Speaker 1: Hiero.
Speaker 2: Hi, Tracy, how are you doing today?
Speaker 1: I'm good, Thank you, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2: You know, I got to ask you right off the top,
how did you breathe through this project? And the reason
why is because I can't catch my breath now after
experiencing it. I just I had the hardest time dealing
with this because you make it so real.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. You know. I get this question a
lot about sort of my emotional state and making the story,
and I always wonder like, oh, maybe I need some
there's some unprocessed things that I need to get some
therapy for. But but I really go back to the
people who are in the series, and it was never
far from my mind and the minds of my team
that I work with making this that this was really
a profound trauma for all the people who experienced it
and continues to be to this day. I mean, we
just had the US premiere in New Orleans in the
Convention Center. We were at the super Dome, and it
still was difficult for the people who joined us, who
were in the series to be in those spaces, and
so I sort of feel like, as difficult as it
was for me to sort of sit with the interviews,
and for all of us who worked on it to
sit with the footage. It really was the very least
we could do if these people willing so that the
truth might be known, to revisit that trauma, and they
had the courage and grace to do so. And so
for me, it feels appropriate that we all feel a
little not okay and a little unsettled, and that sticks
in our hearts after we sit with this story.
Speaker 2: Well, listeners need to understand that you guys stayed true
to the project in the way that this is the
way it's written. The levees broke, the system broke, the
people did not, and you showing up and you bringing
this story to us, you are proving that the people
have that strength inside their souls.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Part of what we set out to do
was really to correct what was truly an erroneous narrative
about the way overall the people of the city of
New Orleans endured this catastrophe. I think there was a
story that kind of began to emerge that people had
descended into this sort of predatory, animalistic state, and of course,
whenever there's a catastrophe, they're going to be opportunists who
take advantage and sort of do some unsavory things, But
by and large, that is not the story of how
the people of the city responded to this. Truly, in
the face of all of these systems that were supposed
to provide safety and care and support for them completely
failed and in some of the most dehumanizing of conditions,
these people did not lose their humanity, that in fact,
they showed up for one another, and that these ties
of kinship and care and community that had always sort
of characterized the city of New Orleans did not break
during what we're just the most horrific of conditions that
these people endured.
Speaker 2: One of the things that we did as a radio
community here in Charlotte is that the people of New
Orleans came here. They came here and they stayed inside
our Charlotte Coliseum, and being in radio, we went over
there to make sure that they were fed, make sure
that they had bends. We became such a strong community.
In fact, even today, eight people didn't go back to
New Orleans. They stayed here.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you will see some of that story in
episode five and where we kind of get into the
exploration of what really became a Katrina diaspora of people
from New Orleans that were spread out all over the
country and in many different cities. And what a relief
it was for so many of them, after having been
failed so spectacularly when they were in New Orleans, to
get to these cities where they were sort of welcomed
with open arms. And you'll hear someone talk about how
her body was like kind of tense in this sort
of like survival mode all five of those days. And
when she finally got out and was welcomed warmly in
a city with care and people did who did see
her as a human being, it was the first time
that she actually was able to breathe and relax herself
after all of those heroin days.
Speaker 2: Please do not move. There's more with Tracy A. Curry
coming up next from National Geographics. The documentary is called
Hurricane Katrina, Race Against Time. Let's get back with Tracy A. Curry.
Hurricane Katrina did not just affect the land in the ocean.
We were up in the air. I remember taking off
from Billings, Montana, headed back to the Carolinas, and the
pilot said that we have to reroute ourselves because of
Hurricane Katrina, and all the way through that flight, he
gave us updates on what was going on and what
we needed to do in order to get to our destination.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was a massive, massive, massive storm, and we
definitely cannot lose sight of that. And we actually have
footage of someone kind of flying into the storm. Yeah,
and first episode, and you just get a sense. I mean,
even the graphics that we have looking at the storm
relative to the Gulf, I mean, it almost covers up
half of the Gulf. But of course, what we know
is that the storm did not make a direct hit
on New Orleans, and that the reason that we're sitting
here twenty years later still talking about this wasn't the
natural desagn It was, in fact, the man made catastrophe
that was precipitated by the storm.
Speaker 2: Is that the reason why it got so political because
of the man made stuff not living up to the expectation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think on the one hand, there
were just a lot of eyes on it. You know,
we're at the sort of height of the twenty four
hour cable news cycle at that time, and so the
world was watching. And this is in a country that's
supposed to be the most powerful country on the world
with sort of unlimited resources to kind of help people,
and the failure at every single level of the government
was just so shocking and became such a spectacle that
no one could turn away from it. And I think
it's why it continues to live so profoundly in our
memories all of these years later.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting the way that you also included conversations
of those that you know that pretty much admitted that, hey, look, yes,
we've been through a hurricane before, we're going to sit
through this one as well. I mean, I've been through
Hurricane Hugo. And when when those storms come and you
sit there and go, okay whatever, I mean, you really
do become numb to it, and you kind of put
that identify with that inside this story.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, what's interesting about New Orleans is that
there had always been hurricanes coming to the city of
New Orleans. And what often happened. Does there be sort
of this big fuss about, oh, this is the big one,
and then the storm either would kind of peter off
or it wouldn't. Really people would have hurricane parties right
for this reason. But we also get into is some
of the kind of institutional and systemic reasons why people
didn't leave. For many folks, it was the beginning of
the school year. People had spent all of their money
on school supplies. You're talking about a lot of kind
of working class people who had jobs in the tourism
industry in New Orleans, which don't pay a lot of money.
And think about everything that goes into evacuation. You gotta
have a car, you got to put gas in that.
Where are you going to go. You're gonna go to
a hotel? Well, how much does that cost? You're gonna
be there indefinitely, And so, you know, because people were poor,
it was a reason that a lot of them were
not able to get out. And so we kind of
get into some of those, you know, beyond individual choices,
but the substructural and systemic reasons that many people remain
trapped within the city.
Speaker 2: That is so funny that you bring up the evacuation route,
because I mean, that's one of the things that I
put focus on in my forty years here in Charlotte.
Do not take the main roads, figure out what the
back roads are, and get out of this area as
quickly as possible.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, And I think you know, there certainly has
been some progress in the years since Katrina. There's this
million dollar levee system that has been protecting the city.
There is an evacuation plan to get people out more efficiently.
But of course we know, and I know you know
in North Carolina that hurricanes are now coming with much
more force and they're escalating more rapidly. I think the
storm in Asheville went from a one to a four
overnight within hours, and in many cases forms today are
outpacing even the best plans to get people evacuated. And
this is just the reality that we're living with today
that hopefully the story of Katrina can be instructive about
in some way.
Speaker 2: Does that North Carolina storm become your next story of documentaries?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, there's so many, There's so many. I mean,
we we have footage of some of those events that
you'll see in the last episode of not just hurricanes,
but also the wildfires that we've seen by in La
which while a different sort of weather circumstance, the contours
of the way the story plays out differently, and so
hopefully Katrina can be instructive as unfortunately those events continue
to happen about how we really can center the humanity
of folks in the way that we both prepare and
respond when these things happen.
Speaker 2: Where can people go after this documentary because I know
they're going to want to help. I know they're going
to want to donate money. What can we do next?
What is the what next?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I wish I had the answer to that question.
I mean, I feel like maybe this series offers us
more good questions to ask than to ask about the
ways that things failed during Katrina, why those things happen
and why they should not continue to happen now, And
so I think it offers an opportunity to be curious
and ask questions about the way that we move forward
now and what lessons can be taken to make sure
that we do everything that we're doing again centers the
humanity of people, but also preserve life and create safety
for people. When these things happen.
Speaker 2: You are passing history forward. The generations of the future
have something in their life now that they can be
able to learn from and grow from. I can't thank
you enough.
Speaker 1: I hope so thank you so so much. I appreciate
the time.
Speaker 2: Will you be brilliant today?
Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you,