The film features 15 minutes of live hurricane video shot by Kimberly Roberts, an aspiring rapper whose family was too poor to leave New Orleans, and follows Kim's family and others through the . The storm traveled the Gulf of Mexico and then made landfall on the Gulf Coast in southeast Louisiana near the town of Buras, on Aug. 29, 2005. "The police was stressed out themselves," Lewis says. ", Michael Brown, FEMA director: Watch it: To understand what went wrong in the governments response to Katrina. Through their world-class scientists, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers, Nat Geo gets you closer to the stories that matter and past the edge of what's possible.Get More National Geographic:Official Site: http://bit.ly/NatGeoOfficialSiteFacebook: http://bit.ly/FBNatGeoTwitter: http://bit.ly/NatGeoTwitterInstagram: http://bit.ly/NatGeoInstaHurricane Katrina Day by Day | National Geographichttps://youtu.be/HbJaMWw4-2QNational Geographichttps://www.youtube.com/natgeo Lipin says when he arrived in Baton Rouge and turned on the TV, he was surprised by reports of rampant violence in New Orleans. But more and more people were being evacuated from their rooftops after being in the sun for long periods or overnight and being put on highways on high ground. They didn't have ammunition. Panels blew off and the roof was severely damaged, but it was the only shelter . He didn't even know what efforts had been made on his behalf because he had no lines of communications open to him. The Superdome is an intrinsic part of the city of New Orleans. Benelli says his team investigated two attempted rapes inside the Superdome, and two additional reports of rapes that happened in the city, one of which was the 25-year-old hairdresser. He estimates 5,000 to 10,000 people are still in the city, with many of them still waiting to be rescued. These three documentaries and nearly 190 more are all streaming online at pbs.org/frontline. Katrina becomes a Category 3 with 115 mph maximum sustained winds. producer's chat+tapes & transcript+press reaction+credits+privacy policy In the six weeks since the Web site has been up, with almost no publicity, it has received 42 reports of sexual assaults. I said, 'OK, great.' At landfall, Katrina's maximum winds were about 125 miles per hour (mph) to the east of its center. Listen 7:57. We, Yahoo, are part of the Yahoo family of brands. I've never seen a hurricane like this in my 33-year career. One woman told me she was going to commit suicide after Katrina, and that she saw Spike Lees documentary, and I saved her life. A Louisiana State University computer model of a 115 mph storm strike shows the overtopping of levees protecting New Orleans and nearby areas. The Katrina images we see in the film -- people on rooftops, the Superdome being shredded by hurricane winds, dogs stranded in attics -- are ones that once would have been guaranteed to put lumps . Lewis says she was raped on Monday, Aug. 29, the day of the storm. By the end of the day, it is upgraded to Tropical Storm Katrina, with 50 mph maximum sustained winds. And [FEMA Director] Michael Brown was with me at that time. Not Just the Levees Broke: My Story During and After Hurricane Katrina. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. The two of us are going to leave. And it is injurious to the president. Find out in the 2015 documentary Outbreak, newly available to stream on FRONTLINEs YouTube channel. There is a belief that the city has avoided a direct hit. President Bush arrives in New Orleans and holds a meeting on Air Force One with federal and local officials. In all, more than 1,500 died either duringthe storm or inthe famouslybungled aftermath which saw local, state, and federal officials uncoordinated and overwhelmed. "There was a period of days when we weren't sure who was directing the federal response and were all the actions being taken. Conditions are deteriorating with bathrooms overflowing, no power for air conditioning and little food and water. Under the best of circumstances, rape is one of the hardest crimes to solve. On Sept. 15, 2005, in an address to the nation, President Bush declares, "It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice.". My sense now is there are victims out there whose stories haven't been heard.". Floodwaters keep rising. The expected storm surge is 15 to 20 feet, locally as high as 25 feet. Rescue efforts are delayed because of the inability of rescuers to communicate with each other. Phyllis Montana-Leblanc is a Hurricane Katrina survivor. Oh, absolutely not. In New Orleans last year, there was a rape every other day on average. And then somebody came and called me and said, 'The president would like to see you.' ", Richard Falkenrath, Homeland Security Adviser (2001-2004): "I remember reading [that New Orleans had dodged a bullet]. And the guard unitspent most of the next 24 hours saving itself. There was nobody there to protect you," Lewis says. There's this lunch. So many people have Katrina Fatigue, as I like to call itthe hurricane is four years out, and I applaud anything that brings another testimony into the public conversation; that shows people how bad it was, and how bad it still is. At a press conference in Baton Rouge, 80 miles away, Gov. Thousands of troops poured into the city September. "All I could do was pray, pray for rescue, pray that I didn't have any type of transmitted disease," she says. " from my view sitting inside a windowless room at FEMA headquarters during my nightshift we are working to coordinate with our federal partners, to get water out. Four were wounded, and 17-year-old James Brisette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison were killed. Around this time 17 years ago, Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, and . New Orleans, Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, as seen in the new documentary Katrina Babies. Female victims, now displaced from New Orleans, are slowly coming forward with a different story than the official one. Surviving the Superdome. Blanco is there. Because of the ensuing . Lt. Dave Benelli, commander of the sex crimes unit with the New Orleans Police Department, denies that. Mississippi and Louisiana governors declare states of emergency. The only person I saw from FEMA was basically this guy named Marty [Bahamonde]. Flooding grows as water surges over levee breaks from Lake Ponchartrain; the 9th Ward is almost entirely submerged. "Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks perhaps longer. Sept. 15, 2005, 7:50 AM PDT. But for five days in the midst of the storm, about 20,000 of these . Hurricane Katrina first made landfall on Aug. 25, 2005, in Florida, weakening to a tropical storm as it briefly passed over land. FEMA National Situation Update: [2] Approximately 10,000 residents, along with about 150 National Guardsmen, sheltered in the Superdome anticipating Katrina's landfall. Mayor Ray Nagin orders the total evacuation of New Orleans due to the dangers posed by the contaminated standing water. For my part, I am still going out into the streets every day to talk to people about their experiencesI call it getting phyllisophical. Other people call me the Dr. Phil of the streets. Some electrical substations serving downtown New Orleans are repaired, but Entergy, the local energy utitlity, must first ensure that buildings can receive the electricity safely before the power is restored. Patrice Taddonio. During Hurricane Katrina, around 20,000 people took refuge in the Superdome. He escaped the ch. I've got to know. Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation. But they're designed for short hauls.". Power outages will last for weeks water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.". Having largely emptied the cavernous Superdome, which had become a squalid pit of misery and violence, officials turned their attention to the Convention Center, where people waited to be evacuated as corpses rotted in the streets. And he passes, literally, hundreds of school buses lined up to come and get these folks. They lost 15 high-water trucks with mobile communications packages. ", "Coastal residents jammed freeways and gas stations as they rushed to get out A direct hit could wind up submerging New Orleans in several feet of water At least 100,000 people in the city lack transportation to get out Louisiana and Mississippi make all lanes northbound on interstate highways", Note: In the last hours before Katrina made landfall, dozens of copies of the, "To cries of 'Thank you, Jesus!' "[I] got to the president. The Most Risky Job Ever. Reporting on ISIS in Afghanistan. The National Guards didn't want to hear it.". About 2,000 medical evacuees remain at Louis Armstrong Airport, which has become a staging area for responders and injured refugees. Nature Documentary hosted by Helen Baxandale, published by Channel 4 in 2010 - English narration Cover Information . The Louisiana National Guard's Jackson Barracks flood. Michael Ainsworth/The Dallas Morning News/epa/Corbis. FEMA organizes 475 buses to be sent in to transport many of the estimated 23,000 people from the Superdome to the Houston Astrodome. Even $20, if thats all you can afford in the recession, that helps. "A week after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans state officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers say once the canal level is drawn down two feet, Pumping Station 6 can begin pumping water out of the bowl-shaped city. But problems persist. Gov. There's no question.". Locals adopt it in their idea of the city. Phyllis Montana-LeBlancthe breakout star of Spike Lees When the Levees Broke documentary and author of Not Just the Levees Broke: My Story During and After Katrina (and a consultant on David Simons new post-Katrina HBO drama)writes below about why viewers should still care about New Orleans four years later, and why Trouble the Water just may be the wakeup call we need. "It was that terrible. Theme Foto Blog by, Hundreds Evacuated as Vanuatu Braces for Second Cyclone in 2 Days. That is why the first place we picked to do an exercise and planning was New Orleans. Having largely emptied the cavernous Superdome, which had become a squalid pit of misery and violence, officials turned their attention to the Convention Center, where people waited to be evacuated as corpses rotted in the streets. My old high school, Joseph S. Clark, shut down, and we dont even have parks yet for kids to hang out inthats what we did in the 70s, at leastIm still trying to petition for these things, to organize our community, and these fool ass people have not yet gotten down here to rebuild. More women are coming forward with stories of sexual . We go to Sam's and Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie and gather up food and water and start distributing it because we had 60 hours' worth of resources that we had stored, but now we're out of it. So I can assume what the criminals were thinking, and that's exactly what happened.". Buckles, who wrote and directed the documentary . Her husband [Raymond Blanco] is there. But prosecutors have struggled to hold officers accountable. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. By afternoon, officials issue a citywide call for more boats to help. "[On Air Force One] we gave the president a briefing on everything that had gone on. and catcalls of 'What took you so long?,' a National Guard convoy packed with food, water and medicine rolled through axle-deep floodwaters Friday into what remained of New Orleans and descended into a maelstrom of fires and floating corpses. A timeline of the warnings, some of the decisions leading up to the disaster, and what went wrong with the government's response.