Experience Hurricane Katrina like never before. This raw, unfiltered eyewitness footage captures the terrifying moments as the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history unfolded. See the chaos, flooding, and heartbreak in real-time as Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in August 2005.
From breached levees to overwhelmed residents, this video offers a gripping account of the storm that forever changed America.
Subscribe to LIVE EYEWITNESS for more real-time historic footage from major world events.
đź“Ť Location: New Orleans, Louisiana and Gulf Coast
🌀 Category 5 Hurricane
đź“… Date: August 2005
#HurricaneKatrina #Katrina #NewOrleans #2005Storm #StormFootage #EyewitnessVideo #NaturalDisaster #ExtremeWeather #RealFootage #BreakingHistory #HurricaneFootage #USHistory #StormSurvivor #LeveeBreak #KatrinaDisaster #HurricaneHistory #USStorms #2005Hurricane #DisasterFootage #history
From breached levees to overwhelmed residents, this video offers a gripping account of the storm that forever changed America.
Subscribe to LIVE EYEWITNESS for more real-time historic footage from major world events.
đź“Ť Location: New Orleans, Louisiana and Gulf Coast
🌀 Category 5 Hurricane
đź“… Date: August 2005
#HurricaneKatrina #Katrina #NewOrleans #2005Storm #StormFootage #EyewitnessVideo #NaturalDisaster #ExtremeWeather #RealFootage #BreakingHistory #HurricaneFootage #USHistory #StormSurvivor #LeveeBreak #KatrinaDisaster #HurricaneHistory #USStorms #2005Hurricane #DisasterFootage #history
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NewsTranscript
00:01The effects from Hurricane Katrina are just starting to be felt here in New Orleans.
00:05The wind starting to pick up considerably just in the last few minutes.
00:09This is New Orleans down there.
00:11You're looking off to the French Quarter.
00:13A lot of these areas people have seen on TV before.
00:16Over there, off to the left, is the Superdome, where thousands of people are packed in as a last chance shelter.
00:22Now, the situation is slowly starting to deteriorate.
00:25We are on a top floor of the Hotel Le Cirque in downtown New Orleans.
00:32And, as we said, the situation is slowly, slowly ever starting to deteriorate here.
00:38We can only hope that a lot of these remain the same as it does this evening.
00:42But the effects are just starting to come onshore and starting to be felt by people still left in the city.
00:49I'm Jeff Morrow in Covington, Louisiana.
00:51We're starting to feel some of the worst that Katrina has to throw at this part of the state.
00:57But it's a lot worse, I believe, as you head down toward New Orleans and points east of Slidell along Interstate 10 and into Mississippi.
01:04I'll have a live update and tell you what, whoa, we're experiencing here in just a moment.
01:08And, Jeff, we're getting battered pretty good here, not quite as bad as where you are over there near Lake Pontchartrain.
01:15This is Mike Seidel.
01:16Good morning from Mobile, where everybody is hunkered down, the power is out, and the winds continue to howl so far up around hurricane force and gust.
01:23Welcome back to Hurricane Central as Hurricane Katrina nears its third landfall.
01:37This is uninterrupted coverage that we begin.
01:39That means you may not see your local on the 8s, and it will be commercial-free.
01:43Stay with us.
01:43We'll give you all the updates.
01:44I'm Marshall Seas.
01:45And I'm Heather Tash.
01:46And Katrina is indeed a force to be reckoned with.
01:49Look at this roof here.
01:51It was blown off from a building in Hammond, Louisiana.
01:54If you want to look at it again, it really was absolutely amazing through here.
01:57A very powerful storm in Gulfport.
02:00We have seen sustained winds here of 94 miles per hour and gusts of 100 miles per hour coming through here.
02:07Now, Hammond is just a few miles to the west of where Jeff Morrow is stationed in Covington, Louisiana.
02:12Here you're seeing the eye of Hurricane Katrina bear down on Biloxi, Mississippi, just a few miles south.
02:19And it continues to move to the north at about 15 miles per hour.
02:23Now, I'm glancing around here because I'm trying to make sure that we don't have any debris flying.
02:29We also have my producer, Jim Garnier, standing by, and he's watching behind me to make sure that I'm not whacked in the head while I'm talking to you.
02:37It is a little bit more dangerous out here now.
02:40This is probably the worst that we've seen so far.
02:43A lot of very, very, very strong gusts coming through.
02:47We're on the very western edge of, I guess, what you could call the central circulation.
02:52I don't know that we're quite in the western eyewall, but we're in some pretty, pretty bad stuff here on the northwest side.
02:58We've seen a lot of tree damage around the area.
03:01There's some smaller trees right where we are here in this parking lot that are down.
03:05But much bigger trees have come down.
03:06Obviously, the, um, oh.
03:11Yeah, as you can, I don't know if you can see, we're trying to work it with the camera.
03:14This crane is just swinging and occasionally hitting this pier that we're on.
03:20It was about 10 or 15 feet to the west of me before, but now it's swinging around.
03:25I mean, this crane can very easily just swing along and hit all parts of this pier.
03:29Chad, you said, you know, as you said, we're in one of these bands.
03:32It'll soon calm down.
03:33It'll pick up again.
03:34But, I mean, how much longer does this thing go on here in Baton Rouge?
03:38I know we are certainly not anywhere close to the worst of it, but, I mean, how much longer are we going to be seeing these kind of winds?
03:45Well, where you are now, Anderson, is actually in a direct right triangle or a right angle to the center of the eye itself.
03:53You are getting as close as you're going to get to the eye.
03:56So, as the day goes on, the eye moves farther to the north, and you actually, because of the Pythagorean theorem and the hypotenuse, you get farther away from the storm, so your winds actually go down.
04:08But every time you're going to get one of these waves, one of these bands, there's another one still to your east that's moving your way.
04:14The winds are going to pick up again, just like what you're seeing right now.
04:17At least three more hours of that.
04:19What is the speed this storm is moving in?
04:22I mean, from last I heard it was 50 miles an hour, but that was a while ago.
04:25Do you know what it is now?
04:26It has now been upgraded now to between 16 and 17 miles per hour, moving due north, moving right into Mississippi, and then right into Tennessee as well.
04:36There will be a lot of power outages in Tennessee all the way through Mississippi and Alabama.
04:40This is not some small storm.
04:42This is a bowling ball, not a ping-pong ball.
04:47Chris, if nothing gets any closer, let us know.
04:49I see it there behind you.
04:50I'm sorry, I'm just talking to the cameraman.
04:51Chad, that's good.
04:52I appreciate it.
04:53And so it has picked up just about a mile or two in terms of speed.
04:57That's correct.
04:58I'll check back in with you shortly.
04:59Rob Marciano with CNN is also standing by.
05:01He is in Biloxi.
05:02They are seeing some very bad conditions there.
05:05Rob, what's the latest?
05:08You guys coming to Rob and Biloxi?
05:10You coming to me?
05:10I'm not.
05:11Yeah, Rob, if you can hear me, this is Anderson.
05:13What's the latest?
05:15Anderson, the winds just continue to increase.
05:18Look at the damage that's done to the roof of this awning we were just under just a few minutes ago.
05:23Roof tiles shredding off, peeling off, and then pieces of plywood, 6x8 plywood, flying off into the air, crashing down into the parking lot, blowing out windows of huge SUVs.
05:37Winds continue to pound us out of the east, southeast now, certainly over 100 miles an hour, doing damage to this hotel.
05:45We're on the third floor of which, with the window open, poking out.
05:48Now you're looking south, across I-10.
05:51Our parking lot is completely flooded, only from fresh water.
05:55There's no storm surge here.
05:56This is just water collecting from the tremendous amount of rain that continues to come down in sheets and sideways.
06:02Unbelievably enough, this sign to our left, which highlights the brand of the hotel, remains standing.
06:10Although pieces of flashing seem to want to go off the side, it must be designed to let some air pass through.
06:15But that remains standing.
06:17Unfortunately, the structure that is protecting us right now is seemingly coming apart, at least from our vantage point.
06:23We're on the third floor here, with the window open, and the wind's turning now a little bit more southerly.
06:28Every time we get a gust of wind, it fills the room up with air.
06:31You feel the pressure in your ears like you were in an airplane.
06:34And at times, the room almost feels like it wants to lift off the ground.
06:40So I'm not even sure that now that we're inside is a safe spot.
06:43We're seeing, with all this roof damage, there are leaks all over the hotel.
06:49Lights out, obviously.
06:51People very scared, pets very scared, and people actually getting hurt in the hotel.
06:57We had a woman who was opening the door to her hotel room, and because of the gusty winds,
07:02because of the increasing pressure as wind comes through different windows and different doorways,
07:07the door slammed on her finger and cut her finger in half.
07:12They're trying to get her to an emergency room.
07:14They're performing first aid on her.
07:15But right now, the Biloxi police are not responding to anything.
07:19You can't go outside, even 10 feet outside any sort of engineered structure right now,
07:24and you'll just get torn apart.
07:26So where you are is certainly a much better spot.
07:29Right now, conditions continue to get worse.
07:31And what Chad seems to be telling us, it's not going to get any better anytime soon.
07:35Back to you.
07:35Rob, we'll check in with you shortly.
07:38I want to show you just one.
07:41We're starting to see some people coming out, as we always do in these storms, just kind of coming out and testing the winds.
07:47Chris, if you can go over here.
07:48Look at these people over here.
07:50They're standing into the wind.
07:52They're kind of jumping up, trying to see if they can fly, basically, there.
07:57They came out just a short time ago.
07:59They're really the first group of people we've seen kind of running around.
08:03I don't know.
08:04I think they've been sort of sequestered in their homes, hunkered down with a couple of six-packs.
08:12Actually, let me just wipe the lens here, if you can see it.
08:15I don't know if you can actually see them.
08:16We can see.
08:17We can see.
08:17They could use a good dose of common sense, Anderson.
08:21Yeah, I know.
08:21A few less beers and then maybe a little bit more common sense.
08:25But, you know, it's one of the problems.
08:28When you hear that it's a Category 4, when you hear the bad ruches and getting hit as bad as other places, people start to come out.
08:34The truth of the matter is, I mean, these winds are extraordinarily strong.
08:38It is very uncomfortable to be out here.
08:40And it can change on a dime, as Chad has been saying all morning, Darren.
08:44From the outside out or from the outside in, maybe the other side of the building is breached as well.
08:49And the pressure caused those windows to blow out.
08:52Hard to say with being out of context on which exactly direction those winds came from.
08:58Darren.
08:58Chad, I want to get back to you in just a moment because you have important latest information on the storm for us.
09:02Right now, our John Zarela is live on the phone from downtown New Orleans.
09:07A part of the story that we don't like to hear about, looters taking advantage of the situation.
09:12John?
09:12Yeah, they sure are, Darren.
09:14We're outside of a Winn-Dixie on St. Louis Street here.
09:19And they're literally walking out with the store.
09:22Shopping carts filled, overflowing.
09:26They even have some of their kids going in with them to get stuff out of the store just one after the other.
09:33There must be 40 or 50 people coming out of the Winn-Dixie parking lot here right now.
09:40And as we drive around, we're also, besides seeing this, of course, what we have seen is a lot of flooding all over the city.
09:48Many areas have been completely impassable.
09:50We just can't drive down the roads.
09:52We are also seeing, we haven't seen any kind of structural damage yet.
09:57What we have seen are trees down, power lines down, lights down.
10:03That's the kind of thing that we are seeing here.
10:05The rain continues to pour and the wind's gusty.
10:08But you're right, Darren, the unfortunate thing that we are witnessing right now is a man coming by me right now here with a shopping cart filled with food that they've taken.
10:18Darren?
10:20All right, this is where we're going to take refuge and try to shoot some tape.
10:23The winds are really kicking.
10:30Come on in.
10:32All right, let's catch our breath for a second.
10:34This is what it's like just to get out the front door of the hotel.
10:38Now, I don't know if you can see it, but in the middle of Canal Street, there's a tree that's down.
10:44I'm going to try to head out towards that mailbox right there and get a glimpse of what I can see, all right?
10:52Kevin, if you see something coming for me, just scream at me, all right?
11:03All right, I'm going to crouch down and use this as cover.
11:08This is what it's like in downtown New Orleans right now.
11:14Along with photographer Kevin Martels, we're going to go inside now.
11:22I'm Brian Andrews for CBS4.
11:25It's just amazing what the reporters will do to cover the damage and even with the activity of what's taking place from Hurricane Katrina.
11:32That was Brian Andrews from our affiliate WFOR in New Orleans.
11:36Basically shows the dangers of the...
11:40...filed cabinets, you name it.
11:43Meanwhile, if you can take a look here along the interstate, you can see that lots of people are stranded here.
11:49They're just miles from their home, but they can't get there because of all this flooding.
11:57How long do you think it'll be before you can get home?
12:00Well, we'll probably wait.
12:01If we can't turn around, we'll probably sit about an hour.
12:04And then what?
12:06And then we'll try to go back to Baton Rouge.
12:08And back here live now, that woman was one of many people who rode out the storm last night in a nearby city.
12:18She mentioned that she had spent the night in Baton Rouge.
12:20She probably will have to go back there tonight.
12:23She can't get there from here.
12:24This is the main artery into downtown New Orleans.
12:27And as you can see, no one is getting there anytime soon.
12:30Bill, back to you.
12:31All right.
12:31We're reporting that one of the levees was breached.
12:35And obviously, as reporters have seen, there's very, very significant areas of New Orleans that did flood from levee overtopping.
12:46In some areas, we've hit ports of 11 feet of standing water, people being forced out onto the roofs of their homes.
12:55So there are two scenarios that we should examine then.
12:58And if the water breaches the levee then, what is the effect on the water supply for people living in southeastern Louisiana?
13:05Well, right now, they've got a major problem with water supply because they believe some of the pipes have been disrupted by fallen trees and such.
13:16So when you have that sort of situation, as well as standing water that's potentially pretty contaminated, that then raises serious risks about the drinking water.
13:30So the second scenario, though, if the pumps don't work or if the roof has been blown off a pumping station, what then?
13:37Well, you know, these pump stations are really built to handle rain and not really surge.
13:44So, first of all, they have to get the folks back to the pumps.
13:49Obviously, they weren't going to leave them there during the heart of the hurricane.
13:53In addition, a number of the pump stations have sustained significant damage.
13:59So it's going to take some time to get them going.
14:01And then the last thing with these pumps, all the debris, all those buildings that are flying apart, flown apart, all that debris is going to get into the canals.
14:10And they're going to have a real problem keeping those pumps unblocked.
14:13I need a quick answer here.
14:14How long before you know the condition for the system?
14:17Is that hours away or days away?
14:19It's days away.
14:20You know, anybody thinking of coming back should wait a minimum of five days.
14:24There were normal areas only 24 hours or so ago.
14:27But Gulfport, Mississippi, taking a major hit.
14:31Gulfport, an important source of commerce for the entire Mississippi coastline of the Gulf Coast,
14:37certainly coming under some extensive, extensive destruction and damage from this hurricane.
14:47Just let this video continue a little bit.
14:51And our viewers will simply get a sense of what has happened to what was a normal community shattered by the very strong power of Hurricane Katrina.
15:01We'll continue to watch this video for you.
15:03It has been a day, and so far it's been an incredible day, all along the Gulf Coast since early this morning when Hurricane Katrina landed.
15:12The walls of rain, the howling wind, the fear in the darkness.
15:17The danger, though, not yet over.
15:19We've been told repeatedly by authorities it's still a very dangerous hurricane as it moves inland.
15:25In some areas, the damage is already done.
15:28Let's look at some of the most riveting scenes yet from Katrina's onslaught.
15:34The state today has suffered a grievous blow on the coast.
15:42And we're not through.
15:43You can hide from wind, but you need to run from floods.
15:48Before, we had people that wanted to go all the way to Birmingham or to Memphis to get out of the way of the wind.
15:54This time, the only thing they needed to do is just get to higher ground.
15:59I was driving I-10 westbound trying to get to Kenner to the Williams Boulevard exit, and I didn't see the water.
16:06It just blends in with the gray of the road, and I just drove right into it.
16:11Wherever you live, it is still too dangerous for people to return home.
16:16If you evacuated and you're in a shelter, if you're with friends and family, please, please stay there.
16:22There's a Category 4 storm with 140-mile-an-hour winds.
16:27Then it lost strength, but CNN's Jean Meserve is getting a first look at the damage around western New Orleans,
16:32which she describes as much more shocking than first thought.
16:35An entire ward of this city, the 9th ward, appears to be up to its rooftops in water.
16:44We spoke to a city councilman who's been out here trying to rescue people.
16:48There are people out in Spokes trying to do that as well.
16:52There are people in these houses.
16:54Clearly, the only place you could be in their attic.
16:57You know what that scenario would mean?
16:59We saw it after Betsy.
17:01People got up there.
17:01There was no way to exit.
17:03The councilman with whom we spoke was very concerned that people in their houses,
17:08some of them in places where the water is lower, might think that it was only 4 feet deep,
17:12but if they stepped outside their houses, it would drown.
17:15There have been bodies seen here.
17:17I haven't personally seen one, but I know others have seen at least one.
17:21And it is just unbelievable.
17:24I told you earlier today I didn't think this had turned out to be Armageddon.
17:28I was wrong.
17:30This is amazing and horrifying to see.
17:33The lower 9th ward of the city is under 5 to 6 feet of water because three pumps failed.
17:39But there are reports of water has receded at least on some of the streets there.
17:43And there are now reports of looting all over the city.
17:47Some 10,000 people trapped in the Big Easy sought refuge meantime in the Louisiana Superdome.
17:52The storm ripped two holes in the roof, allowing rain to just pour inside.
17:56And reports say it's hot and stuffy inside now because the air conditioning isn't working.
18:02Katrina has left many roads flooded, creating situations like this.
18:06A motorist driving down Interstate 10 had to be rescued when he hit a flooded stretch
18:10and his vehicle started to get swept away.
18:13You know, one of the hardest-hit areas is Gulfport, Mississippi.
18:16The downtown was under 10 to 12 feet of water earlier today.
18:19CNN's Gary Tuchman says boats were floating on top of flooded streets.
18:23The Gulfport fire chief estimates that 75 percent of buildings have major roof damage.
18:28If they have any roof left at all, Mississippi's governor says preliminary assessments indicate
18:33the state has suffered quite catastrophic damage.
18:36He described the damage to the area as complete devastation.
18:40Well, the outer bands of Katrina put downtown Mobile, Alabama, under several feet of water.
18:45Heavy rain caused water from Mobile Bay to spill over its banks right into city streets.
18:50Katrina also pounded the city with hurricane-strength winds, shaking buildings and knocking down
18:54trees and power lines.
18:56Authorities have ordered a curfew until further notice for all of Mobile County to keep curious
19:01residents from venturing out to survey the damage.
19:04More than 260,000 people are without power right now in Alabama, mostly in the Mobile area.
19:09Just devastation everywhere, and we don't know yet about casualties.
19:15We have some deaths up in the state, but as far as the coast is concerned, we haven't
19:19been able to get to the areas where we're afraid some people try to ride out the storm.
19:25I just saw a rescue boat come in.
19:28There's tremendous trouble getting the boat back and forth over the railroad tracks when
19:33they came back with a family, including a tiny little baby.
19:36The rescuers actually had to get out of the boat in order to push the boat over the railroad
19:41track.
19:42I am told that this is a horrible situation, not just for the people here who desperately
19:48need help, but for the rescuers themselves.
19:50They do not have enough boats.
19:53The New Orleans police, I'm told, put out a call to all officers with boats to respond.
19:58They did.
19:59The problem is none of them can get to their boats.
20:01Their boats are in areas that are flooded, or there are roads that are blocking, that are flooded,
20:06that are blocking their way home, so they cannot get to their boats to bring them here,
20:11to get them in the water, to rescue the people who are stuck in their houses.
20:15It is just mind-boggling to watch this happening.
20:20There are now helicopters going overhead.
20:23Clearly, they're trying to assess the situation, but darkness is approaching here.
20:27I don't know how much they'll be able to do after dark, especially right now.
20:31I only see one boat in the water at this location.
20:33I'm trying to get a second one in, but that's it.
20:36And I can see multiple people up on their rooftops trying to get help, and Lord only knows
20:40how many are inside their homes.
20:41Kitty?
20:42Very disturbing.
20:43Thanks very much.
20:43Gene Mazur.
20:44The city, as we drove around the city of New Orleans, on just about every street you went
20:50up or down, there was flood water.
20:53Flood waters that blocked your way.
20:54You could go a certain distance, then you'd have to turn around waters lapping up against
20:58the buildings, up against houses, cars trying to get through it.
21:02In some cases, cars being bogged down in it on a low area of Interstate 10.
21:07Drivers were driving into the high water and having to abandon their cars, in one case having
21:12to be rescued.
21:13And, of course, for every good Samaritan, like the person who rescued the driver from
21:18a car, these storms bring out the worst in human beings as well.
21:22And as we were driving, we saw a supermarket, a Winn-Dixie supermarket, about 50, perhaps
21:2875 people looting the supermarket, coming out of the supermarket with shopping carts
21:34absolutely filled to overflowing with everything they could get on those carts and get out
21:39of there.
21:39New Orleans police finally did get there and get the looters out of the store, but by
21:45then it was too late.
21:46The store had pretty much been ransacked.
21:47So, these kinds of situations, of course, Kitty, bring out both the good in humanity
21:53and the bad in it.
21:55But, again, still a tremendous amount to be assessed here in New Orleans.
22:00The level of damage and destruction here, still going to be a long time before we know
22:05any of that.
22:06Kitty?
22:06John, as you've been moving around today, what's your sense of how pervasive the
22:09looting is?
22:10Or is it just sporadic?
22:11I think it's just sporadic.
22:12But, at least at this point, things can change pretty dramatically when darkness falls here.
22:19You know, it doesn't seem to be that the police are out.
22:21They seem to have a pretty good handle on things.
22:23But I've seen in so many of these situations where once darkness falls, that level of control
22:29that the authorities has can evaporate fairly quickly.
22:33Shepard, right now we are in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
22:35We're standing on a stretch of road.
22:37This is Highway 59.
22:38Ted, swing it over this way.
22:40This chunk of road got nailed.
22:42This water right now, Shepard, is probably about, I don't know, two, three, four feet
22:46maybe above where it should be.
22:47But it came in even higher.
22:49These folks right now, there isn't really power around here.
22:52Ted, swing it over this way if you could a little bit.
22:54It came all the way through here.
22:56A lot of the debris you can see, Shep, came up to about this point.
23:00This is as high as it got.
23:02This is a great, really, this is a benchmark.
23:04You can see it over here.
23:05This came over here.
23:06Look.
23:07Somebody's fridge made it all the way here.
23:09Over here, you do have somebody's staircase that came off their home.
23:13Don't know what that is.
23:14Some sort of a possible water container or some sort of a chemical container.
23:19Stretching over this way, you have police that have blocked this off.
23:22This is a big deal around here.
23:24These folks really didn't recover from Hurricane Ivan just yet.
23:28Over here, you have the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.
23:32That place hasn't opened up since Ivan last year.
23:36It has been, it's underwater now.
23:37They keep cats there.
23:38They got those cats out.
23:39We can tell you this much.
23:41We do know that, indeed, the power is out around Alabama for close to 210,000 people.
23:46Most of those folks are in Mobile.
23:48They don't have power.
23:49Again, right over here, this is the problem.
23:52You do have this water coming through here.
23:55You have this coastal storm surge that is coming through.
23:58And it may not be done just yet.
24:00In some chunks of this area, Shepard, they still could see this stuff coming through here.
24:04Over to the left, ironically, you have a place, a little roller coaster, amusement park called Waterville.
24:10That place is not going to be open for quite some time.
24:12It is going to be a while.
24:13Maybe, I don't know how many more hours before this bridge or this stretch of road actually opens up itself.
24:18We do know that two people have died.
24:21There was a head-on collision.
24:22I believe it was the southeastern portion of Alabama.
24:25Two cars were coming through there, and they ran head-on.
24:28Shepard, this place right now, again, they're waiting to get power back on.
24:32They do have water around these parts.
24:33That is on.
24:34There is right now a ban.
24:37Folks can't go out of their house right now until about 6 o'clock tomorrow morning.
24:40Police say if they see you out on the roads around these parts, you're going to go to jail.
24:44What is the situation of New Orleans just in terms of the topography, what it faces on its various sides,
24:51the fact that it's below sea level,
24:53and what kind of liquids would be spilling into this city in the last several hours?
24:58We're still trying to figure that out, but the damage assessment model suggests that 90% of all buildings were badly damaged if not destroyed.
25:09So we have no idea what may or may not have leaked out of chemical plants, gas stations, aviation gas facilities, and so on.
25:18Tied to that is the fact that the sewerage plants have been flooded.
25:22There are some graveyards that have been flooded.
25:25So you mix that up, and you get that proverbial gumbo brew.
25:29Very, very, very interesting and very sad.
25:32Anyway, thank you very much, Ivor Van Heerden, who's studying this matter for the weeks ahead, I'm sure.
25:36...live from Biloxi with a survey of the damage.
25:39And, Jeff, we're now learning more about the human toll as well as the material toll.
25:43But as a meteorologist and a scientist, tell us, give us a sense for the power of this storm as you saw it and experienced it yesterday.
25:49Yeah, this storm was just enormous.
25:52You know, we were located about three to four miles inland, and we certainly had to retreat back into our base, our camp, because things got too bad.
26:00You can only imagine what it was like here along the coastline, where storm surge flooding, we're getting reports now, was anywhere between 25 to 30 feet at its highest.
26:08So water certainly surpassing many of the roofs here.
26:12Right behind me, we have Highway 90, a major artery running right along the beach.
26:16Now it is part of the beach.
26:17The beach levels when we were here the other day were probably about six feet lower.
26:21Now it's about level with Highway 90.
26:23It's hard to discern what is the beach and what is the roadway.
26:26And then you can see the landmark casino, the Beau Ravage, still intact there, but certainly probably a lot of damage.
26:32But here's the other thing, the debris field, the damage across the coastal areas is enormous.
26:37We had a gas station here completely leveled.
26:39Several homes that were here the other day when we were in the same exact location for live shots, flattened, gone.
26:45The water coming up, taking all of the debris, a lot of it back out to sea.
26:50Certainly very devastating pictures.
26:52Right now a lot of people just showing up for the first time to see their homes and to see the damage and really truly being here.
26:58This is, you know, emotional on a lot of levels.
27:01You see the damage and you see people coming back to their house for the first time.
27:04And it's just, it's hard to realize that, you know, people are going to have to slowly rebuild and go through so much that's going to last months.
27:14And the damage possibly for years in terms of cleanup and, you know, the emotional scars as well.
27:19So we certainly hope that, you know, a lot of people stayed safe yesterday.
27:23But we do know that people did try and ride out the storm here when with a 30-foot storm surge, that certainly could be devastating in terms of the effects.
27:32Randy?
27:32A moment ago we saw a truck pass behind you and a person walking.
27:36But in essence, is it virtually deserted in your area now with the exception of news crews?
27:41Yeah, no, not at all.
27:44We're now starting to see a lot of people filter back in that live here.
27:49And you're seeing them starting to pick through the debris, trying to find anything they can hold on to that could be familiar.
27:56Now we've got right here, you know, something that washed up pictures, memories.
28:00These kind of things are the things that people are going to be looking for, you know, today.
28:04So I don't think since the first moment that I arrived till now that I've really lost the chills.
28:09It's just kind of one of those things where you really feel the power of Mother Nature.
28:13As you know, CNN has been working day and night to bring you the very latest on Katrina.
28:18And our reporters have witnessed the utter devastation Katrina has caused.
28:22Here, Jeanne Meserve talks to CNN's Erin Brown about the physical and emotional toll it has taken on her and her crew.
28:31Quite a dramatic and difficult night down there, hadn't it?
28:34It's been horrible.
28:35As I left tonight, darkness, of course, had fallen, and you can hear people yelling for help.
28:41You can hear the dogs yelping, all of them stranded, all of them hoping someone will come.
28:48But for tonight, they've had to suspend the rescue efforts.
28:51It's just too hazardous for them to be out in the boats.
28:55There are electrical lines that are still alive.
28:57There are gas lines that are still spewing gas.
29:01There are cars that are submerged.
29:03There are other large objects.
29:05The boats can't operate.
29:06So they had to suspend operations and leave those people in the homes.
29:10As we were driving back, we passed scores of boats, fish and wildlife boats that they brought in.
29:17They're flat-bottomed.
29:18They're obviously going to put them in the water just as soon as they possibly can
29:22and go out and reach the people who are out there who desperately need help.
29:27We watched them.
29:28Some of them come in.
29:30They were in horrible shape, some of them.
29:32We watched one woman whose leg had been severed.
29:35Mark Biello, one of our cameramen, went out in one of the boats to help shoot.
29:39He ended up being out for hours and told horrific tales.
29:43He saw bodies.
29:45He saw other just unfathomable things, dogs wrapped in electrical lines who were still alive that were being electrocuted.
29:55The police are having radio problems.
29:58At least they were earlier this evening.
30:00They didn't have enough boats.
30:02They put out an appeal to various police who had personal boats to bring them to the scene.
30:09But the problem was the people who had the boats couldn't get to the boats to bring them to the scene to go out and rescue the people.
30:16People are out there in the night.
30:18One EMS worker told us that the water was rising.
30:21And I can tell you that when we came back into the city tonight, it certainly was higher here.
30:26Whether it's rising in that neighborhood as much as it has here, I don't know.
30:30Aaron?
30:30Gene, let me walk you through a couple of things.
30:36Are authorities able to in any way communicate with these people who are stranded and scared and hungry and cold and desperate?
30:52They aren't tonight.
30:54When the boats were in the water, as the boats went around through the neighborhood, they yelled.
30:58And people yelled back.
31:01But Mark, when he came back, told me that some of the people they just couldn't get to.
31:06They just couldn't get to them.
31:07They couldn't maneuver the boats in there.
31:08Because this had happened before in Hurricane Betsy, there were many people who kept axes in their homes and had them in the attic in preparation for this.
31:19And some people were able to use those axes and make holes in their roof and stick their head out or their body out or climb up completely.
31:28Lee, was this much worse than you thought it would be?
31:33Of course, when Katrina came across Florida and we saw her on the radar, it was almost, it looked to be a tiny storm, just a tropical storm or tropical depression.
31:45And then in just a matter of what seemed a few hours, she became enormous, an enormous strength.
31:50In Mississippi, and I was born on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and I was born in the 70s.
31:56Of course, Hurricane Camille hit in 1969, and you knew it was people trying to check on their family members.
32:02And we know they're worried, but phone lines are horrible almost everywhere in Mississippi right now with just completely, completely jammed lines.
32:11So we're asking people if it's not an emergency, please don't call yet.
32:15Don't jam the phone lines up because there are emergencies that do need to get through on the phone lines.
32:21Lee, we talked a little bit earlier about just one main roadway.
32:25I believe you said it was U.S. 49 being open and accessible to emergency vehicles.
32:31Do you have any idea when some other roads might be an agency?
32:36Lee, the sound of your voice says so much.
32:39What a tough job you have ahead.
32:41Thank you very much for talking with us this morning.
32:43Thank you, guys. God bless you.
32:44And you, too.
32:46There's another fire broken out in what appears to be some kind of a warehouse.
32:51Again, this new video just coming in to us from New Orleans where the catastrophic damage is just coming visible.
33:00We saw the same thing after Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida.
33:03It took a while for the first pictures of the damage, the first understanding of the scope of the damage to become evident.
33:11And you can see it here.
33:13Fires burning in New Orleans.
33:14We're starting to see that although the center of New Orleans, the Latin quarter of New Orleans, not hit as hard as some might have thought.
33:22But when you get outside of that area to the poorer areas of New Orleans in particular, there is so much devastation.
33:30And some weather watchers noting that there are some comparisons here to the reaction to Hurricane Andrew.
33:37That after they saw that Miami was spared, they looked then at the rest of the area outside at just how very devastating and how much flooding and how much damage.
33:46And the other thing that keeps coming up today is the fact that this spread over really three times the area of Hurricane Camille, which was a more targeted hit.
33:56So the devastation here is some thinking at this point that it may be up into the $50 billion range, which would put it ahead of Hurricane Andrew, which is the costliest hurricane to ever hit our country and the most damaging and devastating to people's lives and their livelihoods and their homes.
34:12We also have seen stories throughout the day today, just heart-wrenching stories of people who are separated from their families.
34:19They can't call them.
34:19They can't reach them in any way to figure out who is okay, who's not okay.
34:24And also just the incredible frustration of those who are wanting so much to get close to come back in, those who did evacuate, to get back into these areas and get a sense of what the damage is to their homes or whether or not they have any homes left at all to go back to.
34:39And the emergency officials urging people that they are not allowed to come back into these areas of New Orleans or the areas surrounding some of the most damaged parts of Gulfport, of Biloxi, where we still don't know, still haven't had really good looks at the damage there.
34:55There are also some reports that we really haven't heard a lot of news from Slidell, from Bay St. Louis, from those areas that are in between New Orleans and Gulfport in those areas.
35:06And we just don't have a sense yet of the damage there.
35:08Although, as you can see from these shots, the choppers are now up in the air.
35:12They've been doing a lot of rescuing, getting people literally off their roofs as the hot sun has baked the people who are being rescued from these areas today.
35:20Live in New Orleans, following this whole story for us throughout the day, where we've seen looting of grocery stores in that area.
35:29And everybody has literally been told to get out of the city if they are still there.
35:33We go to Phil Keating, who's been watching all of this unfold, this devastation that we've seen today.
35:38Hello, Phil.
35:40Hello, Martha.
35:41The blue skies and sunshine clearly deceptive if you thought the destruction and damage of Hurricane Katrina was all done yesterday.
35:48It looks like things could even get worse as the day grows longer and the days ahead.
35:53That's because the levee system, that all protective levee system that protects the city of New Orleans, which is below sea level,
35:58and it relies on the underground pumps to pump all rainwater and stormwater out of the city.
36:03What was damaged during the hurricane, it appeared that the flooding of the city that was feared by so many, 20 feet maybe predictions, wasn't going to happen.
36:13It certainly didn't happen.
36:14But then this morning, the water started to rise.
36:16The reports we're getting now, Canal Street, actually we have video of it, Canal Street underwater, Bourbon Street, Bourbon and Canal, that intersection.
36:25This morning when we went into the French Quarter, there was maybe a puddle at the most there.
36:29It is now nine inches deep.
36:31And certainly the residents are seeing this.
36:33They're seeing block by block suddenly become submerged in some degree of water, whether it's one inch or three inches or more than a foot at this point.
36:43And everyone's starting to wonder how high is it going to get.
36:46And nobody knows for certain.
36:49Emergency management leaders, not only for Orleans Parish, but for St. Bernard Parish and Jefferson Parish,
36:54they're all urging their residents that if they can leave, to go.
36:59Now, all the people who did evacuate before the hurricane, well, the State Department of Emergency Management and Preparedness is telling them,
37:08no, you can't come back yet.
37:09It's too soon because the roadways are still full of debris, structurally unsound, unclear as to how safe it is to return to the city.
37:17So, so, so many people, so many thousands of people who left, they can't come back yet.
37:22And the people who stayed, well, now they're faced with the problem of waters coming in, it's rising, and they don't necessarily have a way out.
37:31Also, the twin span bridges that connect New Orleans to eastbound traffic going to Slidell, Louisiana, and then on to Mississippi, totally damaged.
37:40And now that highway is shut down, a boat of some sort slammed into that twin span bridge during the hurricane, so that's out of commission.
37:49To the west, I-10 is submerged.
37:51The causeway over Lake Pontchartrain, that is damaged as well.
37:55So there's a serious issue of how are people going to get out.
37:58Now, just in the past 20 minutes, we've seen two very lengthy convoys of National Guard camouflage trucks as well as FEMA vehicles all now heading into the city.
38:09They'd all been on standby until really just recently because early this morning, emergency managers wanted to assess the situation and try to get all those convoys that had backed up as far to the west as Dallas, as far to the east as Atlanta,
38:24trying to get all that water, food in, generators, and ice as well because the people clearly are going to be desperately needing it soon.
38:32Martha?
38:33Phil, go back, if you would, to the question about Bourbon Street and Canal Street and those areas and where the water seems to be rising.
38:40Where do they think that water is coming from?
38:44Well, they think it's coming from underground.
38:46For the system, the storm system underneath the city, there are a series of underground pumps, powerful pumps that operate on diesel fuel and electricity.
38:54But, of course, the electric grid is completely decimated at this point.
38:58And some of those pumps definitely were overrun.
39:01Three sections of the levee were breached.
39:03So you can see, if you walk around the French Quarter as we did this morning, you can see out of bricks, cracks in bricks and pipes along the street,
39:10all of a sudden water is just coming out.
39:11And you're thinking, well, that must be a weak point where the resistance as the water underneath the city is building up because it can't get pumped out fast enough.
39:19And so the big question is, how fast is it going to spread?
39:23Is this worst-case scenario going to develop?
39:26Or is this just a temporary flash flooding problem, if you will, that perhaps in a few hours can be resolved either naturally or by engineers who are now inside the city trying to resolve this as fast as possible?
39:40So, Phil, they don't have any real sense of how much water is down there, you know, in terms of figuring out how much more it could flood that area
39:48and how much danger the French Quarter might still be in.
39:52Yeah, it's an enormous unknown at this point.
39:56And for residents, it's enormously confusing because all phone lines are down.
40:01Cell service is negligible at best.
40:04In fact, I haven't been able to make a cell phone call in the past six hours, and all those cell phone towers are being overwhelmed, and those batteries are running down.
40:12People are running out of ways to communicate, and so everyone's pretty much relying on an AM news station,
40:19and that's where the parish presidents are going on, where the Jefferson Parish president announced this morning that he had put his parish.
40:26That's a direct order from the state of Louisiana's Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and Management Office.
40:32And so you've got an estimated 10,000 people inside the Superdome.
40:36There's no electricity, i.e., no air conditioning.
40:40Everyone's in there together.
40:42Well, speaking for myself, first and foremost, when I saw that Superdome like that, I was like, wow, wow, look at that,
40:48because we've been covering the hurricane the last day and a half.
40:50We've seen absolutely no television coverage, and we hadn't been able to get out and about of the city.
40:54So my first glimpse of that about an hour and a half ago was just, whoa, I can't believe it was that bad.
40:59But we were watching that hurricane.
41:01We were down on the street when it was coming through.
41:02The winds were the strongest hurricane winds I certainly have ever been in,
41:07and paneling coming down from the buildings, glass breaking, trees falling.
41:11It was purely chaotic.
41:12However, it seemed like because the eye had jogged east of the city,
41:17and that's what everybody was focusing on, all of the residents, all of the emergency management leaders,
41:22all of the elected leaders city by city and up to the governor's office,
41:26they were all hoping it would jog east to save New Orleans from that catastrophic hurricane.
41:31And so when that all happened and the streets didn't flood with 12 to 18 feet of water as had been forecast,
41:38there was a real sense yesterday afternoon when the rain stopped and everyone was milling around down Canal Street,
41:45everybody who had been hunkered down in all the hotels, the tourists that had been trapped here,
41:49the residents who had been hunkered down in their own apartments and houses,
41:52because everyone was walking around just looking at the damage and thinking,
41:56you know, yeah, this got hit by a pretty strong hurricane, the damage is pretty good,
42:00look at all these windows that are out, look at all these trees that are down,
42:03but you know what, maybe we got off pretty easily.
42:07We've seen them going into these areas, lowering those sort of cage-like people carriers that you've seen,
42:13putting the people on them and bringing them to safety,
42:15but look at the devastation around where this man is,
42:18and you can just see that he's going to make his way across a piece of wooden board
42:23that is linking one rooftop of one house to another rooftop where there are so many people waiting.
42:28There's also people over on the other side.
42:30You can see someone in a green shirt who's over in the other area of just a completely wrecked home
42:36to the top of your screen there, and these people just huddled together.
42:41Obviously, they are very happy to see that the Coast Guard is coming to help them.
42:45It looks like a family of two, four, six, eight people perhaps waiting on this rooftop for help,
42:52and this is just really heartbreaking.
42:55You're looking at the support structure for the roof of the casino of the Hard Rock Hotel
43:02here in Biloxi, Mississippi.
43:04This place was supposed to have its grand opening tonight at midnight,
43:08but as you can see, that's not going to happen.
43:10In fact, this place may not be open for months if they're lucky.
43:13We just had a contractor in here walking around who was shaking his head at the extent of the damages here.
43:19We're on the second floor, and this part of the hotel was underwater.
43:24There's no doubt about it.
43:25There's mud on the floors.
43:26There's debris everywhere, and there's water lines and water marks everywhere.
43:30In fact, you can see the wall just washed away right there.
43:33And to the right here is where Ruth's Chris Steakhouse was to be located.
43:39It's just a shell, and it's suffered extensive damages.
43:43A lot of the windows on this level have been blown out and just trashed.
43:49The place is just trashed.
43:50That's a piece of foam insulation from the wall.
43:53The memorabilia that was all over the interior here, some of it is still here in its cases.
44:02Tom Petty's guitar over there.
44:04There's Madonna's bustier from her 1987 world tour.
44:09There's a bass guitar on the floor here.
44:11We're not sure who that belonged to.
44:13Mayor Ray Nagin is ordering police officers to abandon their search and rescue missions.
44:18Instead, he wants them on the streets to stop looters.
44:211,500 officers are being reassigned to try to keep the streets safe.
44:26Nagin says that looters are getting more aggressive and approaching highly populated areas.
44:31He also says that rescue operations seem to be under control right now.
44:36Getting out of the heart of New Orleans is no easy feat, though, even with the help of rescuers.
44:40CNN's John Zarela shows you how he and several groups of evacuees made it out.
44:47The hotel was being evacuated.
44:49Before we could leave, we had to change a tire in the darkened parking garage.
44:54In knee-deep water in the garage, women and children were lifted into the back of high-riding pickup trucks.
45:00We made our way out behind the other evacuees.
45:04We drove on the sidewalk on Common Street, the lowest water but still up to the wheel wells.
45:09Our seven-vehicle caravan regrouped on Canal Street, where we dropped off with the police.
45:15Six hotel evacuees we had ferried out.
45:19While we waited to move on, cameraman Mark Biello talked with three young men who admitted looting, but said there was a reason.
45:27NOPD, the police, whatever y'all want to say, took our shoes and made smell a pun in his face.
45:33It made no reason, because we were walking down the street and put their guns in our face.
45:37Talking about, do we have guns? Do we have a gun?
45:39Do I look like I have a gun on me?
45:40With no shirt on, no shoes.
45:42He took our shoes.
45:43We put your face down.
45:44We got us some new shoes.
45:46So that's why we got a new one.
45:48On Canal Street, people walked in a daze.
45:51Water lapped against buildings.
45:53Storefronts smashed.
45:54It was impossible to know whether it was the hurricane or the looters or both that had done the damage.
46:01From Canal, we wound our way through side streets.
46:05It took more than an hour to make it to Highway 90.
46:08Producer Silvio Carillo snapped a picture of Air Force One.
46:12The president was getting a bird's-eye view of the destruction as he returned to Washington.
46:17The traffic on Highway 90 was heavy in both directions.
46:21Heading out of New Orleans, a steady stream of evacuees.
46:25Heading in, convoys of relief supplies.
46:28In the days and weeks ahead, this will be a road much traveled.
46:34A road of misery and of hope.
46:37John Zarela, CNN, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
46:41As we head back, we learn the hospital has no patients.
46:44They've all been airlifted.
46:46But there are a thousand employees and family members inside, waving down at us.
46:50Across Orleans Parish, 2,500 patients have been evacuated from hospitals.
46:55Finally, on dry ground, Victoria and her father are lucky.
46:59They'll try to get to family in Houston.
47:01But the hard part is all too clear.
47:03Missions like this are going to have to happen again and again and again.
47:08There's a lot of people coming back finding nothing of where their home used to be, finding parts of their home blocks away.
47:16And a lot of people don't even have anywhere to go at this point because it's taking a while for those convoys to get here because of all of the debris in the roadways.
47:23And every day that debris begins to shift as people start to move things from one point to the other.
47:28And it just creates more roadblocks.
47:30We advise people that this city has been destroyed.
47:33It has completely been destroyed.
47:36The city destroyed.
47:37But people are actually starting to return to some of the suburbs of New Orleans to see what, if anything, there is left of their homes.
47:44Now, starting at 6 a.m. this morning, police began allowing people back into this community to get their things and then get on their way.
47:52Nelson Galeano was just finishing up packing his stuff from his storm-damaged apartment when we found him.
47:58He told us he had everything with him practically except the kitchen sink, lamps, stereos, clothing, you name it, even memories of his former home.
48:08It's a long-term project to help these people.
48:11And this country is going to be committed to doing what it takes to help people get back on their feet.
48:17And that's why I've come back to this state.
48:19And that's why I'm going to Mississippi.
48:21The first mission, of course, is to save lives.
48:23And so long as any life is in danger, we've got work to do.
48:31And they're going to continue to save lives, whether it be in New Orleans or the surrounding parishes or up and down the coast of Mississippi.
48:38It is a scene in Biloxi like no other.
48:41As reporter Jennifer Mayerly walked us through the devastation, you see a car pull up.
48:46A man and two children step out of it.
48:48When they walked up to Jennifer, everything shifted.
48:52I lost my wife.
48:53How are you doing, sir?
48:54I'm not doing good.
48:56What happened?
48:57The house just split in half.
49:00Your house split in half?
49:02Right here on Hollingham, Bayview.
49:04You know, we came up in the roof, all the way to the roof.
49:09And the water came and the house just opened up, divided.
49:14Who was at your house with you?
49:15My wife.
49:17Where is she now?
49:18Can't find her body.
49:20She gone.
49:21You can't find your wife?
49:22No, she told me.
49:23She told me.
49:24I tried.
49:25I hold her hand.
49:26Jennifer cries and wipes away tears as she tries to get information that may help to reunite him with his wife.
49:34What's your wife's name in case we can put this out there?
49:37Tony Jackson.
49:40Okay, and what's your name?
49:42Hardy Jackson.
49:43Where are you guys going?
49:44We ain't got nowhere to go, nowhere I'm going.
49:47I'm lost.
49:50That's all I had.
49:51That's all I had.
49:56As long as what I'm going to do.
49:59Katrina is proving to be a death.
50:02Two or three more battles around than where I stayed at.
50:05Lane right there in the mud.
50:07You guys, you take care of your boys, okay?
50:10Okay.
50:13Katrina is proving to be a deadly storm.
50:16For now, reporting in Biloxi, Jennifer Merrily, News 5.
50:19Hurricane Katrina left streets in cities like Metairie, Louisiana looking war-torn and abandoned.
50:27Everywhere you look, buildings are messing walls, vehicles are smashed from fallen debris, traffic lights and power lines are down, and if you look to the sky, you can see helicopters everywhere.
50:37Thousands of these storm victims arrived on these flying chariots, clinging on to whatever they had left.
50:46They're exhausted, confused, but alive.
50:49Victims were stranded on rooftops after water broke from area levees and flooded the streets.
50:54The guy came and got us in the boat because the war was over my head.
50:58I would have drowned.
50:59They came in on boats, got us, they took us to a dry place on the bayou, and they toppled us out over here.
51:07Paul O'Connell and his newfound friends are relieved to make it to dry land.
51:11I was about three blocks from the breach, so it came in quick.
51:15After several pleas to be rescued remained unanswered, O'Connell made his way to the second floor of his two-story home.
51:22A boat was coming down Bel Air, and I was screaming out of the window because the water was coming up so fast that a few boats rode by and didn't hear, and at that point, things were getting pretty bad.
51:35He finally broke through an upstairs window, got up on the roof, and waited to be rescued.
51:41People arrived at the makeshift refugee camp looking for loved ones while enduring the heat and the chaos that filled the air.
51:48Saturday morning, I told him to start getting things together because the hurricane looked like it was going to hit.
51:52Mike and Carla Sampson arrived here looking for their son and his family.
51:56I don't think my son knows how to swim, my darlin' law, or the children.
52:00So, I mean, you know, that's what's kind of scary.
52:01We heard about the bodies floating.
52:03We don't know if they're alive or dead.
52:04We just want to know if they're alive and they're safe.
52:07At this point, many of the stranded storm victims who found refuge on the rooftops have been rescued.
52:12However, there are still many out there, barely above the water, but refusing to leave.
52:16Our rescue boats, when they got us out to veterans, went in to see how they were, and they weren't going to leave, and they didn't want to leave.
52:27With medical facilities set up to handle the sick and food and water flown in for the hungry,
52:32the city that was once referred to as the city that care forgot is slowly turning into the city that care remembered.
52:39In Metairie, Omar Isaac, ABC 26 News.
52:43You're looking at the first incredible video from inside the New Orleans Superdome since the evacuation.
52:50We were the first camera crew allowed inside.
52:52Shafts of light from gaping holes in the roof illuminate the scene, remnants of hell for up to 35,000 people.
53:00To get here involved an incredible journey through the abandoned city, where the only traffic is army trucks.
53:06We waded through flood water that has become a toxic soup.
53:11As we come out of the flood waters, we kind of hit this ramp, where as you can see, there are personal belongings all along.
53:19This is where people camped out for days, waiting to be rescued. It's not pretty.
53:24Mountains of people's belongings left behind when they were rescued litter the landscape.
53:29I met Lieutenant Colonel Scott Elliott of the Texas Air National Guard, who told me the real heroes at the Superdome were the evacuees.
53:37The real action was the people. What they put up with and, you know, the loss of their homes. People lost family members.
53:45As we enter the Superdome's dark, forbidding corridors, it's easy to see how families were separated, how there were reportedly rapes and sheer anarchy.
53:54The field itself looks like a battlefield, a sharp contrast with a palatial stadium which staged so many spectacular sports events over the years.
54:03Our guide inside the stadium is Airman Chris King. He's as overwhelmed as I am.
54:09The smell is absolutely overpowering. I mean, this is disgusting.
54:15Pretty indescribable. Really, no words to describe it. Pretty awful.
54:20There's no electricity in this building. The only available light coming in from a few holes up in the ceiling.
54:26You can see a water cooler here with some empty drinks that people had in the first days.
54:30I mean, people ate here. They slept here. They went to the bathroom here. They had no choice. They had nowhere else to go.
54:36But it's absolutely disgusting and revolting to look at it and to smell it all these days later.
54:42Everywhere, there are poignant reminders of the loss and suffering.
54:46This is very sad to think that a little boy or a little girl's toy is left here in the seats.
54:57Probably something that gave them a lot of happiness in the days that they were left stranded in here.
55:02This little dog toy. When they had the opportunity to leave, they probably just went out as quickly as they could.
55:13This is very sad to look at all this here. It's unbelievable to think that a little baby had to call this home.
55:21I mean, there is urine, human feces, and then you've got a baby carriage in the middle of all of this filth.
55:33Literally, ten seconds ago, some electricity, some power, finally came here into the Superdome.
55:41You can see that the concourse is now lit up.
55:45And it just illustrates even more clearly the unbelievable conditions that people were living in.
55:51We're going into the men's room.
55:53Oh, my God!
55:55Oh, guys, just get this room. Oh, my God!
56:00This is the most disgusting...
56:01Oh, I can't stay in here, guys. I cannot stay in here.
56:04This is the most revolting smell I've ever taken in my life.
56:10I finally went out onto the field itself.
56:13Water squishing underneath my feet.
56:15It was a surreal sight.
56:16There's probably an inch, two inches of water pretty evenly spread throughout this field.
56:25Unbelievable.
56:27Piles of garbage.
56:30Water bottles, garbage.
56:35Blankets.
56:37Open food packages.
56:41I don't think anyone ever imagined something like this could happen.
56:46We're at the 20-yard line in the Superdome.
56:49The 20-yard line in the Superdome.
56:56And look at it.
56:57The air is thick.
56:58The smell is nauseating.
57:02I spent only a fraction of the time thousands of terrified people spent in here.
57:07But I couldn't wait to escape the suffocating atmosphere of this nightmarish place.
57:12This is the Lafon Nursing Home, where 14 nursing home patients died.
57:20Another day, another nursing home nightmare in New Orleans.
57:23Let's see where the water line got to.
57:25It's only about, I'd say, two feet.
57:28You can tell by looking at the markings here that no body was found inside of here.
57:32This is the name of the search team, CA-8.
57:35It was searched on September 9th.
57:37They found zero bodies in this room.
57:40Here we are.
57:40This is the nursing station.
57:44A handwritten morgue sign, mud-stained pews in the chapel, beds and wheelchairs everywhere.
57:49There are reports that the patients who were left behind were brought upstairs,
57:52so I'm just going to hazard a guess that we will see some numbers indicating a body count upstairs.
57:58They found a body in here, you can tell.
58:03Number one.
58:11So, presumably, somebody died in this room.
58:16Oh, the smell in here is just brutal.
58:20It might be rotten food.
58:21I'm not sure.
58:23Oh, boy.
58:24I'm not even going to walk very far in here.
58:26They found two dead.
58:27Clearly, they found them right here in the hallway.
58:30Take a look at this.
58:30It's a pantry over here, and there's actually food inside.
58:33There's some evaporated milk.
58:35I see some sugar over here.
58:38Some canned food.
58:39But I'm going to tell you right now, I don't think this was a matter of people not having enough to survive.
58:43We're talking about elderly people who were infirmed, who apparently could not fend for themselves.
58:51Even with the provisions that were left here, you have to remember also that there was no power here.
58:56It was completely dark.
58:57These heartbreaking images come to you a day after we took an exclusive tour of the St. Rita's nursing home, where 34 people died.
59:04Wow.
59:05This will give you an indication right here of just how high the water was.
59:09I'm 5'11".
59:10There's the water line right there.
59:11We're talking about 6'5", 6'5", 6'5", 6'5", 6'5", worth of water in here.
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