As general manager of the facility since 1997, he had been through this several times before. One of the biggest issues was communication, since landlines weren't working, cell towers were down, and offices were flooded, writes State of Emergency. 2023 Cable News Network. Some people even chose to wear medical masks to ease the smell. The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. Despite the planned use of the Superdome as an evacuation center, government officials at the local, state and federal level were criticized for poor preparation and response, especially Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin, President George W. Bush, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael D. With Hurricane George, it was 36 to 48 hours. This is a national emergency. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Sign up for the For The Win newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning. More women are coming forward with stories of sexual. "Hurricane Katrina survivors in the Superdome." . As a result, thousands of people became stranded at the Superdome, while thousands more ended up on the roofs of their homes as floodwaters reached heights of 20 feet. Brown. He starts off the essay with his own personal account of the damage that Hurricane Katrina left. Some 25,000 crowded into the convention center, while more than 25,000 filled the Superdome. Discovery Company. On the day the storm hit, two sets of notes sat tucked in a drawer . Bloodstains smeared the walls near vending machines that had been pried open. Thousands were looking for a place to go after leaving the Superdome shelter. And food was running short. Rather, the hurricane was named in accordance with the World Meteorological Organizations lists of hurricane names, which rotate every six years. Socialist Alternative writes that police were given the task of "defending the private property of businesses like the GAP and casinos" rather than concentrating on rescuing people. Ive been through a lot of hurricanes. Even though the dome never lost power, air conditioning, and running water during any of those storms, Superdome manager Doug Thornton recommended after Hurricane Georges for the dome to not be used as a shelter for anybody but special-needs evacuees. In fact, the first hurricane-related deaths occurred the day before Katrina struck when three residents died whilst being evacuated to Baton Rouge. Katrina makes landfall near Grand Isle, Louisiana. Levees at various locations in the city had failed, and the pumping stations, overwhelmed with water and damaged by the storm, werent working. Sustained winds of 70 miles (115 km) per hour lashed the Florida peninsula, and rainfall totals of 5 inches (13 cm) were reported in some areas. ", Socialist Alternative writes the budget of the Crops was slashed after 2003, largely to pay for the Iraq War and tax cuts for the wealthy: "A refusal to invest tens of millions of dollars into strengthening levees has led to a catastrophe that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars." [45] However, the Saints announced that they would be returning to New Orleans, with the first home game taking place on September 25, 2006 against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. Photo credit: AP Photo/Eric Gay. A woman walks with a dog in the Lower Ninth Ward on May 16, 2015. Although they were meant to be used for 18 months, they were still in use up to six years after the hurricane. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Is everyone here? . Families torn apart by the storm wouldnt re-connect for months in some cases. [2] Approximately 10,000 residents, along with about 150 National Guardsmen, sheltered in the Superdome anticipating Katrina's landfall. Supplies were running low, and as the National Guard began to ration things like water and diapers the crowd grew incensed and accused them of hoarding goods for their own use. By the evening of August 25, when it made landfall north of the Broward-Miami-Dade county line, it had intensified into a category 1 hurricane. Thornton held a status meeting at 5 p.m. with Lt. Col. Doug Mouton, an old friend who had arrived to take command of the 370 National Guard troops at the Superdome. Outside, there was anarchy. Weve got about an hour of daylight. At their peak, hurricane relief shelters housed 273,000 people. The flooding destroyed New Orleans, the Nation's thirty-fifth largest city. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the public school system of New Orleans was one of the lowest-performing districts in the state of Louisiana. Omissions? He flew on to Gonzales, where his wife was waiting for him. It hit land as a Category 3 storm with winds reaching speeds as high as 120 miles per hour. The population of New Orleans fell from 484,674 in April 2000 to 230,172 in July 2006, a decrease of over 50%. The population of the festering, battered dome had gone from 15,000 to 30,000 in a short time as helicopters and vehicles capable of cutting through the water picked up stranded citizens and brought them to the only place left to go in the entire city. The mass exodus from the Gulf Coast and New Orleans during and after Katrina represented one of the largest and most sudden relocations of people in U.S. history. Three people died one a distraught man who jumped to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. The fact that Black homeowners were more likely to face flooding than white homeowners wasn't an accident or bad luck. Reports of other rapes were widespread. [32] While numerous people told the Times-Picayune that they had witnessed the rape of two girls in the ladies' restroom and the killing of one of them, police and military officials said they knew nothing about the incidents. His home was destroyed. As of August 31, there had been three deaths in the Superdome: two elderly medical patients who were suffering from existing illness, and a man who committed suicide by jumping from the upper level seats. [35], On September 4, NOPD chief Eddie Compass reported, "We don't have any substantiated rapes. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we cant bail out the city of New Orleans.. He said he just wanted to get out, to go somewhere. June 2006 - The Government Accountability Office releases a report that concludes at least $1 billion in disaster relief payments made by FEMA were improper and potentially fraudulent. . NBC News reports that although there were stories of freezers full of bodies, "no such pile of bodies was [ever] found.". And with everyone scattered, it became incredibly difficult to reunite children with their birth parents. And we look up and see a metal beam, a massive beam, that had been windblown into the aluminum siding. The bullet went through his own leg. He didnt realize how bad things are other there, Wells said. 2. Hurricane Katrina made its second and third landfalls in the Gulf Coast region on Monday, August 29, 2005, as a Category 3 hurricane. The storm was coming. Satellite view of the Superdome showing the damaged roof with the New Orleans Arena to the right on August 30, 2005. As a result, according to ESRI, most minority communities ended up living in neighborhoods that were cheaply built and in areas more susceptible to flooding. No one had a better plan, so they agreed to go with Moutons recommendation. Nearly half the fatalities in Louisiana were people over the age of 74. [39] However, that number also counted four bodies that were near the dome. They had no good options. They were taken to the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Baton Rouge. Thousands of displaced residents take cover from Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome in New . His assailant hit him with a metal rod taken from a cot. The tiny jail cell down in the bowels of the Dome, which they kept for game-day security, was filling up. Thornton finally spoke. A violent, free-for-all riot seemed sure to break out with the next bit of bad news. They found a 50-foot fuel line and screwed it into the reserve tank of the generator, then ran it out to the truck, which was parked in several feet of water outside the exterior door. The agency also provided $6.7 billion in recovery aid to more than one million people and households. [30][31], As of August 31, there had been three deaths in the Superdome: two elderly medical patients who were suffering from existing illness, and a man who committed suicide by jumping from the upper level seats. In 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for the design of the levee system in New Orleans, acknowledged that outdated and faulty engineering practices used to build the levees led to most of the flooding that occurred due to Katrina. Many people living in the South Florida area were unaware when Katrina strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane in one day and struck southern Florida on August 25, 2005, near the Miami-Dade - Broward county line. Nearly 56% of the losses occurred in Louisiana and nearly 30% occurred in Mississippi. Though leaving in the light of day would be easier, it could also cause hysteria from those left behind in the Dome. First delivery to the Superdome on August 31, 2005. The 2006 Sugar Bowl, which pitted the University of Georgia Bulldogs against the West Virginia University Mountaineers, was moved from the Superdome to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. They took off running to the concourse, and saw a nightmare come true the roof in one section above the field had been torn off by the wind. A few hours later, at 9:00 AM EDT, reports from inside the dome were that part of the roof was "peeling off" in the violent winds. A refill was supposed to be on the way that day, but opening the door for the fuel truck would flood the room. In the bathrooms, every toilet had ceased to function. In contrast, over half the nursing homes in New Orleans decided against early evacuation. Well, Thornton replied, our generator has 10 inches to spare. An interesting fact about Hurricane Katrina is that to date, it remains the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. "Because medical care for foster children is paid for by in-state Medicaid, accessing prescription drugs was complicated" (per PBS), and many families evacuated out of state. Wind and water damage to the roof created unsafe conditions, leading authorities to conduct emergency evacuations of the Superdome. Cooper housing project. Winds of 125 mph and storm surges of 28 feet devastated much of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. With maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, the storm killed a total of 1,833 people and left millions homeless in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Katrina is the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, inflicting some $125 billion in total damages. He started bawling. In addition, many of the underlying systemic inequalities and problems that resulted in the severity of the disaster still have not been addressed. The Industrial Canal was later breached as well, flooding the neighborhood known as the Lower Ninth Ward. By the time the storm strengthened to a category 3 hurricane, winds exceeded 115 miles per hour. Huge crowds of seething and tense people jammed the main concourse outside the dome hoping to get on the buses to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. [13], On August 31, it was announced that the Superdome evacuees would be moved to the Astrodome in Houston. [41], After the events surrounding Katrina, the Superdome was not used during the 2005 NFL season. A neighborhood east of downtown New Orleans remains flooded on August 30, 2005. And according to Vox, when the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses to help with the evacuation, only 100 were sent in response. The chief of police had been given bad information. He just broke down. Itll be harder to manage them. When Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. Local legend has it the 73,000-seat stadium was built atop a cemetery, cursing the football team that calls it home the Saints to an eternity as cellar-dwellers. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. WATCH:I Was There: Hurricane Katrina: Rescue Swimmer. We need to get these people into the parking garages, where at least they can get out of the building and into some fresh air.. On Wednesday morning, Mouton and Thornton checked the water first thing. Initially, the Superdome was described as a "lawless, depraved, and chaotic" place, with reports of numerous murders. [1], Hurricane Katrina was the third time the dome had been used as a public shelter. Only after Katrina passed were people going to be bussed to shelters. The Society Pages writes that there were six deaths in the Superdome: one by suicide, one by overdose, and four from natural causes. That night a National Guardsmangot jumped as he walked through a dark, flooded locker room. A man in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward rides a canoe in high water on August 31, 2005. The line to get in was already a quarter-mile long. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Black families have also had a harder time rebounding than white families. [36] A group of about 100 tourists were "smuggled" out from the Superdome to the New Orleans Arena next door, where 800 medical needs patients were being held. Deaths in the Superdome. People try to get to higher ground as water rises on August 30, 2005, in New Orleans. At one point, the storm became a Category 5, but weakened before striking land. Though leaving in the light of day would be easier, it could also cause hysteria from those left behind in the Dome. At St. Rita's Nursing Home, residents were reportedly abandoned by the staff, and 35 people drowned as a result. NOLA.com reports that FEMA also "turned away offers of personnel and supplies from the Department of Interior and denied a request from the state Wildlife & Fisheries agency for 300 rubber boats.". Water spills over a levee along the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on August 30, 2005, in New Orleans. The office asked him if he could open up the Superdome as a refuge of last resort for the city of New Orleans.