Witneeses Heard Levee Explosion

"We thought we’d be fine this time"
Gary Mason, Globe & Mail, Sep 5, 2005

HOUSTON - Keith Anderson is different than most of the victims of hurricane Katrina now spending their nights in a cramped Astrodome, convention hall or some church or homeless shelter here. When asked if his government failed him and his fellow residents of New Orleans, whether more could have been done to get people out before panic set in, he doesn’t give you the answer you expect. "I had lots of time to get out," he says quietly. "So did most of my neighbours. But we were too smart. We were going to ride it out because we’d all seen these storm threats before and we were always fine when they were over. We thought we’d be fine this time. This time we were wrong. And this time many of us have only ourselves to blame."

There are more than 15,000 hurricane survivors crammed into the Astrodome, another 10,000 in buildings nearby, an estimated 150,000 in total in different shelters, hotels, and vacant apartment buildings throughout the greater Houston area. It’s a number some officials estimate could reach a quarter million within a week. Most have nothing now. Most are missing loved ones from whom they became separated in the immediate hours and days after Katrina’s arrival on the shore of the Gulf Coast last Monday. But everyone, everyone, has their own remarkable story to tell.

Mr. Anderson had seen lots of storms come and go in his 41 years living in the Big Easy. Katrina was bad, but not the worst he’d seen. It didn’t knock a window out of his house. After it fled Louisiana for Mississippi, Mr. Anderson and his neighbours went out on their lawns to compare notes.

"Then we heard a loud boom," says Mr. Anderson, a juvenile detention officer. "We thought it was a generator at first but then we later learned that it was the levee. That someone was trying to put a hole in it to relieve some of the water pressure or divert some water or something and that hole led to a much bigger one. "Someone was trying to do the right thing, I think, and it created a much bigger problem. It’s going to all come out, what happened. I don’t think you can blame this on racism."

Mr. Anderson says the decision he and most of his neighbours made to ride out the storm would have been fine had the levee not given way and their homes been flooded. But when the waters didn’t stop rising, that’s when panic set in and his neighbours, normally law-abiding folk, realized it might be weeks before they’d have access to food and water again. "So a small group broke into the local grocery store and began looting." Mr. Anderson says. "They looked at me and said: ’Keith, you’d better get stuff while you can.’ And I’m like, ’I’ve got a little more dignity than that.’ But as I watched more and more of my neighbours head into the store I thought., ’Maybe a few bags of chips wouldn’t be so bad.’" And so he joined the looters. "I felt horrible because I know the guy who owns the store, he’s a friend, but what are you going to do? About 500 of us just destroyed that place. It was terrible. But I’ll tell you something else right now, too. There were a lot of people who stayed behind in our neighbourhood when others were leaving because they knew it would be ripe for looting. That was their mindset. I know this, and it hurts me to say it, but I know it’s true."

Mr. Anderson and most of his neighbours were eventually rescued and taken to a transition area near a highway on the outskirts of the city. For the first few hours the mood was quite playful. People were just happy to be alive. But when no buses showed up after 12 hours, tensions rose and the mood became quite different. "It got quite ugly," he remembers. "There were diabetics who were passing out and that started a panic. There were poeple going to the washroom all over the place, throwing up, and it stunk. There were people who’d brought weapons from their homes and so it had the potential to get deadly. There were helicopters hovering above 24 hours a day, it was like Iraq. It was impossible to sleep.

"Remember, there’s about 20,000 of us beside this road. Finally, the buses arrived about 30 to 40 hours later. You know all that women and children first stuff? There was none of that, I can tell you. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. You had guys grabbing little babies figuring that was their ticket on to the bus. It was awful. I even thought of it myself, it was that bad. But I didn’t. I waited for about 150 buses to come and go before I said, ’That’s it.’ And I ended up butting in line. Because of the panic, families were split up, some getting on buses heading to one evacuation centre in one city, others getting on a bus taking them to a centre somewhere else. No one had a clue where they were going. Most didn’t care. They just knew it was apt to be better than what they were leaving behind.

Since arriving at the Astrodome Thursday night, Mr. Anderson has spent his time listening to other people’s stories. And hearing others get the saddest of news. "I was talking to one guy and we was laughing about something and then a relative of his came up he hadn’t seen since the storm and said, ’Sorry to hear about your mom.’ And the guy says, ’What do you mean"’ And the guy says, ’Man, your momma drowned.’ And the guy’s face just crumpled." Like everyone in the Astrodome, Mr. Anderson now must think about putting his life back together. He doesn’t know how long he’ll be here—some people have been told it could be three months before authorities find another place for them to go. No one knows for sure. Mr. Anderson didn’t have flood insurance so he figures his house is pretty much a write off. The correction facility he worked at was destroyed so he figures he’s pretty much out of a job too. He may end up building a new life in Houston, he says. But a new life he will build. "It would be easy to say how unfair this all is and just lie around and become a common criminal," he says. "but I’m not going to do that. Neither are the people in there. We are going to rebuild our shattered lives, I can tell you. "This is one strong family you have in there. And in many ways this is my new family."

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