Art & Identity in New Orleans

In September 1965, Hurricane Betsy was the worst storm that ever hit the coast in Louisiana. Up until Katrina, it was the benchmark in national disasters in the minds of residents because it caused such a disaster on the people that it left 76 people dead (reports vary on the number) and cost more than one billion dollars in damages. If the severity of the havoc caused by Betsy wasn’t clear, the name was retired from the national cyclone naming list. When Louisiana Senator Russell Long requested the presence of President Lyndon B. Johnson it seemed like it was futile because of some suspected tension. However, after stressing the severity and how politically significant the visit was, it seemed like he came immediately after their phone call. Johnson claimed he would break through the red tape and help in any way possible.

In 2005, the residents of New Orleans again had to suffer through a hurricane that would shake society’s core as a whole. The likelihood of encountering an individual who wasn’t aware of the carnage left by Hurricane Katrina seemed surreal; however, the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, proved it wasn’t impossible. Why did the 24-hour news cycle not reach Bush during his 5-week vacation?  He embraced the peace and seclusion that being away granted him, which in turn caused many feelings ranging from panic, fear, and abandonment from the nation that needed him.

“While all this was going on, the president of the United States remained aloof from the disaster. Day after day, George W. Bush continued a long-planned vacation at his 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas, and his staff didn’t want to burden him with detailed information about the situation on the Gulf Coast. When Katrina made landfall, Bush had been on holiday at his ranch for 27 days, according to a tabulation kept by CBS News.”    

One example in particular that assisted the documentary with stressing how alone the patrons felt was the footage of those who lost their lives. During the interviews, they collectively said they were perplexed on why family members were not being retrieved and shown any sense of humanity by the government. I don’t recall in any of the acts we watched if they said that Bush or even Brown had an official recovery plan. It just showed that dead or alive people were not seen as such by the president. Flying over them just instilled the message that separatism existed and because they were either black, poor, or both meant that they were on the time of those who simply chose to not see the severity of the situation. As he remained aloof his career began to plunder. Somewhat symbolic that his career, like New Orleans, may never return to the pinnacle it once was.

https://64parishes.org/entry/hurricane-betsy

https://www.usnews.com/news/the-report/articles/2015/08/28/hurricane-katrina-was-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-george-w-bush

[posted on behalf of a student]

Hurricane Katrina was not handled well and became the catalyst for change of how incident managements were handled. There were many failures on the federal level. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and other agencies, at the time of Katrina did not require for the people in leadership positions to have experience in incident management. This is why the director of FEMA at the time of Katrina, Michael Brown, supervised judges at horse shows before becoming director and got the job only through his connections not by experience. One of the other problems that happened with Katrina was the communication infrastructure was down so there was a lack of communication with every party because there was no ability to communicate easily. There was a lot of communication breakdown because of this and the lack of communication between the different levels of government and groups. One of the other problems was that there was a slow response from FEMA and the federal government as they waited until after the storm to start sending people instead of setting up before the storm. The paperwork and logistics were not done before the storm as it should have been. Another problem was that FEMA did not want to have individuals to help because they felt that the individuals were a liability, so they continually turned down volunteers from helping. From Katrina there were a lot of changes to FEMA and the way that all incident managements were done.

One of the first changes is that everyone within leadership positions have to have experience in incident management and prove that they have successfully handled an incident. Now when the communication infrastructure is down they have Wi-Fi networks that can be powered through power grids out side of the incident area. Organizations have step up social media accounts to communicate with the public to get out accurate information quickly. From the local to the federal level everyone is required to have the same training so that everyone is using the same “playbook” and everyone can use common terminology to try to prevent communication breakdowns among the different levels. The next change is when there is an incident that can be predicted (such as a huricane) everything is prepped ahead of time. Paperwork is done ahead of time as much as possible so that they don’t have to wait for paperwork do be done and processed. People and supplies are stationed close to the incident before it happens so that people can start working immediately and supplies can start being distributed immediately instead of having to wait for it to arrive. Finally they are now okay with having volunteers help and encourage the support of groups such as the American Red Cross and other organizations that specialize in volunteering at incidents. From these changes responses to incidents are still not perfect but they do go much better than they did at Katrina. It allows for better, faster responses to help save lives and start helping people get back to their lives as quickly as possible.

What struck me the most about watching the 2006 documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts was how despite the horrific effects of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the United States and all of its people forgot about the citizens who needed them the most.  Interestingly, it got me thinking about what I was doing at this time.  Even though I was only six then, I remember that the day before Katrina hit I was sitting in the yard handing my dad nails while he boarded up the windows to our house. During the hurricane, I sat in a dark house with no power, stepping outside at one point with my dad to watch the eye of the hurricane pass over our house.  The worst was yet to come. In the living room, we listened to the news with our generator-powered radio as Katrina passed over Florida and made its way to Louisiana.  I remember that the day after the storm was over, all of my neighbors emerged from their houses for a street-wide grill out to celebrate the fact that we had made it out with just some damaged properties, something the citizens of New Orleans never got the chance to do.  It hurts to acknowledge, especially after what had happened to the citizens of New Orleans, the fact that my own and many others’ lives simply went back to normal after Katrina.  They had been just like my community, waiting to ride out the storm and go back to normal.  Yet many of the residents of New Orleans have yet to return to normal after fifteen years and probably never will.

I couldn’t believe how an entire nation could move on when one of our own states is experiencing such a tremendous loss of housing, community, and most importantly loved ones.  I’m appalled, but should I say, not surprised with how the United States had handled the situation in New Orleans.  The lack of planning and preparation for the levees of a major city and the inability to get help for those stuck in rising floodwaters, the convention center, and the Superdome are not the marks of the first-world country that we claim to be.  If we really are the United States, how could we let this happen to our own people?  Our own country?  This documentary seems to respond to these questions with answers that many would rather turn a blind eye to. The director, Spike Lee,  succeeds in exposing the fact that the United States is ill-prepared for any tragedies that take place on its own land for the simple reason that politicians’ images and agendas are more important than the people they are supposed to represent — whether that be due to race, class, or the sheer possible fact that they just don’t care about any of their citizens’ lives.   Politicians and government branches were too busy galavanting around the country for photo opportunities and visiting other countries than tending to the people of New Orleans who needed them the most at that time.

The fact is, we need to do a LOT better. The United States claims to be a leading country, but looking at other Americans clinging to the roofs of their houses while their friends’ and family members’ lifeless bodies washed up in their own city’s streets tells me another story.  The United States needs to stop moving on as if time and a blind eye could cover up the fact that we failed an entire city.  It only makes the situation more disappointing and embarrassing.  We must reflect and accept that those lost lives are in our hands.  All of ours.  We must go forward with a plan to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all our citizens.  After all, who is to say the government won’t fail me or you next?

Before I watched this documentary, I was totally unaware of the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. Of course I had heard the name and had known it had flooded New Orleans. However, I was unaware of the mismanagement of disaster relief as well as the depth of the flooding. I was also unaware of the racial discrimination and lack of help many of the city’s residents faced following the devastation, going so far as to bar the only way out of the city. Following the documentary, I looked up the official death count of the Hurricane and 1,833 people died in total and 1,577 died just in Louisiana. (Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts, CNN.com) Seeing how the government totally abandoned them during a time of immense crisis, was eye opening.

While watching this film I had this enduring question, how did people rebuild their lives after such an event? Survivors must have had and still have lingering effects of having survived this, as they saw friends/family die, often of highly preventable causes during and after the Hurricane; as well as the destruction of their homes and property. I am also morbidly wondering if the death count is accurate because of one main reason.

There was a clear and almost total lack of disaster management for both the living and dead in New Orleans. A YouTuber that I had been familiar with before this documentary, Ask A Mortician, explains the steps to retrieving and storing bodies after a natural disaster. Being a mortician herself, she explains why these steps must be followed and in what order. (Ask A Mortician, “Managing Corpses After A Natural Disaster,” YouTube) It seems that in Hurricane Katrina, at least in New Orleans, most of these steps and rules were disregarded and abandoned. This probably not only gave the families of the victims a complete and total lack of closure, but also prevented accurate identification. This would have presented obvious problems as to determining the death count, especially given how much time passed between the disaster and relief. If I had more time, I would have further researched disaster management in the weeks and months following Hurricane Katrina; but given the inhumane conditions and further misconduct by the U.S government, it would not be surprising to me if the death count was much higher.

When the Levees Broke is a gut-wrenching documentary that truly opens one’s eyes to the horrors that Americans are subject to, both by nature and the government. Spike Lee does an amazing job piecing together accounts, interviews, and footage alike into an emotionally charged film. This documentary shows precisely what art can achieve by expression, no matter how horrifying the content and experience. This film could be seen as a masterful expression of the grief that New Orleans went through in 2005 and a media work that raised awareness of the situation of the states along the Gulf of Mexico.

I was previously unaware of about 7/8 of the information regarding Katrina. I had seen pictures of people trapped on their roofs and neighborhoods flooded, but to see it up close and hear the accounts of the survivors was something else entirely. I knew nothing about the aftermath, such as the heat wave, the delay of supplies, the behavior of politicians, and the separations. It was so much to take in, it was like I got socked in the face. I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like for the citizens. The survivors guilt, depression, anger, and fear that followed must have been beyond harrowing.

One thing that stood out to me was that in spite of the death and despair, there were some select people (pastors, musicians, artists) who attempted to keep the spirits of the survivors up with music and prayer. It is instances like these that allow one to place a small amount of faith back in humanity, for that ability to cling to a little bit of hope amidst all the destruction.

One of the things that stood out the most to me in When the Levees Broke was the incorporation of music throughout what we’ve seen of this documentary so far, especially how some of the chosen music seems to drastically conflict with the story the documentary is trying to tell us.  There were many times, more so towards the beginning, where there would be images of the flood, destroyed houses and stranded people, but the music seemed oddly light and joyful.  This contrast is very jarring at times, but that’s why it’s absolutely brilliant.  Even if one doesn’t recognize the musical choice the producers made, everyone that watches this film would be able to feel for the victims of Hurricane Katrina on a completely different level.  Music is a very powerful tool that helps shape how individuals feel and understand something.

Even further, the absence of music makes an impact on the mood of the documentary, as well.  When music suddenly disappears, it forces the listener to pay attention and ask “What happened?”  Typically, this is done when there’s a new shift in tone or changing to a new speaker that has very personal, first eye-witness reports of what happened – essentially, it points out a change in substory.  It creates a very somber feeling and forces you to listen to what each individual is saying to the camera, what story they have to share.  This allows the speakers to have a much larger impact than they would have otherwise.

I have to applaud the produces on making these kinds of decisions and using the musical undertones in order to guide the documentary where it needs to go.  The songs they chose were well picked and perfectly timed with the film and matched the overall pacing of the progressing story.  This also brings back the significance of the musical life in New Orleans and, in a way, helps show that this is apart of everyday life in the city, though that is not the theme of this particular documentary.  However, I do feel like the previous documentary we watched, City of a Million Dreams, gave a wonderful understanding of this part of New Orleans and gave us (or, at least, me) a better appreciation of musical impact in When the Levees Broke.  

I look forward to seeing the rest of the documentary to see the progression!

This article from The Washington Post was written by Kevin Ambrose last August, and it was eye-opening to see the effects and the way that the city has grown since the Hurricane Katrina sixteen years ago. After watching the first part to the HBO documentary on Tuesday, I was curious to see if anyone made any before or after photos, or anything along those lines. The main reason was because I always heard about Katrina growing up; whenever New Orleans was brought up, inevitably either Mardi Gras or the hurricane followed promptly, but because I was roughly four when it hit and because I never had television growing up, I never really knew the extent of it. I had seen a few photos of the streets flooded, but I had no idea about the situation in the Superdome, on the highway, or at the Convention Center.

The article went through the different neighborhoods affected by the Hurricane, the varying levels of damage inflicted on them, and showed photos taken in August of this year. I wondered why exactly the French Quarter hadn’t flooded as much compared to other sections of the city, but it made sense with the logic that sediments being deposited on that side of the river would elevate it in comparison to the rest of the city. Though as the article went on, it was a little surreal to see the photos of foundation slabs with the knowledge that they were destroyed or abandoned after the hurricane. There were another two photos in this article that had the pilings leftover from one of the homes and one that showed an abandoned Six Flags underwater. Those two in particular looked like they were right out of some dystopian novel with the deteriorating wood and how apparently there are even crocodiles living in the area with the former amusement park. Finally, learning that they were adding more barriers in an attempt to protect the city from another hurricane and/or flooding caught my attention because its construction has led to the wetlands around the city’s detriment. So, they erected this barrier and inadvertently hurt one of the natural ones that would have aided in protecting the city, but at least the article ended with reassurance there have been “An effort to protect and restore wetlands in the Mississippi Delta.”

There are bodies everywhere

Bodies on the roof

Bodies in the water

Bodies in the streets

Bodies in houses

Young and old

All genders

Bodies of color

White bodies

Some alive

Some dead

See how they languish in the heat

Observe- as they cry out for help

Witness them looting Walmart for survival

Watch bodies get carried away by Katrina

Look up, there’s a body in the sky

Singing bodies

Dancing bodies

Bodies frozen in fear

Bodies cling and fight for their lives

Bodies shoot to kill- Bang! Bang!

How many bodies did Katrina take?

If you had to ask, she’ll tell you with sadistic glee:

“I took all kinds of bodies. Come and see.”

“On your left, a mother who couldn’t breathe.”

“On your right, man floating face down.”

There are bodies everywhere.

Bodies in the ground.

Bodies in the water.

Bodies…

Bodies.