re: The 20th anniv of Katrina is a month away. Does it still haunt you or did you make peace?

Along with everyone's experience being different too. Some people evacuated and only saw the aftermath when they returned. Others saw bodies, looting, gunfire and death, and their lives disappear.

It's beyond foolish to mock someone else online because your personal experience was not traumatizing.

The racism I saw trying to get my grandmother out of American Can changed the way I view America.

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The racism I saw trying to get my grandmother out of American Can changed the way I view America.

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There's a new documentary put out by National Geographics on Katrina. It’s a five part series. I just happened to catch it while channel surfing this past weekend.

I don’t remember what channel it’s on (I can find out if you would like). However, I believe in part four (maybe five) they specifically go into the evacuation from the American Can building.

Keep in mind this documentary contains a lot of racist propaganda that looks like something that Ken Burns would edit. All the Black people in New Orleans were just angels worthy of beatification throughout the entire ordeal. And all the white debbils were just trying to kill as many black people as they could. At times it’s infuriating.

The part about the American Can building was just part of the racist propaganda that permeated the entire documentary.

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To me it's not the loss of property, but the deep seated sudden realization and experience of society as you know disappearing and becoming non functional within 3 days. The thin veneer of society is very real and anyone that went through Katrina got a solid dose of that.

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As an outsider unaffected by Katrina this was what I remember the most. How quickly things can go to hell in a hand basket. (I mean post storm). That is partially the reason we started here to serve. If people have something to eat maybe they wont go crazy.

Another thing I learned from that storm is how stupid government can be. And not just the local and state, but the federal as well. So many things that if they had been handled differently or money spent correctly that would have made enormous differences and decreased the damage done. Such as maintaining levees, keeping pumps in running order and fueled.

I gained a great friend from that tragedy. He lived in New Orleans and lost his house to it. His brother in law lived here in Tuscaloosa and he came here to stay with them. House was a total loss and they just decided to live here for a while. He got a good job here and his kids finished high school here. They have moved back now to Metairie be we still keep in contact.

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I wonder about the coast. Nola got new floodwalls and massive pumping stations. Ostensibly it is protected from another Katrina. But all the rebuilding and new development in coastal Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian? I love those places, but man there is nothing stopping another big storm from coming in and clearing all that out again.

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Just the risk you take living in that area, obviously storms with a 25 foot storm surge that make landfall at high tide are fairly rare.

My biological father and family lost everything in Bay Saint Louis. They rebuilt but he’s still damaged from that storm. There’s life before Katrina and then life afterward.

I can’t imagine my whole town being basically wiped off the map in a day by a wall of water.

I never felt fear about a storm like I did Saturday afternoon when that thing went to 175 mph and the BP dropped below 920. I live on Dauphin Island and riding out that monster was not an option. Can't believe it is 20 years now.

I was 11 when it hit, we stayed but luckily didn't flood or anything although we did end up having to remodel due to roof leaks. Didn't have power for 2 weeks or so. I can still hear the wind howling and stuff banging into our house; it seemed like it'd never stop.

I don't think I have any kind of long-term issues from it. I would say that it's the single event that's had the most impact on my life, other than getting married or something like that.

As other posters have said, it did feel like the end of the world or something. Rich or poor, we were all in the same boat (no pun intended). Seeing bottled water always reminds me of that time as do the sounds of helicopters, chainsaws, or generators.

I remember going down to Second Street a few days after and climbing over the massive pile of rubble at the water line and then seeing it basically swept clean between the pile and the water. I also remember seeing the second story of a house at ground level, and pictures were still hanging on the wall. Fire alarms were going off everywhere.

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CAD703X

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Joined 2008

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Yet talks about participating in a thread from 2005… what was your old username? Why did you change it?