Inside Hurricane Katrina Page #6

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Then, near the mirabeau Avenue

bridge,

the walls on the east side

of this canal collapse.

Floodwaters cascade

into the city.

10:
30 A.M.

The levee wall

along the West Side

of the London Avenue canal

now fails.

So does the eastern levee

on the 17th street canal,

near the old

Hammond Highway bridge.

That breach sends floodwaters

into the Western portion

of Orleans Parish.

The average home in New Orleans

is drowning in six to nine feet

of standing water.

Wagenaar:

Everything was damaged.

I didn't see one thing

that was not damaged...

One house, one business.

I particularly noticed that

almost every roof was damaged.

And I knew at that point

we had a big problem.

Narrator:
Rescuers are now heading

out into the floodwaters.

Among them,

New Orleans police officers

Dwayne and Darryl Scheuermann.

Dwayne Scheuermann:

We started receiving reports.

That there was just

hundreds and hundreds of people

stranded in attics and on roofs.

Narrator:
New Orleans times-picayune

photographer Alex Brandon.

Joins the Scheuermann brothers

and documents

the search-and-rescue mission.

Dwayne Scheuermann: We decide at

that point to make our way down.

We had to take a chainsaw

and the entire SWAT team

to clear a path

because of all the oak trees

that were down.

There's already people

inside their roofs and attics

yelling for help.

Scheuermann:
At that point,

you say to yourself,

and you're looking

at what you know,

when you used to patrol it,

as the lower ninth ward

was now a lake...

It just so happened

it was full of houses...

And you said,

"this is gonna be bad."

We pulled up to a roof

to rescue a young man,

and he waved us off

and said "look, I'm fine."

But there's some old people

in that house right there."

And as we pulled up,

there was an elderly couple,

i would guess they were probably

in their 70s,

in a single-story dwelling.

Narrator:
Throughout the day,

the Scheuermanns,

along with Brandon,

go from house to house

to rescue the young,

the old and the poor.

Brandon:
I'd take a picture,

and I'd set the camera down,

and I'd help the person

in the boat.

I'd take a picture,

I'd set the camera down,

and help the person in the boat.

These poor people...

Their strength is just gone.

Narrator:

Gratitude is immediate.

At one point,

Brandon photographs

entertainer fats domino

moments after his rescue

from his house.

General Honore regards Katrina

as a worthy adversary.

Honore:
What this storm did was

a classic military operation.

The storm gathered strength,

attacked the coast

of Louisiana and Mississippi

with overwhelming force.

One of the things

in a military attack

you'd want to do

is to cut the enemy's

ability to communicate.

It took out all cell phone

and regular phone services.

The other thing this storm did

is it cut the road network.

Man:
It's totally flooded out

down there.

Honore:

As this storm moved north,

it protected its left flank

by leaving a flood.

Man:
Yeah, it's [Beep]

This whole place

is going underwater.

Honore:
Again,

a classic military attack;

take the enemy's eyes out,

take his ears out,

then fix him

so he can't maneuver.

Narrator:
Katrina has declared

war on the Gulf coast.

She is winning handily.

Man:
Downtown New Orleans

is trashed.

Narrator:
1:00 P.M.

At this moment, npr reaches one

of its reporters, John Burnett,

at his hotel room

in New Orleans.

Burnett and

many other journalists

are unaware of the levee breaks.

Burnett:
It was just

the best eventuality.

Of the worst possible scenario.

They dodged the bullet, but they

still got a sound bruising.

The media were what people

relied on back in Washington

to get a picture

of what was going on there.

And when the report was

that everything looked ok

on Monday afternoon,

that's the impression that was

conveyed back in Washington.

Narrator:
To the east,

once Katrina passes,

the damage is shocking.

Off the coast

of mobile, Alabama,

Katrina has rattled this

oil platform from its mooring.

Biloxi, Mississippi.

A 911 dispatcher is talking

to a hurricane victim.

Woman:
We gonna get you

outta there.

You need to calm down now.

Man:
Like to have drowned

in my house.

My house is totally gone.

Narrator:
The floating gambling

barges in biloxi and gulfport.

Have taken a direct hit.

Katrina hurled the grand casino

in gulfport

150 yards onto U.S. 90.

The region's gambling industry

is out of luck.

So are many homeowners.

Man:
We lost everything.

I don't even know

if my kids are alive, man!

Man:
I couldn't believe my eyes.

Everything was gone.

People were just coming

out of their homes

with a dazed look

on their faces.

Their neighbors in many cases

were, were just gone.

Narrator:
Monday afternoon.

Nature's fury

and the politics of disaster

are on a collision course.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

FEMA director Michael Brown

reports back

to both homeland security

and the white house.

The scope of the natural

disaster is unprecedented.

Relief efforts in New Orleans

are uncoordinated.

Brown has concluded

that Louisiana is incapable

of handling the crisis.

As night falls, some survivors

wade through the brackish water

as corpses float by.

This evening,

an abc news correspondent

on the scene in New Orleans

reports that the levees have

only overtopped, not broken.

Just how wrong such reports are

will become abundantly clear

over the next 24 hours.

Tuesday, August 30, 2005.

As the morning sun illuminates

the shattered Gulf coast,

early risers in other parts

of the country

are greeted with

surprisingly good news.

A New York times headline.

Is one of many reports

expressing relief:

"Escaping feared

knockout punch, barely,"

it says, "New Orleans is

one lucky big mess."

Here's the real scene

Tuesday morning in New Orleans.

Floodwaters cover 80 percent

of the greater New Orleans area.

In the city alone,

Katrina has destroyed

at least 200,000 homes.

Survivors navigate

through the city...

On top of a mattress...

In a tub... or on a crude raft.

Cars, houses, street signs

are all submerged

in a muddy brown layer of water,

gas, sewage, and chemicals.

Thousands of desperate residents

are trapped in their homes,

chased by the rising waters

into attics,

breaking through

to their rooftops.

They wait and pray for help.

A depleted police force

struggles to come

to the city's aid.

Police will later report

that 249 officers deserted their

posts during the hurricane.

You know they left us

at the most critical time

in the city.

Um, it hurt us bad.

It really did.

Narrator:
And yet, rescue

missions are in full swing.

Leading the charge...

The U.S. Coast Guard,

national guard units,

FEMA search-and-rescue teams,

and the Louisiana department

of wildlife and fisheries.

Even in the midst

of a communications blackout,

they pluck the stranded

off rooftops

and motor up

to their flooded homes.

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