tragedy
this looks like it's gonna be.

[Malik Rahim] What make
a disaster a tragedy?

A tragedy is when we...

...fail to do what
we should be doing.

And the first tragedy of
Katrina was not being prepared.

Not having, in this city,
a exit strategy for the

we knew didn't have

no means of escape.

-An evacuation is a difficult
task at best out of New Orleans.

So we've studied
it very closely.

We've studied it very closely.

We've studied it very closely.

And this is one
of our nightmare scenarios.

-Hurricane Pam, a
federally funded exercise to

plan for a
catastrophic hurricane in

southeast Louisiana.

-Hurricane Pam was an
exercise that we had done

the year before, bringing
together state agencies,

federal agencies,
local officials,

trying to understand
what a catastrophic event

would look like in New Orleans.

-One of the discussions during
the Hurricane Pam exercise

was how to deal with evacuees.

And the first glaring fact
was that there was going to be

many tens of thousands
who couldn't get out.

At least 120,000.

And within that were many
disabled, elderly, and people

who didn't own motor vehicles.

So there was a lot of
knowledge beforehand of the

consequences of this storm.

-A massive storm surge.


And hundreds of
thousands stranded.

[Alice Craft-Kerney] I have seen
destruction from hurricanes,

and I didn't want to be in it.

But I just really
didn't have a choice.

My mother was in a wheelchair,

so wherever
we went, she went.

I decided to go by my
brother's house in the

Lower 9th Ward to
stay with him and some

other family members.

-It was my moms, my sisters,
my family.

You know, we were
gonna ride out the storm at

my little brother house.

[Alice Craft-Kerney]
My brother had one of

those historic homes.

It was lifted up on piers.

And he had very high ceilings.

[Keith Craft] And so,
it was high ground.

-I would have to have
left by ambulance,

being that I just had surgery.

But there were no ambulances
coming in the neighborhood and

picking up people that were
recently out of the hospital.

So, we stayed.

For whatever reason
that you're forced to stay,

you stay and you endure it.

[Kevin Goodman] The poor,
the sick, and older people,

you know, the
elderly people, you know,

those people should have been
the first ones out.

-There was a plan called
the Hurricane Pam Plan,

which involved getting
together different bus systems

to move people to
safety north of the city.

What happened, however,

was that the mayor of
New Orleans, Ray Nagin,

basically punted
because of financial reasons.

[Sally Forman] Were we
concerned that this would be

something that would
bear down on us at the

category level that it did?

Not at all.

So we did not
execute a plan, per se,

for the buses to bring
people out of the city.

We did not have a plan
for our buses to be used

in that manner.

[reporter] Most
hotels are sold out.

For others,
rooms are unaffordable

and leaving impossible.

-I can't get out.
How am I get out?

-You knew all of this
was going to happen.

Or you should have known.

[reporter] The main outer
core is approaching right now.

Get ready.

[hard rain]

-12:38 right now and
all it's doing is raining.

-That night, about 12:00 or

The winds was blowing.

-Oh, the wind is picking
up kind of a bit, baby.

Time to go back in the house.

[laughs]

[Shelton Alexander] Going into
midnight, I think everybody

was just trying to
rest a little bit.

I probably dozed off a
time or two because I still

wasn't too worried at the time.

[overlapping chatter]

[Sally Forman] In the middle
of the night, beginning to be

the early morning hours,

I was in a regular room
in the Hyatt sleeping when,

all of a sudden, we heard
the wind of Hurricane Katrina.

[wind and rain]

-Oh, man. I ain't never
seen it blow like that, ever.

It was like somebody opened up
the flaps on a wind machine.

[makes sound]

[wind]

[reporter] Hurricane
force winds should extend

as much as
100-miles-radius beyond

that eye of Katrina.

-Works it's way in here and
begins to fall apart.

-And then, that wind starts.

And the destruction
starts at that point.

[gusting wind]

[debris clatter]

[reporter] You can hear the
sound of glass breaking and

metal twisting as the eye wall
moves ashore.

[reporter] We have
seen transformer blue flashes

out on the horizon,

and that's an indication
that the power is going out

in many areas.

[reporter] Just like that,
in the middle of our story,

the streetlights went out.

[Eric Wright] Of course,
the electricity goes off.

And for many people,
there's no more TV,

no more radio.

[Lucrece Phillips] It
was just total darkness.

We felt isolated.

It was so scary.

[Ivor Van Heerden]
Around 5:00 in the morning,

Katrina started to move ashore.

The storm wasn't
a Category 5 when

it made landfall.

[reporter] If you're just
tuning in here in Louisiana,

we're waking up to a
Category 4 hurricane.

[reporter] But it
is just below Category 5.

[Ivor Van Heerden]
When it made landfall,

the storm goes on the east side.

The eye of the storm missed
New Orleans by 35 miles.

But it went directly through
St. Bernard Parish.

-I was in Violet Canal,
St. Bernard.

My boats up against a
levee and that's where the

hurricane hit us.

It was something
you never forget.

From my boat, what
I see is the surge.

It's coming in
with full force.

And the waves hit them
levees every seven seconds.

The height of a levee
is just as big as a wave

in a hurricane.

There was no way
that was gonna hold.

-The water is starting to
come in over the levees.

-Even though the eye
of Katrina didn't even

hit New Orleans.

[reporter] Is that
Louisiana State University.

[Ivor Van Heerden] In the
back of my mind was the waves

from the Gulf of Mexico
hitting the wetlands

of coastal Louisiana.

Since the 1930s, we've
lost over a million acres of

our coastal wetlands.

And that's our outer line
of defense for storm surge.

That's what really used
to knock the stuffing out

of the storm surge.

And as a result,

every year the
potential surges get worse

and worse and worse.

So this storm, a Category 4,

Category 5 is our
worst nightmare.

[Alice Craft-Kerney]
In the Lower 9th Ward,

there was rain but it
wasn't a torrential rain.

When it comes to flooding,
the Lower 9th Ward usually

did pretty good.

-In the Lower 9th Ward,
we didn't really flood.

We got floodwater
in the streets,

but the swamp kind of
protected us because the

water would
drain into the swamp.

The swamp was located
on the other side

of the railroad tracks
on Florida Avenue.

It was our wonderland.

You would see cypress trees
with moss hanging on them.

I couldn't tell
you the exact year.

One day, you know,
you walk back there and

you notice that
the trees were dying.

The cypress trees.

And the cypress trees
were the trees that kept

the swamp alive.

[Ivor Van Heerden] When I
initially arrived in the '70s

to do my graduate studies,
south and east and west of

New Orleans were
huge cypress swamps.

And for thousands of years,

the best protection
from hurricanes that we've had

were these coastal wetlands.

Here's a wetland.
Here's a lake or bay.

The storm surge comes along
and then it hits the wetland.

The trees form, like, a maze.

The water has got to
go around this tree.

Then, go around that tree.

And so, the storm surge gets
rapidly reduced.

But it didn't take
me long to realize that

Louisiana is losing its
wetlands at a hell of a rate,

including the
wetlands around the

Lower 9th Ward
and St. Bernard.

[Ricky Robin]
Within my lifetime,

all out here where we at
was all oak trees and woods.

And, and within my lifetime,
it all disappeared.

Now, we have no trees
to break the water.

We have nothing to
slow it down anymore.

Nothing at all.

[Ivor Van Heerden] Between

is a consequence of the
oil and gas industry and

their activities in
coastal Louisiana.

[Malik Rahim]
It's the oil industry.

They're the ones
who caused this.

But each one of y'all
came up in here in a car.

All of y'all
buying their product.

But you can't throw
blame at them without

accepting your blame.

That's what make it a tragedy.

Because we are so drunk on
prosperity, we done destroyed

that first
natural line of defense.

[Shelton Alexander]
At, like, 6 in the morning,

you can see people
starting to peel the covers

off of their heads
because they heard the

same thing that I heard.

[loud noise]

-I don't like the
sound of that.

I'm, like, what is that?
What is that?

And boom, we hear just rumbling.

[child wails].

Yeah?

And that's when we
first seen the water.

-Oh, man, they got
water coming through.

-Wait.

-We have rain
inside the Superdome.

I repeat.

Rain inside the dome.

Now, the thought
process is if we getting wet

on the inside
of the Superdome,

then what's going
on on the outside?

[crashing water]

[Ricky Robin] It was a complete
mess for a while there.

You know, and well, my boat's
up against the levee and

I had to go out there,
up on the rig,

and secure the
lines a little better.

So I got swiped
off the rigging.

Wound up hanging on a rope.

The winch ran me out.

Came back on the boat
and came in the cabin.

Drank another cup of
coffee and a shot of whiskey.

Then, for a moment,

when the eye of
the storm came in,

everything calmed down.

But then, all of a sudden,

all hell broke loose
when she broke out the west.

Second half of the hurricane
was worse than the first half.

[reporter] The winds
have really picked up here.

It feels to me that,
that this may be,

for us, the worst
part of the storm.

[Joe Fincher] So, at
the Lake Marina Tower,

the nine of us firefighters
woke up at the crack of dawn

and the wind was
howling outside.

The windows were allegedly
rated for 150 miles an hour.

[glass shattering]

[Paul Hellmers]
Well, as you can see,

our situation has deteriorated.

[Joe Fincher] But they
blew out in the front and

immediately vented out the back.

[Sally Forman] In
those early morning hours,

when Katrina hit,

I was in the Hyatt Hotel
along with the rest of the

executive staff of the mayor.

But then, all of a sudden,

we heard windows begin to break.

We had someone come
over the PA system,

and they said we
need everyone to evacuate to

the third floor of the hotel.

-They made the right call
in telling us to evacuate

to the atrium.

Because looking back at it,

I mean, it was
absolutely shredded.

[♪ dramatic music playing]

[Keith Craft] The
storm had passed.

We were all relieved.

-You know, we had survived it.

[reporter] Having
seen what we did in the

last couple of hours,

this is looking
relatively calm.

I have seen a few cars out
and about, a few police cars

that seem to be
making the rounds.

But, one of the things
that's most interesting to me

is the water level of the
street underneath it.

It looks, definitely, as
though it is dropped to, to

some considerable degree.

[John Keller]
After the storm hit,

it was, like, four inches
of water on the street.

It wasn't
flooding or anything.

[Lynette Boutte] Right where we
were, it was maybe about seven,

eight inches in the streets,
which wasn't a problem.

But it was weird, because
I'm seeing more water coming up

in the street than
we normally do.

[Eddie Compass] We
realized this is not a

normal hurricane aftermath.

Because all of a sudden,

the water started
rising very quickly.

And I said, where
this water coming from?

-I had to leave
out of my house,

man, this stuff's,
I don't know whether that water

is coming over
that levee or what.

[Paul Hellmers] We
were 19 stories up in

Lake Marina Tower.

So, you know, we had quite
a view of the entire city.

And as you can see from here,

it's pretty much
complete devastation

across the city.

It was, it was apocalyptic.

And I realized that the
situation was gonna get

far, far worse.