All language subtitles for Hurricane.Katrina.Race.Against.Time.S01E02.480p.x264-mSD[EZTVx.to]

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Would you like to inspect the original subtitles? These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:35,790 --> 00:00:38,910 How you doing, man? I had to leave out of my house, man. 2 00:00:39,390 --> 00:00:43,330 I don't know whether that water's coming over that levee or what. The last I 3 00:00:43,330 --> 00:00:44,330 heard, it's not. 4 00:00:45,470 --> 00:00:49,250 So you haven't heard about that water coming over that levee from the lake? 5 00:00:49,430 --> 00:00:52,870 Check it out. Because the water started rising so high on my two -story 6 00:00:52,870 --> 00:00:54,730 apartment, I had to get out, man. Where's that at? 7 00:00:54,970 --> 00:00:57,670 Right across the North Robinson overpass. 8 00:00:58,670 --> 00:01:00,390 Okay, I'm going to go down and check it out, though. 9 00:01:04,899 --> 00:01:08,740 Any word on the levee? Do you know anything about the levee? Is it gone? Is 10 00:01:08,740 --> 00:01:09,740 good? 11 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,300 Some dude just came up to me and said, like, water's up to his apartment in the 12 00:01:14,300 --> 00:01:15,179 second story. 13 00:01:15,180 --> 00:01:16,180 I'm going to go check it out. 14 00:01:43,690 --> 00:01:45,650 You're trying to get on the table and can't. 15 00:01:46,830 --> 00:01:47,830 Ha! 16 00:01:48,450 --> 00:01:49,450 Ha! 17 00:01:49,530 --> 00:01:52,730 We're like under nine feet of water here. We're trying to get out. We have a 18 00:01:52,730 --> 00:01:54,710 baby. We're very frightened. 19 00:01:57,810 --> 00:02:01,970 Pray for me, huh? 20 00:02:02,510 --> 00:02:06,150 Oh, yeah, I will pray. I'm going to have to pray for everybody, even myself. 21 00:02:31,150 --> 00:02:38,070 That morning, after Katrina, everything changed 22 00:02:38,070 --> 00:02:39,070 that day. 23 00:02:40,550 --> 00:02:44,970 My house was in the 8th Ward, almost the beginning of the 9th Ward. 24 00:02:45,550 --> 00:02:48,890 We were right on the railroad tracks across from the canal. 25 00:02:49,290 --> 00:02:52,070 And we're like right on the levee. 26 00:02:52,650 --> 00:02:54,670 My place was on the second floor. 27 00:02:55,410 --> 00:02:58,070 My daughter, my niece. 28 00:02:58,879 --> 00:03:04,680 My uncle, his wife, their two -year -old daughter, that we affectionately call 29 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:07,120 Bump Bump, they all stayed with me. 30 00:03:09,060 --> 00:03:15,020 We had rain, and we had thunder, and we had all the things that make up a storm. 31 00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:19,220 But we heard something that sounded like an explosion. 32 00:03:28,590 --> 00:03:31,030 I guess that was the levee breaking at that time. 33 00:03:33,390 --> 00:03:40,010 That's when the water went from the tire of the car, and I mean the bottom of 34 00:03:40,010 --> 00:03:41,130 the tire of the car, 35 00:03:42,630 --> 00:03:48,930 to the second floor 36 00:03:48,930 --> 00:03:51,590 within like 20 minutes. 37 00:03:53,330 --> 00:03:55,550 The water was steady rising and rising. 38 00:03:56,250 --> 00:03:59,990 I look outside and notice that it was flooding. Well, you know, we know the 39 00:03:59,990 --> 00:04:01,710 drainage system is bad down here. 40 00:04:02,070 --> 00:04:03,710 So I started getting worried. 41 00:04:08,030 --> 00:04:12,230 The water started coming in different. The water started changing colors. 42 00:04:13,070 --> 00:04:17,970 Actually, we even saw fish in the water when it first started coming. But the 43 00:04:17,970 --> 00:04:20,610 water got higher and higher. 44 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:29,000 The water started rising faster and faster. 45 00:04:29,720 --> 00:04:33,280 We went back in the command post and said, this thing is a lot worse than we 46 00:04:33,280 --> 00:04:34,280 thought. 47 00:04:34,340 --> 00:04:37,600 And at the time when this was happening, we didn't really know the cause. 48 00:04:38,880 --> 00:04:43,900 Three minutes, it went from the ground to the roof. 49 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:46,440 I said, where is water coming from? 50 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,700 We realized it's not a normal hurricane aftermath. 51 00:04:53,340 --> 00:04:54,340 Something's wrong. 52 00:04:54,860 --> 00:04:55,860 Something's wrong. 53 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:03,520 It came in like a tidal wave. 54 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:07,340 Car lights started popping on as the water got higher. 55 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,340 We were wondering when it was going to stop. 56 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:17,380 When I looked out the window and I saw the cars starting to be swallowed, I 57 00:05:17,380 --> 00:05:20,120 said, oh, well, I've lost everything. 58 00:05:21,060 --> 00:05:26,280 Once the water came into the house, there was nothing else that could be 59 00:05:27,100 --> 00:05:30,580 The water was just inching up higher and higher and higher. 60 00:05:31,530 --> 00:05:35,890 It reached a good six feet inside of the house. 61 00:05:37,290 --> 00:05:41,670 It's a disaster. The houses down here are destroyed. 62 00:05:42,030 --> 00:05:46,330 I've never seen that like this before. My mother's 83 years old. I don't know 63 00:05:46,330 --> 00:05:52,970 how well she made out. The call started 64 00:05:52,970 --> 00:05:56,410 coming in. It was almost at one birth. 65 00:05:56,990 --> 00:06:00,850 And you could hear the emergency because all of the phones started going off at 66 00:06:00,850 --> 00:06:01,850 the same time. 67 00:06:02,810 --> 00:06:07,770 Folks from St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish. 68 00:06:08,050 --> 00:06:12,570 And then we started getting the calls from folks in the Lower Ninth Ward. 69 00:06:12,870 --> 00:06:16,570 There were so many people with the same issues trapped. 70 00:06:16,870 --> 00:06:19,810 And the lines were seriously busy. 71 00:06:20,250 --> 00:06:23,370 Please, please, I'm begging you, we can't do this. 72 00:06:23,690 --> 00:06:24,710 I can't breathe. 73 00:06:30,350 --> 00:06:34,830 We were asking folks what their addresses were. And in finding out, it 74 00:06:34,830 --> 00:06:39,850 matter what your address was because the force of the water had moved homes off 75 00:06:39,850 --> 00:06:40,850 of their foundation. 76 00:06:42,650 --> 00:06:44,710 It was so much water. 77 00:06:45,090 --> 00:06:50,790 You know, it was like opening a faucet and just pouring in. 78 00:06:51,150 --> 00:06:55,590 And the house was knocked off of its foundation. 79 00:06:56,590 --> 00:06:58,370 So the house was teetering. 80 00:06:59,050 --> 00:07:03,010 So we're all signaling to each other, you know, wait, wait, wait, don't move. 81 00:07:03,330 --> 00:07:04,330 Don't move. 82 00:07:04,390 --> 00:07:05,770 You stay on this side. 83 00:07:06,010 --> 00:07:08,230 You stay right there. We're level right now. 84 00:07:08,690 --> 00:07:12,770 Then as the water would move the house, we had to adjust. 85 00:07:13,150 --> 00:07:15,430 We were like, okay, you go by the front door. 86 00:07:15,690 --> 00:07:17,610 You go there. You stay here. 87 00:07:18,490 --> 00:07:24,210 Everybody had their own portion of something to this recipe of survival. 88 00:07:28,620 --> 00:07:31,900 And then we start hearing barrels from off the railroad track or wherever they 89 00:07:31,900 --> 00:07:32,659 came from. 90 00:07:32,660 --> 00:07:34,080 And you're hitting the stairs. 91 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,040 And we thought the neighbors were dead or dying downstairs. 92 00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,800 The water, it's moving at such a fast rate. 93 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:56,360 I could see the water running in through the baseboards, under the door. 94 00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:02,680 You're looking at your life, the life that your parents provided for you, your 95 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:09,660 belongings being ruined, your mother's furniture that she prided 96 00:08:09,660 --> 00:08:15,200 is being thrown against the wall, your icebox or refrigerator is floating. 97 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:22,620 You move things to a higher level. You get as much in the attic as you possibly 98 00:08:22,620 --> 00:08:23,620 can. 99 00:08:24,090 --> 00:08:29,990 But when you go towards the front of the house and you realize that that water 100 00:08:29,990 --> 00:08:36,650 is at least that high in the street or higher, then you're worried about an 101 00:08:36,650 --> 00:08:37,650 exit plan. 102 00:08:37,770 --> 00:08:39,030 You got to get out. 103 00:08:49,570 --> 00:08:51,610 No, it's safe to say that house is history. 104 00:08:52,400 --> 00:08:55,860 It's going to burn down to the wall line. If I have a hard time picking it 105 00:08:55,860 --> 00:08:57,800 the camera, okay, I see it behind the tree. 106 00:08:58,060 --> 00:09:02,280 We were at the Lake Marina Tower just right on the other side of 17th Street 107 00:09:02,280 --> 00:09:03,280 Canal. 108 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:10,720 And me and firefighter Gabe King and Captain Paul Helmers were watching the 109 00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,260 winds on the south side of Lake Marina Tower. 110 00:09:14,800 --> 00:09:17,220 I see storage in the air right now. 111 00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:24,000 Well, I brought my camera with me for obvious reason that it's very likely you 112 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,620 will have things that you want to film in a Category 5 hurricane. 113 00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,380 Oh, wow, the water's getting pretty deep down there. 114 00:09:32,060 --> 00:09:34,800 I'm going to have to keep an eye on the water and see what it looks like in 115 00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:35,800 another 30 minutes. 116 00:09:36,500 --> 00:09:40,900 When you see water coming up that much, six inches every 15 minutes, that's two 117 00:09:40,900 --> 00:09:41,879 feet an hour. 118 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,420 You're just talking an incredible flow of water. 119 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:47,540 So, yeah, when I spotted... 120 00:09:47,740 --> 00:09:51,740 The 200 -foot area of water coming through, I was 100 % certain of what I 121 00:09:51,740 --> 00:09:52,619 looking at. 122 00:09:52,620 --> 00:09:58,660 It looks like there's a possible levee breach on the 17th Street Canal, right 123 00:09:58,660 --> 00:10:04,120 the angle behind that burning house. I don't see any levee. It looks like it's 124 00:10:04,120 --> 00:10:05,840 at least three feet higher now, Todd. 125 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:09,020 You want to see it better, Joe? Let me focus in with this. 126 00:10:09,940 --> 00:10:13,660 I was hesitant to make the report because we didn't have a confirmation. 127 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:15,920 But Captain Helmers... 128 00:10:16,330 --> 00:10:18,510 He zoomed in on that breach. 129 00:10:21,390 --> 00:10:27,270 My heart just sank. 130 00:10:27,790 --> 00:10:33,290 So I radioed it in. We have a breach in a levee. I think I reported it from 4 to 131 00:10:33,290 --> 00:10:37,410 10 feet wide at the time. I didn't want there to be any confusion on the other 132 00:10:37,410 --> 00:10:38,410 end at all. 133 00:10:39,130 --> 00:10:42,610 Everybody knows the implications of a broken levee. 134 00:10:43,510 --> 00:10:45,070 The entire city flooding. 135 00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:47,780 possibly thousands of people dying. 136 00:10:48,180 --> 00:10:49,560 Could be the end of the city. 137 00:10:50,260 --> 00:10:54,400 It was... It was apocalyptic. 138 00:10:55,640 --> 00:11:00,540 We all knew exactly what we needed to do. We knew that we needed to get boats, 139 00:11:00,700 --> 00:11:05,720 needed to get as many people as we could as fast as we could, and we knew that 140 00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:08,740 there was just a certain amount of time that people had. 141 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:29,440 I ran into our fire chief, Charles Parent, and he said that he had two or 142 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:36,240 firemen reporting a very large break in the levee. And 143 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,900 I questioned him and I said, are you sure? 144 00:11:39,100 --> 00:11:40,120 What do you mean a break? 145 00:11:40,460 --> 00:11:42,940 And he said, that's what I said to them. 146 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,840 I was in the communication room in the emergency operations center. 147 00:11:48,430 --> 00:11:55,090 And I heard a report come in that the levee at the 17th Street Canal had 148 00:11:55,090 --> 00:11:59,270 and that heavy flows of water were flowing into the city. 149 00:12:00,950 --> 00:12:06,110 From that moment on, I knew that Katrina was going to be something different. 150 00:12:06,830 --> 00:12:09,830 Levee busting in New Orleans was a worst -case scenario. 151 00:12:10,550 --> 00:12:16,590 So I immediately called back to FEMA headquarters to alert them that there 152 00:12:16,590 --> 00:12:17,890 reports that a levee had broken. 153 00:12:18,430 --> 00:12:20,430 I can't confirm it. That's just what I had heard. 154 00:12:21,710 --> 00:12:25,370 My tone at the time was, I think, real concern. 155 00:12:27,210 --> 00:12:32,410 I know that that information then was passed along to others so that they 156 00:12:32,410 --> 00:12:36,030 know. Now, whether they believed it or not, I had no control over. I could only 157 00:12:36,030 --> 00:12:39,190 tell them what I had heard, but I hadn't seen any of it yet. 158 00:12:50,459 --> 00:12:53,400 The mood was kind of easy in the beginning. 159 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:55,620 At least we did have some shelter. 160 00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,880 But things started deteriorating real fast. 161 00:13:02,780 --> 00:13:09,620 The only light we really had if you went inside the Superdome was 162 00:13:09,620 --> 00:13:11,520 from the four holes in the rooftop. 163 00:13:12,190 --> 00:13:14,910 Of course, they have emergency generators, but no air conditioning. So 164 00:13:14,910 --> 00:13:17,790 going to be, obviously, an interesting situation as the morning progresses. 165 00:13:19,190 --> 00:13:24,070 Started getting more muggy, and it was really, really hot, steamy. 166 00:13:24,370 --> 00:13:25,630 Getting hot in there. 167 00:13:26,010 --> 00:13:28,010 The toilets are overflowing. 168 00:13:28,410 --> 00:13:30,530 All the bathrooms got flooded. 169 00:13:31,050 --> 00:13:33,330 Everybody's got top mats and ashtones ready. 170 00:13:34,070 --> 00:13:35,790 The smell was getting worse. 171 00:13:36,190 --> 00:13:39,230 People was kind of, like, closed in, and it just wasn't good. 172 00:13:40,170 --> 00:13:45,730 So we went on the outside where we could congregate and where people had radios. 173 00:13:46,070 --> 00:13:48,990 Hurricane Katrina hitting the Big Easy very hard today. 174 00:13:49,330 --> 00:13:52,170 And as the day was going on, it was having more and more reports. 175 00:13:52,630 --> 00:13:55,730 Police inquired that there was a breach at the 17th Street Canal. 176 00:13:56,110 --> 00:13:59,090 All you see is water pretty much and the tops of roofs. 177 00:13:59,390 --> 00:14:01,110 A significant part of the city is underwater. 178 00:14:01,410 --> 00:14:03,010 A significant part of the city is damaged. 179 00:14:03,270 --> 00:14:05,630 What you hear are people screaming for help. 180 00:14:05,830 --> 00:14:07,710 They have confirmed reports of bodies floating. 181 00:14:08,490 --> 00:14:12,530 We didn't see water yet, so we just hit all of these horror stories. 182 00:14:12,870 --> 00:14:16,470 And caller after caller, caller after caller, caller after caller, they 183 00:14:16,470 --> 00:14:20,610 get to the people. You just really don't know what's going on. 184 00:14:30,530 --> 00:14:36,890 The water was coming up more, and we had three non -swimmers. 185 00:14:37,530 --> 00:14:43,990 And then we had the swimmers, myself, who's injured, and my daughter and my 186 00:14:43,990 --> 00:14:47,010 niece. They were saying, we'll get help. 187 00:14:47,330 --> 00:14:49,070 I was like, no, we can't separate. 188 00:14:49,330 --> 00:14:52,950 And I can't help you if you go off somewhere. 189 00:14:53,650 --> 00:14:55,770 They stayed. I convinced them to stay. 190 00:14:56,530 --> 00:14:58,590 And my uncle and I went on the porch. 191 00:14:59,370 --> 00:15:05,870 And the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain looked like everything had 192 00:15:05,870 --> 00:15:06,870 merged. 193 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:09,520 There were trains floating. 194 00:15:10,060 --> 00:15:11,800 My neighbors are gone. 195 00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:19,280 I never felt so isolated to where I just thought the 196 00:15:19,280 --> 00:15:23,300 world has ended and we're the only few people that are left. 197 00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:30,500 So now we got water tower angles on the second floor of an extremely tall house. 198 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:32,800 So now we have to move to the attic. 199 00:15:33,420 --> 00:15:37,260 Now, mind you, I have a broken neck and a broken back, and I'm in a cast, and I 200 00:15:37,260 --> 00:15:38,400 have a brace on my neck. 201 00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:44,180 So before we went into the attic, my daughter started writing our names and 202 00:15:44,180 --> 00:15:45,360 date of births on the wall. 203 00:15:45,860 --> 00:15:49,500 She's like, I'm writing our names and our date of births, so when they come 204 00:15:49,500 --> 00:15:51,900 inside the house and find us, I say, find us? 205 00:15:52,380 --> 00:15:55,820 She said, yeah, you know, because you know, Mom, we're probably not going to 206 00:15:55,820 --> 00:15:58,600 make it through this, you know, too much. 207 00:15:59,140 --> 00:16:02,120 So I erased it off the wall. I was like, girl, we're going to live. 208 00:16:02,780 --> 00:16:03,980 We're going to make it through this. 209 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:09,240 I felt hopeless during that time when she was writing that on the wall, but 210 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:11,500 something inside me told me this isn't it. 211 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:17,000 You got to convince them that this isn't it because they're giving up. 212 00:16:19,420 --> 00:16:21,660 We'll keep our heads together. We're going to live. 213 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:23,720 We're going to be okay. 214 00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:32,000 It's almost one o 'clock. 215 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:33,499 PM now. 216 00:16:33,500 --> 00:16:35,120 Storm's dying down pretty good. 217 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:38,880 It's going to go up pretty soon and try to get a boat. 218 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:44,280 One thing about firemen, firemen are going to find a way to do what they need 219 00:16:44,280 --> 00:16:45,280 do. 220 00:16:45,500 --> 00:16:50,820 It's obvious that our job at that moment is to help people who are stuck in the 221 00:16:50,820 --> 00:16:52,780 floodwaters and possibly drowning. 222 00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:56,380 There's not a lot of water in that big boat. 223 00:16:57,040 --> 00:17:00,700 We were looking around for boats and we did spot two on the street. 224 00:17:01,180 --> 00:17:04,319 We swam to that building, and we got that boat. 225 00:17:06,619 --> 00:17:07,800 We had some other guys. 226 00:17:08,119 --> 00:17:09,720 They could hotwire boats. 227 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:15,579 There was a parking garage, so we went and actually siphoned a lot of gas out 228 00:17:15,579 --> 00:17:16,579 those cars. 229 00:17:16,859 --> 00:17:20,859 And as soon as the wind died down at 2 o 'clock, we launched operations. 230 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,080 When we started, we probably had four or five boats that we had commandeered. 231 00:17:32,820 --> 00:17:36,060 I told the guys, I said, go find whatever boat you can find. Let's get to 232 00:17:37,140 --> 00:17:39,220 Once comms went down, it was chaotic. 233 00:17:39,840 --> 00:17:45,440 You know, once communications went down, you know, you just went to work. 234 00:17:46,800 --> 00:17:48,460 You know, you got to have direction. 235 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:51,700 Who's going to do what? Who's going to be responsible for this? Who's going to 236 00:17:51,700 --> 00:17:54,780 be responsible for that? We never had any of that. Never had access to any of 237 00:17:54,780 --> 00:17:55,780 that. 238 00:17:57,710 --> 00:18:02,870 We expected FEMA to come in quickly and that it would be something that would 239 00:18:02,870 --> 00:18:09,550 allow the local officials the reprieve needed for that type of catastrophe. 240 00:18:09,930 --> 00:18:16,110 It was obvious that we were dealing with something bigger than our capabilities. 241 00:18:18,290 --> 00:18:19,570 You're on your own. 242 00:18:20,950 --> 00:18:22,470 But we figured it out. 243 00:18:22,830 --> 00:18:25,850 We went and did what we had to do. 244 00:18:26,570 --> 00:18:29,990 to get to the neighborhoods that we had to get into to try to save people's 245 00:18:29,990 --> 00:18:30,990 lives. 246 00:18:31,390 --> 00:18:32,690 We set up quadrants. 247 00:18:33,450 --> 00:18:37,830 You were a sergeant, you had one quadrant. You took your men, put one 248 00:18:37,830 --> 00:18:39,510 every boat, you assigned that quad. 249 00:18:40,190 --> 00:18:41,530 And that's how we broke it down. 250 00:18:42,010 --> 00:18:43,670 I'm learning about saving people's lives. 251 00:18:43,890 --> 00:18:47,950 That's my job, and that's what they help my friends. That's what we did. 252 00:18:48,850 --> 00:18:49,850 That's what we did. 253 00:18:52,430 --> 00:18:54,410 Now, you know, you're hearing things on the radio. 254 00:18:55,020 --> 00:18:58,060 But until you see it, you just can't imagine it. 255 00:19:00,780 --> 00:19:07,780 It was kind of like a moment that you, not in shock, but you're 256 00:19:07,780 --> 00:19:09,620 almost like, oh my God, I did not realize. 257 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:14,500 Even though you're hearing things on the radio, you don't realize it's that bad. 258 00:19:17,220 --> 00:19:21,720 It was hot as hell. And you could only imagine how awful it would be if you're 259 00:19:21,720 --> 00:19:22,720 stuck on a roof. 260 00:19:23,340 --> 00:19:27,040 If you're not in superior physical condition, you probably wouldn't survive 261 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:31,300 that. So, yeah, it was really important to get people off of roofs as quickly as 262 00:19:31,300 --> 00:19:32,300 possible. 263 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:40,420 The attack team started doing their methodical search and pulling out as 264 00:19:40,420 --> 00:19:41,420 people as we could. 265 00:19:42,060 --> 00:19:44,760 To us, it was get there, get the people on a boat. 266 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:48,300 If they want to go, you take them. If they don't want to go, they're going to 267 00:19:48,300 --> 00:19:51,160 stay there because we're not going to fight with them and flip a boat. 268 00:19:52,170 --> 00:19:53,330 How many people y 'all got? 269 00:19:54,070 --> 00:19:59,390 You know, you get in a hasty mood, so you're just out there trying to pick up 270 00:19:59,390 --> 00:20:03,990 many people as you can, wherever you can, until you're able to get some solid 271 00:20:03,990 --> 00:20:07,970 intelligence. Some areas, water was 15, maybe 16 feet deep. 272 00:20:08,990 --> 00:20:12,830 We would shut off the motor and holler, and someone hollers back, and obviously 273 00:20:12,830 --> 00:20:16,530 if someone sees you, we would go very slowly, so, you know, people would have 274 00:20:16,530 --> 00:20:17,630 chance. They'd hear our motor. 275 00:20:19,340 --> 00:20:23,520 There was a family on a roof, and we went to go rescue, and they said, no, 276 00:20:23,520 --> 00:20:26,160 us, the house right there. We can hear a man screaming. 277 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:32,900 Turns out that he was standing on his tub, and the water was up to his neck, 278 00:20:32,900 --> 00:20:35,320 he just, he didn't have much longer. 279 00:20:35,580 --> 00:20:39,240 The water was halfway up the bathroom window, one of those small bathroom 280 00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:43,280 windows, and they broke out the whole window, and they were able to drag him 281 00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:44,280 the window. 282 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:47,220 And so, yeah, they got him out of that house just in time. 283 00:20:51,060 --> 00:20:55,680 You know the dire position that these people are in. 284 00:20:56,200 --> 00:21:00,140 You got elderly, you got young kids, you got women with children, pregnant women 285 00:21:00,140 --> 00:21:01,099 up there. 286 00:21:01,100 --> 00:21:04,060 The numbers didn't even come to my mind because I knew people were in trouble. 287 00:21:05,060 --> 00:21:09,560 Some people just feel bad because you know they never had the means to get 288 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:13,980 And if they got out of their houses, got in their car, tried to run, the water 289 00:21:13,980 --> 00:21:16,040 was going to take them away. There was no way in the world they were going to 290 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,480 survive that. It was absolutely horrific. 291 00:21:25,740 --> 00:21:29,760 Well, we were walking around. We went up the street a couple of blocks. And I 292 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:33,200 would say there's nothing like the flooding that we might have anticipated. 293 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,320 was clearly a horrific storm. 294 00:21:35,760 --> 00:21:39,300 Clearly, it is going to be a mess to clean up. But whilst they were expecting 295 00:21:39,300 --> 00:21:42,320 Armageddon here, Armageddon, it wasn't. 296 00:21:42,700 --> 00:21:46,740 The worst case scenario was that we would be floating atop 25 feet of a 297 00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:50,860 toxic soup here in downtown New Orleans. That's not the case. What they were 298 00:21:50,860 --> 00:21:55,840 predicting for New Orleans was 175 mile an hour winds and a direct hit from 299 00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:59,720 Hurricane Katrina. They didn't get that. The folks in New Orleans are certainly 300 00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:00,720 lucky. 301 00:22:02,180 --> 00:22:08,000 The city of New Orleans is filling up with water, but all the media was down 302 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:09,000 the French Quarter. 303 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:11,060 There's no water in the French Quarter. 304 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,660 That is Bienville down the street. So they're reporting it's not as bad as it 305 00:22:15,660 --> 00:22:18,100 seemed. Maybe New Orleans dodged a bullet. 306 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:23,360 New Orleans indeed dodged what they expected would be a very strong direct 307 00:22:23,740 --> 00:22:24,740 But they didn't know. 308 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:27,960 They didn't know any more than what was in the neighborhood that they were 309 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:28,960 standing in. 310 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:36,140 There was no water in the French Quarter because anything that is close to the 311 00:22:36,140 --> 00:22:39,240 river is at the highest point in the city of New Orleans. 312 00:22:39,850 --> 00:22:41,610 So therefore, there's no water. 313 00:22:42,310 --> 00:22:43,390 We're in a bowl. 314 00:22:43,810 --> 00:22:48,870 We've got the Mississippi River levee over here and the Lake levee over here. 315 00:22:48,970 --> 00:22:50,370 The city's in the middle. 316 00:22:50,910 --> 00:22:56,510 So we are surrounded by water. We're six to eight feet below sea level. 317 00:22:56,950 --> 00:23:01,810 And we have some battles with the water staying out. 318 00:23:02,210 --> 00:23:08,700 So during the storm... There are sewage and waterboard pumping stations 319 00:23:08,700 --> 00:23:14,660 throughout the city that propel the water into the outfall canals. 320 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:20,780 It's a very good system when it works. 321 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:51,560 All of us who worked in an emergency operations center became the lifeline 322 00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:53,520 for people who were calling for assistance. 323 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:58,280 And our resources were stretched beyond measure. 324 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:05,900 There was no playbook written for a disaster and a catastrophe of that 325 00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:16,040 By Monday afternoon, there were several reports that levees had busted. 326 00:24:16,620 --> 00:24:23,360 That straight ahead is the London Outfall Canal, if I'm not mistaken. Over 327 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:25,860 is the greatest break of the levee. 328 00:24:26,220 --> 00:24:29,460 Now, there's a huge chunk of concrete you can't even see, but you can see that 329 00:24:29,460 --> 00:24:30,720 diagonal piece of concrete. 330 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:34,200 So I called back to FEMA headquarters. 331 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:40,400 I certainly wasn't informed about any actions that were taking place, and I 332 00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,920 I was the only one from FEMA in New Orleans. 333 00:24:43,300 --> 00:24:48,660 And that was the moment where I felt that they couldn't grasp the severity. 334 00:24:48,940 --> 00:24:50,900 Nobody ever believes a worst -case scenario. 335 00:24:51,899 --> 00:24:55,020 I knew at the time that lives were being lost left and right. There were 336 00:24:55,020 --> 00:24:56,920 thousands of people on rooftops. 337 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:00,080 My mindset at the time was I got to get on a helicopter. 338 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:06,380 I got a little pushback when I talked to the Coast Guard saying, I don't know 339 00:25:06,380 --> 00:25:07,940 that we're going to be able to get you on a helicopter. 340 00:25:09,100 --> 00:25:15,980 I informed them that the White House was really counting on me to give them 341 00:25:15,980 --> 00:25:17,320 some situational awareness. 342 00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:21,400 Not completely truthful, but I just needed to find a way to get on that 343 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:25,380 helicopter because I really needed to put eyes on what was happening. 344 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,860 Anybody not believing what I was saying was just going to delay any kind of 345 00:25:32,860 --> 00:25:33,860 response. 346 00:25:37,060 --> 00:25:41,240 I got on, and the pilot said to me, where do you want to go? 347 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,360 And I said, I need to see how bad this is. 348 00:25:47,530 --> 00:25:52,490 We flew out towards Slidell and could tell that the bridge was all damaged and 349 00:25:52,490 --> 00:25:53,490 impassable. 350 00:25:56,790 --> 00:26:03,710 The airport underwater, that there was no access into the 351 00:26:03,710 --> 00:26:04,710 city. 352 00:26:05,550 --> 00:26:08,530 We flew all over the city of New Orleans. 353 00:26:10,070 --> 00:26:14,110 It was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. 354 00:26:16,990 --> 00:26:20,430 I saw that the actual levees had breached in New Orleans. 355 00:26:24,450 --> 00:26:30,730 So when we flew to the 17th Street Canal, and you could see just this 356 00:26:30,730 --> 00:26:37,510 gap in the levee. It wasn't overtopping. It wasn't minor water 357 00:26:37,510 --> 00:26:39,190 going over. The levee was gone. 358 00:26:40,610 --> 00:26:44,250 I said at the time, 80 % of the city looked like it was underwater. 359 00:26:45,900 --> 00:26:46,900 It was a guess. 360 00:26:47,460 --> 00:26:48,860 It was a pretty good guess. 361 00:26:50,820 --> 00:26:51,820 This is it. 362 00:26:52,180 --> 00:26:53,480 This is the worst case scenario. 363 00:26:53,780 --> 00:26:54,820 We talked about it. 364 00:26:55,100 --> 00:26:56,100 It's here. 365 00:27:07,080 --> 00:27:08,080 In the morning. 366 00:27:11,850 --> 00:27:15,730 I gathered everybody into the conference room at the Emergency Operations 367 00:27:15,730 --> 00:27:18,370 Center, and I asked them to lay out a map. 368 00:27:18,930 --> 00:27:25,070 And I then proceeded to tell them everything that I had just seen, where 369 00:27:25,070 --> 00:27:26,070 floodwaters were. 370 00:27:28,850 --> 00:27:35,790 I remember looking at Mayor Nagin and seeing a face of disbelief and almost 371 00:27:35,790 --> 00:27:38,190 of, what do we do now? 372 00:27:39,550 --> 00:27:41,170 I don't know how to raise you. 373 00:27:42,540 --> 00:27:48,820 I told the mayor, you need to make a list of all of the priorities that you 374 00:27:48,820 --> 00:27:53,260 think you're going to need in this environment where everything is damaged. 375 00:27:54,780 --> 00:28:00,420 It was things like shelters, knowing that there were people that needed 376 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,380 Rescues, how are we going to rescue people from rooftops? 377 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:12,660 to what every department needed in order to run the city in this new, very 378 00:28:12,660 --> 00:28:15,600 strange dynamic that was occurring. 379 00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:19,420 We were a different city. The old city was gone. 380 00:28:20,520 --> 00:28:27,120 When that list of our needs was handed over to Marty Bahamandi and FEMA, 381 00:28:27,320 --> 00:28:34,220 maybe naively, but we expected immediate results, that wasn't actually the 382 00:28:34,220 --> 00:28:35,220 case. 383 00:28:35,370 --> 00:28:37,990 FEMA's not really a first responder. 384 00:28:38,370 --> 00:28:43,310 Local officials are first responders. The state with the National Guard are 385 00:28:43,310 --> 00:28:44,310 first responders. 386 00:28:44,390 --> 00:28:47,030 And FEMA wasn't designed to be a first responder. 387 00:28:48,010 --> 00:28:53,390 Back then, at that time, we put a lot more emphasis on state and local 388 00:28:53,390 --> 00:28:57,970 governments to handle the initial response and preparation for disasters. 389 00:28:58,350 --> 00:29:00,350 And only when they couldn't handle it... 390 00:29:00,730 --> 00:29:05,110 where we actually then designed to come in on the back end and provide that 391 00:29:05,110 --> 00:29:06,110 support. 392 00:29:06,590 --> 00:29:11,770 We knew just from putting all the puzzle pieces together that catastrophic 393 00:29:11,770 --> 00:29:18,310 failure was beginning to occur around the city, beyond our capacity, way 394 00:29:18,310 --> 00:29:19,310 our capacity. 395 00:29:23,410 --> 00:29:25,450 One set of power lines there. Clear down there. 396 00:29:25,650 --> 00:29:28,210 Roger. Basket's coming up. Roger. 397 00:29:29,030 --> 00:29:30,030 Basket's coming up. 398 00:29:30,990 --> 00:29:37,670 The Coast Guard was able to assist immediately 399 00:29:37,670 --> 00:29:44,030 because we're not like the National Guard that needs permission or like a 400 00:29:44,030 --> 00:29:45,410 request from the governor. 401 00:29:45,730 --> 00:29:48,730 We didn't need to be asked by anybody. 402 00:29:50,670 --> 00:29:57,670 My crew had a game plan that 403 00:29:57,670 --> 00:30:00,070 we were going to fly and... 404 00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:03,800 Just pick a location that had a lot of people. 405 00:30:04,420 --> 00:30:08,120 It didn't take us long. 406 00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:13,960 We found a huge three -story apartment complex with people everywhere. 407 00:30:15,500 --> 00:30:21,420 We trained to get people off of, you know, cruise ships, sailboats. 408 00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:28,430 We had never trained to get people off of rooftops or off of... balcony with 409 00:30:28,430 --> 00:30:29,770 urban hazards. 410 00:30:33,790 --> 00:30:40,470 We picked this balcony with 411 00:30:40,470 --> 00:30:47,070 women and children, elderly people, and when a mother is so desperate 412 00:30:47,070 --> 00:30:52,330 to get her baby out of danger that she hangs him over a two -story balcony, 413 00:30:52,530 --> 00:30:53,690 that's alarming. 414 00:30:54,490 --> 00:30:56,970 She didn't even bat an eyelash. 415 00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,960 It was like, I don't know you. 416 00:31:00,780 --> 00:31:07,260 You're connected to a giant, loud helicopter with hurricane -force winds 417 00:31:07,260 --> 00:31:08,260 us around. 418 00:31:08,420 --> 00:31:11,080 But here's my baby. Get him out of here. 419 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:19,120 And, you know, I just snatched him. And he's so small. 420 00:31:19,140 --> 00:31:21,580 We don't have rescue equipment for babies. 421 00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,440 So to carry a baby in your bare arms... 422 00:31:25,950 --> 00:31:31,450 with nothing keeping him from falling except for me, is very nerve -wracking. 423 00:31:32,170 --> 00:31:39,130 My first day, I rescued 48 424 00:31:39,130 --> 00:31:40,130 people. 425 00:31:40,390 --> 00:31:41,910 We just didn't stop. 426 00:31:42,270 --> 00:31:48,150 We were picking up as many people as we could as fast as we could around the 427 00:31:48,150 --> 00:31:50,090 clock for days and days. 428 00:31:50,570 --> 00:31:54,570 And honestly, kind of waiting for the cavalry to come, but... 429 00:31:55,470 --> 00:31:56,970 It was all about life -saving. 430 00:31:57,730 --> 00:31:58,730 That's it. 431 00:32:02,670 --> 00:32:04,490 And basket is clear of the rooftop. 432 00:32:05,570 --> 00:32:07,570 And you are clear to move back and left. 433 00:32:16,330 --> 00:32:20,330 As we move people out of the Superdome... people begin to move in. 434 00:32:20,810 --> 00:32:25,670 So people are coming out of either parishes where they've been in their 435 00:32:25,670 --> 00:32:26,890 and not out on the streets. 436 00:32:27,170 --> 00:32:30,510 They're continuing to come out of homes where maybe they were on the second 437 00:32:30,510 --> 00:32:33,110 floor, and now they can get out and start moving around. 438 00:32:33,510 --> 00:32:37,330 And there is just simply no way we can estimate the numbers of people that are 439 00:32:37,330 --> 00:32:38,330 out there like that. 440 00:32:38,990 --> 00:32:40,930 When the levees broke, everything changed. 441 00:32:41,330 --> 00:32:42,630 Our population doubled. 442 00:32:44,070 --> 00:32:48,710 And that was really our first indication that Okay, something worse has now 443 00:32:48,710 --> 00:32:51,190 happened, and there's a stage two. 444 00:32:51,690 --> 00:32:55,470 They just had so, so many people just coming in. 445 00:32:55,670 --> 00:32:57,290 It doubled real fast. 446 00:32:57,770 --> 00:32:59,730 It just kept going nonstop, nonstop. 447 00:33:00,730 --> 00:33:05,790 It also made you more aware that if people getting rescued like this, and 448 00:33:05,790 --> 00:33:10,310 flying this many people in, now it's starting to grow with numbers. 449 00:33:10,570 --> 00:33:14,830 So whatever so -called plan they had for food or drinks or whatever the case may 450 00:33:14,830 --> 00:33:17,020 be, Now they wasn't going to be ready. 451 00:33:17,300 --> 00:33:22,780 The population coming in pre -landfall is dramatically different than post 452 00:33:22,780 --> 00:33:23,780 -landfall. 453 00:33:24,660 --> 00:33:29,060 Pre -landfall, it was by and large people who chose to come to the 454 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,400 They were nervous but optimistic, and we were kind of all in it together. 455 00:33:34,860 --> 00:33:40,660 And then things rapidly and dramatically changed when we became aware of a 456 00:33:40,660 --> 00:33:44,440 second wave of people who were now presenting at the Superdome. 457 00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:49,860 Those people had, in many cases, had ridden out one of the worst nights of 458 00:33:49,860 --> 00:33:50,860 life. 459 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:56,600 Every rescue boat that goes out comes back heavy with human cargo, and they 460 00:33:56,600 --> 00:33:58,080 be at it for days to come. 461 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,900 The police aren't coming, and that is a reality when you have a disaster. 462 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:03,820 There aren't enough police to respond. 463 00:34:04,180 --> 00:34:07,740 There were too many people, and you can only help so many people. You can only 464 00:34:07,740 --> 00:34:08,739 do what you can do. 465 00:34:08,960 --> 00:34:12,679 A small group of firemen can't help everybody. It's just not physically 466 00:34:12,679 --> 00:34:13,679 possible. 467 00:34:14,300 --> 00:34:16,100 What's your first name? Shirley. Shirley. 468 00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:18,120 We were watching the news. 469 00:34:18,420 --> 00:34:22,420 We were seeing people on the roofs waving towels and flags. 470 00:34:22,980 --> 00:34:25,520 We seen people floating in the water. 471 00:34:26,460 --> 00:34:27,520 Felt hopeless. 472 00:34:31,139 --> 00:34:37,800 When I saw the images of the Lower Ninth Ward, I was just so sad to see it 473 00:34:37,800 --> 00:34:42,300 because I know how hard the folks worked to get there home. 474 00:34:43,280 --> 00:34:46,580 And now they were going to have to start all over again. 475 00:34:47,199 --> 00:34:50,080 I'm 62 years old. I've never been involved in nothing like this in my 476 00:34:50,360 --> 00:34:52,480 And I've got to ask you, what did you leave behind? 477 00:34:53,639 --> 00:34:54,639 Today? 478 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:56,360 Everything. 479 00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,920 Quite a few of the folks that lived there were seniors. 480 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,080 How were they going to do that? 481 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:09,020 My family was also. 482 00:35:10,030 --> 00:35:14,150 caught in Hurricane Betsy back in 1965. 483 00:35:17,910 --> 00:35:18,950 Betsy is here. 484 00:35:19,190 --> 00:35:24,430 Gusts now topping 100 miles per hour. Tides three feet above normal. And 485 00:35:24,430 --> 00:35:25,990 routes will be cut off shortly. 486 00:35:29,970 --> 00:35:32,570 The storm was coming into New Orleans. 487 00:35:33,390 --> 00:35:37,830 And suddenly we heard the explosion, but we thought it was from the storm, and 488 00:35:37,830 --> 00:35:42,570 then we saw all this water dripping, coming to us from the levee. 489 00:35:49,150 --> 00:35:52,550 Hurricane Betsy was a storm more powerful than Katrina. 490 00:35:53,030 --> 00:35:58,550 It was on a worse track for New Orleans, and as a consequence, levees flooded. 491 00:35:59,950 --> 00:36:00,950 We'll rebuild. 492 00:36:01,170 --> 00:36:02,170 We'll rebuild. Oh, yeah. 493 00:36:02,590 --> 00:36:05,970 You don't think it'll knock you out? No, indeed. We're going to build a levee 494 00:36:05,970 --> 00:36:07,950 higher and have a prettier community. 495 00:36:09,330 --> 00:36:16,330 After Hurricane Betsy, we ended up with a significant funding program to build 496 00:36:16,330 --> 00:36:17,870 hurricane levees. 497 00:36:19,010 --> 00:36:24,130 They are computer models that were available to the Corps of Engineers 498 00:36:24,130 --> 00:36:29,250 they started building these levees in the late 1960s that they didn't use. 499 00:36:29,980 --> 00:36:33,520 They didn't get the science right on the hike that they needed to build it. 500 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:39,260 They didn't get the geotechnical engineering right in deciding whether 501 00:36:39,260 --> 00:36:40,260 was suitable. 502 00:36:40,540 --> 00:36:46,520 And lastly, they did designs that we knew would fail. They had done their own 503 00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:51,100 research on some of these and had found that the failures would occur. 504 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:58,540 To add insult to injury, as Hurricane Katrina was approaching, the levees 505 00:36:58,540 --> 00:36:59,540 weren't finished. 506 00:37:00,110 --> 00:37:04,550 So the net result was catastrophic structural failure. 507 00:37:06,190 --> 00:37:07,790 It's really been a double disaster. 508 00:37:08,010 --> 00:37:10,870 We had the hurricane, and on top of that, we had a flood. 509 00:37:11,390 --> 00:37:15,190 But both of these things, with all due respect, sir, were predicted. They knew 510 00:37:15,190 --> 00:37:18,950 it was a Category 3 hurricane hitting the area 48 hours before it struck. 511 00:37:19,230 --> 00:37:23,290 People have been writing about the potential disastrous conditions of the 512 00:37:23,290 --> 00:37:26,770 system for a really long time, years and years and years. 513 00:37:27,670 --> 00:37:28,810 There is a sense. 514 00:37:29,150 --> 00:37:33,650 that everyone knew a disaster could happen, and no one was really prepared. 515 00:37:34,910 --> 00:37:38,710 This is a natural disaster, the likes of which our country may have never seen 516 00:37:38,710 --> 00:37:43,750 before. The president, he says he doesn't think anyone anticipated the 517 00:37:43,750 --> 00:37:47,310 the levees. Now, I don't know how he can say that, given the fact that everybody 518 00:37:47,310 --> 00:37:49,190 anticipated the breach of the levees. 519 00:37:49,810 --> 00:37:55,170 We knew immediately that the levees had breached once. It just continued to rise 520 00:37:55,170 --> 00:37:58,190 and rise and rise, and as I said, from past experience. 521 00:37:58,960 --> 00:38:03,500 We knew that the levees had breached. People were passing with boats, rescuing 522 00:38:03,500 --> 00:38:07,960 people. When I seen the water, and the way that the water was coming, I said, 523 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:09,000 they did it again. 524 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:17,060 Witnessing these things is what led us to use the term catastrophic structural 525 00:38:17,060 --> 00:38:18,300 failure. 526 00:38:19,080 --> 00:38:20,460 It wasn't the storm. 527 00:38:20,880 --> 00:38:26,260 It was shoddy design and construction by the U .S. Army Corps of Engineers. 528 00:38:46,830 --> 00:38:49,590 We had water all the way up to Mama Doe's step. 529 00:38:50,070 --> 00:38:52,950 And so we started getting kind of worried then. 530 00:38:53,670 --> 00:38:56,890 The only thing we could do is just try to get to some kind of shelter. 531 00:38:58,330 --> 00:39:01,610 We just, you know, we didn't want to stay there. And the water was steady 532 00:39:01,610 --> 00:39:04,910 and rising and rising. And, you know, we didn't have no way out. 533 00:39:06,030 --> 00:39:08,090 So we took off walking. 534 00:39:09,090 --> 00:39:12,870 But where we was at, it was like, what are we going to do with the little 535 00:39:12,870 --> 00:39:15,230 children? Because the water is almost four feet. 536 00:39:16,140 --> 00:39:22,620 Well, they had this dough floating in the water, so we grabbed the dough, put 537 00:39:22,620 --> 00:39:27,060 the children on top, and pushed the dough so it could glide through the 538 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:42,620 In my neighborhood, we were lucky because my property sits three feet nine 539 00:39:42,620 --> 00:39:43,960 inches above sea level. 540 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:52,100 I would not have left my house except for the fact that the militia, 541 00:39:52,200 --> 00:39:59,020 guys that were in flatboats with AKs, came and knocked on our door 542 00:39:59,020 --> 00:40:01,340 and told me I had to leave my house. 543 00:40:01,940 --> 00:40:06,840 I didn't have water in my house, so it was not a necessity for me to leave. 544 00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:13,240 And since many buildings are built at least three feet off the ground, a lot 545 00:40:13,240 --> 00:40:15,940 the people around here, felt the same way. 546 00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:26,840 So we were forced to leave the house and walk 547 00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:32,480 an eighth of a mile from the residence to what was supposed to be a safe haven. 548 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,600 They sent us in a direction where the water was deeper. 549 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:46,920 So my sister and I were carrying kids and helping these seniors who were with 550 00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:47,920 us. 551 00:40:48,780 --> 00:40:53,880 Man, I don't think I was more frightened about anything than walking in that 552 00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:54,880 water. 553 00:41:02,380 --> 00:41:06,660 You couldn't see under that, so you just really walking on faith. 554 00:41:07,020 --> 00:41:08,300 And my brother... 555 00:41:08,710 --> 00:41:12,850 He kicked a stop sign because he didn't see it under the water, so the pressure 556 00:41:12,850 --> 00:41:18,670 that he was applying to be able to walk through the water, and he kicked a big 557 00:41:18,670 --> 00:41:21,850 gash in his leg almost two inches deep. 558 00:41:23,950 --> 00:41:28,290 There wasn't nothing he can do, so he walked in the water with an open wound. 559 00:41:29,750 --> 00:41:33,290 The first thing I thought about was we're in this dirty water, and then the 560 00:41:33,290 --> 00:41:34,330 germs from the water. 561 00:41:35,310 --> 00:41:37,010 That scared me more than anything. 562 00:41:41,390 --> 00:41:44,810 We were just trying to find refuge on higher ground. 563 00:41:45,010 --> 00:41:49,050 The safest thing to do is take that raft to the interstate. And one of the 564 00:41:49,050 --> 00:41:53,070 highest points in this area was up on the interstate 10. 565 00:41:53,910 --> 00:41:55,490 So that's where we headed. 566 00:41:58,410 --> 00:42:01,930 All you could see is all the people just coming towards the bridge, you know, 567 00:42:01,930 --> 00:42:04,390 because the bridge was really like the safest place. 568 00:42:05,610 --> 00:42:08,290 You know, my main focus was to get the kids to safety. 569 00:42:08,650 --> 00:42:12,290 You know, anywhere where they had shelter, where they can rest. 570 00:42:15,250 --> 00:42:18,750 From where we was at on the bridge, you can kind of see the Superdome. 571 00:42:19,470 --> 00:42:23,930 And the Superdome was swamped with people. They just kept bringing more and 572 00:42:23,930 --> 00:42:25,250 people to the Superdome. 573 00:42:25,910 --> 00:42:28,310 You see high -water vehicles with... 574 00:42:28,570 --> 00:42:32,610 A hundred people stacked into it, bringing people to the Superdome and 575 00:42:32,610 --> 00:42:37,650 them off. And people were walking in the water, coming to the Superdome as if 576 00:42:37,650 --> 00:42:39,430 that was the savior place. 577 00:42:39,710 --> 00:42:43,810 This was a population who were coming to the Superdome or being brought to the 578 00:42:43,810 --> 00:42:46,450 Superdome because there was nowhere else for them to go. 579 00:42:46,770 --> 00:42:52,430 Many times, I would say unwilling. They certainly didn't want to come to the 580 00:42:52,430 --> 00:42:55,090 Superdome, but it was desperation. 581 00:42:56,490 --> 00:43:00,050 We didn't know where we was going. The military was running people away from 582 00:43:00,050 --> 00:43:03,910 their houses. Like, you had to go. It didn't matter where you went or 583 00:43:03,970 --> 00:43:04,970 Like, you had to go. 584 00:43:06,930 --> 00:43:09,630 We seen tens of thousands of people on a bridge. 585 00:43:09,870 --> 00:43:12,210 Eventually, they also got to the Superdome. 586 00:43:13,730 --> 00:43:15,750 Now, we're three, four times the number now. 587 00:43:16,310 --> 00:43:17,770 Peter, we don't have nowhere to go. 588 00:43:18,770 --> 00:43:21,670 My house is underwater. I don't even have another house. 589 00:43:25,290 --> 00:43:27,070 I don't even know where I'm cheering at. 590 00:43:28,890 --> 00:43:34,690 Seeing people coming in rescued, it was like, man, something really bad is going 591 00:43:34,690 --> 00:43:35,870 on on the outside. 592 00:43:36,290 --> 00:43:39,590 Because all you're hearing is helicopters, you're seeing people 593 00:43:39,590 --> 00:43:40,590 off. 594 00:43:41,350 --> 00:43:44,350 At least they was out of one bad situation. 595 00:43:47,750 --> 00:43:49,270 They were coming back for you. 596 00:43:50,870 --> 00:43:53,170 But they didn't know they was coming to another hell. 597 00:43:53,660 --> 00:43:58,300 It's really, we live like dogs and pigs up in here. We need help. 51340

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