Consider This from NPR - As Climate Change Drives More Disasters, What Can We Learn From 'Katrina Babies'?

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

It's been 17 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, permanently changing life for many people across the country.Over a thousand were killed, and many more were displaced. The city suffered billions of dollars of damage. New Orleans has slowly recovered over the years, but for many, the trauma of the natural disaster lingers on. NPR's Juana Summers talks with filmmaker Edward Buckles Jr. about his new documentary, 'Katrina Babies,' which explores the trauma experienced by families and children from Hurricane Katrina. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org Seventeen years ago, at the end of August, Hurricane Katrina bore down on the city of New Orleans, wreaking havoc. Please have 3-1-6. Hurricane Katrina bore down on the city of New Orleans, wreaking havoc. The hurricane caused billions of dollars in damage to the city, and the human toll was higher. The helicopters didn't pass over us, but they won't stop.

Well over a thousand people died. Many, many more were displaced, fanned out across the country, far from the homes they knew, trying to start over. Imagine if you've been forced or put into a position to deal with it on your own as a child. That's filmmaker Edward Buckles Jr. He was 13 years old when Katrina came. Imagine experiencing something like that and no one ever comes to ask, are you okay?

Do you need anything? Are you having nightmares? What happens when it's storming outside? In his new documentary, Katrina Babies, Buckles asked questions like these to other kids who escaped Katrina's waters, like his best friend, Myesha. The guy next door, he had a boat. I don't know where this boat came from, but he had a boat and he was like, I'm bringing y'all to the bridge. While telling her story, she started to cry.

Then, Buckles asked her. Wait, so, like, have you ever, like, talked about this before? No, I haven't. Why are you dead? I don't know. Then Rick asked me. Consider this. It's been nearly 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

The city has been reconstructed, but neighborhoods were destroyed, communities broken up, and the lasting effects of the trauma from the hurricane and its aftermath linger in the people who were most severely impacted. It's a sign of what could be to come as increasing and overlapping climate disasters are upending people's lives. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Wednesday, August 31st. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally,

and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. For Edward Buckles Jr., filming Katrina Babies was a difficult and emotional process. See, Buckles left New Orleans, but his cousin Tina and her family stayed. Tina and her kids, my cousins, were some of the last interviews that I did for this process. And I think that it was intentional.

You know, I wasn't ready to face that. Tina's house used to be the gathering spot for Buckles and his cousins. It was a place full of warmth and the smell of rice and gravy. Buckles remembered watching the news, worrying that Tina and her family would be killed. Their neighborhood was devastated by the storm, but they survived.

Tina's house stood. Even so, Buckles told me it took years to feel ready to talk with them about the day they set off on two different paths. And filming this documentary helped them reconnect. I've been speaking to my cousins way more now. And, you know, we've been gathering and planning family trips, and we've been in a group chat and just really rebuilding what we lost from Hurricane Katrina. They lost homes, family connections, a sense of security. Buckles told me for one of his cousins, his name is Quentin, he lost trust in the government.

He lost trust in our government. He lost belief that his life mattered in that moment at 11 years old. And when he said that, I learned so much about my cousin and so much about just how Katrina impacted what he was putting out outwardly into the world. So yes, at age 11 years old, he decided I would never fight for this country. And that speaks volumes because that doesn't just mean that he doesn't want to join the army or something. That means that he doesn't have trust in his country. It sounds like this country, in his mind, wasn't there for him in one of the most traumatic, difficult moments of his life. Yeah. I mean, we have to say that that line that I would never fight for this country was followed

by him saying, we wasn't in here for a day. We was locked in our attics for three days. And that line was followed by his mom saying, when everybody else in the world thought that New Orleans was good, we were still in our attics. So what does that do to trust? What does that do to one's belief in their lives mattering? And just to be honest, I don't think that he's the only person that feels that way. They may not articulate it the exact same way, but a lot of us are dealing with trust issues when it comes to America. So much of what you explore in this film, it's unpacking trauma, the trauma that you experienced, that Quentin experienced. And it's not just the trauma of

Katrina itself. It's the physical destruction. It's the displacement that comes. It's the violence. Even this many years, 17 years removed, how does anybody even begin to heal from trauma that is so compounded, so ingrained? Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't go into this film trying to find healing, honestly, because I didn't know that it was possible, right? I didn't know that simply having conversations and starting to tell our stories would be healing. So it wasn't until Myesha said- And tell us real quick who Myesha is. Myesha is one of my best friends, and she is a subject in the film.

And she is the first person that breaks down in this film and says, no one ever asked me about my story. And I realized that we weren't just dealing with people telling their stories. We were dealing with people healing. And this film is not going to heal everybody. This film has not healed me, but it has opened up a door for me to figure out, okay, what does that journey to healing looks like? Because as you said, we are not just healing from Hurricane Katrina, but we are healing

from everything else that we have experienced before the storm and after the storm. And I just want us to know that we can start that journey. You know, as a journalist, I have covered the aftermaths of a lot of tragedies and violence across this country. And it seems like there is this pattern every time where something horrible happens in a community and then all of these resources pour in. And when there are kids involved, there are often support systems, counselors, therapists who are brought in to make sure that the kids who are living through whatever the thing is, that they have the ability and the space and the help to process. But when I hear you talk and your film,

people like Myesha, that infrastructure didn't exist for Katrina babies. It was not afforded to you. Why do you think that is? Yeah, it's a question that I have been asking myself during this whole process. I don't know the answer to that, but I am only left to assume and God, I hope that I'm wrong. But it is the lack of empathy. It is the lack of care. And it is the lack of respect for black people in this country. Specifically speaking from experience, black children in this country. I proposed this idea in the film of the double-edged sword of resilience. What that sword looks like is, yes, we are resilient. Yes, we take pride in our strength. But on the other side of that is us being viewed as we don't need the same help that other people need because of the fact that we are so strong and we are so resilient. And I think that people were like, look at them. They're good. They're quote unquote,

bouncing back. Look at them second lining in the streets. New Orleans is rebuilt. New Orleans is coming back. They don't need anything. Look at that. And I think because of that way of thinking, we always miss out on our opportunity for wellness and healing and our opportunity for proper help and assistance once we experience something traumatic. You know, watching this film, your deep love for New Orleans pours out of every single minute of it. But you've also said that your anxiety is at its peak when you were at home and you talk about that fear of being safe. How do you reconcile those two things? It's hard.

You know, I was speaking to Ciara, who's also a subject in the film and also like one of my really, really good friends. And, you know, we were having this conversation. Ciara is someone who doesn't want to leave New Orleans. She loves New Orleans to her heart, but she deals with anxiety about certain things as well. She has faced some very traumatic experiences as well in the city. And Ariana, who I went viral for sitting outside of that convention center waiting for help. That was that very eloquent nine-, nine-year-old with that viral footage that none of us who are alive then can ever forget. Yes. We just need some help out

here, right? And Ariana is somebody who left the city because she couldn't deal with all of the violence and all of the unjust ways of the city. Now, what I found and what Sierra helped me to realize is the person who wants to stay in New Orleans and help all of the problems and feels guilty for leaving, and the person who leaves New Orleans because of all of the violence and And you can't mark any of them as wrong or you can't say that either is weaker or stronger, right? And I just think that the problem is we shouldn't be left to dealing with this on our own. I shouldn't be left to dealing with the problems of New Orleans and now anxiety is surfacing. Now everything that should have been addressed is now surfacing in our adult lives. And the problem is we are faced to deal with it on our own. We are faced to, quote unquote, save our city or leave our city. You and others in the film make the

point that while buildings remain, your house stood, the New Orleans that you knew was destroyed and it's not coming back. What do you want people to know about that New Orleans, the New Orleans that you grew up in before Katrina came to town? Yeah. At the end of the film, I say that New Orleans is not rebuilt. And some people would look at that and be like, what do you mean? Business is thriving. Y'all are doing great down there. And what I mean is that they are New Orleans that we knew, the real New Orleans. They are New Orleans that was filled with families. They are New Orleans where all you really saw was black people. And we were in our neighborhoods and we owned our neighborhoods and we took pride in our neighborhoods. And, you know, I just want

people to know that when, when, when, when like they're coming, you know, to, to, to, to our New Orleans and when they are, you know, experiencing like all of this great culture and like all of this great magic and beauty that it comes from us. And it comes from all of the people who were here before the storm. Some of us who are still there after the storm, right? That's what I want people to know is that, you know, everything that you love about New Orleans comes from us. Edward Buckles Jr., director of Katrina Babies. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. Katrina Babies is out now on HBO. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.