“An unsettling Mad Max vibe coursed through the city. Pickup trucks with armed men of unclear authority cruised around .. “.. I headed back to Union Street. That body could not possibly still be there. This was the United States. We collect our dead. “Still there.” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/i...
I still remember a spot you did for Nightly where you got in a boat and rode through a neighborhood. Such a bizarre and sad scene.
This is our future unless we rebuild our democracy to be stronger and more resilient
And this regime has us setup for failure Nationwide No Justice, team felon
I teach in NELA. My current students were born less than a decade after Katrina and not a single one of them were aware of the storm or its impact, which is the sort of thing that reminds me that their parents let people like Landry be in charge of stuff.
Can you imagine seeing men of questionable authority roaming the streets of a major American city today?
The National Guard occupying a US city for years? That could never happen today.
Well, Trump won't send FEMA too slowly to assist the way Bush did... Since he won't be sending FEMA at all.
There is zero difference between those two statements. I moved there later on, but I've never heard a single person born there who heard the word FEMA and didn't immediately respond "fuck FEMA." FEMA's actions during my decade there constantly reinforced this.
manningkrull.com/digital-phil...
Mad Max: Shades of things to come - or already here 🫤
"armed men of unclear authority" I bet their authority was clear to anyone who could see their skin.
If only our government had responded in a timely fashion with fema support instead of leaving us to fend for ourselves and die!
This too! www.indiewire.com/criticism/sh...
An almost surreal moment in time. NO is such a unique city in the US. Lived there in the 80s, my wife both the 70s and 80s. Yes it has issues, but the people there are very welcoming.
Recall reading in WSJ about homes on St. Charles Ave had been broken into. I arrived in the city 8 days after the storm. I drove down St. Charles. No houses broken in. All lies. Armed military all over, but no people. Entire city empty. On my house gate was a sticker from the CA hwy patrol. So odd.
I didn't get there until the next Spring to help. I saw where I was staying that a group from France had been there to help not long after the storm. I just thought that was incredible.
I remember armed mercenaries/vigilantes keeping POC out of some communities
And shooting them. I got to know Donnell Herrington, featured in Spike Lee's film about Katrina, but whose full story was put together by A.C. Thompson's peerless investigative journalism. A.C. found both Donnell and his shooter and brought some justice..... www.propublica.org/article/shoo...
Only person to be prosecuted. Meanwhile multiple White people bragging on camera about killing Black people during the days after the levees broke
I wasn't sure of that memory so I held back. I also remember reporting in @thenewrepublic.bsky.social on FEMA trailers that needed to use plywood imported from China, with too-high levels of formaldehyde. newrepublic.com/article/1169...
Racism? BEFORE Obama!!??!
😲
I remember evacuating late for Hurricane Ike I think it was in 2008. There was gridlock on Hwy 290 from Houston, Texas past where we were headed (Brenham); it took hours for what should have been just over one - people were blocking exits to keep evacuees out. We found a back way into Brenham.
We can be such good neighbors. During the 1927 flood, some communities would dynamite the dikes of other communities to save their own. (Source: John M Barry’s book Rising Tide)
So horrible. There are always bad people.
My first TV hits, for ITV in London, we’re on Katrina … it was so spooky … the Superdome story was a good early example of how internet rumours accelerate unchecked … and I vividly remember your reporting, Carl!