Support for Louisiana.

The state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

20 years ago today, Louisiana changed forever.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall August 29th, 2005, near Plaquemines Parish.

Within hours, the levees broke, sending up to 20ft of water pouring in to the city of New Orleans.

The storm reshaped Louisiana's landscape, demographics, and culture changes that reverberate to this day.

Hello everyone, I'm Karen LeBlanc.

On this week's edition of Louisiana, The State We're In, we are marking the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with an in-depth report.

During and after Katrina, evacuations forced New Orleans news media off the air.

There was no way for reporters to relay lifesaving information until LPB got a knock at the door.

It was an unlikely partnership between commercial and public media that allowed critical information to remain on the air continuously, and it began a professional friendship with US and WWL TV that continues to this day.

Dorothy Wilson has more.

When Katrina made landfall, its winds and water shredded southeast Louisiana.

But when the levees failed, the catastrophe grew worse.

New Orleans drowned.

Homes vanished.

Lives were lost and without power.

Communications crumbled.

For WWL TV, it was personal.

The city's CBS affiliate on air for decades suddenly lost its tower, its studio and its signal due to looming evacuations.

It was a tense time.

Lycos and I were on the air.

I think it was around 10 or 1030 that night that the storm came in.

And around around that time, 10 or 1030, they came up to the studio, said, you have to get out.

We're all going to the hotel because the storm is here.

Storm is arriving.

So we evacuated the station at that point and went to the Hyatt Hotel for the reporters and anchors of WWL.

The storm was more than a story.

It was their own lives unraveling.

Many had lost homes.

Some were separated from family.

But the desire to get the information out to viewers weighed heavily on them.

They knew that in the middle of chaos, their words could mean safety or even survival.

Flooding was everywhere.

Yeah, people were on rooftops.

People were standing in water that was waist deep.

Others were in windows waving, trying to get, attention from people.

Rescuers who were in boats going out to save people, pulled people out of windows and that kind of thing.

And as a reporter, it was it was almost overwhelming because there was so much that was going on.

I mean, everywhere you looked, there were some incredible, horrible scene.

And, it was a lot to take in.

It was really a lot to take in.

WWL news director Sandy Breeland faced an impossible choice.

She saw the exhaustion in her team's eyes.

But she also knew the danger of silence.

Her decision was clear.

Keep her newsroom on air no matter where they had to broadcast from.

It wasn't just journalism.

It was a mission.

Just 70 miles up I-10, Louisiana Public Broadcasting was watching LPB.

Then CEO Beth Courtney understood that during disasters.

Information saves lives.

Beth worked out a special deal with the FCC that we could put them live on our third channel.

And that was the first time I'd ever seen that happen.

That was amazing.

So when they would go live for their newscast, it was seen state where because people evacuated from New Orleans and went all over the state and WWL moved in.

Current LPB CEO Casey Copeland recalls being caught by surprise when WWL showed up, but he didn't hesitate to take action.

And we look up at the cameras because we can monitor who's on the you know coming in.

And there's two guys.

So I told the mass control operator said you know continue what you're doing.

Let me go check to see who's at the front door.

So that's when I went down and that's where it all started.

LPB opened its doors, its studios, even its transmitters, a commercial broadcaster and a public station.

Two worlds that rarely touched.

Now working side by side in makeshift studios, WWL anchors delivered evacuation orders, shelter updates and messages of hope.

LPB engineers worked shoulder to shoulder with WWL staff, improvising around the clock to keep the signal alive.

I have been amazed at our coworkers from WWL.

They are going round the clock not stopping doing extra shifts coming in early.

And all the while they have family members that they're looking for.

They have homes that have been totally lost that they still have no word about.

They've inspired me.

There are many nights of camping out on the floors and in the halls.

This wasn't just about television.

It was about trust and survival.

LPB not being a new station.

A lot of the staff here got a chance to see how a news organization operates in like, critical times or during disasters in a disaster defined by isolation.

The partnership between WWL and LPB proved that local journalism was still a lifeline.

In fact, it was more than local by keeping New Orleans as trusted voices on the air.

The partnership carried urgent news far beyond Louisiana's borders.

WWL anchors had no idea of the impact they were making.

Streaming live coverage on your website had just started.

I remember Tom Paul Shea who was our digital director.

He and I were in sports together and he came in and I go, yeah, whatever.

And I'm in.

We are we changed, charged with or not had chains.

Might say, who cares?

He goes, I don't know if you know this, but since we've been on, we've had more than a million people streaming our coverage.

Everybody is watching our coverage.

We're the only station on the air.

This is prior to even the benefits of LPB.

That statewide coverage of the LPB in the region and Texas and everywhere.

So it's beyond that.

It was before.

This is since the storm boom.

You could watch our coverage.

And I was like, well, what do we say?

Images of devastation, pleas for help and stories of survival spread across the nation.

And the world.

And that coverage brought something more attention, compassion and ultimately aid from people around the globe who answered Louisiana's call.

It was rudimentary journalism at its best.

You will never have an opportunity to be a journalist like that.

Again, it was pure.

It was unfiltered.

It was what you saw.

It wasn't pretty, but it was.

And we all knew at that point one of the things that was, that was really important, I think, is that we stayed on the air.

We never went off the air.

And even though even after we couldn't really people didn't have TVs, you know, they didn't have cable or anything like that.

But we were on the internet so people could watch us.

You know, in Georgia, in Atlanta, you know, places like that where a lot of people had evacuated so many people from New Orleans who had evacuated, could stay in touch with what was going on.

And it wasn't the only news that found refuge inside of LPB.

New Orleans's beloved community radio station was also moved into the Baton Rouge studios, known as the heartbeat of the city's music.

WWL kept the sound of New Orleans alive even while its streets stood silent.

You know, it really is that land of dreams.

There's no other hearing that music was more than entertainment.

It was comfort.

It was a reminder that the soul of the city still played.

On being able to bring to our listening audience some programing of, of some sort of any sort, whether it was prerecorded or done live.

Was was a big boost.

But it's, it meant a lot for us to be able to come here and say, you know, New Orleans is is still alive.

LPB has been such, a wonderful source for information not only nationally, internationally, but but locally.

For weeks, the partnerships endured.

And when WWL finally rebuilt the bond with LPB remained.

Broadcasters nationwide hailed the collaboration as a model, proof that when competition is set aside, service to the public can rise above all else.

And there are countless stories that can testify to that truth.

My daughter was going to, graduate school in, in in Washington, D.C. what happened was, she she went to a gas station, and she had, she had a car with Louisiana license plates, and she's in Washington, D.C.. And she's pumping or pumping gas, and someone says, are you from Louisiana?

She said, y'all from New Orleans.

Go put for you.

It was an emotional time.

Nearly 20 years later, the story still resonates out of the silence of Katrina.

WWL and LPB created a signal of hope, a reminder that in the worst of times, the mission of local journalism endures to inform, to protect and to connect us all.

As the devastation along the Gulf Coast unfolded.

It became clear that Louisiana needed a strong leader.

In comes Lieutenant General Russel Honoré to take charge of the chaos.

He was the one that could handle logistics.

And he got those long awaited evacuations moving.

Some called calling the Cajun John Wayne, and we all appreciated him.

Dorothea shut down with the retired general to reflect on the storm and the progress that Louisiana has made since then.

One.

Can you believe that Katrina has been 20 years ago?

Yeah.

In some ways.

And then look like it was just yesterday.

Now, looking back 20 years, what are your most vivid memories?

I guess, the most vivid one that come to mind was arriving in New Orleans on the Navy helicopter and circling the Superdome on Wednesday morning with sort of had some TV clips of what was happening on Monday.

Tuesday.

We drove to, from Atlanta to Camp Shelby, Mississippi.

And Wednesday morning I flew into New Orleans.

And that first sight of flying over New Orleans east, seeing the homes, already underwater to the rooftops, out and then past the port and seeing dozens and maybe hundreds of them, yellow school busses and industrial equipment sitting at the port.

But all you can see was just a little yellow top of them.

Then proceeded to the Superdome, and we made two turns around the Superdome.

And looking down at those thousands of people standing up at the Superdome, that, that, that site will always stay with me.

And after seeing that, what thoughts or emotions or even feelings went through your mind, seeing our city in that state?

This was going to be a logistics operation.

Yeah.

Provide food, water and moving people out of the water, then moving the water out of the city.

This was a major logistics operation and something we pretty good at in the military, working with the state and local officials.

We could get this done.

It was just a function whether it's going to be hours or days.

What was the most difficult decision that you had to make during that time?

Well after I talked to the mayor, flew to Baton Rouge and, had a warm greeting from our governor and, to get the evacuation done in New Orleans and provide food and water and medicine to people.

That was a priority which aligned with what the mayor was saying.

We went about doing that.

There had been some plans in place already.

FEMA was already on the ground in Baton Rouge by Wednesday.

FEMA director, Michael Brown was there.

And after I saw the governor, I went in and saw, Administrator Brown in his command vehicle, and he welcomed me again and said, this is your seat.

You're going to sit right next to me.

And that was my first point of saying no.

Oh, because he wanted me to stay in Baton Rouge with him.

And I said, no, I'm not doing that.

I'm going back to New Orleans.

But we will put somebody here to make sure we got unity of command.

Yeah, because I was with the National Guard on the ground in New Orleans.

They had a lead.

They had a general there at the Superdome.

So I could talk to him, and I could pick up the phone and talk to General Landry, known and Adjutant General.

And then I knew immediately one of the key pieces we were missing was a majority of the Louisiana National Guard was in Iraq.

So we had to backfill that.

We had a burden to do everything we could in the Department of Defense to help the state of Louisiana, because the National Guard had been mobilized to do combat operations right.

We had to take care and do whatever we can to take care of the people of Louisiana, Mississippi.

And dealing with that was was hard enough from.

The other thing was to balance the priority that the governor told me and she said, tell the president to send everything he's got.

I had to do what the mission required.

Yeah, not necessarily the way it was asked for, that the priority was to get people out of the city and not bring more people to the city.

Right.

Because everybody we would bring to the city while we're trying to evacuate would need food and water, because everything had to come in.

With the river close, most of the highways closed because of flooding and airports closed.

So you used the helicopter, itty bitty boats to get things where you need to.

And we still doing search and rescue.

The president made his decision around 9:00 Saturday morning, and the federal troops started to flow in Saturday afternoon 20 years ago.

And now do you see that there have been any improvements made or, the disaster response?

Oh, absolutely.

Katrina, was a game changer.

It was a game changer, for states to work hard on evacuation.

People saw the value of evacuation.

People feel a lot of attention to that.

Now, the other big improvements, I think will me is, they put a flood protection city system around the city of New Orleans, which, I mean, is a big upgrade to the levees.

Put some locks in, and then we doubled the size of FEMA after Katrina.

And now FEMA has a Reserve Corps and FEMA, during major disasters where it's a predicted event like hurricanes and floods, they will do preparedness move day pre deploy search and rescue teams.

That that technique was refined after Katrina.

And FEMA stopped moving.

Generators near the storm.

That's the preparedness phase.

So once the storm land and the response phase and the governor say we need generators, food and water and helicopters, they've already pre-positioned them.

So speaking of, you know, communicating with the powers that be and are offering your expertise.

And do you think during the time of Katrina that you received a lot of opposition for from political leaders at the time, or, you know, they kind of went with your suggestions?

No, I mean that that was understood clearly.

My mission was to work for the politician.

You work for the same.

You elected officials?

And sometimes you give them what they need and not necessarily what they asked for.

Sure.

Yeah.

You and me all the way.

He wanted to do it.

This whole aspect of focusing on security after Katrina we were doing presence patrol for safety.

Yes.

But that gets the mission done without violating the law.

General, thank you so much.

I appreciate your time, your wisdom, and you being here with me today.

Hurricane Katrina scattered families across Louisiana and beyond, uprooting entire communities overnight.

Nearly two decades later, in a quiet Pearl River neighborhood called Sawmill Creek, former residents of Saint Bernard Parish have rebuilt more than houses.

They've rebuilt a sense of home.

Their stories capture the largest diaspora in American history and the resilience of a people bound by roots, memory and community.

The neighborhood Saw Mill Creek in Pearl River lies northeast of Chalmette, separated by a 60 mile drive.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, dozens of displaced residents from Saint Bernard Parish settled here.

20 years later, they have recreated a community.

Neighbors of Sawmill Creek.

I want to thank you all so much for coming out to share your story.

Sawmill Creek is a microcosm of the diaspora caused by Hurricane Katrina.

The neighbors who gathered at Tony Colombo's home found community and shared experiences and common roots in Chalmette.

Some went to high school together or attended the same church.

None knew each other directly until fate brought them together.

This is my house right here.

You can see marsh grass on the roof and everything.

My house is completely flooded, and, people wasn't going back.

So we decided that we weren't going back either.

Tony Colombo is a fourth generation resident of Saint Bernard Parish.

Katrina scattered his extended family, including his children and his grandchildren, who resettled in other cities.

Can't say I don't miss Saint Bernard.

I do.

I love living here.

I'm Michel met, but it's not the same over there.

It's not the same.

And the reason I've picked here.

I want to find a place that it don't flood.

John and Jacqueline Mondello had just finished remodeling their home in Chalmette.

Katrina drowned his home in 16ft of water.

I never had a chance to even say I wanted to go back to Chalmette.

It would have let me, because of my house was destroyed.

If you look at that picture real close, you can't fix that.

I've been blessed to be given an opportunity to rebuild at my age at that time.

So.

But, and everybody here in this subdivision, it's fantastic.

You know, it's like coming home.

Except not being in Chalmette.

Jodi Campeau worked as an hour in that Chalmette Medical Center.

He lost his home while struggling to save lives.

People were dying.

We put them on the roof so they can get some air.

All of us nurses were carrying people from the bottom floor to the top floor to fly them out.

And they all didn't make it.

But we did the best we could from our lot.

I flew on a Chinook and got up way in the air, and as far as I could see, there was water.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the storm caused 125 billion in damage.

That's about 200 billion in today's dollars, making it the costliest disaster in American history.

We came home.

There is no home.

It's gray.

It's dark.

It's like spooky.

There's nothing green.

Hurricane Katrina displaced families whose roots in Saint Bernard stretched back for generations.

According to the 2000 U.S. census.

The parish had approximately 67,000 residents, reflecting its role as a growing New Orleans suburb.

By 2020, the census counted about 44,000 people, marking a 35% population decline since Katrina.

My whole family was in Chalmette and everybody was displaced.

My mother was the oldest of 15 and all her brothers and sisters lived there.

More than half of them went to Baton Rouge.

It was awful because we were just such a close family and then they were not here.

Barbara was the first former resident of Chalmette to move into Saw Mill Creek.

We went back to our house.

Which was about a month later.

We had 12ft of water.

It was like Jody, said gray.

When we walked in that day that they let everybody in.

All the neighbors came.

I was feeling so sorry for myself and they were all my neighbors and they had gone through the same thing.

You couldn't feel sorry for yourself.

It was unparalleled in American history, this sort of mass movement of so many people so quickly.

And it was a truly kind of astounding event.

Doctor Michael Martin is the head of the Department of History, philosophy and geography at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

It certainly shifted population within the state.

Immediately, Baton Rouge became the largest city in the state.

Do you know 100,000 people moved to Baton Rouge in a weekend?

Do you understand that impact to Baton Rouge?

According to the U.S. census, between 2000 and 2020, the Baton Rouge region's population increased by 44%, gaining over 267,000 residents.

Hurricane Katrina accelerated this growth when Baton Rouge absorbed tens of thousands of displaced residents from the New Orleans area.

Katrina was really more of an accelerator and in many ways, kind of a one time shift that moved us much further down a long term trend of brain drain and and challenges and growing the population, growing the economy.

It was absolutely a huge shock to in terms of population loss.

But it also kind of accelerated and revealed some of the underlying trends in a new way, that we've wrestled with ever since.

In its final hours before approaching landfall, Katrina took a turn to the east and made landfall as a category three storm, downgraded from its originally forecasted category five strength.

Louisiana thought it dodged a bullet, but then the levees broke.

53 levee breaches a massive failure of the federal levee system.

We were high fiving somewhat celebrate.

And then a few hours later, the flooding started and then all hell broke loose.

The storm directly impacted 930 schools and more than 480,000 students and teachers.

Many didn't have homes or schools to return to.

We opened up the schools in November, a day because we hit oil refineries and people came back and had no place for their kids to go.

Same for not every house, but one was devastated by the fall.

But Storm Sandra worked for the Saint Bernard Parish School Board and was living in Arabi when Katrina hit.

She has since settled in Slidell.

They cleaned up one of the things, which is Chalmette High School, and they put a portable trailers.

It was preschool through 12.

Whether it was K-12 education, higher education, employment, everything was, dismantled.

People were really, hurting and there was so much trauma.

Doctor Kim Hunter Reed, current commissioner of higher Education, served as the deputy chief of staff for Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco when Hurricane Katrina hit.

Institutions were opening their doors, labeling our students as visiting scholars and said, we don't care if you don't have a transcript, you don't have an application fee.

Come be a part of our schools, and then we'll send you back when your school is ready.

So this idea that we were going to help ourselves and help each other no matter what, I think that is also a legacy in humanity and how we support each other.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana's higher education system implemented need based aid to make education more accessible.

Building on former Governor Kathleen Blanco's belief that education is the path to prosperity, online classes are now integral to the state's educational infrastructure.

Louisiana exists in a perpetual state of recovery from a succession of storms, including Hurricane Rita on the heels of Katrina, Laura, Ida Francene, and the Great Flood of 2016.

I'm teaching a Katrina at 20 class here at UL in the fall, and I'm realizing that a lot of my students do not have that reference point.

Liz Skilton is an associate professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

She wrote a book about hurricane naming practices and researches how people understand, talk about, and remember storms.

It was the largest diaspora in American history in terms of the number of people that end up in all 50 states of the United States.

And the first major national disaster in the terms of federal support and funding that comes afterwards.

And I think 20 years is this kind of perfect moment to add, this moment to really start to think about that long term impact.

Hurricane Katrina was a defining moment for Louisiana, reshaping state policy, the environment, culture and community in ways you could have ever imagined.

For the generation born in its aftermath.

The storm altered the course of many lives.

Saw Mill Creek reflects Louisianans deep bonds to family and community, a rootedness hard to replicate but not impossible.

I love it here.

I feel safe.

And my daughter has since passed.

But this community here is like Chalmette.

It's Chalmette, so on and off.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Governor Jeff Landry has issued an executive order officially marking August 29th as Hurricane Katrina remembrance Day to honor the 1833 lives lost and the ongoing challenges caused by the storm.

In an exclusive interview with LPB, the governor recalled the uncertainty in the hours after Katrina made landfall and the evolution of disaster response and his vision for building a stronger Louisiana.

Here's part one of my interview.

Governor Jeff Landry, we want to thank you so much for taking time to sit down with LPB and look back 20 years since Hurricane Katrina.

Lessons learned, perspectives and where we're going to go from here.

And so the first question, everybody wonders is where were you when Hurricane Katrina hit and what was going through your mind?

Well, you know, I grew up, in Saint Martinville near Lafayette.

And at the time that Katrina struck, Sharon and I were living in New Iberia.

So we were actually in New Iberia and in Acadian, during Katrina, we were living actually living in Lafayette.

I remember waking up, early, early in the morning and watching the radar and and seeing the storm, cross, the tip of the bayou, Louisiana.

And I thought to myself, this is not going to be good.

What went through your mind?

I mean, you served in the Louisiana National Guard, and then they were activated.

And then as the news reports started rolling in the levees broke in New Orleans, Saint Bernard Parish under water.

Well, I think, you know, for me, as as someone who served in Louisiana and as your lord and as a police officer, that lag time that I talked to you about, was the thing that it really drove my biggest curiosity.

I was like, well, I don't understand what happened between the time that the storm passed.

And then all of a sudden, there was this period in which you knew you were going to have a recovery effort, but things went from bad to worse in that moment in time.

And so what was going through my mind was exactly like what happened at the time.

The federal government's response was slow, and there was this realization that the Calvary wasn't coming to save us, and that that was in part due to the fact that the federal government didn't quite understand Louisiana, who we were.

Our vulnerabilities.

Let's fast forward 20 years later.

You have a great relationship with the Trump administration.

Do you believe the federal government has a better understanding and appreciation for Louisiana?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, think about the different think about the evolution of FEMA from Katrina.

And you got to remember right after Katrina, there was Rita, like in the same year, two very, very devastating storms.

I think Katrina takes center stage because of the population, center that is affected.

But I believe that FEMA evolved storm after storm since that time, I think the federal government really started to understand the assets that they needed to be able to put in place in order to support states.

I have all the confidence in the world that the Trump administration understands that since Katrina, the bureaucracy that has evolved inside of FEMA is now dysfunctional.

Right.

So where whereas FEMA in the federal government was slow to respond at the beginning, since that time, the ability to respond has actually created bureaucratic, obstacles that I think impede states and FEMA's ability to get assets in place, in position and in executed so that it's helping its citizens out.

I mean, look, even today, there's almost $800 million still not spent from Katrina.

And so I think that the Trump administration understands, I don't think that the president wants to make sure that if we're going to spend a dollar, that people need that dollar yesterday, not in five years, not in ten years, not in 20 years.

So because the president understands that and you have a good relationship with the president, one of the possible solutions to better fund coastal restoration is to go to the federal government and ask for a larger share of the go, make some money.

That's the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act funds.

That's the oil and gas revenue that the federal government gets and gives Gulf Coast states a share.

You are in a position to go ask for more.

Will you do it?

Well, I was in a position to ask for more back in 2010 when I got elected to Congress and served on the Transportation Infrastructure Committee and Natural Resources.

And actually at that time, I actually worked with then Senator Mary Landrieu and Senator David Vitter to to expand the cap on Gomez, because it is patently unfair, for states like Alaska and Wyoming and Colorado and Utah and other states that have large federal, footprints, federal land footprints, and those states receive 50% of the royalties off of extracted minerals on those properties.

I do believe, and every chance we've gotten, we've spoken about continuing to lift the cap.

And I believe we're getting more money in the big, beautiful bill that was just signed.

And really and truly, it's a question for Congress.

Congress needs to give us that money.

It's unfair that other states that hold huge, chunks of federal land get 50%.

Louisiana gets 30 and 35%.

But yet we cap our 30 at 35%.

If we'd be getting 35% the entire amount, we would have plenty enough money to fix our coast to fund the coast, which is our perpetual problem because our method of funding has been so far to use primarily one time funds, disaster relief funds, BP oil spill funds, and that is a challenge for this state.

Do you see a solution there, a more stable, consistent source of funding for our coast?

The BP oil spill, the Deepwater Horizon funds, those will expire, fairly soon.

Well, I think if we spend, look, my hope is that if we take the BP money and we spend it wisely, and we can show that we're actually putting in place projects that make a difference, that protect the vital infrastructure, that the nation relies on, because we've got a tremendous amount of energy infrastructure that we need to protect.

So coastal protection does a number of things.

Coastal protection and hurricane protection are synonymous.

They are one in the same.

And then it's also infrastructure protection.

So it protects the vital infrastructure that are in it that our nation depends on which is the energy infrastructure.

And so I think if we are able to show the federal government and to Congress how we've spent one time cash injection, such as the BP money, in conjunction with the additional go make some money that we're using, then yeah, we should be able to make the argument that, hey, we need more money and they should be giving us more money.

We are in a in a place where some say climate change is intensifying storms.

Do you factor in climate change and you're defiant?

I think it's important.

That's a great listen.

I think it's a great question.

If you have to first define climate change, the world for a million plus years has undergone very devastating and impactful changes in its climate.

The key is, look, the climate could change for the better, for the worse.

I think if we look at the worst case scenario before and say, and we can prepare for that, if we can prepare to be able to defend the state against the next Katrina, Rita, Laura, or any of the other major storms that have impacted Louisiana, then I feel great.

If we can continue to make sure that Louisiana is prepared for 11 issues of snow that we got this year.

Think about that.

And guess what?

It wasn't a record.

We got more, snow, rain.

Louisiana got more snowfall in, I think the 20s and 30s.

Then we got this year.

I think if we go back and we look at history, if we can, if we can protect Louisiana from the devastation of a flood that affected in 1927, then.

Yeah.

I think that that's what we should do.

And I also think that we should use the changes in climate to strike fear.

The this country and Louisiana was never a place under which we allowed fear to grips.

We used to dare fear to come.

Right.

And I think that that's the lessons learned is like, okay, these are devastating things that happen.

How can we prepare for how can we be better adapt?

How can we ensure that people are comfortable living safely here in Louisiana?

That to me, is leadership.

Governor Jeff Landry, it has been such a pleasure.

Thank you for sharing your time and your insight with LPB.

And more importantly, thank you for bringing out the best of our state.

Thank you.

Well thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I'll share part two of my exclusive interview with the governor next week.

In the years since Katrina, new technology has made storm forecasting more accurate, both in tracking a storm's path and its intensity.

Those advancements saved lives and property, but could now be at risk because of proposed changes at the federal level.

Dorothea has more.

Katrina hit.

There's all this bad weather right.

And then in the aftermath most people probably remember it got very hot.

It was dry.

The weather was quiet.

So I was kind of begging my news director send me down.

I want to do some reporting.

And being from there I kind of wanted to put my eyes on everything myself.

But once you got down there, it was tough.

Doctor Steve Cammarata, a native of New Orleans and a meteorologist in Baton Rouge, recalls the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina's devastating impact on the place he once called home.

Nothing looked the same to the weatherman at the time.

He was responsible for delivering weather reports and updates about the area.

But he struggled to process the destruction he was witnessing and couldn't utter a word.

As we stood on the dry side in Jefferson Parish and looked across into Lakeview, all I could think about was I grew up with so many of those families that now had rooftop water.

Forecast for Hurricane Katrina's path in 2005 were relatively accurate compared to long term averages.

However, it's rapid intensification into a category five storm surprised meteorologists and grew into one of the most catastrophic storms in history.

Hurricane Katrina was tough to see.

The devastation caused by Katrina spurred a new wave of research, technology, and modeling aimed at ensuring the public have as much time as possible to prepare or evacuate.

Think back to 2005.

There was so much, I think, confusion.

Yeah.

With weather forecasting, you know, for decades and decades, we had a lot of great technology, right?

We had radar, we had satellite, we had tools to forecast.

But compared to modern day technology, we were only scratching the surface of what we now have.

Meteorologist and weather expert Scott Pelley says since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, weather technology has advanced significantly.

So, for example, today we have the cone of uncertainty, but we actually have a lot more certainty in that cone than we had then.

It really was the cone of uncertainty.

So at that point the cone was reliable ish for 2 to 3 days.

Okay.

Now we have a five day cone.

What.

Right.

And the error that we have at day five in present day okay is equivalent to the 2 to 3 day cone that we had then our forecast modeling has become so far in advanced and improved that now we can trim down that cone.

And that makes a lot of people feel much better about the forecast or way worse if you're within that cone.

The latest technology also includes enhanced hurricane models, increased use of satellite data, improved radar systems, and the integration of AI for more accurate and longer range predictions.

There has even been improvements in emergency response and data visualization tools.

When we think about Katrina, we think about the satellite images that came out that morning of the 28th when Katrina was a category five, it went from a category three to a category five overnight, and people woke up and thought to themselves, oh my goodness, this is the storm that we all feared, right?

Yes.

And satellite data at the time, what you said.

Yeah, was that we only got fresh satellite scans every 15 minutes.

Wow.

We have mesoscale.

So very small, very hyper localized satellites now.

Yeah.

That can give us scans well above the clouds.

Tells us what's going on within the inner workings of these powerful storms.

Yeah.

30 to 60s.

What?

New scans and 15 minutes to 30s.

So what is that?

Talk to me.

What does that do for people?

So satellites are critical to our ability to analyze how a storm is streak or beginning.

Right.

So the more scans that we get, the better a meteorologist can predict what a storm may do in the future.

So if we're getting new scans, let's say on the high end, yeah, every 3 to 6 minutes rather than 15 minutes.

Yeah.

That data goes into forecast models.

It goes into so many different elements of weather forecasting to make my job hopefully easier.

Right.

Those advancements in technology are so critical to getting the forecast right.

With all of the advancements, technology, science and brainpower put into trying to keep Hurricane Katrina a thing of the past, recent cuts to National Weather Service could undo some of the progress we've made.

Both Doctor Cammarata and Scott say the cuts should be a major concern to us all.

If you start taking away the tools, then people aren't able to prepare as effectively.

So with proposed budget cuts to NOAA and National Weather Service offices, we've already seen cuts.

And I say death by a thousand cuts, right?

If you continue to chip away at those things, then you start to strip meteorologist and atmospheric forecasters from being able to give people that comfort, that confidence, that belief in the things that we've grown more accustomed to.

So we don't want to go backwards.

And the proposed budget cuts in 2026 would significantly reduce a lot of technology.

Advanced AI advancements.

So that's my concern, is that I am a scientist and a meteorologist, but I'm also a resident.

There's one impact we have seen most people, I think at least have heard of weather balloons.

We release those from a number of cities around the country twice a day.

Well, with some of the cuts that have come in the federal government, some of those locations have now cut down to once a day.

And that also impacts our weather models.

That data is crucial.

So if we start reducing the frequency of those weather balloons and the weather balloon launches, that can impact the forecast accuracy.

So that's one area that we've seen some signs of a little bit of trouble developing.

And then there's been some back and forth as it relates specifically to the National Hurricane Center and a group that's known as the Hurricane Research Division, which is kind of tied into the hurricane center.

That Hurricane Research Division, as their name implies, their key task is research.

And they have really been credited with a lot of the important improvements we've seen in hurricane forecasts over the last couple of decades.

Now, while the final outcome of weather service cuts remain uncertain, scientist and executive director of Pontchartrain Conservancy Christie Trails says we must also rely on natural defenses to weather the next storm.

We also need natural systems such as barrier islands and our wetlands.

Those two things have to work together both the natural infrastructure as well as the manmade infrastructure of levees and floodwalls.

Neither one can work alone.

We need both of those to work together.

And it's what we call the multiple lines of defense.

Wetlands act as a significant buffer against storm surges.

For every two and a half miles of wetlands, storm surge is reduced by one foot.

This is an important consideration when storms approach.

And since Katrina, just like manmade weather technology advancements, there have also been advancements made to our wetlands.

And together, they give us a stronger defense.

Katrina was an uninvited muse here in Louisiana, inspiring art for many creative people painters, musicians, filmmakers, poets all use their art to express their grief, process their experiences, and communicate it to the larger public.

20 years later, Katrina continues to inspire art and help Louisiana heal from one of the darkest chapters in our history.

The air stinks in here, too, so I hold my breath as long as I can.

All these shouts, screams, and popping sounds scare me and I try not to get scared.

Am I going to die?

My uncle's hands reshaping the attic windows after the floodwater rises.

My cousin's sleeping in the attic because no neighbor has a rescue boat.

Black people in distress.

They lay prostrate.

And a prayer.

The blankets on my cousin's shoulders.

Days later, when rescued, the National Guard smile as he carries the neighbor's dog from the flooded living room, the dog's body around his neck, an upside down flag.

Insurance companies stiffed us.

Dropped us.

No replacement.

Money's like the other states or wealthy neighborhoods along the lakefront.

My family home, half built for eight and a half years, is now completed.

Thank you God.

So that painting is called dreamt.

I was forced to evacuate.

And when we did get out, I.

Eventually I had these nightmares.

I kept having these nightmares that I was being forced to evacuate and that it was traumatic.

So when I came back, I began that piece.

And then I kind of abandoned it.

Hurricane Katrina devastated lives and property, leaving emotional debris and psychological scars that remain 20 years later, expressed through art.

Former Louisiana poet laureate John Warner Smith and Mona Lisa Soloway edited and published an anthology, Katrina and Rita at 20, which captures the artists experiences through Louisiana poetry and art.

The boy next to me keeps throwing up and his nose bleeds.

He crawls up in resting his head in his sister's arms.

He could die here.

His sister says.

She says they slept on the bridge last night.

They saw dead people floating in the water.

How was art?

A way for people to process what they endured with Katrina.

Well, of course, many of these artists were directly impacted.

They were displaced, not only displaced, but, you know, the arts community was, like, just turned upside down.

So it's hard to get back to you, to your creative work, you know, when you're in this survival mode.

So I think that that was probably the biggest impact on the arts community.

It was just a devastating time, you know, for them.

So we wanted the book to, to do that.

We wanted to, you know, create this.

I call it a forum for expression.

Well, I was about ten years old when Katrina happened, and it was the first time my family actually evacuated.

Karisma price is an assistant professor of English at Tulane University and a poet.

Her poem Things That Fold appears in the anthology Gilbert the Hendricks Under the American Flag.

Two days after Hurricane Katrina.

Her face from the crease made in her obituary photo as we use the newspaper to eat crawfish.

The wrinkles in her forehead.

Flood water passing through a broken levee.

So I feel like, growing up, you know, what I had in common with everyone else in the city was that we've experienced this shared type of trauma, this emotional thing that was often physical for people who lost a lot of, you know, items, homes, family members.

So I think it isn't really until, like I would say, graduate school until about now that I feel like I'm actually reprocessing it.

In the years since Katrina, many Louisiana artists took to their craft to cope and process the trauma.

Mona Lisa Soloway's journey back to her decimated ninth Ward home took 16 moves in 14.5 years.

We are standing strong together and we're grateful for that, and we hope that this anthology is a keeper in poetry and art.

In a appropriate commemoration of at least a lot of what some of us went through, and to recall how we made it to here.

With great appreciation and thanks.

The book includes works from 33 poets and several visual artists, including the painting of Ecuador born artist Jose Torres Talma, who returned to New Orleans after the storm.

He is working on several paintings inspired by Katrina.

This one is called lovers in the storm.

It was inspired post-Katrina because of the, you know, the background you could see.

It's very stormy.

And in addition, I, had begun it.

And then I kind of abandoned it for a while because post-Katrina, I didn't have a studio.

Right.

I mean, who did have anything, right?

And, I escaped on a stolen school bus three days after the levees breached, and that was pretty dramatic.

And I shaved my head.

I in many cultures, the shaving of one's head is a ritual.

I was still in deep mourning and still in deep trauma.

Exhibitions around the state invite the public to ponder the 20 years since Hurricane Katrina through art.

The Ogden Museum of Southern American Art and the presbyter are among several cultural institutions presenting Katrina commemorative works.

I think the love and passion that people have for this state that rebuilt when everything was destroyed and the artists and the musicians and the people, they just rallied and inspired so many artists that have such incredible, they just pulled out that passion, that love for life in Louisiana, and took those, horrible things and really put it in some incredible art that will last lifetimes.

Even though we do share a lot of our feelings and poems.

Poetry is not nonfiction, but it does help us examine the truth.

We blessed dance together with strangers in our streets for the dead and the living.

So glad morning when this life is over.

Oh.

Fly away.

Several of the interviews you've just watched were an abbreviated form.

Now you can watch extended interviews, including that of Governor Jeff Landry on lpb.org and on our YouTube channel.

On a personal note, some of the stories that you watched in the special were the work of my colleague and my co-anchor, Dorothea Wilson, who passed away unexpectedly.

Now, this is a very difficult time for all of us at LPB.

Dorothea is a talented journalist.

She was a bright light, but a beautiful soul, kind and friendly, and she will be greatly missed.

It is a tough time for all of us across Louisiana as we reflect on 20 years since Hurricane Katrina.

And our hearts also go out to all of you.

Thank you for joining us on this journey for everyone at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Karen LeBlanc.

Thanks for watching.

Support for Louisiana, the state we're in is provided by Entergy.

Louisiana is strengthening our power grid throughout the state.

We're reinforcing infrastructure to prepare for stronger storms, reduce outages, and respond quicker when you do need us.

Because together, we power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is a historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and by Mary Bird Perkins, cancer Center.

Visit Baton Rouge.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.