<VOICEMAIL REMINDER>

Max Jungreis: Hey, folks—This is Max Jungreis, from the StoryCorps Podcast. 

Just wanna remind you that you can tell us your personal stories by calling our voicemail at 702 – 706 – TALK. This week, Tell us about a time someone did something COMPLETELY selfless for you. That’s 702 – 706- T-A-L-K. 

———-

MONTAGE

Hattie Craft: It’s hard to believe that one day can change everything for you. I had my life all planned out, but Katrina came and changed everything.

Jasmyn Morris: 20 years ago this week… Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. 

 

Dee Dickson: It was just amazing the power of that storm. My front door just burst open <MUSIC POST> and the water came in, and immediately went from 2 inches to about 3 feet. 

Gwendolyn Smith: I was praying during Hurricane Katrina, more than a Catholic priest, more than any priest.

Toni Williams:  I don’t think anybody in their wildest dreams were prepared for what really happened.

JM: In the very first months… sometimes just weeks after the storm… survivors from all over the Gulf Coast recorded in our StoryCorps Mobile booths… miles from where their homes used to be… in the many different cities where they had fled.

Alvin McFadden: This storm, it separated people. It brought people together. It took people’s lives, all of that in a few minutes.

JM:  For this episode… drawing from our archive… the largest collection of human voices ever recorded… we’re bringing you witnesses to one of the worst natural disasters in US history… 

Alvin McFadden: I’ve never told my story to nobody. I kept all of this to myself, up until now.

JM: I’m Jasmyn Morris. It’s the StoryCorps Podcast from NPR. 

<MUSIC OUT>

 

Alice Jackson: We began to hear the winds, and they came suddenly. It was just a gust that didn’t stop. 

Tara Jackson: We were looking out the window in total amazement because you don’t ever see the wind. You can feel it. You can hear it, but to actually see it was mind boggling. 

Alice Jackson: I remember thinking, the wind howls as though it is the voices of the ghosts of all the people you have ever known. 

Heather Wright: You can see the trees bending over, touching the ground, walls are shaking. It sounds like you’re standing right next to a train.

Alice Jackson: I got up and I walked into where my sister-in-law and my niece were sleeping, and I said, “Kathy, I want to ask you now to forgive me. I think I’ve made what could be a fatal mistake, staying during the storm.”

Nancy Norris: I watched a massive oak tree get pulled up by the roots right in front of me. I’ll never forget this for as long as I live, the thunder of the sound and the vibration when it hit the ground. I just stood there with my mouth open witnessing power beyond what anybody can even imagine.

Hattie Craft: All of a sudden I heard a boom. And then the water started rolling in. We were looking from the second floor. We just stood there, and watched every car go underwater, within just a couple of minutes.

Joe Navis: We hear the door blow open like a cannon shot. The water was up to my waist instantly. I mean, it was coming in like that scene in The Shining. You know, by now we’re swimming, and I said, “Dad, we’re gonna die in here.” And for the first time in my 47 years, I heard fear in my dad’s voice.

Heather Wright: There’s no way anybody could have saved us at that point. So I put a life jacket on my five-year-old. And we play games, just trying not to show any fear for the kid’s sake. 

Margaret Trotter: A lot of people took their refrigerators out, took the door off the refrigerator, took everything out, put the kids in, and let them float to safety. They floated on coolers, they floated on milk cartons, whatever they could find, that’s what they floated out on.

Hattie Craft: The water came so fast and so forceful, it was like we were on an ocean. They had waves in the water. I just felt like it wasn’t real, like it was a dream, a nightmare that we were going through.

Heather Wright: We heard screaming, and there was a lady climbing out of her window with two children. We couldn’t get to ’em, and they just disappeared in the water.

Robert Lynn Green: The water was so high, we put everybody on the roof of the house.  My biggest thing was, what the hell am I gonna do?, because we had my three granddaughters, my mother who had Parkinson’s, and my cousin who is mentally challenged. Our house began to float, and, immediately, the current grabbed us, and we were floating up the street, passing our neighbors houses one by one.

Nauriene Craft Parker: People were on the rooftops begging for help, but it was nothing you could do. 

<MUSIC BREAK>

Dee Dickson: I stepped out into the water with my backpack and my dog, and I went down, and I kept getting knocked down. And my heart was racing. And when I looked up, my neighbor Harold was standing by the fence. 

At that point, my glasses were gone off my face. I had gone completely underwater. I’ve never been so scared in my life. And Harold waded out into it, and grabbed my backpack, and he put me on the fence. 

Harold, who was 70 years old at the time. I don’t know how he did it, but if he had not been there, I wouldn’t be here. It’s amazing the generosity of people when you get in a tight situation. 

Hattie Craft: The neighbors started screaming, and there was a baby only three days old. My brother put a ladder from his house to the neighbor’s, and got that whole family out. And because of my brother, those lives were saved.

Henry Rhodies: It was pitch black, I couldn’t see anything. And then I saw a flashlight. And, uh, a guy in a canoe that I’ve never seen before, he was coming my way. So he saved me, took me to his house and he, he saved about two, maybe three other families. I said, What? I thought he was an angel in disguise.

Margaret Trotter: The fireman, he happened to see my grandson, and he said the child was really dying. And he bent down on one of his knees, and gave him breath, and brought him back to life. I thank God for that firefighter. His name is Douglas, and I’m so grateful now. If any way possible you hear this, Douglas, we love you, and we’d like to thank you for giving us our grandson back. 

Tara Jackson: My main concern was the elderly people that lived in the neighborhood. You know, you wasn’t thinking about you. You were thinking about, okay, I gotta get Ms. Rose. You know, Ms. Rose weighs 400 pounds, and she’s in a wheelchair. 

So my brother and some of the young guys carried her, in waist high water, to get her to safety. They didn’t have to do that, but they did it out of, I’m a human being, this is what we have to do.

[MUSIC/POST]

Robert Lynn Green: The current was so strong, we were barely holding on. And when I turned my back, Shenaye fell into the water. My granddaughter who was 3 years old at the time, Shenaye, was gone. I turned around and started yelling, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,” but I had to grab my composure because I had two other children to worry about.

Now comes my mother’s turn. She has Parkinson’s. She has all kinds of medical problems. So when she starts to move, she starts shaking. She stumbled forward and fell in the water. The current pulled her under one time, and she came up. The current pulled her under a second time, and my mother was gone. 

After the hurricane, it took us 120 days to find my mother’s body. 

I have a headstone which commemorates the birth of Shenaye and her date of death: August the 29th, 2005. And I also have my mother’s name on that headstone. 

Before Hurricane Katrina, you know everybody was just one big happy family, so we have a wealth of memories to live with. And I cry, but they’re in our hearts.

<MUSIC>

 

JM: After a short break… the storm clears… but what comes next?

Mary Brown: I just feel totally displaced. I’m not sure if I’m going left, going right. I’m up, I’m down, and I don’t know what tomorrow’s gonna bring. I don’t have any answers, all I have are questions in my head. 

JM: Stay with us…

 

<MUSIC OUT>

 

<MIDROLL> Subaru

 

<MUSIC STING>

 

Welcome back… we’re hearing voices recorded in the weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. 

Joshua Moye: I was with my grandparents after the storm. We walked a couple of miles in the heat. We reached the bridge. And it was a bunch of people just out there. And that night it was pitch black. No lights in the city whatsoever. 

<MUSIC IN>

We slept under the bridge. Even though it’s a negative situation, me and my grandparents was looking up at the sky, and seeing thousands of stars. We have never seen so many stars in our life. It was beautiful. 

Alvin McFadden: We spent a couple of days on the roof. We had four children with us. Every time we would hear a helicopter, we would wave t-shirts, uh, makeshift flags that we made. And finally, one of those helicopters came, and it was my first helicopter ride.  

<MUSIC OUT>

Joan Pylate: My stepson came to the house looking for his daddy, my husband. The rescue people were coming out with four body bags, and he asked them, ‘Where did you get those people?’ And they pointed towards our house. He was so upset thinking that one of those was his father. 

But the very next day, we had to go to the store. And as we walked in the door, here comes father going one way, son coming the other, and they ran smack into each other. 

To say it was emotional is an understatement. Everybody that was around there–some of them knew them, some of them didn’t–but everyone stopped, and they were applauding. And some were laughing, some were crying, but it was a very joyous time.

Nancy Norris: I couldn’t contact the man I’m gonna marry for ten days after Katrina. I didn’t know where he was. I didn’t know if he survived. 

 

And then, ten days had passed. I was finally able to get to my house. And he came walking up that walkway, and I just realized that I couldn’t live another day without him And–oh my goodness–we held on to each other like there was just no tomorrow.

<MUSIC>

Joan Pylate: The acts of kindness by total strangers was the most heartwarming. Complete strangers came up and gave us a glass of water when we were very thirsty. One lady came up, and asked if she could wash the mud off my legs, because I looked so pitiful. That was the first time I was able to cry, because it was so humbling, and I was so grateful.

Crystal Smith: Everybody was trying to help each other. 

Gwendolyn Smith: To get outta here. 

Crystal Smith: To get outta here. 

Gwendolyn Smith: Mm-hmm. 

Crystal Smith: And they shared whatever they had. They looked out for each other.

Darlene Kattan: That kindness goes so far. It’s when you get home at night and you lay your head on your pillow, and you’re so overwhelmed. You remember that somebody said something kind to you today, and that love and kindness were just immeasurable at that time.

 

Joan Pylate: Our friend Kitty Dunaway was spending the night with us in the storm. 

James ”Yo” Pylate: Miss Kitty is a lady of the South.

Joan Pylate: Sits up straight, no elbows on the table. She doesn’t say heck or darn. She’s just the epitome of a Southern belle. 

After the storm, she couldn’t walk, and there was nothing she could be carried in other than our Weber grill. And when they picked her up, and plopped her in that barbecue grill, and wheeled her down the street; she flipped her hair, threw her hand up and said, “Well, there goes the rest of my dignity.”  And the men all started to laugh so hard they almost dropped her. But it was, it was good, we needed to laugh a little bit.  

<MUSIC>

Margaret Trotter: What was your hardest day?

Tymica Trotter Hurst: My hardest day. 

Margaret Trotter: Yes.

Tymica Trotter Hurst: Mmmm… I had many of them. I couldn’t even say which one it was. 

My son made a poem after Katrina, and his poem says: Katrina is like a bad taste in your mouth you can’t get rid of. Some people lost their lives. Some people lost their souls, and I know I am one who has lost my soul.

And that’s a poem he wrote all on his own. He’s only seven years old.

 

Iriel Franklin: What was your hardest day after the hurricane?

 

Antoinette Franklin: When we went to Darrow, Louisiana, and my mother and my Aunt Maybelle broke down. They’re the matriarchs. They’re the strong women of the family. They’re the ones that everybody depended on. And when they realized that everything that they had worked for all their lives was taken away from them, that was very very painful. 

 

You know I, I’d love to have a nervous breakdown myself, but everybody else has taken their turn before me. 

 

Iriel Franklin: (Laughs)

 

Antoinette Franklin: So I won’t be able to for quite a while. 

 

Iriel Franklin: (Laughs)

 

Antoinette Franklin: Um, but I want to know from you. How about your hardest day?

 

Iriel Franklin: My hardest day was not knowing where you guys were, or where my father was, because not being able to know where your loved ones is…are…

 

Antoinette Franklin: Ok. It’s alright. It’s painful.

 

Iriel Franklin: Yeah. 

 

 <MUSIC POST>

Adam Graff:  I was a member of the NOPD Crisis Unit, staffed strictly by volunteers.

Several months after Katrina, we picked up this lady and she was wringing her hands, and pushing her hands out to the sides. And I asked her, I said, “Honey, what are you doing?” She says, “I’m keeping the water away. Oh my God, the water’s coming up.” So I went and sat next to her and I held her hand and put my arm around her. I said, “As long as I’m here, there’s no water.” 

 <MUSIC OUT>

Mary Brown: The water, all that water. I don’t even think I’ll ever swim again. It’s a tragedy that will last within my soul, I can tell you for a fact, for as long as I live. The scenes, the sites, the people, the people that I know I’ll never see again. You put it on a shelf, but it’ll never go away.

Joe Navis: I’m plagued by bad dreams and memories that seem to bleed into my waking life. You know, if something bad happens to you, in life you have your community to go back to. But when something like this happens and your community is spread to the four corners of the country, it’s a whole new start. And, uh, it’s, it’s one that I’m not sure if I am ready to make.

 <MUSIC>

Amanda Cho: I couldn’t believe how New Orleans was deserted, and there was this really eerie silence. Something about the houses, that they were hollow, and it’s like the wind just blew right through them.

Darlene Kattan: I spent a lot of time out where the levee broke. Not only did they get water, but all the mud came down like a landslide through the back walls of all those houses. 

Amanda Cho: There was one house, it was just a jagged brick outline, like a dollhouse. You could see right into it. You could see where a picture was hanging on a wall. You could see where they kept the dishes. It was just like nature had exposed more than anyone wanted to see of everyone’s personal lives.

Darlene Kattan: You could see photographs in the mud. You could see children’s toys. You could see opera records or math books. So you could figure out this was a family with three children. This man was a mathematician. And I felt this compulsion, I needed to be on this sacred ground.  

Amanda Cho: I didn’t get emotional until we were driving away. There was this one house, if you could even call it a house, it was barely standing, but on the side they had sprayed on a whole wall in bold capital letters: ‘WE’RE COMING BACK.’ And that’s when I cried.

<MUSIC OUT>

Iriel Franklin: What are your hopes for the future?

Antoinette Franklin: I’m hoping that, um, we’ll be able to go home, because I, really, miss so much about New Orleans. 

 

<MUSIC>

 

Antoinette Franklin: I miss my daddy’s pink and yellow roses, playing tambourine at St. Monica’s Holy Hill Gospel Choir, snowball stands.

 

Iriel Franklin: Yes.

Antoinette Franklin: Mango sorbet at the Jazz Fest.

 

Iriel Franklin: Oh yeah.

Antoinette Franklin: The Mardi Gras. Oh, I miss Mardi Gras. And the house my daddy built with his heart and hands.

 

Mike Molina: I miss the sound of our voices, the way we talk with each other in the streets in the city, deep conversations in five minutes. I miss the way the houses look. I miss the way the humidity feels. You know, it feels like you’re walking in soup. I miss the music, you know, the energy of it really just fills me. So I miss everything about it.

<MUSIC OUT> 

 

Althea Winesbury: Basically people say, “Y’all gonna go back? And I go, “Well yeah, we wanna go back.”

Ida Moore: Yes, we wanna go back.

Althea Winesbury: We do wanna go back. Oh yes, 

Ida Moore: We wanna go back bad. 

Althea Winesbury: That’s home, that’s our comfort zone. And they say, “What do you do if the storm comes again?” Run, just like we did the first time. We don’t like it.

Ida Moore: But we have to accept it. 

Althea Winesbury: We’re not happy about it, but you do what you gotta do. It’s, uh, home.

Lionel Batiste & Charles Joseph: (SINGS) When my dreamboat come home. When my dream come home

Nancy Norris: I’m very, very grateful that my mom was not alive to see this. This was her home. 

Lionel Batiste & Charles Joseph: We will roam. I will meet her and greet her. 

Nancy Norris: And this has been my home and in my heart for a long, long time. 

 Lionel Batiste: Hold her closely in my own. Oh the mighty water. 

Nancy Norris: But there’s one thing that’s constant and that’s change. 

Lionel Batiste & Charles Joseph: We’ll sing, all our tender love it will bring. 

Nancy Norris: I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know we will grow and we will come back.

Lionel Batiste & Charles Joseph: We’ll be sweethearts, oh baby forever. When my dreamboat comes home.

Charles Joseph: All right, that’s enough of that. 

Kelley Edmiston: Bravo.

Charles Joseph: Yeah. 

Lionel Batiste: Yeah.

Charles Joseph: We got a dream boat on that Katrina water down there. 

Kelley Edmiston: So you guys, you will come home to New Orleans, right?

Charles Joseph: Oh, yes. Yeah. We gonna redo that thing. They, they can’t stop that.

<MUSIC>

 

That’s all for this episode of the StoryCorps Podcast. 

 

The voices you heard in this episode were: Hattie Craft and Nauriene Craft Parker, Dee Dickson, Gwendolyn and Crystal Smith, Alvin McFadden, Alice Jackson, Heather Wright, Tonie Williams and Henry Rhodies, Tara Jackson, Nancy Norris, Joe Navis, James and Joan Pylate, Joshua Moye, Robert Lynn Green, Adam Graff, Margaret Trotter and Tymica Trotter Hurst, Mary Brown, Darlene Kattán, Amanda Cho, Iriel and Antoinette Franklin, Mike Molina, Althea Winesberry and Ida Moore, Kelley Edmiston, Charles Joseph, and “Uncle Lionel” Batiste.

<MUSIC>

 

As always… when it comes to YOUR voices…we love to hear from you. This week: Tell us about a time someone did something completely selfless for you. Leave us your answer in a voicemail at 702-706-TALK. That’s 702-706 T-A-L-K. 

 

This episode was produced by our Senior Producer Jud Esty-Kendall, with Producers Max Jungreis and Jo Corona. The stories were edited by Michael Garofalo and Amy Drozdowska. Special thanks to Von Diaz… and our many facilitators… without whom this work would not be possible.

 

Our Technical Director is Jarrett Floyd. Our Fact Checker is Simi Kadirgamar. The artwork for our podcast is created by Liz McCarty. 

 

I’m Jasmyn Morris. Thanks for listening…

 

<MUSIC OUT>