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Speaker 1: Hiero.

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Speaker 2: Hi, Tracy, how are you doing today?

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Speaker 1: I'm good, Thank you, thanks so much for having me.

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Speaker 2: You know, I got to ask you right off the top,

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how did you breathe through this project? And the reason

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why is because I can't catch my breath now after

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experiencing it. I just I had the hardest time dealing

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with this because you make it so real.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. You know. I get this question a

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lot about sort of my emotional state and making the story,

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and I always wonder like, oh, maybe I need some

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there's some unprocessed things that I need to get some

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therapy for. But but I really go back to the

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people who are in the series, and it was never

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far from my mind and the minds of my team

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that I work with making this that this was really

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a profound trauma for all the people who experienced it

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and continues to be to this day. I mean, we

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just had the US premiere in New Orleans in the

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Convention Center. We were at the super Dome, and it

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still was difficult for the people who joined us, who

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were in the series to be in those spaces, and

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so I sort of feel like, as difficult as it

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was for me to sort of sit with the interviews,

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and for all of us who worked on it to

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sit with the footage. It really was the very least

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we could do if these people willing so that the

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truth might be known, to revisit that trauma, and they

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had the courage and grace to do so. And so

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for me, it feels appropriate that we all feel a

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little not okay and a little unsettled, and that sticks

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in our hearts after we sit with this story.

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Speaker 2: Well, listeners need to understand that you guys stayed true

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to the project in the way that this is the

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way it's written. The levees broke, the system broke, the

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people did not, and you showing up and you bringing

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this story to us, you are proving that the people

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have that strength inside their souls.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Part of what we set out to do

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was really to correct what was truly an erroneous narrative

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about the way overall the people of the city of

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New Orleans endured this catastrophe. I think there was a

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story that kind of began to emerge that people had

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descended into this sort of predatory, animalistic state, and of course,

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whenever there's a catastrophe, they're going to be opportunists who

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take advantage and sort of do some unsavory things, But

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by and large, that is not the story of how

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the people of the city responded to this. Truly, in

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the face of all of these systems that were supposed

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to provide safety and care and support for them completely

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failed and in some of the most dehumanizing of conditions,

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these people did not lose their humanity, that in fact,

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they showed up for one another, and that these ties

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of kinship and care and community that had always sort

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of characterized the city of New Orleans did not break

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during what we're just the most horrific of conditions that

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these people endured.

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Speaker 2: One of the things that we did as a radio

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community here in Charlotte is that the people of New

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Orleans came here. They came here and they stayed inside

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our Charlotte Coliseum, and being in radio, we went over

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there to make sure that they were fed, make sure

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that they had bends. We became such a strong community.

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In fact, even today, eight people didn't go back to

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New Orleans. They stayed here.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and you will see some of that story in

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episode five and where we kind of get into the

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exploration of what really became a Katrina diaspora of people

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from New Orleans that were spread out all over the

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country and in many different cities. And what a relief

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it was for so many of them, after having been

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failed so spectacularly when they were in New Orleans, to

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get to these cities where they were sort of welcomed

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with open arms. And you'll hear someone talk about how

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her body was like kind of tense in this sort

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of like survival mode all five of those days. And

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when she finally got out and was welcomed warmly in

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a city with care and people did who did see

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her as a human being, it was the first time

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that she actually was able to breathe and relax herself

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after all of those heroin days.

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Speaker 2: Please do not move. There's more with Tracy A. Curry

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coming up next from National Geographics. The documentary is called

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Hurricane Katrina, Race Against Time. Let's get back with Tracy A. Curry.

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Hurricane Katrina did not just affect the land in the ocean.

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We were up in the air. I remember taking off

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from Billings, Montana, headed back to the Carolinas, and the

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pilot said that we have to reroute ourselves because of

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Hurricane Katrina, and all the way through that flight, he

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gave us updates on what was going on and what

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we needed to do in order to get to our destination.

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Speaker 1: Yes, it was a massive, massive, massive storm, and we

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definitely cannot lose sight of that. And we actually have

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footage of someone kind of flying into the storm. Yeah,

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and first episode, and you just get a sense. I mean,

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even the graphics that we have looking at the storm

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relative to the Gulf, I mean, it almost covers up

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half of the Gulf. But of course, what we know

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is that the storm did not make a direct hit

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on New Orleans, and that the reason that we're sitting

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here twenty years later still talking about this wasn't the

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natural desagn It was, in fact, the man made catastrophe

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that was precipitated by the storm.

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Speaker 2: Is that the reason why it got so political because

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of the man made stuff not living up to the expectation.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think on the one hand, there

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were just a lot of eyes on it. You know,

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we're at the sort of height of the twenty four

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hour cable news cycle at that time, and so the

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world was watching. And this is in a country that's

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supposed to be the most powerful country on the world

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with sort of unlimited resources to kind of help people,

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and the failure at every single level of the government

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was just so shocking and became such a spectacle that

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no one could turn away from it. And I think

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it's why it continues to live so profoundly in our

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memories all of these years later.

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Speaker 2: It's so interesting the way that you also included conversations

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of those that you know that pretty much admitted that, hey, look, yes,

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we've been through a hurricane before, we're going to sit

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through this one as well. I mean, I've been through

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Hurricane Hugo. And when when those storms come and you

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sit there and go, okay whatever, I mean, you really

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do become numb to it, and you kind of put

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that identify with that inside this story.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, what's interesting about New Orleans is that

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there had always been hurricanes coming to the city of

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New Orleans. And what often happened. Does there be sort

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of this big fuss about, oh, this is the big one,

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and then the storm either would kind of peter off

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or it wouldn't. Really people would have hurricane parties right

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for this reason. But we also get into is some

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of the kind of institutional and systemic reasons why people

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didn't leave. For many folks, it was the beginning of

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the school year. People had spent all of their money

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on school supplies. You're talking about a lot of kind

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of working class people who had jobs in the tourism

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industry in New Orleans, which don't pay a lot of money.

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And think about everything that goes into evacuation. You gotta

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have a car, you got to put gas in that.

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Where are you going to go. You're gonna go to

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a hotel? Well, how much does that cost? You're gonna

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be there indefinitely, And so, you know, because people were poor,

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it was a reason that a lot of them were

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not able to get out. And so we kind of

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get into some of those, you know, beyond individual choices,

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but the substructural and systemic reasons that many people remain

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trapped within the city.

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Speaker 2: That is so funny that you bring up the evacuation route,

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because I mean, that's one of the things that I

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put focus on in my forty years here in Charlotte.

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Do not take the main roads, figure out what the

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back roads are, and get out of this area as

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quickly as possible.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, And I think you know, there certainly has

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been some progress in the years since Katrina. There's this

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million dollar levee system that has been protecting the city.

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There is an evacuation plan to get people out more efficiently.

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But of course we know, and I know you know

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in North Carolina that hurricanes are now coming with much

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more force and they're escalating more rapidly. I think the

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storm in Asheville went from a one to a four

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overnight within hours, and in many cases forms today are

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outpacing even the best plans to get people evacuated. And

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this is just the reality that we're living with today

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that hopefully the story of Katrina can be instructive about

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in some way.

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Speaker 2: Does that North Carolina storm become your next story of documentaries?

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, there's so many, There's so many. I mean,

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we we have footage of some of those events that

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you'll see in the last episode of not just hurricanes,

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but also the wildfires that we've seen by in La

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which while a different sort of weather circumstance, the contours

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of the way the story plays out differently, and so

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hopefully Katrina can be instructive as unfortunately those events continue

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to happen about how we really can center the humanity

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of folks in the way that we both prepare and

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respond when these things happen.

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Speaker 2: Where can people go after this documentary because I know

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they're going to want to help. I know they're going

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to want to donate money. What can we do next?

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What is the what next?

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Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I wish I had the answer to that question.

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I mean, I feel like maybe this series offers us

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more good questions to ask than to ask about the

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ways that things failed during Katrina, why those things happen

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and why they should not continue to happen now, And

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so I think it offers an opportunity to be curious

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and ask questions about the way that we move forward

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now and what lessons can be taken to make sure

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that we do everything that we're doing again centers the

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humanity of people, but also preserve life and create safety

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for people. When these things happen.

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Speaker 2: You are passing history forward. The generations of the future

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have something in their life now that they can be

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able to learn from and grow from. I can't thank

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you enough.

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Speaker 1: I hope so thank you so so much. I appreciate

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the time.

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Speaker 2: Will you be brilliant today?

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Speaker 1: Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you,