Potrzebie
Monday, February 11, 2008
  .................Surge
After the Deluge

Here is a panel from Josh Neufeld's graphic novel about Hurricane Katrina, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge. To read the serialized chapters from the beginning, go here or here.

In October 2005, shortly after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Neufeld spent three weeks as a Red Cross volunteer in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi and later did a book, Katrina Came Calling, about his experiences. Smith magazine wanted to tell the story of Katrina from the POV of people who lived through it. After reading Neufeld's book, editor Larry Smith contacted Neufeld, and the two traveled to the Gulf Coast to do the audio/video interviews that became the research for the graphic novel. The characters are real people with dialogue taken from direct quotes. Many panels have links beneath to relevant sites.

The wall of water that destroyed Biloxi, leaving a devastated landscape resembling Hiroshima, did not wash away my memories of staying in the White House Hotel at 1230 Beach Boulevard where my family vacationed during the 1940s. Fans whirred in the heat, while footsteps echoed down the hall. In the gaming room near the lobby my brother struck it rich with a cascade of coins, as he recalled, "Slot machines were in a small room off the lobby. I put some nickels in and won. All these nickels came falling out. I filled up all my pockets in my short pants. I ran by the front desk and told the desk clerk, 'I hit the jackpot.' He or she said, 'You weren't supposed to play those.' I kept on going toward our room." 

Smells of oysters and the sea drifted through the open window in our first floor room overlooking the shade of the hotel's rocking-chair front porch, the towering white Corinthian columns, the manicured sunlit lawn, the shimmering ocean. I could cross Highway 90, run the length of the wooden pier and gaze over the Gulf of Mexico (which Tennessee Williams renamed the Gulf of Misunderstanding in Sweet Bird of Youth). On grey rainy days one could see far distant lightning over water. The history of the hotel is captured in the pre-Katrina website, White House on the Gulf. The site details the $23 million restoration that was underway when Katrina struck.


The Beau Rivage video (10:22): Storm surge engulfs Biloxi during Katrina as shot 30 August 2005 by an unknown person inside the Beau Rivage Casino parking area.


MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS.
KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICAZCZC MIATCPAT2 ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
BULLETIN
HURRICANE KATRINA ADVISORY NUMBER 24
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
4 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA HEADED FOR THE
NORTHERN GULF COAST...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF COAST
FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA
BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN.
PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS
EVENING.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING AND A HURRICANE WATCH ARE IN EFFECT FROM
EAST OF THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER TO DESTIN FLORIDA...AND FROM
WEST OF MORGAN CITY TO INTRACOASTAL CITY LOUISIANA.

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING IS ALSO IN EFFECT FROM DESTIN FLORIDA
EASTWARD TO INDIAN PASS FLORIDA...AND FROM INTRACOASTAL CITY
LOUISIANA WESTWARD TO CAMERON LOUISIANA.

FOR STORM INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR AREA...INCLUDING POSSIBLE
INLAND WATCHES AND WARNINGS...PLEASE MONITOR PRODUCTS ISSUED
BY YOUR LOCAL WEATHER OFFICE.

AT 4 PM CDT...2100Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE KATRINA WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 26.9 NORTH... LONGITUDE 89.0 WEST OR ABOUT 150 MILES
SOUTH OF THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

KATRINA IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTHWEST NEAR 13 MPH...AND A GRADUAL
TURN TO THE NORTH IS EXPECTED OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS. ON THIS
TRACK THE CENTER OF THE HURRICANE WILL BE NEAR THE NORTHERN GULF
COAST EARLY MONDAY. HOWEVER...CONDITIONS ARE ALREADY BEGINNING TO
DETERIORATE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF
COAST...AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORSEN THROUGH THE NIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 165 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS.
KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON
THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN STRENGTH ARE LIKELY
UNTIL LANDFALL. KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT CATEGORY
FOUR OR FIVE INTENSITY. WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF
HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR
GROUND LEVEL.

KATRINA IS A LARGE HURRICANE. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD
UP TO 105 MILES FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS
EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 230 MILES. SUSTAINED TROPICAL STORM FORCE
WINDS ARE OCCURRING OVER THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA COAST. SOUTHWEST
PASS...NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER...RECENTLY REPORTED
SUSTAINED WINDS OF 48 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 53 MPH.

A NOAA HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE REPORTED A MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE OF
902 MB...26.64 INCHES.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE
LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS
BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE
CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA
COULD BE OVERTOPPED. SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR
ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.

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Comments:
A.D. is an amazing work of comic art. Deeply felt and artfully done. A valuable project.

--Marty
 
So many details that I like rereading. Should be packaged with the Spike Lee documentary, When the Levees Broke.
 
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