Inside Hurricane Katrina Page #7

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The floodwaters

are still coming in.

San Diego, 9:
00 A.M.

pacific time.

President Bush sticks to his

previously scheduled agenda.

He arrives in California

from Texas

and gives a speech at

the coronado naval air station,

commemorating

the 60th anniversary.

Of the end of world war two.

After the speech, a white house

spokesman announces

that the president

is cutting short his vacation

and flying back

to Washington tomorrow

to deal with Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans.

Mayor Ray Nagin manages

local relief efforts

from his command post

on the 27th floor

of the downtown Hyatt hotel.

In the first 24 hours

after the disaster,

response time is critical.

But officials at the local,

state and federal levels

have yet to get a clear picture

of the situation.

Chaos in the streets is matched

by chaos in government.

I don't think there was a system

for them to push

the S.O.S. Button, you know,

from the state...

The city, state, local level

that said, "we've got,

we've got a big problem here."

Narrator:
As rescue workers

save people from the floodwaters.

In 90-degree heat,

they bring them here

to the Superdome.

The stadium is now an island

amid the floodwaters.

Trucks with fresh supplies

of food, water, and medicine

cannot approach the building.

The crowd inside

swells to 20,000

and spills outside as well.

Many have now been here

for three days.

Conditions deteriorate

by the hour.

Toilets back up and overflow.

The smell of sewage, sweat

and filth is everywhere.

A similar situation

is developing

one and a half miles away,

here at the New Orleans

convention center.

The city never planned to use it

as an official place of refuge.

But today it's becoming

a spontaneous shelter

for about 25,000 evacuees,

including tourists,

whose hotels were flooded out.

There are no emergency supplies

in the building...

No food, no water, no medicine.

Both the Louisiana

national guard and FEMA

will later acknowledge that,

at this point on Tuesday,

they were unaware that people

were taking shelter here.

My mother and sister

has diabetes real bad,

so I just want them to be safe.

Narrator:
Hundreds of other

people are stranded.

On Bridges and roadways

around New Orleans,

without food, water, or shelter.

Many will remain exposed

to the elements

for days to come.

It's just disgusting

and frustrating,

and we are human beings,

and they're treating us

like we're criminals.

Narrator:
Throughout the city,

chaos reigns.

Looters shatter store windows.

They cart off everything from

food to entire display cases.

The U.S. army corps of engineers

meantime tries

to repair the break

at the 17th street canal

floodwall.

They fly in sandbags

via helicopter

and drop them onto the break.

It doesn't work.

The bags are too small.

The floodwaters carry them off.

And New Orleans

keeps filling with water.

The levees and canal walls,

once the city's great protector,

now trap the floodwaters

inside the city.

New Orleans has

an extensive pump system

to send the floodwaters

into lake pontchartrain

and the Mississippi River...

But most are either broken

or choked with debris.

If this city dies,

it's really going to be

the things that happen

after Katrina.

Narrator:
Tuesday night,

10:
15 P.M.

Governor Kathleen Blanco

calls for the full evacuation

of the Superdome.

With the area

around the stadium flooded,

transportation will be

a slow process.

The plan is for buses

to carry 20,000 people

to the Houston astrodome

and other shelters.

Crowd chanting:

We want help! We want help!

Help us!

Narrator:
Night falls on this

second day after Katrina.

Tens of thousands of people

remain trapped in New Orleans...

Some on the streets

without basic necessities,

others in the Superdome

and convention center.

Wednesday will bring

full-out chaos,

including wild rumors of

widespread murder and gang rape.

And in a country accustomed

to watching its troops

swoop into foreign terrain

and deliver aid,

seemingly at a moment's notice,

people are beginning to wonder:

What's going wrong?

Wednesday, August 31, 2005.

48 hours since Hurricane Katrina

slammed into the Gulf coast.

In a typical hurricane,

relief efforts might already be

under control.

But the scale of this disaster

is unprecedented.

New Orleans.

According to FEMA, floodwaters

keep its supply trucks

from entering the city.

FEMA will also later report

that over the next several days

it has trouble communicating

with local and state officials,

and, quote, "doesn't know

where critical help is needed,"

unquote.

In the Superdome,

20,000 evacuees

now wait for buses

to take them to Houston.

When the Tsunami happened,

when the hurricane

was going on in Florida,

they ran over there to help 'em.

Here we're in our own town, and

they will not give us nothing!

Narrator:
10:40 A.M.

President Bush takes off

on air force one,

headed back to Washington.

He asks the pilot to fly low

over the hurricane zone.

Down below,

tens of thousands of people

pack shelters

across three states...

All hoping

to return home quickly.

Many do whatever it takes

to get by.

Mobile, Alabama.

Survivors are salvaging

whatever they can,

picking through what was once

this family's living room.

In New Orleans there's

still no electricity.

Survivors bake in the sweltering

90-degree heat.

Man:
No water. No food.

No food.

We got babies out here.

We got handicapped people.

People are dying

in the building.

We're starving out here.

Narrator:
General Russel Honore

has now arrived in New Orleans.

To head up

U.S. military efforts.

The general leaps into action.

Narrator:
Mayor Ray Nagin

tells a radio interviewer.

That he's pleased

with Honore's deployment.

Narrator:
General Honore regards

the crisis here in New Orleans.

As much more challenging

than the one in Mississippi.

The big difference

is Mississippi didn't have

standing water.

They didn't have coms,

they didn't have roads,

but the water went back to sea.

In the case of New Orleans,

it created this big tub of water

right in the center.

Narrator:
Relief efforts

are still in disarray.

Mayor Nagin predicts

the death toll

in New Orleans alone

will be in the thousands.

Over the next two days,

Louisiana officials begin

predicting 10,000 dead.

Helicopters carry wounded

and sick evacuees here

to Louis Armstrong airport,

which is fast becoming

a makeshift hospital.

Man:
I've never seen anything

like this before.

Everyone's doing

the best that they can.

We need Insulin.

Narrator:
As the day wears on,

the looting intensifies.

Mayor Nagin orders police to

stop search-and-rescue missions

and focus on law and order.

Drop it! Hey, stupid, drop it!

Narrator:
Some steal to survive.

They said we could come in

and get the necessities.

I don't have any clothes

or nothin'.

I'm just getting food.

Narrator:
Others simply

take advantage of the situation.

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