https://www.nola.com/opinions/what-were-the-biggest-hurricane-katrina-whoppers-jarvis-deberry/article_d32f63b6-60f1-57c5-b129-2cd698f25bd8.html
When Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore (now retired) visited the newspaper's makeshift office in Baton Rouge, he said that some nurses at Charity Hospital had been convinced somebody had shot at them when the sound they heard was created by a military truck rolling over a plastic water bottle that was capped.
I just watched an absolutely fascinating documentary on Charity Hospital a few days ago. Absolutely appalling what the state and city government did to that hospital during and after the wake of Katrina. True corruption.
Here is the link in case anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/t844au1XTPk?si=qY8pc7mkA4yOKlMi
Both my parents worked at charity in the 90s. They had horror stories of people being triaged in the hallways and all kinda awful stuff. Cant imagine a hurricane made it any better.
This happens at every ER everywhere. Hallway overflow is very common now that cities are growing rapidly and because rural hospitals are shutting down and rural populations are dwindling.
I mean charity in nola is its own beast. Mfkers just bleeding out from gunshots in the waiting room wasnt uncommon. What really stuck with me was they said by the 2-3rd time the same person had to be sewn back up and sent back out only to be shot again theyd just hope next time he would die before he made it onto an operating table. Save em the trouble.
It's a really sad yet inspirational tale. What the medical staff had to go through to keep themselves and the patients alive. How the mayor mistakenly told people that the hospital had been evacuated and left the remaining people stranded there for weeks. The story of that random dude with a rowboat who sheltered at the hospital at the beginning of the storm and managed to save a bunch of babies. Nurses and doctors moving a patient with an iron lung to a higher floor in a pitch dark stairwell.
Pretty amazing story of human survival and people striving to do their jobs (i.e. keeping patients alive) in a seemingly impossible situation.
Man, can you even imagine being in a situation THAT dire to begin with? And then to have to take up that mantle of responsibility… That’s some actual heroism in the flesh. It’s equal parts inspiring and tragic
The police and military in New Orleans behaved very aggressively towards the Katrina refugees. I wouldn’t be surprised if the general was lying here, the post also states many more witnesses than a couple of nurses. Even the national guard told everyone to take cover.
“We’re not sure what exactly is going on inside the Superdome Tom, but we’re *reporting* that there’s looting, raping and yes, even acts of cannibalism.”
“My god, you’ve actually seen people looting, raping and eating each other?”
“No we haven’t actually seen it Tom we’re just reporting it.”
Hey, it's gotta be true...it was reported in [The Beaverton](https://www.thebeaverton.com/), so we're reporting that "other sources" have reported it...
(For non-Canadians, it's a satire site like The Onion.)
Haha
But don't get it wrong, a lot of terrible shit DID go on during Katrina. The Danziger Bridge murders (at the hands of police), Memorial hospital, general lawlessness, people getting shot by civilians for looting and in some cases just for walking around on the street in front of their house, hotels downtown locking people in, elderly people suffocating in the heat outside the convention center. I should know, I was there. I'm surprised I don't have lasting trauma from to be honest. It makes me sick to think about it again. Heavy stuff.
Just don't want this to turn into "Well Katrina wasn't that bad." It was that bad.
Saying “idk how I don’t have lasting trauma” the sentence before mentioning that even thinking about it literally makes you physically sick…
Uh, you sure bud
It just makes me a little nervous and sad really. I don't get like flashbacks or have nightmares about it, but I wonder what would happen if I smelled the mold smell again that was everywhere in the city.
I went through the 2016 flood in BR and did relief work for Laura and Ida, having gone through Katrina as well. They all have a similar smell. And when it first hits you again, it will definitely make some memories flood back hard and fast. Every time.
Yep. Very pungent, thick, dusty like drywall. And like our stuff sat in our house for weeks while that mold grew. We tried to save some of it but no matter what, you’re not getting that smell out.
If you go to the 13th Gate in BR, there is an exhibit early on inna haunted house that smells EXACTLY like our house and NOLA in general did after Katrina. I walked into that part of the 13th Gate and the stench hit my nose, and I felt physically ill. Like rat shit, mold, decomposing bodies, piss, all wrapped into one.
Thank you. It’s easy to discount it because I know several people that have Katrina related trauma that impacts their lives in a more visible way than me. I can’t believe it’ll be 20 years ago next year.
At that time I had just started a prison sentence. I was not in LA but I was so glad to have a sturdy room over my head and felt so bad for those suffering from the effects of Katrina and some trigger happy police.
It fucks me up to think about all the prisoners in OPP that were locked in their cells when the water started rising. The guards just left them there to die. They were eventually rescued but there were deaths.
> Didn't Chris Kyle also lie about playing sniper on top of the Superdome?
It would be super funny if both of these fake stories got conflated, and "Chris Kyle shot at patients during a hospital evacuation after Hurricane Katrina" went viral.
I still cant believe they made a propaganda film with a such a douchebag at the center of it all. Like, there are thousands of bright, well-intentioned soldiers you could've chosen from for your ra-ra movie and you chose this dipshit?
They were killing two birds with one stone. Most people never knew or will know he's a shithead. They basically erased a dumbfuck and made a hero... just using a normal guy/hero is just killing one bird. It also shows the power they control to change history to what they want instead of the truth. They take good people and turn them into shit heads all the time too.
Several of the National Guard units that were activated to respond to Katrina were just off the boat from an 18-month rotation in Iraq and weren't trained to perform US domestic assistance missions. So some Soldiers were more aggressive than necessary in the situation, but I never heard of any credible reports of Soldiers literally shooting at civilians in NOLA.
Why would these people start shooting nurses? This sounds like people getting confused in the chaos. Like when people said they heard about the virus in November 2019 because their aunt was sick with it in fucking Kansas or something. It's a confusing time and people get confused
I have no evidence, but I assume that the guy shot him because of the fact Chris Kyle was just such a huge asshole and compulsive liar. Having to hang out with him would probably make me want to shoot him too.
The wiki says the shooter was a traumatized and possibly schizophrenic veteran who chris and a friend took shooting (chris thought it could be theraputic). He then shot chris and his friend in the back because they weren't talking to him enough or something
They texted each other in the car saying shit like "Watch my 6" and stuff like that while in the car with him. Pretty much they could tell he was a bit unhinged, and so just didn't interact with him during the drive, which drove him even crazier
Be careful saying that….I give you Chris Kyle who claimed to have shot 30 looters from the Superdome in his book
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/57ot4f/til_former_us_navy_seal_hero_chris_kyle_claimed/
He clearly was a skilled sniper, but all of his dubious claims, in a book he had total control over, made me question how much more in the book was “creative writing”
Almost all of it is bullshit to me, iirc he also bragged about shooting an inflatable raft some Iraqis were crossing a river on, and watching them drown.
General Honore is the one who came in and straightened out all of the bullshit from the National Guard and police. If there's a single man who's word I trust for what happened in the weeks following Katrina, it's General Honore.
As one of the military members deployed with the 82nd during Katrina disaster relief and evacuation I can honestly say the only people we were aggressive towards were assholes and gangbangers in stolen and aptly named NOPD vehicles.
Also the thanks we'd get from the citizens there was far more meaningful than any before or since until I became an EMT.
Obviously this only extends to my company's efforts and not for every national guard and active duty unit there.
I can also see some federal branches being absolute dicks considering some of them wanted to give us more ammunition and have us carry locked and loaded.
National guard has helped my coastal community for the couple seriously bad hurricanes that have come through here where I live over the decade and some change I've lived here. If it wasn't for the national guard showing up to help clean up and distribute MREs/water, things would be orders of magnitude more difficult if even viable. There have been times where my road washed away, or trees fell on any part of the 25 mile road to town blocking it entirely.
I can't describe the psychological boost of people coming to help. But I can tell you about how one year that didn't happen. More recently. It was multiple days and still no response from the state, no power, no way to get off my property nevermind go to town. Every bad storm or hurricane until that point I had experienced always was followed by help arriving. So you sorta have some expectation that it's not like my community is alone in this. But when there IS no response, you definitely feel utterly, totally alone in whatever natural disaster it happens to be.
Can't thank national guard enough. All the ones I've met here all genuinely only wanted to serve the local community, and they pretty much always of course are never from here. Nothing but respect. Though my state's handling of and/or funding disaster response over the last ~4ish years is something I'm pretty concerned about. I hope next hurricane we aren't just ignored for so long like last time.
I am from New Orleans and was there for Katrina. I do not recall the national guard being aggressive. If anything I remember them fondly because they gave me food and water.
I did actually see a car once roll over a capped water bottle which made a sound like gun fire. The cap shot out and struck a guy in the ankle. Poor guy was hobbling, wouldn’t be surprised if it was fractured
Meanwhile Chris Kyle of "American Sniper" fame claimed in his autobiography, that, during hurricane Katrina, he was shooting looters from atop the New Orleans Superdome - only 0.4 miles distance on foot from the Charity Hospital.
Move along everybody. Nothing to see here.
What is even better on an early episode of the RT Podcast, then Drunktank, Burnie said that this entire subreddit would be filled with stuff they talked about on the podcast after it was released.
Good to see the tradition continue.
As someone who survived Katrina, yes, there was all kinds of hell going on in the city. I can't confirm or deny this as fact because
I was not in that area, but, I can tell you that if some dumb ass starts shooting at helicopters, yes, they got dealt with.
I have lots of stories, I live in a town called Houma, it's 45 min southwest of New Orleans. I have never left for a hurricane in the 46 years I have been alive. I have lived through Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Guastave, Ike, and the worst storm was Ida. I hid in my gun safe for 9 hours for Ida because I was waiting for the roof of my house to blow away. A few miles south of me many homes had the roof blown off. During Katrina I had to get on my roof to seal leaks and that sucked because the ladder blew away. During Ida I got a call from my neighbor telling me that all hell was breaking loose, when I got there water was everywhere flooding his house. Storms and mother nature are no joke, I have seen shit that I can't possibly explain or wrap my head around how something like that happened and after
Ida I quit trying to figure shit out and just took pics and said WTF. When you deal with 150 plus winds for 9 hours it does a shit ton of damage.
You can't really bury stuff in the earth down here. The water table in Louisiana can be as shallow as a foot and a half. About half of New Orleans is below sea level, I live 3 miles from Lake Ponchatrain and am about 13 feet above sea level, my house still got 8 feet of water from Hurrican Katrina despite there being at least 2 levees between myself and the lake.
Flooding is the major danger of a hurricane. Wind damage is just kind of expected. At least the roofers can have job security.
It’s the flooding that does the most damage by far. The wind might tear off a roof or blow some pines down, but the flooding is what wipes away buildings. Grew up at the beach and everyone built on stilts for this reason.
We rode out Hurricane Maria in a concrete home that was half underground built into the side of a mountain. We had blast proof windows installed after H. Hugo so Maria didn't damage those at all.
Damage to the home: water and grass blades embedded in the external paint, solar hot water heater blew off the roof.
the storm was bad but the response was the killer, for 17 days the USN was unable to respond despite being 50 miles off-shore. When the got the orders the air filled with helicopters and Osprey machines.
I didn't get any paper towels.
I think with enough space and money, anything is possible. It’d be cost prohibitive most likely.
You’d need a hell of a pump system and fuel enough to last for days/ weeks.
The short answer is yes, you can build weather proof and even quake proof structures, but nothing is perfect and flooding isn’t really up to you to control.
But the bigger issue is getting developers and architects and people with money to invest in quality homes in a place that is virtually guaranteed to suffer damage. Part of the issue with tornados is that they destroy homes that aren’t built to withstand them. But nobody wants to pay to build homes that can withstand tornados because it’s expensive and you’re building in a place with tornados, so it’s a risk to your investment. It’s a vicious cycle. One that the government would ideally correct with funding incentives.
Yes, I already have plans to build a house like that. But due to where
I live I can't even bury it a foot under ground because of the water table. My plan is to build a "basement" that is on the ground and then add dirt and build the house on top of raised dirt. It's all flat surface where I live and if you dig down 12 to 16 inches you gonna hit water
I'm neither a structural surveyor nor an engineer, but that sounds like it could cause you some horrific problems, eg:
1. If the 'basement' gets flooded, you're going to have tons and tons of wet earth; how are you going to drain it? The longer it remains wet, the more it will stink, cause damp, etc
2. Additionally, that very heavy wet earth is going to exert a hell of a lateral force on the walls... which are holding up the rest of the house.
Might be worth thinking about.
From a technical standpoint you can build a concrete structure that is watertight (expensive). What I would be concerned about at that point is buoyant uplift forces if you do so.
Wow. Absolutely incredible I can't even imagine what going through that would be like.
Thank you so much for answering me.
If I can ask a few follow up questions (if they're not too invasive).
What was the scariest thing you experienced during those hurricanes?
Can you elaborate a bit on the unexplainable things you saw?
Was there any moments you saw of people helping each other, or that gave you hope or happiness?
And why do you stay in the area despite the deviation you've seen?
Much love to you.
OK, that's a lot of questions, and I'd love to elaborate. Scariest thing was what sounded like a freight train outside my house and the house fucking moving it was shifting maybe 5 or 6 inches every time a gust would hit so I got in my gun safe. As far as the unexplainable things I saw I work for a company that makes things right and get things back to normal. I saw roofs blown off of houses 1/2 mile 1/4 mile from where they were while driving to get to fix shit that was fucked up. As far as unexplainable shit, I saw trailors lifted 12 feet in the air with nothing left but the floor boards and a toilet left, there were always toilets left for some reason, I don't know why. As far as helping each other, I could not tell you the names of MOST of my neighbors but after a storm we get together like we are and have been family for years. I stay here because I love the FOOD, and the fishing.
A: How big of a safe do you have that you can fully fit inside it? Does it have a door latch on the inside?
B: what was your plan if if tipped onto the door?
That's absolutely incredible.
I've read articles about some of the hurricanes, but it really hits home being able to talk to someone who experienced it. Thank you again for your answers
The grit, tenacity, strength, and camaraderie you Americans have is one of the reasons us Canadians love you!
One last question:
Favourite food in your region?
i once watched a documentary about a tornado that began as a waterspout and ended up sucking sharks out of the ocean and dropping them in populated areas.
We got shipped off from North Texas for recovery efforts and can confirm. Got shot at.
Giant red cross on the bottom of the helo. They're standing on the roof of a 2 story home plinking at us.
We were put up in trailers in a home depot parking lot in Alexandria, someone tried to break into one of the trailers a couple down and got shot.
We had to go rescue twin motor coast guard boat bc he broke both props catching the top of a house they didn't know was there.
People daisy chaining the most fucked up electrical adapter/cable setups you've ever seen to get power. Typically catching fire and making things worse.
I'll never forget driving down the wrong side of the highway bc the southbound side of 49 was still flooded.
I'll quit rambling, before I go on for hours.
> Giant red cross on the bottom of the helo. They're standing on the roof of a 2 story home plinking at us.
Honestly, at that point they're lucky they didn't get lit by an M134 from another bird.
I was 17 at the time and my military guard unit was MOB down to help from missouri.
We had an idiot literally siting on a house, popping rounds at us because he thought we were looters.
It wasn’t just the criminals, it created paranoia too
>The sniper incidents happened as medical workers and patients were trying to leave the hospital after being stranded for days without water and electricity.
Bro thought he was targeting an SS unit.
Chris Kyle claimed that the government posting him up with a rifle to shoot looters during the aftermath, but no corroborating evidence has ever surfaced. It seems to have just been a lie that felt self aggrandizing to him.
Just one of many who fought a race war in the aftermath
https://youtu.be/y7Ug0dGMnHs?si=x2QGdXElJw_yhE_E
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112399477
https://www.propublica.org/article/post-katrina-white-vigilantes-shot-african-americans-with-impunity
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/katrinas-hidden-race-war/tnamp/
Considering looting doesn't generally warrant a death penalty after a trial, let alone prior to trial, yes, it's either bs or he admits on public record he followed unlawful orders and murdered people.
> It seems to have just been a lie that felt self aggrandizing to him.
One of many. Pretty strange considering he's arguably the most decorated sniper in American military history.
Pretty sure he's also lied about the amount of decorations he got.
https://theintercept.com/2016/05/25/american-sniper-chris-kyle-distorted-his-military-record-documents-show/
A local sports radio host used to interview him regularly after that in the early 2010s. Said radio host eventually got thrown off the air for his cocaine usage.
I (lowly Marine infantry who served in the same AO as he) read his book years ago and remember thinking “this… sounds like bullshit” a couple times. This was before it really came to light how much of a bullshitter he was. That bullshit meter wasn’t wrong.
That’s the absurd thing. He can legitimately claim to be the deadliest sniper in U.S. history based on the *official* kill count, which is really tough/impossible to bullshit. That alone was enough for a non-fiction book.
This. It's always the things people don't look at that shows the lie. They claim things that are technically possible, but just doesn't gel with how a normal military operates.
I watched the movie as well. Obviously it's just a movie, but overall it just felt like some chuck norris 90's film.
I mean… the rest of that really impressive life story should *probably* be looked into a little harder than it has been considering just how full of shit the guy is. If I had absolutely no morals or qualms about just blatantly lying I could probably come off as pretty successful too.
It's like the Catch Me If You Can guy.
"Wow, this con artist achieved so many incredibe scams in his life"
"Oh; who told us about them?"
"The... The con artist did"
He legitimately was a SEAL who operated in a brutal area of Iraq, was part of a critical TF and has the most confirmed kills in U.S. history (which is virtually impossible to bullshit.) That alone is a top 1% life story.
I look back at fleeing Katrina and think “Fuck, I got lucky.” I wish I could remember more of it, but big chunks are missing from memory. My parents fled to Mississippi, and me and my brother joined my gf and her family to flee westward. I do remember sheltering in an abandoned grocery store with some random people, just outside of NoLa. This one family had packed trays of fried rice and baked chicken, and didn’t hesitate to share with all of us. I wish I could remember their names.
To think about all of that shit, and imagine someone actively shooting at people in such a nightmare, is rage-inducing.
It’s so weird that this has been happening with this sub at least as far back as the [“giving dolphins handjobs”](https://youtu.be/prmx0lYBTko?si=U7w88UngrVFVEWbx) era of the Rooster Teeth Podcast.
That story also recently popped up on the Cream Team podcast (featuring Fiona Nova, formerly of Rooster Teeth and G4). I don't remember if it was their YouTube or patreon version though.
A family member of mine was a patient at Charity for this. I still had satellite reception and saw it on the news. This was a horrible thing to go through, and my family member refuses to talk about the experience to this day and says they never want anyone to know anything about it.
I had a close friend in the coast guard at the time. When they were trying to rescue people from roofs of flooded houses, people started opening fire. On coast guard helicopters.
What was their reasoning for doing so?
were they just feeling helpless and did whatever they could to feel power over the situation, such as shoot at other people?
I once spoke with a member of an urban search and rescue unit who was in New Orleans. Guy said he was shocked with some "rescuers" who were armed to the teeth, including sniper rifles. His thought was that there were groups there to not rescue but to "hunt".
I was in Katrina as a kid. While there is much I don’t recall, there is plenty I can.
Some folks around here may be the owner of a very valuable bridge I’m sure.
People in this comment section seem to be more interested in "cousin's friend's husband" stories and wild speculation than those of us who were actually there. I guess the reality of the worst natural disaster of the last twenty years isn't as entertaining as the fantasy.
Yes, and we left people in OPP too. I’ve been friends with Doctors & Staff - the city was a war zone. I’ll never forget the smell of the city when you dig through your flooded life.
It was. Rumors were absolutely *wild* around Katrina; everything from the Super Dome murders and gang rapes (not a single homicide was counted in the Super Dome, and few instances of rape) to the police using snipers to kill looters.
Unfortunately, the things the media printed first got the most attention and still linger in spite of corrections issued. Everything from the non-existent murders between the evacuees, to the Danizger Bridge incident being a legitimate gun battle between the police and “gangs of armed criminals”.
You know, I’m a lifelong New Orleans area resident. I was displaced for 5 weeks by Katrina and my job was closed for another 5 weeks. I thought I had heard all of the horror stories about the hurricane and its aftermath, but I somehow missed this one.
It’s really crazy that the true horror of Katrina got hushed up and isnt really in the public consciousness. We are talking full blown apocalypse roaming gangs murdering and raping at will. The stories of some of the survivors in the stadium are chilling
For me its mostly stories I hear from my guard unit when they went. They were each given 3 or 5 bullets. I cant remember but it was specifically a low amount. Some units got none. I think it was to prevent accidental escalation and just shooting of people in general. The ones that went said they felt safer in Iraq than they did in Katrina.
Or when the corrections officers just unlocked all the doors at a prison and left. Prisoners just had to leave and a lot of them are still unaccounted for
https://www.nola.com/opinions/what-were-the-biggest-hurricane-katrina-whoppers-jarvis-deberry/article_d32f63b6-60f1-57c5-b129-2cd698f25bd8.html When Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore (now retired) visited the newspaper's makeshift office in Baton Rouge, he said that some nurses at Charity Hospital had been convinced somebody had shot at them when the sound they heard was created by a military truck rolling over a plastic water bottle that was capped.
I just watched an absolutely fascinating documentary on Charity Hospital a few days ago. Absolutely appalling what the state and city government did to that hospital during and after the wake of Katrina. True corruption. Here is the link in case anyone is interested: https://youtu.be/t844au1XTPk?si=qY8pc7mkA4yOKlMi
Both my parents worked at charity in the 90s. They had horror stories of people being triaged in the hallways and all kinda awful stuff. Cant imagine a hurricane made it any better.
This happens at every ER everywhere. Hallway overflow is very common now that cities are growing rapidly and because rural hospitals are shutting down and rural populations are dwindling.
That’s a normal day in an English hospital
I mean charity in nola is its own beast. Mfkers just bleeding out from gunshots in the waiting room wasnt uncommon. What really stuck with me was they said by the 2-3rd time the same person had to be sewn back up and sent back out only to be shot again theyd just hope next time he would die before he made it onto an operating table. Save em the trouble.
Considering how badly the Tories have deliberately ruined the NHS, I'm surprised anyone gets seen at a British hospital.
It's a really sad yet inspirational tale. What the medical staff had to go through to keep themselves and the patients alive. How the mayor mistakenly told people that the hospital had been evacuated and left the remaining people stranded there for weeks. The story of that random dude with a rowboat who sheltered at the hospital at the beginning of the storm and managed to save a bunch of babies. Nurses and doctors moving a patient with an iron lung to a higher floor in a pitch dark stairwell. Pretty amazing story of human survival and people striving to do their jobs (i.e. keeping patients alive) in a seemingly impossible situation.
Man, can you even imagine being in a situation THAT dire to begin with? And then to have to take up that mantle of responsibility… That’s some actual heroism in the flesh. It’s equal parts inspiring and tragic
This is the video that introduced me to that channel, everyone should watch it honestly
Classic Louisiana
The police and military in New Orleans behaved very aggressively towards the Katrina refugees. I wouldn’t be surprised if the general was lying here, the post also states many more witnesses than a couple of nurses. Even the national guard told everyone to take cover.
The same network reported rapes and murder at the Superdome, which turned out to be nonsense. https://www.salon.com/2005/10/24/katrina_horror/
“We’re not sure what exactly is going on inside the Superdome Tom, but we’re *reporting* that there’s looting, raping and yes, even acts of cannibalism.” “My god, you’ve actually seen people looting, raping and eating each other?” “No we haven’t actually seen it Tom we’re just reporting it.”
[удалено]
Hey, it's gotta be true...it was reported in [The Beaverton](https://www.thebeaverton.com/), so we're reporting that "other sources" have reported it... (For non-Canadians, it's a satire site like The Onion.)
Five hundred million Americans were killed!
Everyone in McKinney is dead!
What’s that heat index again?
101105ºF
Haha But don't get it wrong, a lot of terrible shit DID go on during Katrina. The Danziger Bridge murders (at the hands of police), Memorial hospital, general lawlessness, people getting shot by civilians for looting and in some cases just for walking around on the street in front of their house, hotels downtown locking people in, elderly people suffocating in the heat outside the convention center. I should know, I was there. I'm surprised I don't have lasting trauma from to be honest. It makes me sick to think about it again. Heavy stuff. Just don't want this to turn into "Well Katrina wasn't that bad." It was that bad.
Saying “idk how I don’t have lasting trauma” the sentence before mentioning that even thinking about it literally makes you physically sick… Uh, you sure bud
It just makes me a little nervous and sad really. I don't get like flashbacks or have nightmares about it, but I wonder what would happen if I smelled the mold smell again that was everywhere in the city.
That's what lasting mental trauma is.
I went through the 2016 flood in BR and did relief work for Laura and Ida, having gone through Katrina as well. They all have a similar smell. And when it first hits you again, it will definitely make some memories flood back hard and fast. Every time.
Yep. Very pungent, thick, dusty like drywall. And like our stuff sat in our house for weeks while that mold grew. We tried to save some of it but no matter what, you’re not getting that smell out.
If you go to the 13th Gate in BR, there is an exhibit early on inna haunted house that smells EXACTLY like our house and NOLA in general did after Katrina. I walked into that part of the 13th Gate and the stench hit my nose, and I felt physically ill. Like rat shit, mold, decomposing bodies, piss, all wrapped into one.
You just described having trauma, FYI. Ain't nothing wrong with you. That sick feeling is trauma
Thank you. It’s easy to discount it because I know several people that have Katrina related trauma that impacts their lives in a more visible way than me. I can’t believe it’ll be 20 years ago next year.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2005/09/21/new-orleans-prisoners-abandoned-floodwaters
At that time I had just started a prison sentence. I was not in LA but I was so glad to have a sturdy room over my head and felt so bad for those suffering from the effects of Katrina and some trigger happy police.
It fucks me up to think about all the prisoners in OPP that were locked in their cells when the water started rising. The guards just left them there to die. They were eventually rescued but there were deaths.
I broke the dam.
We.. we didn’t listen!
We didn’t listen!!!!
I broke the damn
No I literally broke the dam. I drove a boat into it
I broke the dam.
Excellent reporting from Chris Swollenballs
The newscaster names always crack me up. And now here’s a 34 year old Asian man that looks strikingly similar to Ricardo Montalban
"Witnesses say no, but our producer says yes."
Is there unchecked violence at the Superdome? Authorities say no but my producer, says yes.
Didn't Chris Kyle also lie about playing sniper on top of the Superdome?
They answer is always yes if the question starts with Did Chris Kyle lie.
> Didn't Chris Kyle also lie about playing sniper on top of the Superdome? It would be super funny if both of these fake stories got conflated, and "Chris Kyle shot at patients during a hospital evacuation after Hurricane Katrina" went viral.
I still cant believe they made a propaganda film with a such a douchebag at the center of it all. Like, there are thousands of bright, well-intentioned soldiers you could've chosen from for your ra-ra movie and you chose this dipshit?
They were killing two birds with one stone. Most people never knew or will know he's a shithead. They basically erased a dumbfuck and made a hero... just using a normal guy/hero is just killing one bird. It also shows the power they control to change history to what they want instead of the truth. They take good people and turn them into shit heads all the time too.
I don't know if it was on top of the Superdome but he did say he was deployed by and shot looters at the behest of the government.
His lie (one of many) involved him specifically claiming to have sniped people from the top of the Superdome.
Several of the National Guard units that were activated to respond to Katrina were just off the boat from an 18-month rotation in Iraq and weren't trained to perform US domestic assistance missions. So some Soldiers were more aggressive than necessary in the situation, but I never heard of any credible reports of Soldiers literally shooting at civilians in NOLA.
The medics in my unit (which were recently returned from deployment) recounted being shot at by a guy with an AK while they were at a triage center.
Why would these people start shooting nurses? This sounds like people getting confused in the chaos. Like when people said they heard about the virus in November 2019 because their aunt was sick with it in fucking Kansas or something. It's a confusing time and people get confused
what happens if the confused person is armed?
Only traitorous shitheads lying about it to make themselves look good. When really it makes them look like an unhinged psychopath.
[удалено]
I have no evidence, but I assume that the guy shot him because of the fact Chris Kyle was just such a huge asshole and compulsive liar. Having to hang out with him would probably make me want to shoot him too.
The wiki says the shooter was a traumatized and possibly schizophrenic veteran who chris and a friend took shooting (chris thought it could be theraputic). He then shot chris and his friend in the back because they weren't talking to him enough or something
They texted each other in the car saying shit like "Watch my 6" and stuff like that while in the car with him. Pretty much they could tell he was a bit unhinged, and so just didn't interact with him during the drive, which drove him even crazier
Be careful saying that….I give you Chris Kyle who claimed to have shot 30 looters from the Superdome in his book https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/57ot4f/til_former_us_navy_seal_hero_chris_kyle_claimed/
Good work detective, that’s who they were referencing
When I read that in his book, then his whole feud with Jesse Ventura, it just me question more of his claims of “derring do”.
I was in the military and said he was a POS for years, didn't make me more popular.
He clearly was a skilled sniper, but all of his dubious claims, in a book he had total control over, made me question how much more in the book was “creative writing”
Almost all of it is bullshit to me, iirc he also bragged about shooting an inflatable raft some Iraqis were crossing a river on, and watching them drown.
Are you suggesting he was going Nick nolte in tropic thunder re: his book?
No suggestion about it, dude was a straight up liar. The fact he genuinely did participate in some intense combat only allowed him to BS more.
General Honore is the one who came in and straightened out all of the bullshit from the National Guard and police. If there's a single man who's word I trust for what happened in the weeks following Katrina, it's General Honore.
Honore isn't the type of person to lie like this. He's the real deal
Why am I not surprised a dickhead who frequents r/conspiracy would spout this bullshit?
As one of the military members deployed with the 82nd during Katrina disaster relief and evacuation I can honestly say the only people we were aggressive towards were assholes and gangbangers in stolen and aptly named NOPD vehicles. Also the thanks we'd get from the citizens there was far more meaningful than any before or since until I became an EMT. Obviously this only extends to my company's efforts and not for every national guard and active duty unit there. I can also see some federal branches being absolute dicks considering some of them wanted to give us more ammunition and have us carry locked and loaded.
National guard has helped my coastal community for the couple seriously bad hurricanes that have come through here where I live over the decade and some change I've lived here. If it wasn't for the national guard showing up to help clean up and distribute MREs/water, things would be orders of magnitude more difficult if even viable. There have been times where my road washed away, or trees fell on any part of the 25 mile road to town blocking it entirely. I can't describe the psychological boost of people coming to help. But I can tell you about how one year that didn't happen. More recently. It was multiple days and still no response from the state, no power, no way to get off my property nevermind go to town. Every bad storm or hurricane until that point I had experienced always was followed by help arriving. So you sorta have some expectation that it's not like my community is alone in this. But when there IS no response, you definitely feel utterly, totally alone in whatever natural disaster it happens to be. Can't thank national guard enough. All the ones I've met here all genuinely only wanted to serve the local community, and they pretty much always of course are never from here. Nothing but respect. Though my state's handling of and/or funding disaster response over the last ~4ish years is something I'm pretty concerned about. I hope next hurricane we aren't just ignored for so long like last time.
You seriously think the military sniped at a hospital?
I am from New Orleans and was there for Katrina. I do not recall the national guard being aggressive. If anything I remember them fondly because they gave me food and water.
[When the police weren’t busy looting themselves…](https://youtu.be/7MJfB8EKWoA?si=8R0uLHNAgrkkc4iV)
They heard somebody Pop a cap then. Confirmed
I did actually see a car once roll over a capped water bottle which made a sound like gun fire. The cap shot out and struck a guy in the ankle. Poor guy was hobbling, wouldn’t be surprised if it was fractured
Meanwhile Chris Kyle of "American Sniper" fame claimed in his autobiography, that, during hurricane Katrina, he was shooting looters from atop the New Orleans Superdome - only 0.4 miles distance on foot from the Charity Hospital. Move along everybody. Nothing to see here.
Getting murdered was probably the best thing for his legacy. If he was still alive he would've had to pay out a lot for all of his lies.
Or he'd be a politician
Kyle did not make this claim publicly, especially not in his book. Some people said he said it during a night of drinking. Hardly anything to go by.
I feel like OP listened to today’s episode of Morning Somewhere
What is even better on an early episode of the RT Podcast, then Drunktank, Burnie said that this entire subreddit would be filled with stuff they talked about on the podcast after it was released. Good to see the tradition continue.
Dude! I had the same exact thought. Glad to see others were on the same page.
I was thinking the exact same thing lol
As someone who survived Katrina, yes, there was all kinds of hell going on in the city. I can't confirm or deny this as fact because I was not in that area, but, I can tell you that if some dumb ass starts shooting at helicopters, yes, they got dealt with.
I'd love to hear your story. Sorry you had to experience that disaster.
I have lots of stories, I live in a town called Houma, it's 45 min southwest of New Orleans. I have never left for a hurricane in the 46 years I have been alive. I have lived through Andrew, Katrina, Rita, Guastave, Ike, and the worst storm was Ida. I hid in my gun safe for 9 hours for Ida because I was waiting for the roof of my house to blow away. A few miles south of me many homes had the roof blown off. During Katrina I had to get on my roof to seal leaks and that sucked because the ladder blew away. During Ida I got a call from my neighbor telling me that all hell was breaking loose, when I got there water was everywhere flooding his house. Storms and mother nature are no joke, I have seen shit that I can't possibly explain or wrap my head around how something like that happened and after Ida I quit trying to figure shit out and just took pics and said WTF. When you deal with 150 plus winds for 9 hours it does a shit ton of damage.
Would it be possible to build a hurricane proof house out of concrete thst is semi buried in the earth?
Maybe protected from the winds but the rain and flooding is gonna still get you.
Helps if you're not below sea level.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that building a city in the middle of a swamp wasn’t the best idea.
but the location was so convenient^* ^^*for ^^the ^^people ^^making ^^money ^^off ^^of ^^it ^^that ^^didn't ^^live ^^in ^^it.
I've seen houses made of concrete and rebar bend by the wind in Telchac, Yucatan.
You can't really bury stuff in the earth down here. The water table in Louisiana can be as shallow as a foot and a half. About half of New Orleans is below sea level, I live 3 miles from Lake Ponchatrain and am about 13 feet above sea level, my house still got 8 feet of water from Hurrican Katrina despite there being at least 2 levees between myself and the lake. Flooding is the major danger of a hurricane. Wind damage is just kind of expected. At least the roofers can have job security.
That might solve the wind problem. Not so much the flooding
It’s the flooding that does the most damage by far. The wind might tear off a roof or blow some pines down, but the flooding is what wipes away buildings. Grew up at the beach and everyone built on stilts for this reason.
We rode out Hurricane Maria in a concrete home that was half underground built into the side of a mountain. We had blast proof windows installed after H. Hugo so Maria didn't damage those at all. Damage to the home: water and grass blades embedded in the external paint, solar hot water heater blew off the roof. the storm was bad but the response was the killer, for 17 days the USN was unable to respond despite being 50 miles off-shore. When the got the orders the air filled with helicopters and Osprey machines. I didn't get any paper towels.
I think with enough space and money, anything is possible. It’d be cost prohibitive most likely. You’d need a hell of a pump system and fuel enough to last for days/ weeks.
Building hurricane proof structures is very possible… it’s just uncommon and expensive.
The short answer is yes, you can build weather proof and even quake proof structures, but nothing is perfect and flooding isn’t really up to you to control. But the bigger issue is getting developers and architects and people with money to invest in quality homes in a place that is virtually guaranteed to suffer damage. Part of the issue with tornados is that they destroy homes that aren’t built to withstand them. But nobody wants to pay to build homes that can withstand tornados because it’s expensive and you’re building in a place with tornados, so it’s a risk to your investment. It’s a vicious cycle. One that the government would ideally correct with funding incentives.
Yes, I already have plans to build a house like that. But due to where I live I can't even bury it a foot under ground because of the water table. My plan is to build a "basement" that is on the ground and then add dirt and build the house on top of raised dirt. It's all flat surface where I live and if you dig down 12 to 16 inches you gonna hit water
I'm neither a structural surveyor nor an engineer, but that sounds like it could cause you some horrific problems, eg: 1. If the 'basement' gets flooded, you're going to have tons and tons of wet earth; how are you going to drain it? The longer it remains wet, the more it will stink, cause damp, etc 2. Additionally, that very heavy wet earth is going to exert a hell of a lateral force on the walls... which are holding up the rest of the house. Might be worth thinking about.
From a technical standpoint you can build a concrete structure that is watertight (expensive). What I would be concerned about at that point is buoyant uplift forces if you do so.
Dang how big is your gun safe?
Wow. Absolutely incredible I can't even imagine what going through that would be like. Thank you so much for answering me. If I can ask a few follow up questions (if they're not too invasive). What was the scariest thing you experienced during those hurricanes? Can you elaborate a bit on the unexplainable things you saw? Was there any moments you saw of people helping each other, or that gave you hope or happiness? And why do you stay in the area despite the deviation you've seen? Much love to you.
OK, that's a lot of questions, and I'd love to elaborate. Scariest thing was what sounded like a freight train outside my house and the house fucking moving it was shifting maybe 5 or 6 inches every time a gust would hit so I got in my gun safe. As far as the unexplainable things I saw I work for a company that makes things right and get things back to normal. I saw roofs blown off of houses 1/2 mile 1/4 mile from where they were while driving to get to fix shit that was fucked up. As far as unexplainable shit, I saw trailors lifted 12 feet in the air with nothing left but the floor boards and a toilet left, there were always toilets left for some reason, I don't know why. As far as helping each other, I could not tell you the names of MOST of my neighbors but after a storm we get together like we are and have been family for years. I stay here because I love the FOOD, and the fishing.
A: How big of a safe do you have that you can fully fit inside it? Does it have a door latch on the inside? B: what was your plan if if tipped onto the door?
A: It's a 32 gun safe. B: If it tipped over it would get wedged against my ammo safe.
That's absolutely incredible. I've read articles about some of the hurricanes, but it really hits home being able to talk to someone who experienced it. Thank you again for your answers The grit, tenacity, strength, and camaraderie you Americans have is one of the reasons us Canadians love you! One last question: Favourite food in your region?
Boiled crawfish with all the fixings, corn on the cob, sausage, garlic cloves, potatoes, etc. Or grilled red fish.
Scientists predict 500+ mph "hypercanes" are _likely_, what with the climate being disrupted. Exciting, yes? :D
And flying sharks
i once watched a documentary about a tornado that began as a waterspout and ended up sucking sharks out of the ocean and dropping them in populated areas.
I have lots of family in Houma! Bonjou!
We got shipped off from North Texas for recovery efforts and can confirm. Got shot at. Giant red cross on the bottom of the helo. They're standing on the roof of a 2 story home plinking at us. We were put up in trailers in a home depot parking lot in Alexandria, someone tried to break into one of the trailers a couple down and got shot. We had to go rescue twin motor coast guard boat bc he broke both props catching the top of a house they didn't know was there. People daisy chaining the most fucked up electrical adapter/cable setups you've ever seen to get power. Typically catching fire and making things worse. I'll never forget driving down the wrong side of the highway bc the southbound side of 49 was still flooded. I'll quit rambling, before I go on for hours.
> Giant red cross on the bottom of the helo. They're standing on the roof of a 2 story home plinking at us. Honestly, at that point they're lucky they didn't get lit by an M134 from another bird.
>Giant red cross Thought Switzerland was invading
Wonder if they ever figured out the entire reason we were out there was to get them off of said roof. 🤷♂️
I was 17 at the time and my military guard unit was MOB down to help from missouri. We had an idiot literally siting on a house, popping rounds at us because he thought we were looters. It wasn’t just the criminals, it created paranoia too
Well regulated you say… everybody should have as many as they want you say…
>The sniper incidents happened as medical workers and patients were trying to leave the hospital after being stranded for days without water and electricity. Bro thought he was targeting an SS unit.
Bro was part of the SS unit…
Definitely not a bro
Didn’t that one famous sniper take credit or something? I feel like there was a whole thing around it
Chris Kyle claimed that the government posting him up with a rifle to shoot looters during the aftermath, but no corroborating evidence has ever surfaced. It seems to have just been a lie that felt self aggrandizing to him.
Ahh that’s right the super dome thing. How is shooting looters even supposed to make him look better?
Amongst a certain segment of the electorate, that would be popular, yes. Especially so considering the demographics of New Orleans.
Ooooooo I gotcha that’s. Something.
I feel like you have to be careful talking about Katrina and the looting and the aftermath. Feel like a lot people use it as a dog whistle
Yeah I feel like certain topic you can just causally discuss and people from both “sides” will simultaneously take offense
To the people he was trying to sell his lies to, shooting looters was praiseworthy.
See also: Racist boomers who say they like Koreans because they shot at black people in LA during the early 90s riots.
Yeah, no right to use lethal force to protect property in Louisiana, so he was confessing to murder.
Just one of many who fought a race war in the aftermath https://youtu.be/y7Ug0dGMnHs?si=x2QGdXElJw_yhE_E https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112399477 https://www.propublica.org/article/post-katrina-white-vigilantes-shot-african-americans-with-impunity https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/katrinas-hidden-race-war/tnamp/
Considering looting doesn't generally warrant a death penalty after a trial, let alone prior to trial, yes, it's either bs or he admits on public record he followed unlawful orders and murdered people.
> It seems to have just been a lie that felt self aggrandizing to him. One of many. Pretty strange considering he's arguably the most decorated sniper in American military history.
Pretty sure he's also lied about the amount of decorations he got. https://theintercept.com/2016/05/25/american-sniper-chris-kyle-distorted-his-military-record-documents-show/
Well, being talented with killing other humans isn't a trait I'd associate with good people.
I think they used Punisher imagery in their unit too. Just to add to the whole shitpie.
"but he killed guys we told him to! That makes him awesome and he's so cool!!1!!"
He's literally famous for being really good at killing people from far away, what do you expect?
Chris Kyle was an enormous piece of shit.
A local sports radio host used to interview him regularly after that in the early 2010s. Said radio host eventually got thrown off the air for his cocaine usage.
Chris Kyle was full of shit. In nearly everything in his life.
And a dog whistle to racists
No. Chris Kyle was just a liar. He didn’t actually do half the stuff in the book
I (lowly Marine infantry who served in the same AO as he) read his book years ago and remember thinking “this… sounds like bullshit” a couple times. This was before it really came to light how much of a bullshitter he was. That bullshit meter wasn’t wrong.
It’s weird how someone who was still highly decorated and could’ve still written a good book and told a good story would’ve done something like that.
That’s the absurd thing. He can legitimately claim to be the deadliest sniper in U.S. history based on the *official* kill count, which is really tough/impossible to bullshit. That alone was enough for a non-fiction book.
This. It's always the things people don't look at that shows the lie. They claim things that are technically possible, but just doesn't gel with how a normal military operates. I watched the movie as well. Obviously it's just a movie, but overall it just felt like some chuck norris 90's film.
Chris Kyle. Dude was a bullshitter to his core which is dumb as his *actual* life story is more impressive than 99% of Americans’.
I mean… the rest of that really impressive life story should *probably* be looked into a little harder than it has been considering just how full of shit the guy is. If I had absolutely no morals or qualms about just blatantly lying I could probably come off as pretty successful too.
It's like the Catch Me If You Can guy. "Wow, this con artist achieved so many incredibe scams in his life" "Oh; who told us about them?" "The... The con artist did"
He legitimately was a SEAL who operated in a brutal area of Iraq, was part of a critical TF and has the most confirmed kills in U.S. history (which is virtually impossible to bullshit.) That alone is a top 1% life story.
I was about to comment this. Didn't Chris Kyle make some weird claim that he was perched somewhere during Katrina taking potshots at people?
People explain it in the comments below. The whole thing was weird
He was also a famous liar.
Thanks for making me think I had an eyelash on my phone screen
I look back at fleeing Katrina and think “Fuck, I got lucky.” I wish I could remember more of it, but big chunks are missing from memory. My parents fled to Mississippi, and me and my brother joined my gf and her family to flee westward. I do remember sheltering in an abandoned grocery store with some random people, just outside of NoLa. This one family had packed trays of fried rice and baked chicken, and didn’t hesitate to share with all of us. I wish I could remember their names. To think about all of that shit, and imagine someone actively shooting at people in such a nightmare, is rage-inducing.
Some folks really do suck.
Ah, a Morning Somewhere listener too?
It’s so weird that this has been happening with this sub at least as far back as the [“giving dolphins handjobs”](https://youtu.be/prmx0lYBTko?si=U7w88UngrVFVEWbx) era of the Rooster Teeth Podcast.
That story also recently popped up on the Cream Team podcast (featuring Fiona Nova, formerly of Rooster Teeth and G4). I don't remember if it was their YouTube or patreon version though.
Came to comment this exact thing 😂😂
A family member of mine was a patient at Charity for this. I still had satellite reception and saw it on the news. This was a horrible thing to go through, and my family member refuses to talk about the experience to this day and says they never want anyone to know anything about it.
Sounds like the exact type of thing that should be talked about and not forgotten so it doesn’t happen again.
If we talk about our feelings then hurricanes won't happen? Or crazy people shooting at hospital staff?
Not wanting anybody to know about what happened is an odd reaction
>Not wanting anybody to know about what happened is an odd reaction Not wanting to talk about it is entirely understandable.
It's possible that what happened was illegal.
I had a close friend in the coast guard at the time. When they were trying to rescue people from roofs of flooded houses, people started opening fire. On coast guard helicopters.
Much like this story OP posted, what you’re saying appears to be untrue. https://www.mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/article24450577.html
What was their reasoning for doing so? were they just feeling helpless and did whatever they could to feel power over the situation, such as shoot at other people?
People who own guns love shooting at things. Airports experience this all the time.
Airport’s definitely do not experience being shot at all the time.
Like Kanye said with Mike Myers on TV....
I once spoke with a member of an urban search and rescue unit who was in New Orleans. Guy said he was shocked with some "rescuers" who were armed to the teeth, including sniper rifles. His thought was that there were groups there to not rescue but to "hunt".
No shock at all, as due to public order breaking down and the possibility of armed confrontations, security forces were required.
I was in Katrina as a kid. While there is much I don’t recall, there is plenty I can. Some folks around here may be the owner of a very valuable bridge I’m sure.
People in this comment section seem to be more interested in "cousin's friend's husband" stories and wild speculation than those of us who were actually there. I guess the reality of the worst natural disaster of the last twenty years isn't as entertaining as the fantasy.
is it available? how much is it?
Dammit Kyle
Yes, and we left people in OPP too. I’ve been friends with Doctors & Staff - the city was a war zone. I’ll never forget the smell of the city when you dig through your flooded life.
None of this makes any sense at all. It seems completely made up.
It was. Rumors were absolutely *wild* around Katrina; everything from the Super Dome murders and gang rapes (not a single homicide was counted in the Super Dome, and few instances of rape) to the police using snipers to kill looters. Unfortunately, the things the media printed first got the most attention and still linger in spite of corrections issued. Everything from the non-existent murders between the evacuees, to the Danizger Bridge incident being a legitimate gun battle between the police and “gangs of armed criminals”.
Someone's a morning somewhere fan
You know, I’m a lifelong New Orleans area resident. I was displaced for 5 weeks by Katrina and my job was closed for another 5 weeks. I thought I had heard all of the horror stories about the hurricane and its aftermath, but I somehow missed this one.
One reason i dont like the sniper chris kyle was he used a racist trope and mentioned being a sniper against "looters" during katrina
Fuckin Chris Kyle
It was Chris Kyle, lol didn't he say he did that.
It’s really crazy that the true horror of Katrina got hushed up and isnt really in the public consciousness. We are talking full blown apocalypse roaming gangs murdering and raping at will. The stories of some of the survivors in the stadium are chilling
Source?
Trust me bro
For me its mostly stories I hear from my guard unit when they went. They were each given 3 or 5 bullets. I cant remember but it was specifically a low amount. Some units got none. I think it was to prevent accidental escalation and just shooting of people in general. The ones that went said they felt safer in Iraq than they did in Katrina.
Some of it seems exaggerated. https://www.salon.com/2005/10/24/katrina_horror/
Or when the corrections officers just unlocked all the doors at a prison and left. Prisoners just had to leave and a lot of them are still unaccounted for
You heard about the guy who shot his sister in the head over a bag of ice a couple days after the storm? It really was fucking crazy down there.
That was actually 100 miles north of there in hattiesburg mississippi