Exodus

“Today, an estimated 400,000 people remain permanently displaced by Hurricane Katrina (Gibbens, 2024). Innumerable people continue to struggle with chronic illnesses developed as a result of contact with the flood waters, mold exposure, exposure to formaldehyde in FEMA trailers used as temporary shelter, mosquito bites, and stress, among other causes. Thousands of children never received a proper education as they remained out of school for months —some for years— while the New Orleans public school system was converted to a lottery-based charter school model (Miron et al., 2015). Roughly 217,000 homes along the gulf coast were completely destroyed or severely damaged (Paxson & Rouse, 2008). Many residents were priced out of their old neighborhoods as rent prices skyrocketed after neighborhoods were rebuilt. Many public housing sites were demolished and replaced with more profitable “mixed-income housing,” meaning poorer New Orleanians who wanted to return to this housing were unable to afford to do so.”

Chapter 4 Climate Catastrophe and/as Conspiracy: Hurricane Katrina on Documentary Film