Hurricane Katrina Survival Stories

Sept. 17, 2007 - CLIMATE: Katrina Victims Appeal Case Against Energy Companies - Gulf Coast victims of Hurricane Katrina asked a federal appeals court today to reinstate their class-action lawsuit that seeks damages from major U.S. energy companies for the role their heat-trapping emissions played in fueling the 2005 storm...
Feb. 27, 2007 - The Right to Return to New Orleans Eighteen Months After Katrina - "Half of the homes in New Orleans still do not have electricity," writes Bill Quigley. Continuing: "Louisiana received $10 billion to fix up housing. Over 109,000 homeowners applied for federal funds to fix up their homes. Eighteen months later, fewer than 700 families have received this federal assistance....
Feb. 15, 2007 - Dying for a Home: Toxic Trailers Are Making Katrina Refugees Sick - Along the Gulf Coast, in the towns and fishing villages from New Orleans to Mobile, survivors of Hurricane Katrina are suffering from a constellation of similar health problems. They wake up wheezing, coughing and gasping for breath. Their eyes burn; their heads ache; they feel tired, lethargic. Nosebleeds are common, as are sinus infections and asthma attacks. Children and seniors are most severely afflicted, but no one is immune

Sept. 5, 2005 - A Medieval Nightmare in the Superdome - Gabrielle Benson, 40, has to think for a second. It is five, she says, the number of her family who are unaccounted for. "I don't know where my mum and dad are and I have three kids of mine who are missing." Two other children are with her. Ms Benson is calm about the missing kids. They survived the storm and were with her in the New Orleans Superdome all last week. They got lost in the pandemonium of boarding the buses.

Sept. 4, 2005 - They're Not Giving Us What We Need to Survive - Jamie Doward reports on the fury of New Orleans residents who say they were ignored and mistreated by the authorities.

Police Blocked Bridge & Forced Evacuees Back at Gunpoint - A Louisiana police chief has admitted that he ordered his officers to block a bridge over the Mississippi river and force escaping evacuees back into the chaos and danger of New Orleans. Witnesses said the officers fired their guns above the heads of the terrified people to drive them back and "protect" their own suburbs.

12 Victim Voices of Katrina Speak Out Against Treason - This article was drafted by 12 Afro Americans trapped inside the New Orleans Superdome immediately after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Big Easy on August 29,2005. These 6 women and these 6 men have a common thread. They all had one member of their family lynched by the Ku Klux Clan after the Civil War. They all had one member of their family shot by NOPD. And finally they all presently have one member of their family serving in the Halliburton Iraq oil war.

Get Off the Freeway! Sinking State Loots its Own Survivors - This first-hand account gives you an intimate look at the complete failure of the system to provide for the victims of hurricane Katrina. Racism, ignorance, disinformation, and hostility faces them everywhere as they attempt to evacuate the city. At one point the local sheriff’s department steals their rations at gun-point.

Blocking the Gretna Bridge, Racism & Resource Scarcity May Be Siamese Twins in a Post-Petroleum World - In the aftermath of the storm we are seeing many ominous warnings of choices that will come to us all sooner or later as hydrocarbon energy reserves diminish in America and around the globe. None are easy. None are palatable. And none are politically correct. But hard science doesn’t care about being politically correct.

The Criminalization of New Orleans Residents - Denise said she thought she was in hell. They were there for 2 days, with no water, no food. no shelter. Denise, her mother (63 years old), her niece (21 years old), and 2-year-old grandniece. When they arrived, there were already thousands of people there. They were told that buses were coming. Police drove by, windows rolled up, thumbs up signs. National Guard trucks rolled by, completely empty, soldiers with guns cocked and aimed at them.

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