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How you doing, man? I had to leave out
of my house, man.
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I don't know whether that water's coming
over that levee or what. The last I
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heard, it's not.
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So you haven't heard about that water
coming over that levee from the lake?
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Check it out. Because the water started
rising so high on my two -story
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apartment, I had to get out, man.
Where's that at?
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Right across the North Robinson
overpass.
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Okay, I'm going to go down and check it
out, though.
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Any word on the levee? Do you know
anything about the levee? Is it gone? Is
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good?
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Some dude just came up to me and said,
like, water's up to his apartment in the
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second story.
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I'm going to go check it out.
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You're trying to get on the table and
can't.
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Ha!
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Ha!
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We're like under nine feet of water
here. We're trying to get out. We have a
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baby. We're very frightened.
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Pray for me, huh?
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00:02:02,510 --> 00:02:06,150
Oh, yeah, I will pray. I'm going to have
to pray for everybody, even myself.
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That morning, after Katrina, everything
changed
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that day.
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My house was in the 8th Ward, almost the
beginning of the 9th Ward.
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We were right on the railroad tracks
across from the canal.
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And we're like right on the levee.
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My place was on the second floor.
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My daughter, my niece.
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My uncle, his wife, their two -year -old
daughter, that we affectionately call
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Bump Bump, they all stayed with me.
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We had rain, and we had thunder, and we
had all the things that make up a storm.
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But we heard something that sounded like
an explosion.
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I guess that was the levee breaking at
that time.
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That's when the water went from the tire
of the car, and I mean the bottom of
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the tire of the car,
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to the second floor
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within like 20 minutes.
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The water was steady rising and rising.
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I look outside and notice that it was
flooding. Well, you know, we know the
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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.
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00:04:08,030 --> 00:04:12,230
The water started coming in different.
The water started changing colors.
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Actually, we even saw fish in the water
when it first started coming. But the
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water got higher and higher.
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The water started rising faster and
faster.
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We went back in the command post and
said, this thing is a lot worse than we
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thought.
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And at the time when this was happening,
we didn't really know the cause.
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Three minutes, it went from the ground
to the roof.
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00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:46,440
I said, where is water coming from?
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We realized it's not a normal hurricane
aftermath.
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00:04:53,340 --> 00:04:54,340
Something's wrong.
52
00:04:54,860 --> 00:04:55,860
Something's wrong.
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00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:03,520
It came in like a tidal wave.
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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.
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00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:17,380
When I looked out the window and I saw
the cars starting to be swallowed, I
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00:05:17,380 --> 00:05:20,120
said, oh, well, I've lost everything.
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00:05:21,060 --> 00:05:26,280
Once the water came into the house,
there was nothing else that could be
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00:05:27,100 --> 00:05:30,580
The water was just inching up higher and
higher and higher.
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It reached a good six feet inside of the
house.
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00:05:37,290 --> 00:05:41,670
It's a disaster. The houses down here
are destroyed.
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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
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how well she made out. The call started
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00:05:52,970 --> 00:05:56,410
coming in. It was almost at one birth.
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00:05:56,990 --> 00:06:00,850
And you could hear the emergency because
all of the phones started going off at
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00:06:00,850 --> 00:06:01,850
the same time.
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00:06:02,810 --> 00:06:07,770
Folks from St. Bernard Parish and
Plaquemines Parish.
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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.
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00:06:16,870 --> 00:06:19,810
And the lines were seriously busy.
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00:06:20,250 --> 00:06:23,370
Please, please, I'm begging you, we
can't do this.
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00:06:23,690 --> 00:06:24,710
I can't breathe.
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00:06:30,350 --> 00:06:34,830
We were asking folks what their
addresses were. And in finding out, it
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matter what your address was because the
force of the water had moved homes off
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00:06:39,850 --> 00:06:40,850
of their foundation.
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00:06:42,650 --> 00:06:44,710
It was so much water.
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00:06:45,090 --> 00:06:50,790
You know, it was like opening a faucet
and just pouring in.
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00:06:51,150 --> 00:06:55,590
And the house was knocked off of its
foundation.
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00:06:56,590 --> 00:06:58,370
So the house was teetering.
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00:06:59,050 --> 00:07:03,010
So we're all signaling to each other,
you know, wait, wait, wait, don't move.
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00:07:03,330 --> 00:07:04,330
Don't move.
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00:07:04,390 --> 00:07:05,770
You stay on this side.
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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.
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00:07:15,690 --> 00:07:17,610
You go there. You stay here.
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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
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00:07:31,900 --> 00:07:32,659
came from.
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00:07:32,660 --> 00:07:34,080
And you're hitting the stairs.
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00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:38,040
And we thought the neighbors were dead
or dying downstairs.
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00:07:46,080 --> 00:07:49,800
The water, it's moving at such a fast
rate.
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00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:56,360
I could see the water running in through
the baseboards, under the door.
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00:07:57,200 --> 00:08:02,680
You're looking at your life, the life
that your parents provided for you, your
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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
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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
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00:08:29,990 --> 00:08:36,650
is at least that high in the street or
higher, then you're worried about an
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00:08:36,650 --> 00:08:37,650
exit plan.
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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
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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.
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00:09:18,120 --> 00:09:24,000
Well, I brought my camera with me for
obvious reason that it's very likely you
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00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,620
will have things that you want to film
in a Category 5 hurricane.
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00:09:28,400 --> 00:09:30,380
Oh, wow, the water's getting pretty deep
down there.
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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
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00:09:34,800 --> 00:09:35,800
another 30 minutes.
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00:09:36,500 --> 00:09:40,900
When you see water coming up that much,
six inches every 15 minutes, that's two
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00:09:40,900 --> 00:09:41,879
feet an hour.
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00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:44,420
You're just talking an incredible flow
of water.
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00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:47,540
So, yeah, when I spotted...
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00:09:47,740 --> 00:09:51,740
The 200 -foot area of water coming
through, I was 100 % certain of what I
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00:09:51,740 --> 00:09:52,619
looking at.
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00:09:52,620 --> 00:09:58,660
It looks like there's a possible levee
breach on the 17th Street Canal, right
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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
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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.
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00:10:09,940 --> 00:10:13,660
I was hesitant to make the report
because we didn't have a confirmation.
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00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:15,920
But Captain Helmers...
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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
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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
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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.
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00:10:43,510 --> 00:10:45,070
The entire city flooding.
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00:10:45,800 --> 00:10:47,780
possibly thousands of people dying.
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00:10:48,180 --> 00:10:49,560
Could be the end of the city.
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00:10:50,260 --> 00:10:54,400
It was... It was apocalyptic.
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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,
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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
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00:11:05,720 --> 00:11:08,740
there was just a certain amount of time
that people had.
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00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:29,440
I ran into our fire chief, Charles
Parent, and he said that he had two or
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00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:36,240
firemen reporting a very large break in
the levee. And
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00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,900
I questioned him and I said, are you
sure?
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00:11:39,100 --> 00:11:40,120
What do you mean a break?
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00:11:40,460 --> 00:11:42,940
And he said, that's what I said to them.
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00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,840
I was in the communication room in the
emergency operations center.
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00:11:48,430 --> 00:11:55,090
And I heard a report come in that the
levee at the 17th Street Canal had
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and that heavy flows of water were
flowing into the city.
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00:12:00,950 --> 00:12:06,110
From that moment on, I knew that Katrina
was going to be something different.
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00:12:06,830 --> 00:12:09,830
Levee busting in New Orleans was a worst
-case scenario.
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00:12:10,550 --> 00:12:16,590
So I immediately called back to FEMA
headquarters to alert them that there
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00:12:16,590 --> 00:12:17,890
reports that a levee had broken.
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00:12:18,430 --> 00:12:20,430
I can't confirm it. That's just what I
had heard.
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00:12:21,710 --> 00:12:25,370
My tone at the time was, I think, real
concern.
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00:12:27,210 --> 00:12:32,410
I know that that information then was
passed along to others so that they
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00:12:32,410 --> 00:12:36,030
know. Now, whether they believed it or
not, I had no control over. I could only
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00:12:36,030 --> 00:12:39,190
tell them what I had heard, but I hadn't
seen any of it yet.
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00:12:50,459 --> 00:12:53,400
The mood was kind of easy in the
beginning.
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00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:55,620
At least we did have some shelter.
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00:12:57,280 --> 00:12:59,880
But things started deteriorating real
fast.
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00:13:02,780 --> 00:13:09,620
The only light we really had if you went
inside the Superdome was
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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
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00:13:14,910 --> 00:13:17,790
going to be, obviously, an interesting
situation as the morning progresses.
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00:13:19,190 --> 00:13:24,070
Started getting more muggy, and it was
really, really hot, steamy.
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00:13:24,370 --> 00:13:25,630
Getting hot in there.
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00:13:26,010 --> 00:13:28,010
The toilets are overflowing.
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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.
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00:13:34,070 --> 00:13:35,790
The smell was getting worse.
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00:13:36,190 --> 00:13:39,230
People was kind of, like, closed in, and
it just wasn't good.
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00:13:40,170 --> 00:13:45,730
So we went on the outside where we could
congregate and where people had radios.
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00:13:46,070 --> 00:13:48,990
Hurricane Katrina hitting the Big Easy
very hard today.
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00:13:49,330 --> 00:13:52,170
And as the day was going on, it was
having more and more reports.
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00:13:52,630 --> 00:13:55,730
Police inquired that there was a breach
at the 17th Street Canal.
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00:13:56,110 --> 00:13:59,090
All you see is water pretty much and the
tops of roofs.
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00:13:59,390 --> 00:14:01,110
A significant part of the city is
underwater.
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00:14:01,410 --> 00:14:03,010
A significant part of the city is
damaged.
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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.
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00:14:08,490 --> 00:14:12,530
We didn't see water yet, so we just hit
all of these horror stories.
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00:14:12,870 --> 00:14:16,470
And caller after caller, caller after
caller, caller after caller, they
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00:14:16,470 --> 00:14:20,610
get to the people. You just really don't
know what's going on.
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00:14:30,530 --> 00:14:36,890
The water was coming up more, and we had
three non -swimmers.
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00:14:37,530 --> 00:14:43,990
And then we had the swimmers, myself,
who's injured, and my daughter and my
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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.
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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
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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.
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00:15:12,360 --> 00:15:19,280
I never felt so isolated to where I just
thought the
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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
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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.
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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
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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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