New Orleans - The Natural History 

There’s nothing like trying to go to sleep but staying up at 3:00am to watch a documentary about the logistics of life in New Orleans.

No ads. I appreciate that

I love this documentary. It was made before hurricane Katrina. I'd be thrilled to see a follow up to this that discusses what happened and how the city has changed.

This video was oddly prophetic about the imminent danger of Katrina

I've just come back from visiting New Orleans, I'm from the UK, what an extraordinary City it is, so much culture and beauty.

It’s eerie to hear them talk about the pumps post-Katrina. Being half-proud of the fact they were close to 100 years old hurts. Then talking about Betsy being the worst storm to hit the city, it just hurts your heart

I was in New Orleans in August of 2005 when Katrina hit because i had just gotten into Loyola University, we evacuated to Baton Rouge and i slept on the floor of a church, little did I know I couldnt go back until 2006 because of all the damage done. I'll never forget that city, I lived there for almost 2 years until moved back to my hometown Houston TX. Now I want to move back there again.

One thing that was left out in this video is the reefs just a couple of miles off the coastline were destroyed from the 1940’s to the 1980’s. Digging up those shell reefs had a devastating effect on the speed of erosion on coastal marshes. The reefs also slowed down storm surge from hurricanes. It would take hundreds if not thousands of years for those reefs to come back if they can. No one ever thought that digging up rocks and shells offshore could have such horrible consequences for our environment.

This documentary is so charming. Such a Disneyland vibe. “We have a very short winter season. Last year it was on a Wednesday 🙂”

Watching this while watching hurricane ida pass on the Westbank of NOLA !!.. GOD BLESS NOLA

I'm here in Galveston. And I have been here through the entirety of the beach restoration process. My Opinion is this. The City of New Orleans needs to buy or build, so that it owns outright, 3 Dredgers. Those Dredgers shall become part of the Transportation Industry budget, and should work all year. Have another as back-up during drydocking or repair-times. THAT is a constant way to successfully tackle some of these issues. Treat the necessity in the same way as the need for Ferry Boating. This is a good way to create jobs, and bring in that valuable silt. By contributing the silt, where needed, it will offset the leavies' negative affects. This is also a fair way to battle the natural Mississippi River shifting, which has been interrupted by Economic Developments. I'm not the smartest Guy. But I cared enough to this Resolution. We cannot stop Nature, but we can continue what Nature used to do. And maybe in 50 or 60 years.. We will start building those lost acres back at the base of 'The Boot'. #StaySafe Everyone. Much Love & #GodBless!

Dude: "New Orleans is #2 in the universe in pot holes..." Everyone from Jackson, MS: "I know who's #1..."

My new Orleans Louisiana baebae!!! Everybody who from & represent the boot say yeeahhhh!!!

I went on a Katrina relief trip in 2005 and have been in love with the city and LA ever since. Hope to live there some day.

Then Katrina hit and everything they feard came true. It's crazy how NOLA is still standing. Great documentary.

Hearing them talk about how Hurricane Betsy 1965 was the hardest hit they have ever had was wild. Little did these white haired dudes know, the worst was yet to come. 😩 Always praying for the wonderful city of New Orleans, what a magical place.

Hello from Orléans

Man I miss Nash!! Miss Frank Davis, and Phil Johnson.

Hi TP. I found you through suggested videos. First, your videos are great and your editing, top notch. I made a RU-vid channel, so I'm doing my research. Thanks for all of your help! Please keep it up. Just subbed!

So Proud to have been born and raised in Terrebonne Parish

Nicely done! Thank you.

Very interesting and informative. Would love to see an update post Katrina to present day. Thanks for sharing

Hearing them talk about the levee system and this is pre Katrina... Boy how confident they were and the worst had not yet hit em yet! Sad...

Great doc thanks for sharing

I’m from here we are just used to the way of life. Every region has it’s problems.

Quelle belle ville! Vraiment intéressant comme d’habitude chez les Néo-Orléanais. Bravo 😀🙏👏👏

We have wasted so much of our resources and budgets on trying to defeat Mother Nature, when it is a losing battle. If we had from the beginning of our country focused on allowing wetlands, and moving into elevated areas, think of the resources and lives and dollars saved over the centuries. Mountains can be moved, but eventually, they'll come right back.

We need the Pt.2 of this doc. It would be super interesting to see where we are now in the costal mitigation programs.

One of my favorite cities

Oh, that was surprisingly good.

Ohh Nooo! Mr. Bill!😮

Loving this one thanks for sharing keep up the good work knowledge is power hopefully everyone pays attention to this very important information giving thanks blessed love to all

Always interesting to see the sort of people who champion this sort of thing. (-:

The critical evacuation failure was their failure to evacuate the city buses, compounded because they didn't evacuate both carless residents and the buses themselves before the storm, the flooded buses were then unavailable to evacuate the holdouts after the storm as well. That was the number 1 inexcusable failure.

the problem with pumping stations is they dont work when they go underwater

I loved the move Treme bring the showing back of course video dated 2004 viewers as myself would love to see the video and more sighten of the Indians .

New Orleans is a national treasure

nice to stumble upon this among the other "guides" like top places to eat. Too much noise nowadays.

I love I’m was born and raised in New Orleans I love my attitude my swagger It’s not place like my home , New Orleans is forever in my heart and when you say Deep South you know New Orleans is the first thing you think of

Great video!

Myself and the entire Louisiana National Guard was in Baghdad, Iraq when Katrina hit. The irony of the situation is almost suspicious 🤔

New Orleans or the original version of French " nouvelle Orléans "

Look here,while i in the navy i was posted with public works at the naval center in orlando,fl. from calif.After 6 months,i received my orders for permanent duty at CBC Gulfport,Batt.7. You can imagine my dismay(i lived in calif. so was hoping to return there),until i discovered i was only a 60 mi. drive from New Orleans.That was in '88,and most of my home is now dedicated to my many visits(historic and otherwise),and friends made from there over a 20 yr period.Thank god i'm back home in houston,so my baby ain't never far away.

“Impregnable levy system”...

It's curious to me, at what point did it become economically viable to devote such a vast amount of resources (electric, human etc etc) to continually "pump" water out to maintain a city which by any account, should be under water? I was born in NOLA and am still astounded by this. It does speak to the level of human persistence and insistence when we decide that nature be damned, we're doing this.

Louisiana needs to look to the Dutch as example of protecting themselves from flooding.

When I think of New Orleans, the first thing that comes to mind is mosquitos, then gnats, biting flies, snakes-a-plenty and all of the insects and spiders breeding there. Wet climates are notorious for hordes of insects. You can have it.

Betsy was an almost perfect preamble for Katrina, (and now Ida,) but when Katrina came through New Orleans, it had already passed through and was gone, people were busy cleaning up branches and taking boards off their windows etc. when the levees finally failed. Inundating the City and surrounding region. Then it was a failure of FEMA, who took more than two weeks just to get clean or bottled water to the people taking refuge inside the SuperDome. But, the bulk of the engineering issues had been worked out to withstand category four and even category five Supercells coming from the Gulf by the time Katrina came through. By the time Katrina had made landfall over New Orleans it had been downgraded to a two or three, and weakening as it continued to progress over the landmass further on. The subsequent disastrous flooding was a result of faulty engineering around the City's levees, which had been waterlogged and then weakened to the point of catastrophic failure, days after the Hurricane itself had moved on.

who else watching this below sea level?!

Everywhere else in Louisiana is obsolete Nola is the very soul of Louisiana. I love it here

Those flutes are killing me lol. Good info tho.

I remember right after Katrina hit, half the cars in the Dallas Tx area had Louisiana license plates. I don't know if they went back or stayed here. I'm sorry we don't have any boudan here : (

Katrina brought me down and I never left.

When you realize this was made BEFORE hurricane Katrina and everything they're talking about happened even worse than it did before.

"The rules of this city are very unclear." -Stewie from Family Guy 🍍

Last year it was on a Wednesday in the afternoon 😅🤣😂

Smithsonian Magazine had a fantastic article about the Mississippi River (around 1998??) Which i think really spoke to the flooding possible.

Corps of engineers have killed the coast of my beloved state.

Nash Roberts...another great accent.

Good Job, Walter. Your film was so prophetic - especially considering it was pre-Katrina. Remember at Franklin High School how we got upset about DDT, the oil industries and modern civilization’s impact on our state? The operative word in our era was “conservation” - which morphed into “protect the environment”. It is a cause that is still important today.

Tax the weed. Every bag of weed bag of sand......

Tell us about the Atchafalaya re-route.

They should build a pipeline going from Louisiana to California and sell them water instead of oil.

Seattle artificially raised a large part of its land above sea level. I wonder if that could be done in NO.

As a lifelong Louisiana resident i can honestly say there is absolutely nothing good about New Orleans unless you want to see drunks drugs and crime everywhere...I know I'm going to get blasted for saying that but it's true...New Orleans is horrible

New Orleans has always depended on the kindness of strangers....

Nice video. Can someone tell me why the west Bank is to the south? Just wondering

Thanks,I trying to make a motion picture to be place in history for education about our state.

beautiful city

👌 xcellent

After the hurricane in Galveston in the early 1900’s the island decided to raise the land to save it from being destroyed again. NO should have done that a long long time ago.

This is definitely pre 2005

4:21 what it would've been if that river was still there...🤔 The Florida and the Desire are on the east of the pre river in blue marker.

... copyright 2002... ... 3 years before Hurricane Katrina, 2005...

History of the Nola baby.🎺🥁🚙🏙

Well, it worked until 2005, that is.

The most foul smelling city I've been in by far.

I’m high

Betsy - 137 mph Katrina-175 mph Ida- 150 mph

Man helping nature to survive.

This documentary must be before Katrina

I wanna go to New Orleans someday but during winter as I don't do well with hit humid weather

What year was this documentary made?

I have driven 18000 miles in my car in USA Charlet North Carolina and New Orleans is my favourite from Louisiana that is Battan Rough to N Oreleans I drove from Houston I crossed one of the longest bridge in the world but I love my NEW ORLEON Great place

For Hurricane Katrina I was living in Sebastian, Florida

Anybody here during hurricane Ida

@ 18:55, My Dad, as the video displays a date of 10-5-27, was 15 days young!!!!!!

New Orleans was a amazing French city until August 2005, my god it was awful

I could listen to the lady talking about 49carpents all day long. We have the coolest accents in NOLA and they are disappearing to Kardashian-Paris-Clueless scratchy up-speak. 😭

This shit is depressing. I guess we'll go to Memphis.

"Impregnable" ... hmmm??? Folks thought the Titanic couldn’t sink either. Those maps (39:15) showing the amount of land lost from 1959 - 1993 are staggering!

O! Katrina!

What brand of potatoe was this filmed with

♥️

Why oh why did the city planners not pay attention to this documentary. Katrina's devastation was a direct result of runaway development and a disregard for wetland conservation. I stayed in New Orleans in July 2013, and the view from the plane was chilling. Walking around the city, you can see that the water level damage was up over a person's head. smh

New Orleans like every other major city has its good and bad issues.. They have a lot of culture and history which makes any city a great place to visit and the people are friendly. Things have changed drastically since Katrina. The city of New Orleans will never be the same.

24:35 ok, what year did THAT happen!?

Produced in 2002. Katrina was 2005.

New Orleans is truly a beautiful and historic city! But I think I'll stay here in Tucson. No floods, hurricanes, tornados, forest fires, blizzards, or severe storms. Just heat. ALL the heat!!!🤣

New Orleans sits on hundreds of feet of silt which is extremely soft. The city has subsided (sunk) two feet since it was measured in 1970. Also the city itself is below sea level. The location of New Orleans with the exception of the old French Quarter, has always been untenable from an engineering point of view. Engineering band-aids will only make the problem worse. All the money in the world cannot remove the triple threat of Lake Pontchartrain, the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.