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Welcome, Welcome home, everybody.

It is a somber time as we remember twenty years ago the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which we all of course know, devastated New Orleans surrounding areas in Louisiana, and it casts a wide net of influence over what happened in other states, even from Mississippi to Texas, of course, so we want to honor that day today and get into a discussion about what that moment in time meant for us, how it shaped us, especially considering some of the devastating policies that are coming out of the Trump administration that will have a direct impact on FEMA.

So before Angela and I get into the conversation, I just want to give a few facts about what happened and what Katrina meant for us.

Angela and I know this is personal to you as well, because your family hills from Louisiana, so this is definitely deeply personal.

This is a reminder Hurricane Kadrina happened in twenty two thousand and five, believe it or not.

And it's amazing how fast time has flown by.

It devastated New Orleans.

It was just an awful thing that happened.

It was nearly a thousand people died.

Nine hundred and eighty six people died.

Not everybody drowned.

Only forty percent of those were Those deaths were due to drowning.

Some people died from just injury and trauma.

Some people died from heart conditions.

Nearly half the people who died were over the age of seventy four, So you think about our elders who were there.

The storm displaced more than a million people in the entire Gulf Coast region.

Many people returned home, but up to six hundred thousand households were still displaced a month later.

Some people never returned.

Evacue sheltered about two hundred and seventy three thousand people.

FEMA trailers housed about one hundred and fourteen thousand households.

And there's a reason I'm saying that, because I want people to understand the function of FEMA.

New Orleans population never really quite got back to where it was.

It was at four hundred and eighty four thousand people and then the year later they lost almost half their population.

They were around two hundred and thirty thousand people, and then ten years later they were at three hundred and eighty six thousand people, And that was eighty percent of what it was.

The housing damage in New Orleans alone, one hundred and thirty four thousand housing units were damaged.

Seventy percent of all occupied units suffered damage from Katrina.

It was around one hundred and fifty billion dollars in damages and the recovery of funding.

A lot of that came from the federal government.

So that just puts I think some important framing.

Angela.

I don't know if you know this.

I was actually on ground when Katrina happened.

I was wearing a different hat.

I was reporting between Houston and Louisiana.

So I was literally driving back and forth with a crew covering the displaced children because children had gotten separated from their parents, and so there were times I'd have to tell the crew, even though we were there as journalists to bear witness and report, It's like, yeah, but we have a car, and these kids are trying to get to their parents, so we're going to make room for these kids in our car and take them back.

And we're never supposed to be a part of the story, but that was a story that I ended up being a part of, and it was just devastating.

Where were you in two thousand and five.

Two thousand and five, I had just finished law school and I was moving to the nation's capital, or at least really silver Spring Tip, which you could relate to a little bit.

And what is I think, really really fastating about what happened with Katrina is I feel like there's always this silver lining with our folks, and so with Katrina, what we saw was like the resilience of the black community, especially in the Lower ninth Ward, which was super susceptible based on the levees breaking and a lot of maybe folks don't remember that, but when the levees broke is really where the floods hit and really put our folks in harm's way.

The second silver lining was.

A man or is a man by the name of Russell Honore is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Army and he was he was appointed to be the joint commander, I believe for the Katrina recovery efforts, and so he I remember seeing this man the Joint Task Force, Katrina Commander, I remember seeing this man with this thick New Orleans accent.

Like of course, before there is Chad with Boseman is black panther.

There was Russell Honore and one to see his compassion.

After we knew that George Bush just flew over the damage, surveilling the damage but not really touching the people.

Russell Honore did, well, Dad on the ground.

So the Dutch can go get another lower for sure.

You can make that happen.

I can make it happen to you.

One other thing, Tiff, And speaking of the children, I was dealing with children who are a little bit older.

I was just starting my job at NAFIO, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, And you talk about black people baptizing, you buy fire.

My first assignment was to get on the train to New York where we were having a press conference with folks like Kevin Powell and Jeff Johnson and Rakia La Mumba and several others.

Wesley, I can't think of his last name.

Don't mean I love you any less, Wesley, But on what recovery efforts would look like, particularly for the HBCU community, and so we were going through all of the damage at Dillard, at Suno, at Xavier, and how our schools.

Would be able to recover.

Of course, to your point, there was also damage a schools in other areas, not just in New Orleans, not just in Louisiana, and we knew that the federal government was going to wrestle with how it was going to help these schools recover.

So that was a part of my first assignment.

So I ended up having to touch it not only through the family Wave but also through my new job responding to the crisis that Katrina was.

So it is devastating.

I remember Kanye West going on air on that telethon and surprising hell out of the host and he was like, George Bush, don't care about black.

Actually, before you say that, let's actually because that's a moment Angela that really defined that time for a lot of us.

And of course you remember the telethon and this famous or infamous moment that had all of us standing still in front of our television.

Let's take a look the destruction of the spirit of the people of southern Louisiana, Mississippi made up being the most tragic loss of.

All doesn't care about black people.

That was old Kanye Wes we miss.

And I think too though, TI what I think we know to be true, especially given where we are now and even the episode we had UH this week George Bush was a fill in the blank for any number of presidents and any number of administrations, and it resonated so deeply because we've felt it since the beginning of time.

I think what is in question now is what has changed in the way that we would respond, the way the federal government would respond to a crisis, man made disaster or a natural disaster that hits black folks.

And I don't know that a lot has changed.

That's a question that I would have actually for Wressell Honore Well.

I think one thing we do know that has changed, and that is the way that the Trump administration has been gutting FEMA.

Just this week, twenty one FEMA employees have been put on administration or administrative leave for being whistleblowers.

Essentially, they penned an open letter criticizing the administration for gutting their budgets.

They called out HS Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome, who is an expert in puppy killing.

By the way, she wants approval over any expenditures of more than one hundred thousand dollars.

Now, we just talked to you about how much relief went to Katrina.

And my concern about this Angela is that they will start to use the budget of the federal government.

They will dangle these funds before people in exchange for their loyalty.

And if you happen to live in a district that didn't overwhelmingly vote for Donald Trump, or in a district of a member of Congress, he doesn't like or respect that he is willing to leave people hanging in the balance.

We all remember this hideous, infamous moment when Donald Trump was throwing paper towels at the people after a hurricane hit Puerto Rico.

So this is what we're facing right now.

And I think when you think about black and brown folks, folks and tribal territories, it's going to be really, really challenging.

So I'm this is yet another thing that I'm nervous about, and I think we all should be nervous about it.

And of course, our our good brother Van Newkirk, who covers climate change and is an editor at the Atlantic would definitely want us to say the change in climate invites more hurricanes and more natural disasters, more wildfires that we're saying, so it feels like we could be headed towards a very post apocalyptic society described by the amazing luminary Octavia Butler in some of her fiction writing, that seems to be coming true all around us.

What I will say about that moment in time twenty years ago, aside from how quickly time passes, is it put a spotlight on what black folks already knew, and that is our suffering is never taken as seriously as white folks suffering.

Another testimony out of that is our good sister Latasha Brown, who I just adore.

Nobody called Latasha and nobody said, hey, we need help.

Latasha just saw people suffering and sprang into action and was transporting water.

And she said that was one of the hardest lessons she learned.

Moving water is hard work.

She was just trying to get two people to offer them relief.

And so just a testament to the mothers of community.

You know, the people who respond and black men and black women who step up and when we need help, and our community is so important.

That is how we've always survived, and I hope we can maintain that.

Do you feel like we still have that sense of community right now because some of the younger people, I don't know, but you tell me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, I think, especially in crisis.

But I do worry because of the like the nature of social media, if people still feel the same type of human connection.

I think there's something in within us in crisis where we just know what to do, like we're not gonna walk by and watch somebody being harmed, regardless of you know, your age, especially if you was raised right, you know, you got some good sense about you.

I think.

You know one other thing that I think about New Orleans that is deeply spiritual and has become a second home for me.

It's actually where our friend Brittany got married.

It's Studio B.

Studio B that's run by our friend B Mike or Brendan Mike go.

And that was a place that also was born out of Katrina.

B.

Mike used to go and paint like on places there were dilapidated and you know there was just one wall standing left, but there were these inspirational posts.

And there's one thing in particular in Studio B that says we are still here.

And it's just a declaration.

That like, no matter what comes our way, like there is something in us that says we are going to remain in spite of everything.

And I think that even like the folks who were able to financially sacrifice even when it was difficult to get back to New Orleans, they banked on us not coming back.

They you know, were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to take over the ninth Ward.

And even though it has changed significantly, I don't have the exact stats on how much the Ninth Word has been gentrified, but what we know is that it does not look the same as it did pre Katrina.

And nonetheless, the black folks that moved moved to Houston, a good number then moved back to New Orleans to say we're still here.

Yeah.

You know, another thing I discovered at that time when I was on ground covering is the huge Vietnamese community which live in the ninth Ward and surrounding areas, and how they relied on their community and they were able to build back.

I was able to go for a part of the five year anniversary after Katrina.

I was with Busy News at the time and took a crew down there and was able to see there were people still living in some of the trailers.

But I was able to talk to some of the Vietnamese community there about how they built back and how they had to habitate in these multi generational homes and what they did so look New Orleans means so much to Black people outside of the connection to Haiti and just the rich culture there.

It's I am glad to see it function today, but I continue to worry because it is like a bowl, you know, it is shaped like a bowl, and should the levies break again, should another natural disaster there happen under this administration, I don't think we're ready to meet the moment.

But I am just grateful that people, the people who were able to return, returned, and that people were so unwilling to just seize their homes and their neighborhoods.

So the people who stayed, we're with you and thinking of you today.

And the people who didn't survive, we honor what you went through while people sat around and watched and did nothing.

And that's the thing we don't have to surrender to that.

What we know is in our power now is to have demands.

Even when you raised earlier tiff about how this government now sees to dismantle FEMA.

I mean, we had conversations at the Sea ABC Institute's policy conference just a couple of weeks ago about what is happening with FEMA and how dangerous that is to Black America.

So we have to think about how we will respond to crisis if they're not there.

And there's an incredible woman, we should have her on the pod actually at some point.

Her name is Valencia Gunder out of Miami, Judath Brown.

Diana's actually connected us and she is doing incredible work to get people.

The same folks who canvas and knockdoors during campaigns, she trains them to be first responders in disaster.

And that's the kind of networking we need to be building in this moment where we don't know how much the government will be willing to respond what happens if we are trained, you know, get paramedic training and all the other things, so we can actually respond in crisis.

We can knock on a door, we can actually help to save a life.

So shout out to Valencia also, and just.

Shout out to us building infrastructure.

You know, it's proven that we cannot rely on this administration, this government, So how do we That's something for us.

We don't have the answer, but that's something for us to think about.

How do we build infrastructure and safety, like in addition to buying generators, Like what is your backup plan if you can't if your cell phones go down?

How are you you know, do you have an emergency meeting spot?

How are you gonna transport yourself if there are the gas stations are crowded, you need to get out of town.

All those kind of things are things that we should definitely start thinking about.

So I don't know, guys, it's uh.

I wish that we could say that was a horrible time and thank goodness that's in our past.

But I anticipate that more challenging times lie ahead.

So this is definitely something for us all to consider.

And if you haven't, I encourage you to go back and watch.

We did an episode with a black survivalist I think she called herself afro Vivalists.

To go back and listen to that episode of Native lamdpod because she gave some really great information about things we can do to prepare for the fall of society.

She told come, yes, yeah, Well one of her rules is you have to have the school supply to live on the land that she that she has prepared for herself, and you have to have two years fool supplies for you and everybody who's with you.

So this is a real ship happening, and we need to start thinking about these things and taking them seriously.

So just something to think about.

But shout out to New Orleans and thank you to the ancestors for gifting us Angela who hails from whose family hails from the area.

And that's another thing I didn't know, Angela the pathways because we're so used to that Chicago Mississippi Corridor and the northeast.

So the Louisiana Pathway to the Pacific Northwest is something that I was not overly familiar with.

Just somewhere black folks fled.

Yeah, California and Oregon and Washington State.

Sure, yeah, so what a rich history.

Well, we wanted to be sure to honor this day.

We thank you guys for joining us in transparency.

We were going to be joined by General Russell Honore who was spread a bit thin, so unfortunately we did not get to have him, but we look forward to having him on a future episode of Native Lamppod.

Sadly, there will be many opportunities for us to chat with him, especially as we look to how to prepare ourselves for these type of emergency disasters.

And Andrew had another appointment that he had to get to one of his kids, so that's why he's not joining us.

But we thank you guys for listening to Angela and I and again, please, if you like what you hear, like, subscribe, share, tell a friend, and be sure to listen to our main episode, which also dropped this week.

And you are more than welcome to go back and listen to old episodes.

We do a lot of evergreen content that is still very relevant today, so take a look, poke around our YouTube page, poke around some older episodes, and take a listen and let us know what you think.

We also encourage you to continue to send to us in your videos, questions, comments, even when you disagree, We love to hear from you.

We say welcome home for a reason because those yes when they disagree, Yeah yeah, I like it because it represents another perspective, you know, and I don't think any of us are not humble enough or we can't hear something and you know, share, just share the space with you.

Even if we're saying, well you misheard or let me fact check, we still appreciate that you took the time to weigh in.

So all all folks are welcome home.

Yes, and whatever questions and comments that you have, So thanks for sending in those videos.

Well that wraps it up.

I think thanks for tuning in shared the episode.

I am Tiffany Cross here with Angela Rai and keep in mind what's happening today with FEMA as you reflect on what happened twenty years ago.

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