Katrina: Five Years Later

I experienced Katrina most vividly through the stalwart reporting of Dan Verbeck, Entercom radio station KMBZ's fabulous street reporter who retired in 2008 (though not completely; he can now be heard on public radio station KCUR.) He was lent to WWL, Entercom's station in NOLA to do reporting and help man the critical radio station during the disaster. He would report in to KMBZ by phone as part of his days in NOLA, giving us in Kansas City a very inside view of what New Orleans was like in those days.

As you remember, Katrina hit New Orleans Monday, August 29th 2005 with its wind and rain, towards the evening hours. Mr. Verbeck reported on what the wind sounded like, and what it felt like as the hurricane passed by. As morning came the next day, Tuesday, Mr. Verbeck came on and was the first to report that the city was flooding from the broken levies. I still remember the tone of his voice as he reported the flooding, the water inundating everything in the lowest parts of New Orleans. He was the one that reinforced for me the fact that if the levies had held up, Katrina would be remembered for the way it devastated the Mississippi coast, rather than what happened in New Orleans. He reported on the initially only sparsely flooded streets in the immediate aftermath of the storm, and then, as official and unofficial reports of levy breaks and flooding waters came into the radio station, came on to let the world know that the bowl of NOLA would be filled with water.

Aaron Barnhart interviewed Mr. Verbeck shortly after the hurricane. Here's a link to his blog entry, which includes a link to the MP3 of the interview. It is "must listen" stuff, the stuff of history. As were the original reports--I do hope they have been preserved somewhere--I believe those reports were some of the best reporting I heard or saw from New Orleans in those difficult days.

Image: photo of Mr. Verbeck, from a google search.