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90. The Relief (Hurricane Katrina)

🕑 Added 2022-12-06 23:58:51 +0000 UTC

Comments

Ysabel

I know this is an older episode but I just have to say: I have listened to this a handful of times now, it's very well done & unfathomable to listen to - I get chills every time. I was much younger when this hurricane made landfall and remember it on the news and NOTHING prepared me for the reality of what really happened. The truth was so far from what was portrayed on the news, a literal eye opening bone chilling episode.

Nae

Revisiting this as recovery efforts in GA are being completely mishandled and all I could think was “thank God it’s not as bad as Katrina”

Haley Ashton

Definitely my top 5

Mitch Carlson

One of my favorites

Lisa C Boston

Amazing work. You made the horror and desperation of these neglected Americans so real.

Amie Redman

That emergency broadcast is so chilling. Those poor folks. I was not aware of how horribly the folks there suffered. Great episode.

VH

There are so many evil people here. Should be legal to erase them on the spot when they act up like this.

Anastasia Martin

The automated voice warning 😬 nothing gives me the chills more than that. Reminds me of tornado warnings 😨😰

K. Smith

Took me a while to write bc you did an incredibly good job capturing the horror of the time... I'm from Baton Rouge, but lived in Gretna, LA for 10 yrs - just across the Danzinger Bridge from Nola proper. I moved from there for work a few months before Katrina hit. What happened there and in months to follow was horrifying, completely predictable (by geography and politics) and soul crushing. Anyway, you truly captured that feeling, which is amazing 🙏

Thomas Cain

Same

Thomas Cain

Listen I get I’m a GD Fallout nerd. But you could easily swap deadly hurricane winds and storm with nuclear bomb and radiation and the warning would convince me.

Azeran Warrens

I was a teenager during this, and I didn’t understand how catastrophic this was. I just remember my school holding a donation drive to help people. It’s fucking tragic how many lives were lost.

Michelle Hebert

I absolutely live for ACC's delightfully droll and targeted barbs. Not done listening, but this one at 16:01 is my favorite thus far: "After presumably writing down the word 'levy' in 🖍️, President Bush . . . before resuming his 27-day vacation." And Republican presidencies only went downhill from there.

Anna Z

Another outstanding episode. Thank you for another great season. Looking forward to more swindling in 2023. Happy Holidays, all!

Tanisha Roberson

Great season!!!❤️

maiya

Brilliantly presented and narrated, as always. The wounds from this disaster have never completely healed.

Acon Cernczyn

Excellent. So much I had forgotten about this debacle. The swindle is so disturbing in this one because it was just a shrug and finger pointing by organizations that controlled the structures (both government and physical) that failed American citizens. Already started listening a 2nd time.

Acon Cernczyn

Oh my god

Sam

This was fascinating and miserable to listen to.

Claire Gysegem

miserable fucking country. and that national weather service alert is analog horror in its purest form.

Alan

Damn. Thanks for sharing this comment. That's heavy. Also sounds like PTSD from Katrina and its handling. The only people we have are in our communities; to everyone it's an inconvenience or a number on a page.

Thomas Cain

If you want to see some very sincere human examples of this, go watch the A&E show “Nightwatch” about EMTs and 1st responders in New Orleans. Those real EMT workers were all in that storm either as kids/teens or working emt adults. They interview and ask them on the 10th anniversary of Katrina episode. It’s an important bit of humanity to witness esp if you keep in mind the potentially new info you’ve learned about just how bad it was.

Alan

This is your finest work, ACC. Considering I have said that multiple times before, wow. Man did that get swept under the rug from the viewpoint of the rest of the country. Enjoy vacation. Great work as always, deformr.

Thomas Cain

I grew up and lived in central Arkansas during Katrina. I was in 6th grade at the time and the human loss was incomprehensible. It was the first real tragedy that happened within my direct bubble of life since 9/11 and that didn’t really affect “Arkansas” anymore than it did the rest of the country. But Katrina happened all around us. The news, the weather, the people streaming in even before the storm. We got the leftover storms in AR. We always do. Hurricanes turn into bad thunderstorms by the time the reach Little Rock. It was all the displaced refugees afterwards that stuck with us. Every school was focused on food clothing toiletries drives and fundraising. Everyone knew someone that had lost everything. Plenty had family that left to go help. Texas was something else. they sent so much, at least it appeared that way to us (subjective for the sake of this comment) Listening to your story brought all that fear back. I hadn’t realized how much it affected me until I started crying at the hurricane severe weather warning, brought back memories id kinda forgotten about. Thank you. Of all of the people who does this kind of recent history reporting, you do some of the best and most honest, accurate reporting I’ve ever seen. I’ll end it with, sooooo many of the people that came to Arkansas to evacuate, left with the intention of returning. And when that became impossible they stayed. And were some of the saddest and most burdened people (adults and children) that my privileged sheltered life had ever shown. They stayed. But they stayed the same way War refugees stay, like my stepdads Palestinian family that refugee immigrated to Jordan after the British took Jerusalem the first time. They stayed because they had no other choice, it’s better than hell but that won’t stop the heartache of having your home wiped away. My art teacher lost everything in an outlying parish. She loved Arkansas, but still had this heartbreaking look sometimes when she talked about family and homes, in 2012 when I graduated. 7 yrs later and it might of been only 1 based on how the hurt could still be seen on those that had survived it. Prove me wrong of course. I mean I was 12 I only remember so much. I think, this was the first time I ever had the thought that help might not come and we’d be on our own. 15 yrs later in the middle of a toxic 450 AQI hell scape in 2020 Portland OR and I had the same feeling times 1000 now that i was actually experiencing a natural disaster with no support. Oh, we’re on our own. Lesson learned. Made my grief for the survivors of Katrina take on a new meaning. Ur episodes the first time I’ve thought back on it in so much detail since the 2020 COVID&Wildfire combo essentially anarchy pilled me.

Em Keeton

Enjoy your break!

MetalMatt

What a whopper of a ending for the season, thank you for another awesome season... keep up the good work. "You're doing a heck of a job, ACC.. " lol

Katie Butler

As a teenager in CA when this happened, I never grasped the impending doom and complete systemic failure. I knew it was bad, but…this is mind numbing.