Five Years After Hurricane Katrina
Five years ago today, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast region, crashing through the levees that held the waters of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet at bay from the city of New Orleans. Overnight, 80 percent of New Orleans was submerged. To this day, only a fraction of residents in the hardest hit areas, like the Lower Ninth Ward, have returned to their homes.
Today, in partnership with ABC 26 (WGNO), a local television station in New Orleans, we commemorate the anniversary of Katrina with a selection of videos on our homepage from New Orleans residents.
Many of you have taken this anniversary as an occasion to upload videos to YouTube about the disaster and where things stand today, from never-before-seen footage shot in 2005 of the hurricane itself to stories of what it was like to leave your home of more than 50 years behind.
Some videos showed how much work is left to be done, like this one from the Ninth Ward, narrated by a resident returning home to survey the damage five years later:
Others discovered relics left behind but not forgotten:
And some chose to honor their city and its resilient spirit through song:
If you lived through Hurricane Katrina, we still welcome your reflections. Please submit your videos using YouTube Direct on ABC 26’s website. A selection of videos will also be featured on abc26.com, ABC 26’s YouTube channel, and broadcast on ABC 26 (WGNO).
Olivia Ma, News Manager, recently watched “Rebirth Brass Band: Do Watcha Wanna (in the French Quarter)”
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4 comments:
Please view my heartfelt original video dedicated to those affected by HURRICANE KATRINA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYVTgfMuAJA
No one hasseemed to comment yet, so I suppose I will be the first.
One thing I would like to say is thank you, YouTube, for remembering what happened today, and more importantly, the impact that it left on all of the days to follow. New Orleans was not the only place Katrina struck, as a lot of people fail to realize. When the Hurricane made landfall, it was in fact on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi. The winds knocked down the levies, which in turn flooded New Orleans, but we were also bombarded by the winds and 30 foot tidal surges on the shore.
I myself lived in Gulfport, Mississippi when it happened; I was in 7th grade at the time. My dad was a police officer for the GPD, so he had to stay behind and do his part to help the city and the people who chose to stay behind. My mother and I evacuated towards Vicksburg, which manifested itself as a nine hour drive through constant traffic. We reached my aunts at nightfall, and even three hours northward, the winds were ravenous and tore down the electricity. We maintained ourselves for two weeks, completely stripped of communication to the outside world, not knowing if my dad was even still alive. When we did leave the house after the initial strike, debris of trees lay strewn across the yard and further on. Surveying the city, we saw sights such as lines of cars piled up to get gasoline.
On our way back to our actual residence, we encountered several checkpoints, checking for innoculation and such; no one was allowed onto the beach unless you lived there. Signs reading "You loot, we shoot" littered yards, the highway was choked with debris from the ocean and buildings, and that which would have been buildings were no longer; desolation stretched as far as the eye could see. From what I heard, during evacuation, multiple shrimp and chicken companies left their storage on the coast, causing a post-disaster sickness to float through the coast known as 'Katrina Cough'. Once we finally got home, the grace of God had taken us up with loving arms, as we arrived to a smiling officer in a still-standing home.
For about a month, there was no electricity or plumbing, and food was limited to rations and dried foods. Poptarts and beer seemed to be the hot commodities, as everyone could be seen enjoying them. 'Meals-on-Wheels' trucks cycled through neighborhoods, delivering daily food stuffs to families. Ironically, Wal*Mart maintained their 24/7 policy, despite a foot of water, lack of power, and scarcity of shelved items. 'Tent cities' littered the parkinglot where families erected makeshift homes to live in, should they have been unfortunate enough to lose their estates. My dad apparently ran a shelter out of a school nearby our home, and from the experience, he shared with me many heroic and breathtaking stories that awed my naive and young mind. The success of his work gave me the opportunity to meet an ever gracious Faith Hill, whom donated a plethora of items to his shelter. Despite all of the damage and ruin of stores, the refugees of Katrina were themselves storehouses of optimism and graditude.
While Hurricane Katrina was an infamous day in my life, I will remember it as a day of oscilation; I came to realize more of the world from this experience. From the wreckage of our city came the hope of a better tomorrow. Never had I seen people cooperate as I did then, helping their neighbors, cleaning the streets, and doing what they could to comfort others. I realized that there was so much more to life than what was right in front of me, and while it did change me in a dramatic way, respectfully, it helped me become the person I am today.
To those who have survived Katrina, as well as those who share condolences through sympathy, participation, or experience, God bless. Thank you for everything you have done, and may we remember this day not for what happened, but for what our world has become because of it.
-'Nacho'
Any of you remember how Bush practically acted like nothing happened and how the victims had to rely on other countries (which includes AFGHANISTAN out of all countries) because their own country's president practically ignored them? Yeah, real great president, wasn't he?
I agree with you but from my personal experience, it bought 10000 Youtube video Views from www.socialkik.com and they added them to my video in a little over 1 month. All the views appeared to be real and some of them turned out to be active subscribers.
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