When The Levees Broke

When the Levees Broke, a Documentary by Spike Lee, follows the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's a 4-hour DVD pact full with blood, sweat, and tears. The film goes right to your heart and you instantly want to get up and do your part to help in someway.

While watching this film, questions where constantly running through my head. Why did the President wait 2 weeks before heading to New Orleans? Where was FEMA? Why would the Corps of Engineers build a levee that they knew would be unsafe? Just to name a few. It reminded me a little about 35W and how the bridge collapse. No one paid any attention to the kinks in the construction of the bridge, until it collapsed and people died. Is that what it takes is people dying before fixing problems. They don't want to spend the money to fix something in the first place, but then spend billions more fixing the damages.

At first I thought to myself, people are mad at Bush for waiting two weeks before coming to New Orleans. Let’s say he came the day after, what could he have done? Well that’s easy; he could have shown that he actually gave a rat's ass about what just happened in our home country. A Tsunami happens in Sri Lanka and we’re there in a day, and when the Nations biggest natural disaster happens, it takes two weeks. What kind of country do we live in? The crazy thing is that I know that there are places in New Orleans that look as though Katrina happened yesterday.

Before watching this film, I knew Katrina was a horrible event that took place and thought about the people in New Orleans constantly after the storm hit the coast, however, I never had more sorrow in my heart than I did after watching this film. It really makes me feel thankful for what I have.

Hearing the stories of the people that survived the storm was like hearing someone talking about a horror film they just got done watching. I mean, does this really happen? Can this really happen? Stories about children finding their parents dead in their homes, and parent hearing about their kids being found washed up somewhere. What an awful thing to go through, and to just think of all the post dramatic stress these families will carry with them. It's an awful thing to think about.

After watching this film, you respect for the citizens of New Orleans increases, and increases, and increases. These people are strong people and show that nothing can take the spirit of New Orleans away from them. Not the government, not FEMA, and not even a category 5 hurricane.