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American Press
2 days ago
- American Press
Hurricane Katrina's wounds reopened in 'Race Against Time'
On Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina — one of the deadliest and most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history — roared onto Louisiana's southeastern coastline with catastrophic power, driving a massive storm surge toward the city of New Orleans. With the 20th anniversary approaching, the five-part documentary series 'Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time' looks back at the heroes — and villains — who lived through the flooding nightmares, excessive heat and food shortages following the storm and the systemic failure and enduring consequences of decisions made before, during and after the levees broke. The series premieres Sunday on National Geographic and is available for streaming Monday on Disney+ and Hulu. Among those featured in the series is Ivor van Heerdan, who in 2004 as the deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center predicted Hurricane Katrina's devastating effects only to have been met with deaf ears. 'The extent of the suffering and the magnitude of the ineptness by the federal government and the ability of people to believe stupid ideas like it's a Civil War really comes out very strongly (in the series),' Van Heerdan told the American Press via Zoom. '(The filmmakers) did a masterful job in not following the normal format, which is the storm came, the levees failed, why did the levees fail, what was the consequence, how are we going to fix it. They really took a very important part of it — which was what happened to the people — and I think they did an amazing job. It certainly brought tears to my eyes.' Van Heerdan — who was on the ground in New Orleans when the levees broke — has images from the aftermath forever burned in his memory. 'It's sometimes very tough because I saw a lot of things that really still stick in my head — especially the children that drowned because I had my own young daughter at the time,' he said. 'I was coming home to her, but these kids weren't going home to anyone.' Van Heerdan said in 1992 Hurricane Andrew, a Category 5 storm, flattened everything in its wake in Miami. The storm was the inspiration for his research into what would happen to New Orleans if the same type of storm were to hit that area. 'It looked like an atomic bomb had gone off and that same storm then made landfall in Louisiana on the Atchafalaya Basin, which is where we have our healthiest wetlands. It lost a lot of its steam and energy between the coast and New Orleans city. I realized then that if Andrew had taken just a few degrees different course it would have been another Hurricane Betsy and since Hurricane Betsy in 1965, we've lost a huge amount of our coastal wetlands so there would be nothing to slow it down.' In 1994, then-Gov. Edwin Edwards appointed Van Heerdan assistant secretary of the Department of Natural Resources. Part of his job was to bring in new science and ideas to the program. 'I was then able to articulate to legislators and other people in Washington and I said, 'It's coming and we're going to have a major flood.' There were no computer models; in fact we funded the first computer model efforts in Louisiana. That little quiet voice beckoned me in '92 and my focus became to try and get a research team and get research money to really look at coastal Louisiana.' By 1998, LSU had allowed his team to establish the Hurricane Center on campus and in 2001 he received a $6.3 million grant from the Louisiana Board of Higher Education to create the Hurricane Public Health Center to develop storm surge models. Van Heerden brought in medical doctors, epidemiologists, veterinarians and wind experts. He also got a $11 million super computer from then-Gov. Mike Foster. 'There's a side of the dynamics of understanding the winds and the waves and especially the storm surge and how they move through the areas. In Louisiana, we have LiDAR data (short for Light Detection and Ranging data) and very accurate digital elevation data. We got the storm surge models and the next thing we needed to do was a huge public opinion survey. What did the people of New Orleans think? What did they know? That's how we found out 120,000 people didn't have motor vehicles.' He said the survey also led to the realization that the five major parishes in southeastern Louisiana had their own databases and maps but nothing was linked or shareable with the others. His team worked with the Louisiana Geological Survey and others to create a GIS (geographic information system) database, which 'proved exceptionally useful in Katrina because we knew where the schools were in relation to gas stations, etc., etc.' Access to the database was given to the U.S. Department of Health and Hospitals and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His team also conducted studies on what could be in the water around New Orleans and pathogens that may be present. 'All of this culminated a year before Hurricane Katrina in the Hurricane Pam exercises,' he said. The 300-plus workshop participants of the Pam exercises in July 2004 were provided with a catastrophic hurricane scenario, a set of consequences that would result from that scenario and assumptions designed to stress the emergency management system and force thinking on critical planning topics. 'We really hoped that the Hurricane Pam exercises — modeled after Hurricane Betsy and which featured the entire city flooded — would really wake up everybody. Quit honestly, we were laughed at a few times,' Van Heerdan said. 'I realized very early that we are going to have a lot of evacuees, eternally displaced people, and I and one of my colleagues went to the United Kingdom for 10 days and we did a course in how do you deal with refugees, evacuees and eternally displaced people; how do you establish a camp; how much acreage would you need; what would you need to do. We came back with these ideas and tried to articulate them and during the Hurricane Pam exercise I went to one of the ladies from FEMA and said, 'You need to start thinking about tents. There's going to be a million evacuees. What are you going to do with them?' and she turned around and said to me, 'Americans don't stay in tents.' But the ball went around and after (Katrina) was over they were asked during interviews why there were no tents and they stammered their way through it.' Van Heerdan said before London hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, officials came to him and asked advice based on the aftermath of what they saw during Katrina. 'We discussed all these things and so they prepositioned tents all over places outside of London in case something happened,' he said. 'London could be flooded, as well. It's got levees and big floodgates.' Van Heerdan said he places a lot of blame for what happened after Katrina on then-New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. 'We had spoken to him about the buses. The plan was called Operation Brother and they would send the buses and church groups would help load the people and get them out. Over a few dollars, they blew it,' he said. 'And instead of issuing an evacuation early they held it. If people had known earlier they might have been able to go get gas, do something, get out. The safest thing was to get out.' Van Heerdan said at the time, the devastation was linked to 'an act of God.' That's not true, he said, because this disaster was man-made. 'The levees weren't even complete,' he said. 'In order to get to know New Orleans I used to go down in my Xterra and drive everywhere and look at the levees. Every single levee I drove as close to it as I could look. I saw levees with big bows in them and sinking under their own weight, some where leaning over a little bit, some had big cracks and two-by-fours were in the cracks. Also, entire sections were missing.' Van Heerdan said though the rebuild of the levees has been 'robust,' climate change wasn't factored into the design. 'They really need to start thinking about raising the levees and in some places, raising houses and in some places buying people out,' he said. 'The risk of this happening again is very high. Our models show that next time, the storm surge will be nine to 11 feet higher than it was for Katrina.'
Forbes
3 days ago
- Forbes
Rewriting The Narrative Of Hurricane Katrina
A police car drives through the empty streets of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. (Neil ... More Alexander) On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. The storm itself was devastating—but what followed was far worse. The real disaster, many experts argue, wasn't the wind or water, but the collapse of infrastructure, communication and trust in government. Now, two decades later, National Geographic's Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time revisits the catastrophe with the benefit of hindsight and the tools of modern technology. Directed by Traci A. Curry and produced by Proximity Media and Lightbox, the 5-part series is a digitally reconstructed case study in systemic failure—an attempt to rebuild not just the timeline, but the public memory of what actually happened. Technology as a Truth-Telling Tool I had an opportunity to connect with Ivor van Heerden, the former deputy director of Louisiana State University's Hurricane Center. Ivor is the 'Cassandra' of the Katrina tragedy—he predicted Hurricane Katrina and the catastrophic impact in 2004, only to be ignored. 'This is definitely not a story about a storm,' said van Heerden. 'The trigger, if you will, was a storm—but it was man's folly that led to the catastrophe.' LSU Hurricane Center Co-founder Ivor Van Heerden discusses events surrounding Hurricane Katrina and ... More other hurricanes during an interview for National Geographic's Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time. Van Heerden is known for his criticism of the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), attributing the 2005 levee failures in New Orleans to their faulty design and execution. With emotional accounts of survivors and immersive archival footage, the series reveals Hurricane Katrina as a disaster that was anything but natural. (National Geographic) At the time of Katrina, social media was in its infancy. Most people didn't have smartphones. Surveillance footage was grainy or missing altogether. And the digital infrastructure needed to coordinate a large-scale emergency response simply didn't exist. Fast-forward to 2025, and the tools for documentation and storytelling have changed dramatically. The production team behind Race Against Time used AI-enhanced video restoration, satellite overlays, GIS modeling and high-resolution archival footage to create a real-time, moment-by-moment reconstruction of the disaster's timeline. 'They were banging on my door fairly often,' van Heerden recalled, 'for computer model simulations, data, photographs, my own video imagery.' Those simulations—many developed two decades ago—have taken on new life in the series, contextualizing the levee breaches and helping viewers visualize the scale of the flood. This technical precision is what transforms the docuseries from reflection to re-examination. Overlaying personal stories with geospatial data and timestamped visuals, the series makes a compelling case: the devastation wasn't random—it was predictable, and preventable. The Failure Wasn't Just Physical. It Was Digital. The documentary also highlights how poor coordination and digital blind spots worsened the crisis. Government systems failed to track where people were sheltered. Communications systems collapsed. Rescue missions turned around because of misinformation—such as unconfirmed reports of violence or looting. 'People were told to go to the Superdome and wait for help,' van Heerden said. 'Then the damn roof blew off. And the cavalry didn't come. And the cavalry didn't come. And the cavalry didn't come.' In one scene, the series deconstructs how the sound of gunfire—interpreted as aggression—was actually a signal for help. 'The SOS signal for a hunter is three shots fired. Boom, boom, boom,' van Heerden explained. 'You want to make a noise so you can be heard. But instead, those shots were misunderstood, and buses turned around.' It's a stark reminder that signal, context and interpretation are everything—especially in crisis response. It's not enough to have data; you need to understand it, respond to it and trust the systems delivering it. A Warning for the Future As we face a new era of climate-driven 'storms on steroids,' van Heerden cautions that Katrina should not be viewed as an isolated failure, but as a warning. 'We need to better understand how hurricanes are going to change given these warm oceans and the warm air,' he said. 'And then the last thing is, it's pretty hard to predict sometimes these storms... we need a lot more research into that.' That research depends on technology. From atmospheric sensors to predictive modeling, modern science is built on data. And yet, as van Heerden pointed out, the very agencies responsible for this work—like NOAA—are facing cuts. 'You ignore the science at your folly,' he warned. 'Science is a quest for the truth. If you ignore the science, then you won't know the truth—and the folly is yours.' Beyond Commemoration Race Against Time is a digital act of reckoning. By combining technology, testimony and survivor narratives, the series offers a framework for how we can revisit past crises—and build more resilient systems for the future. What Katrina exposed was not just vulnerability to weather, but vulnerability to misinformation, miscommunication and outdated infrastructure. If there's a tech lesson in this story, it's that no amount of forecasting matters if you can't translate data into action—and no tool can replace accountability. Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time premiers on National Geographic on July 27. All episodes will be available to stream July 28 on Disney+ and Hulu.
Black America Web
4 days ago
- Black America Web
Ryan Coogler's New Series Exposes the Real Story of Katrina & America
Source: Walt Disney Company / Walt Disney Company Two decades after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans and exposed deep cracks in America's disaster response and racial divide, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is helping to tell the story like it's never been told before. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker has teamed up with Oscar-winning producers Simon and Jonathan Chinn ( Searching for Sugar Man ) and director Traci A. Curry ( Attica ) for Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time , a five-part National Geographic docuseries that brings viewers inside the storm—and the systemic failure that followed. 'This series goes beyond the headlines,' Coogler said. 'It reveals stories of survival, heroism, and resilience. It's a vital historical record and a call to witness, remember, and reckon with the truth of Hurricane Katrina's legacy.' Premiering July 27, the series opens in the sweltering summer of 2005 as Katrina barrels toward New Orleans. Episode one, The Coming Storm , sets the stage for what would become one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history. But as the series makes clear, the tragedy wasn't just the hurricane—it was the government's failure to respond. Episode two, Worst Case Scenario , captures the terrifying moment the levees broke and the city began to flood 'like a bathtub.' With emergency services overwhelmed, everyday people risked their lives to save neighbors and strangers alike. Coogler, known for using his lens to amplify Black voices and lived experiences, said it was important that the story be told through the people who were there—not pundits or politicians. 'What happened in New Orleans wasn't just a natural disaster,' Coogler explained. 'It was the result of long-standing neglect, inequality, and abandonment. The people of New Orleans were left to fend for themselves.' As the episodes unfold— A Desperate Place , Shoot to Kill , and Wake Up Call —the series chronicles what happened in the days and weeks after the floodwaters rose. It is an unflinching narrative of survival and strength. Viewers are taken inside the Superdome, where thousands sought shelter in dire conditions. It shines a light on the chaos and confusion at the Convention Center, the militarized response, and the media-fueled narrative of looting that often overshadowed real stories of courage. Through it all, Race Against Time keeps its focus tight: the people who lived through Katrina. Their testimonies are raw, emotional, and unforgettable. Director Traci A. Curry brings a cinematic edge to the storytelling, with rare archival footage, urgent pacing, and cliffhanger endings that make each episode feel like a chapter in a larger American epic. Known for centering truth, dignity, and emotion in his work, Coogler said he approached the series the same way he approached Fruitvale Station or Judas and the Black Messiah —with deep respect for the lives behind the headlines. 'This is a story about community, about loss, but also about resilience,' Coogler said. 'The people of New Orleans didn't just survive—they resisted, they rebuilt, and they kept their culture alive.' The series also tackles the aftermath of the storm—how families were scattered across the country, how the city changed forever, and how, even now, the scars remain. While Race Against Time arrives 20 years after the storm, its urgency is very much present-day. It speaks to what happens when disaster meets inequality, when bureaucracy fails, and when Black lives are treated as expendable. 'This series is not just about what happened,' Coogler noted. 'It's about what we allowed to happen—and what we need to learn from it.' Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time premieres July 27 at 8/7c on National Geographic. All five episodes will stream July 28 on Disney+ and Hulu. Source: Jazmyn Summers / Jazmyn Summers Article by Jazmyn Summers. You can hear Jazmyn every morning on 'Jazmyn in the Morning 'on Sirius XM Channel 362 Grown Folk Jamz . Subscribe to J azmyn Summers' YouTube . Follow her on Facebook and Instagram. SEE ALSO
