Hurricane Katrina: A Modern American Disaster 

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Typically whenever natural disasters happen, we're left to fend for ourselves. People seldom mention that Mexico sent us a lot of aid from military to supplies. The Mexican marines were deployed to assist US forces in rescue and cleanup efforts. The first time that the Mexican military was deployed to the US in like 150 something years.

When Katrina hit, I remember the children the most. Thousands of displaced children who weren’t sure if their families were dead or alive, and most of them had PTSD from it too. We fostered a little boy until his aunt was found and he would have horrible terrors and flashbacks when he saw trees… so sad.

I had moved from Huntsville AL to Houston earlier that year. Some friends in NO had to come stay with us for awhile. Then Rita came. Houston began evacuating and I was given the week off to go back home and get the rest of my stuff. It took 24 hrs just to get to the Tx La state line. At one gas station that had fuel, there was a couple of officers trying to keep the peace. One sat indifferent, the other losing patience. He had signaled that I would be the last before he shut it down. When my turn came, he forced me off. When I responded that he had given me permission, he threatened to arrest me. I made it to the next available place but had to push my truck 3 car lengths to the pump since I ran out right then. It took another 12 hours to get to my father's house. A 12 hr trip that took 36. When we got there my uncle was watching it go down on the weather channel. A Texan was live on a phone, and in typical texas fashion said "yeah it's raining, but where's the hurricane?" About an hour or 2 later the tornado warning sirens went off. The woman who had traveled with me freaked out asking what it was. My uncle and myself were unphased. That's just a tornado, we're fine. Typical Bama fashion lol. End of the week I put her in a plane to go back and rented a uhaul for my truck. I didnt account on the gas shortage happing. On my way back, at about 3AM I ran out. I got out and abandoned my stuff and started walking. A man from Mobile saw my truck and trailer then found me a few miles down. He stopped, with his young daughter, and picked me up. He had several gas cans full and took me back to my truck, which took 2 overshoots to get to on the interstate. We filled my tank with enough and he followed me to the nearest working station that was about 35 miles away. He wouldnt accept any payment for the fuel he donated. To this day I help strangers in the same way. Once even getting a standing ovation from a womans group, Mommies of the Heights, after I helped one change a tire early one morning. She happened to be running for a school council seat and knew where I worked. Didnt ask for the owner, although she had heard what I did, and didnt ask for the head chef. My mother warns that I'm gonna get hurt or robbed doing this but I remind her that I've been stranded worse and a good man helped me. It is my duty and honor to pay it forward. Wherever you are, Sir, I won't forget. Bless

I spent a few weeks in New Orleans after that disaster helping rebuild homes. It's hard to describe the deviation but one thing I will say is that you learn a lot about people from the stuff they leave behind. All the junk we hauled out of an abandoned apartment used to be people's treasures and possessions and I got to know the previous owners by what they used to eat, the DVDs they had, the posters, what kind of clothes they liked. It was surreal. I will never forget the sight of a refrigerator stuck in a tree that became home to a squirrels nest. That was in the 9th ward. Crazy stuff.

I was stuck at Loius Armstrong airport during this whole thing, it was insane - the sound was unreal. And when those us stranded at the airport were airlifted out the next day we could see all the flooding from the air.

The whole situation surrounding Katrina is a masterclass in Bureaucracy, Ass Covering, Greed and General Callousness. Every person in a position of authority completely screwed the pooch on this. It still hurts my soul, to this day, to think that this all happened and that basic human decency ceased to exist for the entire effected area of Katrina's war path.

The entire response to this disaster was sad. Our National Guard was at the border of Mississippi the next day to help with search and rescue but the Governor of the state refused to let them in. That was followed by finger pointing in the media at the President because, "The National Guard wasn't there in time! Where were they!?!?" (even though they were ready and stalled by the Governor). Sad state of affairs when we have elected leaders and the media playing politics instead of saving lives. Opened my eyes. The following reports on the "looting and raping" were just as bad. Cherry picking a few bad apples to make a story. Katrina made me realize just how pathetic politics can really be. We literally have elected leaders in our country on both sides who treat it like a game.

The "THESE PEOPLE ARE ANIMALS & DESERVE TO DIE" tone of the "news" that my parents listened to juxtaposed with the reality was an eye opener as to how much of a horrible alternate reality they were voluntarily getting themselves into. When even Top Gear is kinder to the victims of Katrina, you're pretty bad.

A group that rescued many people were the "United Cajun Navy". This was a group of Air boat owners that have helped with rescues not only affter Katrina, but also during other emergencies. Maybe you should do a SideProjects video about this group.

Random additional comments from a local that experienced Katrina: 1.) The Royal Canadian Mounties were the first responders to appear in St. Bernard Parish, beating all American agencies/aid. 2.) The storm surge was so high on the Mississippi coast that some two-story buildings were completely swamped by water. 3.) Fixing the levees remains a constant struggle to this day. You cannot keep building a levee vertically without horizontally expanding the base, but people were allowed to rebuild along levee lines and fight to keep their property from being annexed for levee expansion. 4.) The levee flood gates have manual controls to open/close them in case the power goes out. This would be good thinking, except that in some cases a genius decided to put the manual cranks in a hole in the ground. So using them in flood conditions is... interesting.

I was living in Long Beach, Mississippi at the time. Lost my house and my job. Turned out to be the best thing for me as I got hired into a great position with a construction company that I moved up in and am celebrating my 16th work anniversary with them this week!

It's sad that no one ever speaks of the actions of other parishes. No one talks about people trying to escape on foot, and were turned back by armed citizens. I wonder if any of them realized or wondered about what happed to the people they treated that way.

Would love to see a piece done on The Great Storm of 1900 that basically destroyed Galveston

The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season was at the time the most active hurricane season ever recorded. It was so active not only did we use the Greek Alphabet to name storms after Wilma, the last storm Zeta formed in late December and continued into January of 2006.

It's so weird seeing this incident being shown as 'history'. Maybe since it happened in the digital age it feels so much more recent than it really is now, even though I was a middle schooler when it happened. As a side note, there's an excellent little documentary by Bright Sun Films called 'Closed for Storm' about the fate of Six Flags New Orleans, which was refurbished just in time to get absolutely demolished by the hurricane, and its graffiti'd, rusted corpse has been sitting in east NOLA ever since. If you're into urban ruins it's a must-see.

I wonder if the Saffir-Simpson Scale, Richter Scale, and other strength-measurung scales could make a Side Projects video.

I went to the New Orleans area 2 years after Katrina (my church youth group helped put the finishing touches on new houses for people). There were still so many destroyed houses & buildings and people living in FEMA trailers. Everyone was so friendly, grateful for even the small amount of help we gave and willing to help each other.

When this disaster happened, a number of people relocated to Lubbock, Texas where I was in Junior High School. I think there were about a dozen students that went to my school alone. Very sad what happened.

I remember Time Magazine, in the weeks after Katrina, printed some of the horrific images that came out of it. One in particular is burned in my memory, of a man, face down, in the water, bloated and stretched and slightly discolored, but still obviously a middle aged black man. Idk why, seeing as I know I'd seen dead bodies before, but that was the first time I remember being really disturbed by a corpse. This picture was taken maybe a week after the storm, but he was still there... floating. I was 15 at the time, and the stories that came out of the south that summer were impactful on my teen years.

I remember being a small child when katrina hit. My family lives in northern louisiana so if any hurricanes do hit us theyre usually not a threat, so we had family from new orleans stay with us. When we were watching the news and footage showed of the neighboorhood they lived in, they completely broke down. They had to move across the state from their home.

I was 8yo when Katrina hit. I evacuated to Hammond where my grandmother lived. I remember the left side of the eye went directly above us. We went outside for a few minutes and I can remember the eerie stillness of the air, the clear sunlight above. I couldn’t comprehend the amount of damage at that age. We eventually returned about 5 weeks later. Our brick house on the outskirts of NOLA wasn’t hit too bad, maybe a foot of water and like 1/4 of the roof missing. The trip back home was haunting. As we got closer and closer the damage was more obvious. I saw empty lots where houses used to be. Trees fell and basically cut houses in half. In the end no one I personally knew died, but a two of my fathers coworkers died. It was a horrible event I will remember for the rest of my life…

Am I the only person who is surprised that Simon actually goes to a studio to film these videos? I seriously thought he just had a bad ass living room to film in

As someone who lives in LA but in the southwest part, I know all too well how bad hurricanes can get. Sad part is, ever since NOLA got destroyed by Katrina a lot of news focuses on that area when any storm comes through, leaving a lot of areas totally unrecognized and in need of help. It really sucks to be trying to rebuild and be completely ignored by your own government.

Hurricane Ida was stronger and stayed over New Orleans longer than Katrina, but the Levees held. The city did lose power for a week but that's nothing compared to flooding. Unfortunately, Katrina made this "improvement" possible through blood, as many things in life have been.

Nagin pissed me off when he asks for Grayhound busses after the storm. Meanwhile school busses were left to get flooded instead of evacuating residents. You're supposed to be the freaking leader of the community. Use your resources to help people before it becomes a problem.

3:15 - Chapter 1 - The big easy 6:00 - Chapter 2 - Poseidon' wrath 8:35 - Chapter 3 - Bracing for impact 11:05 - Chapter 4 - Disaster 14:15 - Chapter 5 - Aftermath 17:25 - Chapter 6 - Rebuilding in the crescent city 20:10 - Chapter 7 - A city in recovery

I remember being 8 watching the news reports. Seeing bodies floating in the streets really shattered my view of the world at that time.

My sister was in college and got out to Jackson MS in time. When she got back in January to the city she helped gut several houses in the closet parishes.

I was in Biloxi, MS when Katrina hit. I'll never forget sitting through the eye wall of that monster.

Houston took in a majority of New Orleans refugees and evacuees. We housed them in the Astro Dome. People came here with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I remember when the kids were sent to our local highschools too. It's was heart breaking to hear what they went through. A lot of the refugees and evacuees ended just staying in Houston or other parts of Texas.

“A modern American Disaster” perfectly describes every politician we’ve elected for the last couple decades.

Hey, just a thought, but maybe u guys could do a video about the 2011 Tornado outbreak? Alternatively, maybe the 2013 El Reno Mega Twister?

I was expecting more from Simon. When it comes to Katrina the Mississippi Coast is always forgotten. 😔

I have lived in Long Beach, MS my entire life and my home, in which I stayed during Katrina, was less than half a mile (0.8 kilometers) from the coast line. We took a direct hit. When the eye passed over, there was what seemed to be a deafening silence. Although we took a harder hit in terms of wind and surge than NOLA, no one seems to speak of this. Maybe this is due to the fact that the concentration of structures and people is much greater in NOLA giving the illusion that we didn’t take as much damage. Or maybe it’s because the area where I am from isn’t nearly as iconic as the city of NOLA. Whatever the reason, I can assure you the result of the storm was nothing less than total destruction. There wasn’t a single structure standing south of the railroad tracks and the things I saw when I took a walk after the storm, I will never be able to unsee. My family was very lucky. Our home had almost zero structural damage after the storm and we didn’t realize just how bad it was until we took that fateful walk once the storm had passed. Every detail of that day will be burned into my memory until the day I die.

"So, imagine you're the poor person who decides not to evacuate: Your house will disintegrate around you. The best you'll be able to do is hang on to a light pole, and while you're hanging on, the fire ants from all the mounds -- of which there is two per yard on average -- will clamber up that same pole. And, eventually, the fire ants will win." Ivor van Heerden - deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center

"George Bush doesn't care about black people!" Huge missed opportunity not showing that clip, just saying...

Add in the eastern side of the storm as well. What happened in MS was just as catastrophic without the extreme flooding that louisiana did. I was here in south mississippi when katrina hit. Its probably the main reason im so interested in these storms in the first place. The devastation was unbelievable.

I’m born and raised in New Orleans.It’s been 15 years and I can say with 100% certainty that some homes still haven’t been repaired. And we just went through another bad storm last month.

This event was a horrific experience for so many. The response was even worse. But one thing that is just as disturbing for this disaster and so many more even today, is that these miserable conditions go on for months, years...while the focus shifts to the newest front page story. There are people left with nothing, desperate and invisibly struggling with nothing or advocate.

Katrina hit Biloxi head on. The MS Gulf Coast was devastated. From the beach to the Interstate was hit with a 25 foot storm surge and power was out all the way to Meridian. You couldn't even recognize any of the cities from Waveland to Biloxi. I know what happened in NOLA was terrible and tragic but they weren't the only area that suffered.

Speaking as a guardsman who served on operation Katrina i can say that the looting wasn't as bad as the media made it sound but it was bad. The salons were hit first before almost every other business. The policemen who stayed behind were either looting themselves or completely, laughably undertrained. I've been hit with rocket fire and mortar fire but the one thing in my military career I would never want to relive is my time in New Orleans.

I used to live in bay saint louis MS and let me tell you about some destruction. My house was on stilts 12 feet up in the air. The 30 foot storm surge broke the connection between the stilts and the house and picked it up, then pushed it into the pine trees in my back yard

Living in Florida I remember Katrina being a cat 1. When it hit the golf, it immediately turned into a cat 5 before hitting New Orleans. When it hit Florida we all saw it basically a joke. After that we were shocked that it grew so quickly, and the damage it caused.

How about you do a part 2 to this where you highlight what Mississippi had to go through. We didn't have the loss of life, but our gulf coast was completely annihilated. To put it into context for anyone who hasn't seen pictures of Gulfport, and Biloxi: those cities looked more like Hiroshima, and Nagasaki post atomic bombs after Katrina went through. I'll never forget the image of the Grand Casino hotels' upper floors, having been torn off the building, left on the interstate by Katrina. Other smaller towns were completely wiped off the map. Always remember: parts of New Orleans got flooded. The entire Mississippi gulf coast was destroyed.

I lived in Slidell that took a direct hit... couldn't go home for nearly 4 months due to no power and water. I was lucky though, house only took roof and siding damage and had 1 busted window.

Actually it was Bay St.Louis/Waveland in Mississippi is where Katrina hit directly. New Orleans suffered because of severe flooding due to the levies failing.

Fellow New Orleanian here. 6 Flags is still there albeit overrun by woods now. It’s a spooky site.

I took an ICS-300 class this year, one of the classes needed to command an emergency response incident in the US, and they used Katrina the case study for planning our disaster response.

The HBO documentary When The Levees Broke goes into great detail on the Katrina disaster.

It breaks my heart hearing this, no matter how many times. New Orleans is an absolutely magical place with such a unique and rich culture, there is no place like it. Poverty and graffiti hide the most beautiful courtyards I've ever seen and the complexities of the neighborhoods within neighborhoods, combined with the unique heritage, history, food, art, music, and architecture gives it such an ethereal quality. These people continue to try to preserve this place because they know there is nothing else like it and are the epitome of resilience. ❤

Nobody ever talks about the damage to Mississippi. New Orleans flooded, we were decimated.

I also heard that refused to evacuate because they didn't want to leave beloved pets behind. I think they have since changed shelter rules so people can bring pets into emergency shelters.

I tell you you never want to be in a storm like this. I was in Yapoon, Australia when cyclone Yassi hit. It was a cat 5 storm, 200mph+ wind gusts. We ensure buildings are cyclone proofed here and with this one it still picked up entire houses up and threw them fown the street like tissue boxes. The entire landscape afterwards looked like bikini attol after castle bravo. My heart goes out to everyone who survived this. They are truly terrifying storms to survive.

Countries sent aid that was never accepted. People stole buses to help evacuate their neighbours when no one else would come. Children being evacuated from rooftops were strip searched by police, little kids, six and seven years old. The scale of the mismanagement was of epic proportions, with roots reaching back a hundred years. And the Bush administration’s response to the disaster is probably best summed up by Barbara Bush’s comment on the subject. "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this - this is working very well for them." She said this about people living in a football stadium. And over a decade later, it’s the same as it’s ever been.

My wife went to NoLa the following November to help fill in the lack of nurses. She saw a lot of the devastation and helped treat a lot of people. Then earlier this year we visited the city for a few days and it's right back to being a terrific place.

Being from the south, it’s very refreshing hearing these words in an English accent.

Thank you for this video. As someone who lived in Mississippi around that time, this hits close to home for me. Lucky for me and my family we didn't lose anything but we have encountered so many people that left New Orleans and the southern part of Mississippi who lost everything to that storm. Remember to never take the people you love for granted because in a matter of time it can all be gone. Stay safe everyone. Peace and love ❤

I worked with the Corps of Engineers, (in 1979 - well before Katrina), under an engineer walking the levies to evaluate the CoE's proposal for a project to significantly strengthen and improve the levy system. The CoE's project, estimated to cost (I remember about) 5 billion, was never funded as the politicians didn't wish to risk their jobs over requesting this money from Congress. I loved living in that city, but any taste for that fled, along with the politicians and other authorities who abdicated their responsibilities (before, during, and after).

I remember exactly where I was when I told my friend to evacuate. Cat 5 is no joke.

Hurricane Katrina literally spawned a government job: Emergency Management Specialist. Cause, for some reason, no one before ever thought we'd need people who study disasters and are experts on them. These folks fall under Homeland Security's umbrella and are usually found working for FEMA. Personal and private sectors also employ these people to do everything from real estate risk management research to corporate-sponsored disaster preparation training for employees.

My parents had just moved us to the mississippi gulf coast not even 3 weeks before katrina. The house they were going to buy across hwy 90 ( runs along the beach ) was turned into a concrete slab and still sits that way today 16 years later. Alot of stuff was completely obliterated and stayed that way for a long time. News coverage zereod in on new orleans and often times misslabeled locations being shown as other cities, but the entire gulf coast received catastrophic damage. New orleans being a soup bowl , had a unique problem to deal with trying to keep the water out. Ultimately, the local government decided to unleash the levies on the lower 9th ward and other extremely poor districts in order to save the rich well to do people higher up. All around bad situation . So far we havent seen anything anywhere as severe as katrina since, god willing we hopefully wont again. The only positive i can say about that storm, is as a kid i saw humanity come together in a way i had never seen. People who had nothing left were just so happy to be alive, that they would give anything they could to help their fellow neighbors . People fed one another, took in complete strangers to stay with them . Thousands of relief teams came from all states to lend help. I remember having about 20 people from hawaii living in my house for a month just to help other people rebuild . Crazy time to be alive.

I was just 5 when Katrina hit recently lived through hurricane Ida. If you get the chance you should do one about it. Keep up the good work!

I was 10 years old when this happened. I lived, and still live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our first responders, national guard, charities, non profits, and everyday citizens went to help. It was so much more of a disaster than words can describe. It's still in the forefronts of those who live/have lived on the southern shores.

Never thought I'd see one of my favorite RU-vidrs covering my favorite topic (hurricanes in general). Please do more hurricanes like the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Also I survived Katrina, she was no joke people

One of the few places in the US I have always wanted to visit. My grandmother visited there quite some time ago and told me "It felt like France, like home, though with an utterly different flavour.".

The city is below sea level and surrounded 3/4 by water...what could go wrong? Learn from our mistakes? Rebuild

2004-12 was crazy in terms of natural disasters. 2004 Boxing Day tsunamis, The entire 2005 hurricane season, Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the Port-au-Prince earthquake in 2010, 2011 saw the super outbreak in the US which included the El Reno, Joplin and Tuscaloosa tornadoes, and finally superstorm Sandy. All would make great videos and would love for Geographics to cover them.

I am a Floridian and have been through several hurricanes... Nothing like the destruction on Katrina though. I felt so horrible for those people trapped in the areas hit hard. One interesting fact about Mardi Gras... New Orleans was not the first city in the US to celebrate it.... Mobile Alabama was the first city to do it. Mobile had a Mardi Gras celebration in 1702 or 1703. New Orleans was not established until 1718.

One of my cousins evacuated with his family during Katrina and stayed with friends out of state. The city bulldozed their house afterwards since it was so damaged, but they did so without notifying my cousin until after it was done.

For an interesting perspective on the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans, check out the book "1 Dead in Attic" by Chris Rose. He was a writer for the local paper, it is a collection of his work from the first few months immediately following the hurricane hitting the city.

My cousin, who I'm godfather to, was born the day Katrina struck. I remember being in the hospital with her watching all the coverage.

I remember going to help immediately after the storm and thought the place looked like a post apocalyptic scene, so many pets left behind.

A video on Hurricane Hugo in 1989 would be awesome. I lived through that one. What it did to SC was crazy ridiculous

There are many reasons people couldn’t leave. One thing about New Orleans: when there is a storm, it’s panic mode for the local meteorologists. Given the city’s geography, it’s a fair assumption that even a minor storm would be a potential catastrophe. However, there were people like me. Did not want to abandon my home. Didn’t think it’d be THAT bad. It will jink east at the last moment. In absence, “Wolf!” Had been cried too many times. Then, many people couldn’t afford to leave. Couldn’t afford hotels, had no relatives. Their choices were minimal. One thing not many realise is that there are only a handful of ways out of the city, all susceptible to being blocked or flooded. The I-10 bridge between the city and Slidell was destroyed. The roads were death traps if you’d been stuck. I lived in an area that wasn’t even badly hit, and my damage was minimal, but it was still 6 weeks before I could return home through the floods. I was lucky.

the entire US is completely unprepared for most disasters... it's all about commerce and infinite growth... nothing put away for a rainy day.

You missed a huge issue that caused much of the flooding in St. Bernard Parish that aimed it straight at the 9th Ward. It was the industrial canal built several years before that gave the 20 foot storm surge a guided path of destruction into the heart of the city. Whole houses were ripped from their foundations & bodies were left hanging drowned in the tree tops for the National Guard to remove. My family has lived in & around New Orleans for at least 8 generations. We survived Katrina & more recently Ida. Its part of living here.

That's a long add segment you have there...

Katrina was nuts, I was in high school and I went to bed one night after a party with my friends thinking everything was fine and then the next morning I evacuated (while quite hungover) and didn’t see home again for months. Pretty wild!

Casual Criminalist Simon: "Why are there so many French names in Louisiana???" Geographics Simon: "...Ohhhhhh!"

I remember starting my first day of 8th grade when Katrina hit New Orleans. We had the news turned on and were watching coverage.

Cops caring more about stopping people from stealing food than actually helping people in danger?? Well color me shocked

My family evacuated last minute, we were initially going to stay, but my sister was only 3 months old at the time and my mother's coworker took her shift at the hospital and said "Get that baby out of here," so we could get out. Nobody really expected things to get as bad as they did, we barely packed anything, just expected to be back within a few days. We lost everything, the water was above our house, (we lived in Arabi) it drowned our dog, the only things we were able to keep were a few pots and pans. We ended up staying with our grandparents for about a year, and came back to NOLA, and when we moved away again, came back and visited our house slab every few years until it was demolished. I was 5 years old at the time, so I don't really remember much, but I know I'll never forget.

This was an emotional one for me. Thank you for this, for not flinching from how bad our so-called authorities screwed up, and screwed us over. I lived through Katrina, in Mississippi. As others have mentioned and as your video also acknowledges, New Orleans got a lot of the focus, but the ywere hardly the only victims and even as far inland as Hattiesburg (which is just shy of a hundred miles from NOLA) the destruction was insane. People here got the wind in the teeth, and it was two weeks before ANYBODY had power; the county hospital is here and nurses were saying that they were doing their best with what amounted to third world medicine, because there were no stockpiled supplies. No one was ready, no one was even taking the storm very seriously. Folks worried for the people in NOLA, and everyone - EVERYONE - knew those damned levees were going to break. Maybe not to the extent of the actual failures, but it was not a secret that the city and the state both had utterly failed to properly maintain a single mile of the flood control system. Period. They took money for it, and that money vanished, and people KNEW that. I lost my home in the storm, and being among those poor folks who could not leave - I was damned lucky to be able to shelter with someone who had a "real house" (i.e. wood frame, brick walls, all that jazz). And even so, it was three weeks before I could even get to my place to assess the damage. And FEMA? They were supposed to help people like my family, supposed to make it simple and quick to get repair money or at least a temporary shelter of some sort. I never saw a penny of help, never even got an acknowledgement that I applied for help in the first place. Around here FEMA is a four letter slang still - Fix Everything My Ass. It's been a long time now since Katrina destroyed so much - it felt like (and still feels like) half the Gulf Coast was ripped apart. If not by the storm, then by the anger and mismanagement and corruption; the race and class hatred that was blatantly on display was just salt in the wounds. There were stories about gigantic alligators roaming New Orleans and other places, and half of them ended with "At least the gator was honest." I would say that though the flood waters receded, the damage is still here. What makes me cry so much even now is that none of those wholesale, sweeping changes have taken place. Not really. The hate is still here, beating down the poor and the people of color. The wounds of not just a few decades but hundreds of years, are still here. Still festering. Even though they're not hidden at all, no one is really moving to fix that, just like the efforts to rebuild the levees in NOLA have been patchy at best.

I had my home, an apartment building in Bay St. Louis, MS, destroyed by this hurricane, displacing me and my mother for a couple years after. (I rode thru at my grandmother's tho, who was a good half-hour drive or so from where we lived.) I was 12 at the time, and remember all of us hunkered down in the living room, watching shingles fly off the roof and a few of the support beams on my grandmother's house, the ones that held up her porch roof collapse (one of them broke the window of the room where my dad (who died a month after from cancer) was sleeping. That woke us all up since he yelled "Oh shit!" at the top of his lungs.) We've since built back, but it took a few years.

"Time wounds all heals." - John Crichton.

I’m British and was 5 when this happened so naturally my knowledge of this disaster was ‘a city flooded and it was bad’ so this video was super interesting and horrifying in equal amounts

Seeing that image of the city flooded brought back a pretty God awful memory. I lived far away from New Orleans, but seeing a major American city under water and looking like a 3rd world disaster zone with so many trapped, missing, or dead left me heart broken. Even a year later when my church sent a group of us to nearby Biloxi, Mississippi to help do some cleanup, the effects of Katrina were still very much evident.

I'd love to see an episode covering the Good Friday earthquake in Alaska.

I was 4 I still remember my towns malls parking lot was full every time the Katrina relief trailer came

I’m wondering how the response and the aftermath would have been different if Al Gore was president instead of Bush. The dude is way into climate change and extreme weather.

I was a toddler when Katrina hit. At the time my family was living in Wisconsin due to my dads job as a pilot, but both my parents were Florida natives and much of my extended family lived in Florida. Our house was full of people due to majority of my relatives deciding to evacuate. Even though I was young I still remember watching the news with my family and seeing the destruction.

Someone in the past in Louisiana. Hey this would be a great place to build a city. The future 😬

You guys should do a video on the la brea tar pits!!

The Atlantic magazine has an excellent podcast on this called Floodlines. It is season one, and boy oh boy was that disaster handled poorly and yes, the over-the-top reports of looting and deaths were not true. The poor people of that city....among local, state and federal agencies there was plenty of blame to go around on this tragedy.

Simon, thanks for that great video on Katrina. I have always been a huge fan of your channels, and this was one of the best videos i have ever seen on this event. Having lived in New Orleans my entire life, and experienced the storm first hand, as well as the rebuilding, you did an amazing job of summing up the history, the culture, the struggle, and the rebirth of our city. If anyone would ask about it, i would tell them to watch this video first before talking about it. Last thing, side projects episode idea, Lake Ponchartrain Causeway Bridge? Thanks again for the beautiful video and all the content you post.

Remember when Brian from Family Guy searched for Bush during Katrina only to find him in a treehouse reading a children’s novel. Telling people to leave him alone so he doesn’t have to “do stuff” 😂😏 Oh, those were the days.

Hurricane Katrina happened in my life time. Im from mobile alabama. 2 hours east of New orleans. Imagine launching boats and ships from your local grocery store to help with search efforts. An entire city with no power. Your privacy fence thrown into your neighbors yard. Three houses down. Winds whistling outside your window and the ground shaking from it. Making you think youre going through an earthquake

Meanwhile HD1897 33b :

My daughter lived in Houma during cyclone Ida. Right the inside of house is just wall studs. All floors, ceilings and walls had to be stripped out. Roof now repaired. She had to find accom. 250 miles away and can’t commute to work because of distance. Lack of income major problem.