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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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The Reunion

Factual: Life Stories

Series which reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history

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The Reunion: Hurricane Katrina

29/08/2010

Hurricane Katrina

BBC Radio 4 - The Reunion, Hurricane Katrina

Sue MacGregor reunites five survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Sue MacGregor travels to New Orleans to gather together five Hurricane Katrina survivors who weathered the storm - five years after the hurricane hit.

In this special edition of The Reunion, Sue MacGregor travels to New Orleans to gather together five Hurricane Katrina survivors who weathered the storm - five years after the hurricane hit.

One of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the USA, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on 29th August 2005. Rupturing the levees around the city, it submerged eighty percent of New Orleans in water.

Thousands of people had been unable to evacuate or had chosen not to leave their homes. Some of the streets sat in up to ten feet of stagnant water, driving residents into their attics, scrabbling for higher ground in a city which sits below sea level. 

Many took refuge inside the city's Superdome, but without adequate supplies or sanitation, conditions inside the overheated, overcrowded stadium became increasingly intolerable. Law and order across the city was breaking down, with stories of rapes, violence and widespread looting rapidly circulating.

Sue is joined around the table by: the leader of Joint Task Force Katrina, General Honore; the manager of the Superdome, Doug Thornton; photojournalist, Ted Jackson; Pastor Willie Walker and Phyllis Montana-LeBlanc. 

With additional contributions from the musician Dr John.


Producer: Ellie McDowall
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.

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