re: 20 years ago - I was sent to NO for Katrina - AMA

I know you said in a previous answer you worked at the Hyatt downtown before, are you originally from the area? And what was the cleanup and rebuild aspect like?
Admittedly, I was 6 and lived in Hattiesburg so I don’t remember much outside of Dad grilling breakfast/lunch/dinner and cutting down a shite ton of trees

Heard stories about people committing suicide jumping off the upper decks, any of that true?

I launched a boat off the on-ramp to Poydras St. by the Superdome with a cop from Houma with an AR on the front of the boat. We were following an airboat with another couple of cops to the Hyatt on Poydras to pick up a doctor and his wife from Houma.

I drove the boat down Poydras hitting sunken cars and god knows what else. Lucky I didn’t break the prop. Drove the boat into the covered parking to the front lobby of the Hyatt. The sound of that damn airboat under there was deafening.

Never found the doctor (they had gotten out already somehow) but the airboat picked up a couple people and brought them back.

It was crazy. Saw a black dude on the interstate highway carrying a hotel room safe.

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Watching the Netflix documentary on Katrina right now. Was the Lt. General in charge really a difference maker when he got there?

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There aren't enough words to describe the amount of gratitude the city owes Lt. General Honore'.

Did people all sleep on the field? I imagine those seats that have separators/arm rests between them would be impossible to lie down on. You'd have to sleep sitting in them which sounds pretty bad. Astroturf doesn't really sound too bad if you have a pillow or makeshift pillow of shirts.

Dumbest thing I read on Instagram was a post detailing Katrina. By far the most upvoted comment (several said this) from African Americans, "The government blew up the Levees in order to gentrify New Orleans and get black people out of the city. The hurricane didn't breach the levees. It was bombs. They also didn't rebuild the levees any better." Upvoted a thousand times. Same comment repeated multiple times with hundreds of upvotes.

I responded, "Do you think the government wanted to pay $200 billion in 2025 dollars, which is what they spent on disaster relief funds for the storm, just so they could gentrify Nola and clear Blacks out of the city? Really. You honestly think that?" It was multiple loose barges that hit different spots in the levees. The US Army Corp of Engrs also spent $14.5 billion on remaking the levees to be significantly stronger.

There was 0 research or fact finding done by those with that opinion. I can guarantee US Govt didn't spend $200,000,000,000 to 'gentrify' New Orleans, and they did make the levees significantly stronger as evidenced by 2021 Hurricane Ida holding.

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I can guarantee US Govt didn't spend $200,000,000,000 to 'gentrify' New Orleans

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If that was their goal, they did a horrible job

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I know you said in a previous answer you worked at the Hyatt downtow

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Not me.

What’s your favorite episode of Murder, She Wrote?

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Was NOPD even remotely still in existence in the weeks after the storm? I’m assuming fire and EMS were also probably nonexistent?

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NOPD did the best they could under the circumstances. Same for everyone else on the ground. At a certain point, words are inadequate to describe the challenges the citizens and responders faced.