By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Nearly a decade has passed since Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans and huge swaths of the Gulf shore. More than 1,800 people died. For days, tens of thousands of people were left to their own devices. More than a million people were displaced, many to Atlanta.
Several TV networks, including Atlanta-based CNN and the Weather Company, are airing specials in the coming week about the disaster’s impact.
The Weather Company is covering the anniversary especially heavily both on its TV network and online.
Nora Zimmett, senior vice president of live programming for The Weather Channel, said in an interview Tuesday that the network is deliberately avoiding the type of coverage she expects from the cable news networks.
“We are getting back to our scientific roots,” she said. “The stories we tell are rooted in science and meteorology.”
The network’s primary special airing Thursday at 7 p.m. called “Katrina 2065” uses projections and presumptions to anticipate what would happen if a similar storm happened in 50 years when ocean waters will be higher.
“I think the story will shock a lot of people,” Zimmett said. “The Gulf coast is sinking. The infrastructure to protect the coast is only as good as the maintenance and for a certain level strength of hurricane. We have historians, authors and scientists who say that there is no wall man can build that would protect against every storm.”
Online, weather.com will feature replays of original Weather Channel coverage in almost real time starting Tuesday, photographs from 2005 and today, the health effects Katrina had on residents and a look at the quality of the rebuilt levees in New Orleans.
Here’s a sampling of special programming:
- Fox News "FOX News Reporting: Timeline of Hurricane Katrina – 10th Anniversary" Featuring first-hand accounts and interviews, the special will examine the timeline of events of Katrina. Friday, August 21, 10 p.m.
- ABC "Katrina: 10 Years After the Storm." Robin Roberts hosts. Drew Brees and Harry Connick Jr. are set to appear. Sunday, August 23, 9 p.m.
- Al Jazeera "Only New Orleans." Filmmaker Vassili Silovic explores the role of music in New Orleans and how the city used its roots in jazz, R&B, rock 'n' roll, soul, funk, reggae and hip-hop to re-build spirits after Katrina. Sunday, August 23, 10 p.m.
- CNN "Katrina: The Storm That Never Stopped" Anderson Cooper travels back to the region and reconnects with the people he reported on in the storm's aftermath for several weeks in 2005. Tuesday, August 24, 9 p.m.
- BET "Katrina 10 Years Later: Through Hell in High Water." BET correspondent Jeff Johnson hosts stories about survivors and their efforts to rebuild their lives and communities. Wednesday, August 26, 8 p.m.
- Weather "Katrina 2065." Hosted by Sam Champion and Jim Cantore, meteorologists use cutting-edge weather animation to ask the question: could we endure this again? Thursday, August 27, 8 p.m.
- Weather "Katrina 10 Years Later." Al Roker and Stephanie Abrams will report live from New Orleans, followed by hurricane expert Michael Lowry and Cantore in Gulfport, Miss. Friday, August 28, 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.
- WXIA-TV (11 Alive) "Katrina special" 11Alive will set aside 30 minutes at 5:30 p.m. to Katrina-related stories led by Jeremy Campbell focused on folks who fled New Orleans for Atlanta and stayed. Here's Campbell's explanation:
I made a film about Katrina, which eventually was repurposed in to news reports... and a few months later it happened: my dream was realized as a reporter covering the recovery effort along the Louisiana coast.
Here we are ten years later… and I'm pouring my heart in to these Katrina stories.
