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thing is a catastrophe of epic proportion. Get my opinion. The worst store to ever get United States. On August 29 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, forever changing the region and the country. Before Katrina developed into a Hurricane Margaret or a Louisiana native and chief meteorologist at Wds, you began tracking the storm from her death at the New Orleans station Tuesday, August 23rd. That's when it became a Depression 10 a.m. Wednesday, it became the 11th storm of the season. It was forecast to make landfall as a hurricane in South Florida. But that did not happen. It became a hurricane about two hours before landfall. It slowed down, moved into the Gulf of Mexico, where quickly intensified and away. A lot of the circulation was over that warm water, so it never died down. The lowest stick out. You was about 70 miles for our, and then when it hit the warm water, it intensified. Travers Mackel, an Emmy Award winning investigative reporter at W. D. S. U. Was reporting from the field when it started making landfall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. You knew it was bad it kind of security. Plaquemines Parish on its way up. It made landfall, and this is before Twitter. This is before the dawn of Facebook. So basically got all your reports from the television or through the radio, and we heard some reports that it was really bad along the Mississippi Gulf coast. Devastated it missed the steering currents and so high pressure built again, and it steered it right our way. And then Friday afternoon, all of shifted it our way. Saturday, warning. Katrina was a cat three with winds of 150 MPH. 10 o'clock Saturday, a hurricane watch was issued for us Sunday morning, August 28th, in ominous statement, was issued to the city of New Orleans from the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service forecast office in Slider, Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina. The most powerful hurricane with unprecedented strength rivaling the intensity of Hurricane Camille. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. At least one half of the well constructed homes will have roof and wall found your Sunday morning that I I was looking right at us. I was on the air and said, Oh my God, it's a cat. Five. Right, Margaret, What can you tell us? It's a Category five. Katrina is now a Category five hurricane with winds of 160 MPH. Let's go to our satellite. That night, Katrina diminished in intensity to a cat three, but it was huge. Just 20 hours before Katrina made landfall, Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, issued a mandatory evacuation of the city. He called for a mandatory evacuation. After it was Julie. It was too late to get people on. The storm surge would breach 53 levees around the metro New Orleans area, but the initial thoughts on everyone's mind were that New Orleans would weather this storm. People were nervous, but I think most people were like who? New Orleans dodged a bullet. Some windows got blown out in downtown New Orleans, and there was a little bit damaged, but I think most people felt like they had dodged a bullet. There was a big sense of relief, albeit very short. We heard reports of heavy water and flooding. That's like, Well, that's odd. The storm already passed over. Why is it flooding? And it's because you have some major levee failures across the city of New Orleans. In this metro area. I could see that the water was actually coming through, the Levy said. Captain said. I think the levee broke people who were high and dry. That water started rising like a foot and our they were far away. And if they were by the area that the wall broke, those homes were washed away. There was nothing left for several blocks, and people stayed in some situations because they survived Camille and they thought that they could survive Katrina. We actually thought it was just a normal flow and the water will go down. But we come outside and we don't see any of our vehicles, and people from the floor under us started to come up there looking for refuge. That's when we realized it was serious. As we went back in the house that grabbed the keys and I was shoes. It's like the water was coming in the house like rapid, just like so what? We couldn't do nothing but get, Tau added. You can't wrap your brain around this. You can't unless you know I took my first boat ride last night. I have never seen so much devastation have been a minute. For 24 years, there were three major levee failures. 17 Street Canal, London Avenue, Canal, Industrial Canal that floated various parts of New Orleans and surrounding parishes. This was not a natural possessed, but this was a manmade levee failure that led to the flooding of the city of New Orleans and parts of southeast Louisiana. We're talking 10 12 15 ft of floodwater where all you saw when you look down from it. Elevated interstate was the tops of houses that the water was 10 and 12 ft up in the air. So it was one of those things where you can't make this up what you're looking at. But this is reality. Floodwater is really that high. Nobody expects levees in a major American city toe fair like that. We look back and you see these basket rescues with the coast guard of people on their rooftops. They had no place else to go. Was either Go to your roof for draft and a lot of people. Unfortunately, more than 2000 people died. The images of Children on rooftops begging to be rescue of elderly people in wheelchairs dying, the lack of water and the extreme heat and no shade available. And people dying just waiting to be helped way rescues of a home in Gentilly of a little girl who was in her attic with her parents that cops rescued on a lot of votes because they had to pull up to the window in a boat. A little girl couldn't swim. She was hanging. The cops don't fall. Don't wait of your other boat. What was going through my mind? Water came in so fast. And then what's these poor people get back to the interesting. Where do they go? Picks him up. They start walking to one of these makeshift shelters of last resort, which was Superdome and convention center. Most people thought, OK, I'm gonna get my stuff. I'm gonna go to the Super Governments, spend the night, and I'm gonna go home. Most people didn't bring anything with the clothes on their back. Nobody expected toe hunker down there for three or four days. That's not what they were designed. They didn't have water. That was part of the failure and planning and part of the catastrophe. If you Will was a lack of preparation. Neighbor became a four letter curse word. Federal spies was not that they couldn't get water. People that couldn't get food two great couldn't get people out. And part of that dealt with failure to pre planned for a defense lightness. Natural disasters like this brings out the best normal average citizens lost everything and their kids were operating and their jobs were lost. Her operated Katrina took the only family I really had. I'm only a child. Just me and my mom and I had just put everything into the house just before Katrina and lost everything you know. So it was just devastating to come back and see. I don't have no house that I'm working. A lot of the homes were built by families, and then they just handed them down without always doing all the paperwork so that when Katrina hit, the person who owned the house didn't have the paperwork to prove that they owned, and that made it harder for them to apply to programs that might have helped them rebuild. There was a lot of looting. It was said. People were panicked and didn't know how to get out. That leads to essentially a point off chaos, but local leaders were determined to step up from Coast Guardsman. When we first got on scene and saw all the people, it was like, man, these people were still here. This is a lot of people were sticking on 15 20 people deep in the back of the helicopter is the biggest rescue operation in U. S. History. Two police officers not waiting for orders to save lives. We don't consider ourselves here Rose because any policemen that had a boat when it did the same thing to medical personnel acting fast to save their patients, they have all their trust in tow. Us we have to do is best for them and keep them safe. I tell her, Thank you. You for saving my life. And I really appreciate how she had him embracing him like he was her own baby. It just did something to me. It was very emotional to see that. And when the Navy did arrive on August 31st, they sent three star General Russel Honore who organized evacuations, got people necessities and cleaned up the city. There were a lot of success stories and a lot of people showed what they were made off, and it made a stronger. Nearly three years after being rescued from her Gentilly home, Kourtney Jackson graduated from Eggs, a ver university, and now she's a practicing get its story. If there ever was with somebody who was literally left on the interstate was nothing but the wet clothing on her back barefoot with her family. If I didn't get to continue that, I could get I got through dental school. I can get through pretty much anything. So, yeah, that was this. It was a cakewalk compared to Uncle. I couldn't let Katrina or anything else like deter me from my dream. It's kind of woven into the fabric of all the most, and that's probably most heartbreaking part. 15 years later, the scars still show from Katrina. When you hear somebody say 15 years later, then I used to live in New Orleans, but I live in California dogs. I couldn't come back after Katrina. It kind of breaks your heart a little bit. Some areas have come back better. Some areas never came back, and I think that it was a learning experience for all of us, one that would probably have ever deal with again. My mother lost the house. My childhood home got flooding. Hurricane Katrina. I mean, it was heartbreaking to see Anto watch. So you realize what's important. Couches, cars, furniture, even homes. It's important, but it's not as important as your loved ones. This could happen again. We had Betsy. We had Camille, We had Katrina. They're gonna be more bad hurricanes. And truly the best advice is Get out of town. Leave this area. It's surreal to talk about 15 years later because I hope we'll never see anything like that ever again. New Orleans is way better prepared. So is every state, and so are most American cities because they learn from Hurricane Katrina. More than 1245 people died from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, According to estimates. The exact number is still unknown. This storm is responsible for an estimated $125 billion worth of damage, making it the costliest storm on record, slightly more than Hurricane Harvey. Thanks for watching