01x03 - A Desperate Place

[bunniefuu]

[rushing water]

[reporter] Communities,
homes, and lives all along

the Gulf Coast have been
shattered and destroyed.

The mayor of New Orleans
said that hundreds,

perhaps even thousands of
people in the city are dead.

Bodies are being left
floating in the floodwaters.

The emphasis is all on
rescuing the stranded.

We're told that about 100,000
people are still in this city

with no way to get out.

Leaving residents to hold up
desperate messages for whoever

might be watching from above.

-After all the
panicking in the attic,

we found a old cell phone
that still had some power.

I was like, oh my God.

So, I called 911.

They said we're gonna send
someone over to rescue you guys.

And maybe about 5 hours
after that, a boat came.

-To the interstate.
Offload, and I come right back.

It won't take me long.

[Lucrece Phillips] So, he
drove us toward Interstate 10.

And on the way to the bridge,
there was a baby,

hair freshly combed,
that was in the water.

And she was deceased,

but I still wanted to
get this baby out the water,

and I told the guy
that was driving the boat,

I said, there's a
baby right there.

I said, let me get the baby,

and I'll take her
to someone on the bridge,

and maybe we can find out
who her parents is, you know.

He said that baby’s, gone.

She's deceased.

And I was like, anyway,

just let me get her,
you know,

out the water, and I'll
take her to the bridge.

And maybe, you know,

and the ambulance or
something up there is waiting,

and they can take her,
and they can identify her.

And he took a stick or
some kind of board he had

in the boat, and he
pushed the baby away.

He was like, ma'am, we're
worried about the living,

not the dead right now.

We have to, we
have to get the living.

[helicopter rotors]

-Wednesday was already
becoming a particularly bad day.

Our first responders were
exhausted from dealing with one

crisis after another.

And by that point,

FEMA had a full 24 hours to
take action on that list

of our needs.

But there was still
no cavalry, no help.

And so, we felt as if FEMA
was maybe not the right

organization for what we were
dealing with throughout the

city of New Orleans.

Because we knew that the
deterioration was quickly

getting worse, and people
needed to get out today.

[reporter] The Superdome,
which was the shelter

of last resort,

has become the last
place anyone wants to be.

Inside, the toilets and air
conditioning are broken.

-She just passed out, guys.

They got disease in there.

They got dead bodies.

The bathrooms, we haven't
used it since, like, Tuesday.

And then when you
have to really use it,

you have to use it
almost anywhere.

-Hold up.
-If you hold--

-Look how we, living like pigs.

-You could hold it in.
-Pigs.

-That's actually--
-sh**t this bathroom right here.

-It was unbearable.

So, a lot of us started going
around gate to gate and talking

to the different National
Guard members and, you know,

trying to see if
they'll let us out.

And they would say, well,
go down to that gate and he

wouldn't let us out.

We go down to the next gate.

They wouldn't let us out.

Well, go the, to another gate,
they wouldn't let us out.

But then all of a sudden,
somebody that was with my group

just start shaking the
gate like, yeah, man.

Let us, out of here.

We're getting, you know,
such and such and this.

And he just started saying a
whole bunch of stuff and that's

when the National Guard
pulled the M16 out.

And he said, y'all
better go down that way.

-Go. Go. Go.

[Shelton Alexander] It's kind
of like they didn't really

work with us.

They was rotating
different groups of

National Guard members,

but nobody still would
say who was in charge.

[Lt. Gen. Honore]
In a disaster the First Army

collaborates with
the National Guard,

but Louisiana was not my
assigned area when Katrina hit.

The general that was actually
in charge of Louisiana,

he was still at his
headquarters in San Antonio.

So, when he told the Pentagon
I was in Mississippi,

they said get that
general to New Orleans.

And that's how I ended up
designated by the president to

be the commander of
Joint Task Force Katrina,

which put me in
charge of coordinating the

response with FEMA.

When I arrived at Superdome,

it was like thousands of
eyes were looking at me.

And my first thought is we got
to get these people out of here.

See you, man.

[Sally Forman] So,
General Honore comes in where

the mayor and I were

MAYOR NAGIN:
Come on in, General.

[Lt. Gen Honore]
How you doing?

[Mayor Nagin]
Hanging in there, man.

How are you?

[Sally Forman] We had FEMA,
the city,

and emergency
personnel represented,

and everyone is
sharing with him what we need.

But the FEMA representative
interjects to say,

we can't do this.

We will do that.

This we have to do by the book.

We're going to do that,
but it takes time.

General Honore at this
point had had enough,

and he says,
excuse me, FEMA.

Before you speak, you
need some f*cking success.

[Lt. Gen Honore]
So I said, all right.

What is the priority?

The mayor said we need
to get food and water.

We need to save these people.

Okay.

And we got to evacuate the city.

Same thought I had.

[Sally Forman] By this point,
we had already asked federal

and state officials for
buses to transport people out

of the city.

They knew buses were one
of our top priorities.

So, we expected that
the buses would be arriving

later that day.

-Make that--

[Mayor Nagin] You don't
have a phone on you that works?

[Lt. Gen Honore] So,
after that meeting with

the mayor, I said,
well, I need to go check-in

with the governor in
Baton Rouge because they had

trouble talking to each other.

Not only politically,
but the lines were down.

-There is no comms.

And since the loudspeaker
system didn't work,

I walked around to the

to let them know
we're working on it.

And I think it's gonna be
buses and we're gonna bring,

I don't know how
it's all gonna work,

but buses are coming.

[Shelton Alexander]
That did uplift our spirits.

And so, I was watching people
settle beefs and shaking hands.

You know what I mean?

The place started
getting real trashy.

So, a lot of the teenagers,
they started coming together

and they started cleaning up.

[Ed Bush] There was a young
man pushing around one of those

hotel luggage carts with
a person laying on it.

And he said, hey, this
lady just passed out.

What do you want
me to do with her?

And she was, she was okay,
but, and she was conscious,

but she was clearly overheated.

And, and I said, can you,
can you roll her to the,

to the medical center?

It's right down there.

And so, he took it, and he came
back about 10 minutes later.

He was like, you want
me to keep doing this,

if I see stuff or any people?

And I was like, please do.

He loved that he had a role.

The risk of allowing that young
man to help push people to the

medical arena was,
was, was this much.

The impact of other
people seeing how he was

helping was colossal.

-Woo.
-Yeah.

-Woo.

[Chaplain] Let's, let's
gather around for service.

Please do so.

We'll start in a
couple of minutes.

Let's gather around...

[Shelton Alexander] The
National Guard chaplain would

talk to us, and he'll say, what
are your concerns right now?

What are you thinking?

And people just, you know,
would say, my loved ones.

[Chaplain] I know,
your loved ones...

Look, one of the things we
want to focus in on is

as bad as it is

we can rebuild a house.

I have no home to go to either.

Everything I have
has been destroyed.

I am wearing what I have.

So we're all on the same boat.

But you know what?

All of my family is okay.

And that is important.

And that's why we have to pray.

[Shelton Alexander] New Orleans
is a city that pray,

and I thought he
did a great job.

And he, as a man of God,

stood up there
and he spoke to us,

and he made us feel better.

[Chaplain] Even
though we are uncomfortable

we give thanks that God sent
his angel down to comfort us.

[Shelton Alexander] Thank God.

A lot of people started
feeling like, you know,

now we chosen at
this point in time.

[Chaplain] Amen.

[Shelton Alexander]
We in this thing together.

And before we get
it even worse,

we're gonna get out of here.

[Governor Blanco] I've
called for the president.

I'm expecting him to call
me back anytime soon,

but I've asked the president
to give us all the resource

possible today.

We, we need his help today.

Time is of the essence.

It's critical that we move
quickly and begin to stabilize

our situation.

-We are live on top
of the Causeway Bridge over

Interstate 10 where
the scene behind me here

is just unbelievable.

It is a massive refugee camp
filled with thousands and

thousands of people waiting
for a ride out of the city.

They have been rescued from--

[Lynette Boutte] We
went up onto the interstate

bridge on Wednesday.

My sister and the people we
were with decided we were gonna

go as far down as we could go.

So, we walked miles
away from my house,

hoping to cross into
Algiers because it wasn't wet

over on the West Bank.

We got to where we could
look at the Superdome,

and the National Guard
was driving past us.

And it became very apparent
that they weren't gonna worry

about us until the last minute.

It was really stressful
because there were a lot

of seniors and kids,

and we were almost at

on concrete.

But there was no
access to water.

That's the thing
that really gets me,

because you can survive without
food for a couple of days,

but you have to have the water.

-You got a government.

What the f*ck is they doing?

Look at the
people right here, bro.

This ain't no game.

This is serious.
People life is on stake.

[Lynette Boutte] So,
it was unbearable.

But then we noticed that some
guys went down under the bridge

to the Kentwood Water Company,
and they took trucks,

and they came up on
the bridge with water.

And this is the part
that I was amazed at.

When they started distributing,

the only thing
they said was drink it.

Don't waste it.

Because we don't know how
long this'll last or how long

it'll be before we get out.

So, that's when I started
noticing that you have to be

very careful about media,

and what you read
and what you see.

-I've watched all day long
the stories of the

people who are causing trouble.

Who are, you know, screaming
and yelling about things, and,

and, and just being th*gs.

[Lynette Boutte] These are
supposed to be the th*gs that

they talk about.

They were the ones who went
to the Circle Food Store,

which is about a half a mile
from where we were,

to get us dry food, dry
clothing because they had a

clothing store
inside of there too.

-You know you're not
supposed to do that.

-I know we don't, but
if we're barefooted,

we're walking in the water,
our feets is gonna get cut.

[Thanh Truong] Most of the
networks' live setups weren't

in those areas that
were heavily flooded.

They were generally
in downtown,

tethered on Canal Street,

broadcasting live
from satellite trucks.

So, if there's a sh**ting
on Canal Street and there's

looting, you just got to
turn the camera there.

That's easy sleazy.

-Hey.
Come back out from over there.

[Thanh Truong] And
you're done, you know.

And that can lead
your broadcast.

-The unrest is so bad that his
boss told him to leave the city.

He said the looting was starting
to get so out of control,

our general manager
is fearing for our lives.

[reporter] As if emptying the
store shelves wasn't enough,

some decided to go
one step further and take

the shelves themselves.

-They're so busy with hauling
out big racks full of food,

they're not concerned
about anybody else.

They're just, I mean,
they're--

-Everybody for themselves.
-Everybody for themselves.

-I was dismayed
watching the news,

the way they depicted
Black folks who were living

in New Orleans during
hurricane Katrina.

It's like they didn't
see us as regular people.

Law-abiding, church-going,
hardworking people.

[reporter] It's just hard
to believe this is reality.

And you know, people living
in these conditions turn to,

you know, in some cases,
turn to animals.

[Thanh Truong] It's much more
difficult to get the full story

and not just the headline.

My news director always said,

people come first,
property comes second.

And that's what we
kept the focus on.

-We starving out here.

Look, we ain't got nothing over.

Can't get no food cooked.
You hear me?

So we had to go break
in windows and do what

we had to do.

[Lynette Boutte] Look.

You had some stupid
stuff that was going on,

but the majority of this
community was not people in

chaos wanting to go out
and just loot everything.

There was people trying to
survive as things got worse

all over the city.

[Lt. Gen Honore]
So, I flew to Baton Rouge and

saw Governor Blanco,
and she said,

"We've asked FEMA for buses.

We don't know when they're
gonna come, General."

But I'd appreciate it if
you do what you can to help

New Orleans get evacuated.

I said, I got it, ma'am.

Shortly after that, I got a
note that the FEMA director,

Michael Brown, wanted to see me.

-General Honore has,
has been working incredibly

closely with FEMA and doing
all the civil support stuff

that we've asked him to do.

[Lt. Gen Honore] So,
I went to his office.

He was in a big fancy
mobile command headquarters

in Baton Rouge.

And he said, "That's
your desk right there.

I want you right next to me."

I said, "I don't think so."

I said, "I'll put
somebody in that desk,

but the problem's
in New Orleans.

I can't solve it here."

And he insisted.

Said we have to have
unity of command.

I said, well, we can have
that, but it won't be me.

I've seen the eyes of those
people in New Orleans,

that's where I need to be.

So, I left.

-The situation in the
Superdome was getting worse and

worse and worse.

So, I sent a lot more
emails to FEMA headquarters

to alert them just
how bad it was.

Wednesday, August 31st,
an email to Mike Brown:

"Sir, I know that you know
the situation is past critical.

Here are some things
you might not know.

Hotels are kicking people out.

Thousands gathering
in the streets.

Hundreds, still being
rescued from homes.

“The dying patients at the
disaster medical assistance

team tent are being medevacked.

Estimates are that many
will die within hours.

Plans developing
for dome evacuation,

but hotel situation is
adding to the problem.

Phone connectivity
is impossible.

More later.

[Ed Bush] The tone of the
entire building changed

dramatically, and I found
myself wondering how many

unanswered questions is this
group of people who are here,

how much longer can
they take this environment?

That we're asking them just
to hang in there with us.

Hang in there.
Hang in there. Hang in there.

And I felt that boy, if
we make one false promise,

we would lose their trust.

Like, if I say to them buses
are gonna be there today and

then the buses don't come,
I think it'll all tip over.

I, I felt that.

So, it was very, very important
to me that I didn't over commit

or over promise anything,
because again, it was,

it was a, it was a
razor thin level of trust,

between me and, probably

thousands of people
who I talked to every day.

[Kevin Goodman] From where
we was at on the bridge,

all the people that was
looking for somewhere to go,

they were saying, don't go
by the Superdome because,

you know, the
Superdome trashed out.

There's nowhere to go in there.

You know, so they
was like, well,

go to the Convention Center
because that's where, you know,

that's where the
shelter's supposed to be,

and that's where the,

the bus is supposed
to pick people up.

My main focus was to
get the kids to safety.

And the little bitty babies,
they can't really walk.

So, I had one baby,

and my brother
had the other baby,

and we got the other
two little children,

and we walked for miles.

[Thanh Truong] Because of the
conditions in the Superdome and

the Interstate 10 bridge,

we started hearing that
people were now spilling over

into the Convention Center.

So we just worked
straight through.

I don't remember
sleeping much at all.

For days now, people have
been rationing what little

food and water they have,
waiting for help.

They say they feel like they've
been abandoned by humanity.

What's it been like here?

-Hot. It's been hot.
-It's been like hell.

We have people here.

Sick people haven't had
medicine in four days.

We just worried about
medication for my mom because

she's almost out of the insulin.

My sister's going through a
sickle cell attack right now.

We, trying to see if we,
what we can do to get some

IV fluids to her.

We're trying to keep
the babies hydrated.

And my ba... my little
baby getting sick.

He just keep crying
and diarrhea,

and he don't have no
more milk or nothing.

I've been crying
here for two days,

and I try not to
let him see me cry.

[Thanh Truong] What do
you do as a reporter?

Like, people are asking
you for water, and, like,

I had a few bottles, and
I gave it away, but like,

I can't help them.

And that was a sobering time
for me because I realized that

all the stuff that I
wanted to do as a reporter,

like just get the story,
let's get great pictures,

like at that point
none of that mattered.

When you're dealing
with people's lives,

like they want to let their
family know that they're alive.

-Ma, or Pa,

my grandma, one of y'all,
if y'all out there,

you hear me, and
y'all hear your son,

just let me know
y'all are living.

You hear me?

Because I, I ain't seen
y'all since Katrina hit,

and I really missing y'all.

You feel me?
And I'm hurting.

I'm hurting.
You see this body right here?

Get us out of here.

That woman been
dead since Tuesday.

-There's six bodies
upstairs on the third floor,

and another lady laying
on the floor by the

ladies' bathroom, dead.

It's just terrible.

It's a awful situation
to have to live in.

[Thanh Truong] We went
inside the Convention Center,

and the only way that
I can describe it,

and I don't want to get
into detail, is that it,

it is the smell of
human suffering.

[Kevin Goodman] I
couldn't stand the smell

that's on myself.

You know what I'm saying.

I'm nasty.

I'm, my shoes wet,
everything wet.

I don't have nothing.

I felt embarrassed.

You know, like I
couldn't talk to nobody.

And even though, you know,
all the people out there,

they was in the
same predicament.

So, you know, we all
was like, you know,

people who used to having
stuff, and, and, and, and,

and having things and
taking care of they self,

and they couldn't, you know,
they felt the same way.

I was totally, like,
out of myself already.

I just felt like I was
just gonna pass out and die

at any time.

But also, the kids
didn't have no more food and

they was dehydrated.

You know, they lips
was turning white.

So, through the shame
and the embarrassment

and the guilt,

the only thing I could do is
just use the little strength

I got to try to get these
children some help.

So, when the media
came out there with

their cameras and
all that, you know,

I had my two little
babies in my hand and

I just went to
hollering on the camera.

KEVIN: We didn't have no water.
We didn't have no food.

KEVIN: We don't
have nothing here.

Our children been out here for-.

KEVIN: Our children
been out here for days.

They don’t have nothing to eat.

KEVIN:
We don't have no cold water.

We don’t have no ice.

KEVIN: We got
babies that's hungry..

-Send people to get the
folks out of here, folks.

-We hungry, we starving,
we need help.

-I thought Bush might send--

-We need medical attention.

They got, they got old
people that's sick.

That got people that's dying.

I felt neglected.

I felt like the city that we
masked in all these years and

paraded in with the second
lines and, you know,

worked in and built these
raggedy houses and, you know,

that they just let us down.

Like, at this time, to them,

it was like we
wasn't even human no more.

[reporter] People
still in New Orleans,

if they looked to the sky,
saw Air Force One.

The president flying
over for a personal look

at the devastation.

His plane was low, just
over the city skyline.

[Mayor Nagin] I basically
told him we had

an incredible crisis here,

and that his flying
over in Air Force One

does not do it justice.

And I am very frustrated
because we are not able to

marshal resources.

-A lot of people suffered,

and a lot of people
suffered needlessly.

If we had had the leader
of the free world show up in

New Orleans on Monday instead
of just flying over the city

two days after the storm, we
would have had a much different

situation after Katrina.

-Powerful country as we are,

and we can't take
care of these people.

They, out here all this time.

Doesn't make sense,
and I'm pissed.

-When I joined the
police department,

my aspirations were high.

Then, in 2002, I became
superintendent of police.

And in that position,

I wanted to be always
accessible to the media.

And from a
communication standpoint,

the mayor told me any kind of
cover-up wouldn't be tolerated.

That stuck in my mind.

I think I overthought it.

I didn't want to hide
anything from the people,

and I was so dead set on
not covering anything up

that things that were
reported to me,

I reported them quickly
without getting verification

the way it would have been
under normal circumstances.

So, when my tactical
guys said that a sn*per

was sh**ting at our officers,

I reported that sn*per was
sh**ting at police officers.

And my, my captain and I was,
was spotting for the sn*pers.

We went from rescue to
tactical almost instantaneous.

They were sh**ting
us in a helicopter.

They were sh**ting
at my SWAT team.

I mean, it was crazy.

[Lt. Gen Honore]
Well, that whole thing of

people sh**ting at
helicopters is a, a reflection

of people who
watch too much TV.

They thought if they shot
up, the helicopter would s-,

hear them or see them
and come get them.

I spoke to the police
chief, and I said, Chief,

where'd you get this
notion that there's sn*pers

in the city?

He said, I was in a helicopter,
General, and they shot at us.

Hm.

Did they hit the
helicopter, chief?

No.

I said, why did you
use the word sn*per?

-Maybe from the military,

the jargon and parlance for
a sn*per is different than the

jargon and the
parlance that we use.

But when an unidentified person
that we can't spot randomly

shoots at police officers,

in my opinion,
that was a sn*per.

Maybe I shouldn't
have used those words.

In hindsight, I guess I
shouldn't have used those words

because it was getting
reported over and over again,

and it took a life of its own.

[reporter] About
the sn*per fire.

They're actually taking a
sn*per fire as they're trying

to evacuate patients.

I was there just about
an hour and a half,

two hours after that,
looking at that same area.

In fact, I didn't see
any sn*pers myself.

[reporter] Big searchlights
looking all around to make sure

that there were no sn*pers
that were going to attack us.

[Ed Bush] Things became so
much more difficult for us

to do because of this fear.

As simple as where's the,
where's the truck that's

bringing all the new food?

And the National Guard would
go out and we'd find the truck

that had been abandoned by
the delivery driver who was told

there were sn*pers all around
the Superdome that were

sh**ting and k*lling all
the delivery drivers.

And all of that
completely made up.

But just made
our jobs infinitely

worse and more difficult.

[Supt. Compass] I over-reported
things I should have verified,

and I'm sorry I did that.

-Sir, a lot of respect
to you tonight for what you

have been going through.

Seeing your men and
women go through so much.

[Supt. Compass]
When Katrina came,

there was no school
you could go to to deal with

the worldwide media
on a 24/7 basis.

I was working off of
one and a half to two hours

sleep a day.

I wasn't eating well.

I had migraine headaches
almost the entire time.

And I had gotten to the
point where I was around

the media so much,

and they had so many
cameras pointing on me,

I actually forgot the
cameras were around me.

With communications
being fragmented,

some people were
getting reports that a

young lady was r*ped,

and it was in proximity
to where my daughter was at.

So, by the time it got to me,
it went from a young lady being

r*ped to my daughter was r*ped.

And when I thought my
daughter was r*ped, it just,

it tore me up.

I need somebody to
get me a cruise boat or

some type of boat,
a cruise ship,

or some kind of ship so I
can put my people in some

comfort so I can
help the people.

We have people,
there's people who have

lost their families,

and they have not
gotten out this fight.

I didn't know where my
daughter was at for two

days and we endured.

I'm so tired of this, but
it's finally almost over.

That's it.
I don't want to talk, no more.

[Lt. Gen Honore] During Katrina,

the first responders
were also victims.

Their homes are gone.

Their families were
moving from place to place

to try to survive.

So, when your first
responders are also victims,

it changed the character
of the response.

[Supt. Compass] I made
tremendous sacrifices

during Katrina.

My family wanted me to
stop being a chief and

go get my elderly
aunt and uncle.

Unfortunately, my
aunt and uncle died.

And I, I, I, it haunts
me every day that I could

have saved them, and I didn't.

So, people that was not
privy to the circumstances at

ground zero where I was
at for the entire time,

they had no idea of the
challenges that we faced.

All they saw was a
microcosm of what the media

wanted them to see.

-We are live in front of
the Convention Center,

which has not been
emptied of people at all.

Chief, what do you figure?
How many people, here?

-We have at least 30,000
people here, Geraldo.

-30,000?
-At least 30,000.

-And none have been taken out?
-None have been taken out.

The buses were promised.
The buses are not here.

They've built these
people's spirits up.

We need to get these
people out of here now.

[Lt. Gen Honore]
So, unfortunately,

we discovered that while FEMA
had put in requests for buses,

for whatever reason
that didn't get moving

as fast as it should have.

So, people are gonna have
to stay in there another day.

-We knew that
these people were getting to a

desperate place in terms of
their ability to withstand the

environments that they were in.

And we were really worried
whether we could survive

another day like this Wednesday.

[Michael Brown] Good
afternoon, everyone.

I first want to,
express my thanks to,

to President Bush for
the confidence that he has

shown in me.

I also want to speak to
the civil unrest and some

of the disturbances
that we have seen.

It's just not acceptable.

And I understand that the
National Guard troops,

local law enforcement,
all of those,

will do everything in their
power to minimize that.

[Ed Bush] We had
National Guard elements from

every state come
here in Louisiana.

And some people who deployed
to Louisiana had already

been to Iraq.

And now sprinkle
on that, you know,

all those rumors of lawlessness
and sn*pers and shootings and

all of that.

It was like, oh, we're
gonna need weapons.

So, as the deputy
public affairs officer,

I was really just trying to
stomp out a lot of the myths

that were becoming so
problematic because they were

just creating fear.

[Lt. Gen Honore] After I
came back from Baton Rouge,

I had to see the
mayor and I said,

let's walk through the
crowd at the Superdome.

My National Guard
buddies told me, said,

"well, we need more guards
for protection."

I said, "No.
We don't need any more guards.

We're all right."

So, I had two of them with me.

I said, put your
g*ns on your back.

Don't be pointing
your g*ns at nobody.

That's when people noticed
me and they noticed my name,

and they would say,

"Hey, bruh.
You gonna get us out of here?"

I said, "Yeah, we're gonna
get you out of here."

-So, how do you
recommend we handle this?

[Lt. Gen Honore]
I think we try to, to get a

public message
out on the radio.

-Okay.

-And you tell the governor
the buses need to be there

early in the morning.

We need her to get on the
television and tell people...

So, I saw the mayor and
discussed the evacuation plan

for the next day that was
being coordinated with staff

down in Baton Rouge and
with FEMA Director Brown.

-In, in, in all sincerity,

my heart goes
out to those people,

and I am determined,

absolutely determined,
to speed this thing up,

make this thing work, and
get the aid to those people.

-Bullshit.

Later that day, I called
Administrator Brown.

They said he's not available.

I said, well, where is he?

[Marty Bahamonde]
So, Cindy Taylor,

who worked in the Office
of External Affairs,

received an email
from Sharon Worthy,

who was the handler for
Undersecretary Brown.

"It is very important that
time is allowed for Mr. Brown

to eat dinner.

Given that Baton Rouge
is back to normal,

restaurants are getting busy.

He needs much more
than 20 or 30 minutes.

[Marty Bahamonde] "We now
have traffic to encounter to

get to and from a
location of his choice,

followed by wait service
from the restaurant staff,

eating, etcetera.
Thank you."

And so, Cindy Taylor then
forwarded that email from

Sharon Worthy to me,
and she said,

"Let me preface by saying,
I know he needs downtime...

but ummm, how much time do
each of you need for dinner,

including travel time to the
restaurants of your choice?”

Question mark.

[Lt. Gen Honore] I'm
trying to coordinate where

the buses are so I can
answer the mayor's questions

and deal with the press.

But 72 miles away
in Baton Rouge,

this son of a b*tch is waiting
in line to go in a restaurant.

I mean, there was some
stupid sh*t happening.

Just plain stupid.

[Marty Bahamonde] So,
after I got that email,

I immediately
responded to Cindy.

“Oh my God"

With eight exclamation points.

"I just ate an MRE, and crapped
in the hallway of the Superdome

along with 30,000
other close friends.

So, I understand her
concern about busy restaurants.

Maybe tonight, I will have
time to move the pebbles on the

parking garage floor, so
they don't stab me in the

back while I try to sleep.

But instead, I will hope her
wait at Ruth's Chris is short."

This email exchange was
really starting to show the

disconnect, the tone deafness.

I just don't think they
understood my urgency.

[Ed Bush] At the Superdome,
almost everything they needed,

any kind of satellite or
a tower still didn't work.

But what did work,
and we became aware,

was that a lot of people had
brought radios to the Superdome.

And that was how they
were getting their news,

which was problematic because
there was a lot of mistruths,

and a lot of the exaggerated
stories were being perpetuated

by the radio.

[radio DJ] The situation
is getting really chaotic.

There's, fights breaking out.

There's a lot of murders
that's occurred, r*pes.

Look, you name it.

-All of a sudden,
walking around,

we heard that some little
girls was r*ped and k*lled

in the bathrooms.

-The other chick said a woman.

[Shelton Alexander] It was
a little girl, I heard.

-Oh, a little girl?

[Shelton Alexander]
It was a little girl.

-He still here?

[Shelton Alexander] A
little girl they said.

-Around here?

[Shelton Alexander] I don't, I
don't know where it happened.

-Because up where we
at there's no bathrooms.

[Shelton Alexander] Yeah.
They said it was a little girl

in the bathroom they k*lled
and r*ped her or something.

I just heard the same thing.

-Men's bathroom?
-That's gonna say something.

[child] I know
where the bathroom is.

-No, we can't go
that way, baby.

[Shelton Alexander] I really
was looking for somebody to be

screaming at the top
of their lungs, m*rder.

Somebody did this.

But I never seen
anybody come forward.

And it's fascinating
because some people ask me,

did I have video on that?

I was like, are you serious?

Like, I would have
video on somebody getting

r*ped and k*lled, for real?

[Sally Forman] We had already
heard from the security team

inside the Superdome about
what was actually transpiring.

So, we knew that that
wasn't actually the case.

[Shelton Alexander] But
still, the rumor took a hold,

then it started
spreading like wildfire.

-I said our
people be r*ped in here.

People be k*lled here.

-I mean, a lot of peop...

Yeah, r*pe.
All type of violence.

You don't know who's here.
You got people that's druggies.

You got people that's, that's
raping and doing everything

they can do and breaking in
and looting and everything.

You understand?

-Out.

[Ed Bush] The media
was irritating.

-You're not allowed.

[Ed Bush] They just wanted
to be in everybody's face and

getting all these interviews,
and they wanted people

to be scared.

I would get people
who would call me,

and they would ask
me to confirm facts.

And then I would say, well,
that's not the facts at all.

And they would write, they
would write their story anyway.

And it could not have
spun more out of control.

[reporter] At the Superdome,
there have been r*pes,

a m*rder, and various shootings.

-There was a lot
of misinformation all

over the place.

And it wasn't just the media.

It was within our organization.

[reporter] What one of the
police officers told me was

it is a w*r zone out there.

People are fighting.

He said in his words,
people are losing their minds.

-Some things were
completely exaggerated.

Some things were
completely made up.

Some things were said that
just literally did not happen.

And you had all of this going
on in the middle of a disaster.

-There was chaos.
There was no communication,

but I saw cops on the
street firing back at, at,

at th*gs that were
on rooftops, etcetera.

I, I've never seen the
breakdown of American

society like this, but
there's certainly a lot of...

[Lt. Gen Honore] The media
wanted to lead the

American people
to focus on chaos.

Yeah. That's what
happen in a disaster.

If you don't have chaos,

then it's not a
f*cking disaster.

It's a inconvenience.

But there are people who
wanted to exacerbate it as

a crime problem in
the city of New Orleans.

It wasn't a
crime problem.

It was an evacuation problem.

[sirens]

[reporter] It is now
shortly before dawn,

about 5:30 in the morning.

For the last four hours,
we have seen no buses here.

Meanwhile, the size of the
crowd has been growing,

and so has its level
of frustration.

-We've been out here since

just like this.

SHELTON: It's
about six in the morning, man...

listening to the news.

A lot of people lost
everything, man. And...

getting in last sleep
and they'll find out if they

can go home.

[Shelton Alexander] By
this time, we were supposed

to be out of here,

but they never had anybody
to say that they was about to

evacuate the Superdome.

So, I was like, oh, man.

I just don't believe
some of this.

I don't know what's
gonna happen.

-Eventually, it's getting worse.

And we have to move these
families out of here.

But from you, I
would like to know,

are there buses coming for
these people to get out?

[Thanh Truong] They
keep saying that,

but who can believe
them anymore?

-Exactly.

-I tell these people, believe
what you see, not what you hear.

[reporter] The people
in the Superdome,

what is the plan for them?

[Mayor Nagin] They are gonna
start to be moved right after

we get all the
medical patients out.

We're gonna move them.

They're our first priority.

Then after that, we will have

and they're gonna start to move
people out of the Superdome.

[Lt. Gen Honore]
The buses started to show up,

and we came up with a route
that would bring them in,

and a way to walk the
people out to the buses.

And at the air medieval
site of the Superdome,

I had them knock down the
power poles so we could bring

large helicopters in
and take out the elderly.

Everything seemed to be
going well, but then,

a call came over the
radio that the pilot reported

being shot at.

When that went out, all the
helicopters en route diverted.

And that just turned this
situation on its head.

[O'Brien] Desperate situation
in the city of New Orleans

as we speak.

The effort to move those
evacuees from the Superdome to

the Astrodome now halted
after shots were fired.

[reporter] Rescue
helicopters came under fire,

and violence spilled out into
the streets right outside.

[reporter] The largest
ambulance service says it will

have to severely cut
back its rescue efforts if

security doesn't improve.

-We were told that
the buses were stopped

because things inside
the city of New Orleans

were so dangerous.

[reporter] The drivers of
those buses and ambulances,

they said, I'm not
going in there.

I've t... I've told my wife,
I'm not going in there.

There's still a sense
that this is a riot zone,

and it's not.

-It, it was just a
story that got out of hand.

And eventually, people tried to
draw us into be more focused on

security than we are on
the mission of saving lives.

-Some of the
things like security,

when you look at and you think
the time has come to empower

our law enforcement officials,
our military officials to say,

let's adopt a
zero-tolerance attitude.

Let's take these people off
the street so they can't be

causing this danger.

[Mayor Nagin] When we
realized that the looting was

getting out of control,

we redirected
all of our police officers back

to patrolling the streets.

They were dead tired
from saving people,

but we redirected
all of our resources.

[Supt. Compass] All of a sudden,

I just got inundated
with people coming to me.

They were confused.

They said, Chief, are
they gonna evacuate us?

Where, we got to go?
Who gonna feed us?

-We were asking the
Louisiana authorities to

hunt down those looters.

They must make sure
those rapists, looters,

and assailants get
what they deserve.

[Bobby Norton] With the
exposure to the national media,

all of a sudden now,
at police headquarters,

the message was to
stop the looting.

That was the message.

And what came next
was a complete mess.

[♪ intense music playing]