Anchor Struck

Twenty years ago today Hurricane Katrina intensified to Category 5 as it slammed into several Gulf Coast states and devastated New Orleans. A friend of mine who lives in the Big Easy stopped at her vacation home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, as she evacuated to secure it as best as possible. She tied some folding lawn furniture to a water hydrant in the yard. When she returned many days later, that was all that was left of her property, except for a sweater she found in a nearby tree.

CNN is airing a series, New Orleans, Soul of a City, that chronicles the event. The first episode, “Rebirth of the Superdome”, has some stunning footage of evacuees huddling as Katrina blows off a section of the stadium’s roof. But the city endured, just as it did through Hurricanes Betsy in 1965 and Camille in 1969. Camille was so powerful that it caused the Mississippi River to flow backward from its mouth to the city 160 km (100 miles) upstream. It actually tore caskets out of a cemetery.

My wife was very pregnant with our second child, so we fled to her brother’s home north of Lake Pontchartrain. We had heard that a sudden drop in barometric pressure can induce labour, but that isn’t true.

But I digress. Watching the CNN special reminded me how soulful a city New Orleans is. It’s definitely worth your time. And if you’ve never seen the HBO series Treme, which follows some of its citizens as they rebuild their lives, treat yourself. It’s my absolute favourite, by far the best depiction of the Big Easy I’ve ever seen.