This documentary answers many questions that people have had about Hurricane Katrina. It especially answers the questions of why and how the city flood. The documentary shows that just a year earlier, scientists had predicted this outcome. Poor levee construction and the underestimated power of a storm of that magnitude hitting New Orleans were the main factors in the flooding.

The documentary opens up with a brief summary of Katrina, from a few days before the event until the crisis that followed the hurricane. After the opening, the documentary flashes back to July 2004 where 300 people attended a meeting that discussed what would happen if New Orleans was hit by a Category 3 hurricane. The simulation was called Hurricane Pam, which predicted that city of New Orleans would flood.

The documentary then flashes forward to Tuesday, August 23, 2005 (six days before Katrina made landfall). The hurricane began in the eastern Atlantic. A detailed explanation of the storms formation follows. The next day, the depression is upgraded into Tropical Storm Katrina. Reference is made to better forecasting, which has evolved over the years. The air force hurricane hunters fly into the hurricane to record information. By Thursday, August 25, Katrina becomes a Category 1 hurricane and hits land in Florida. It loses strength. However, because of the track previous storms have taken, the hurricane center in New Orleans begins to fear the worse.

New Orleans is a city that sits between two bodies of water, the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. The city also sits below sea level, adding to the danger of the city. Originally, the city itself was built on high ground. The addition of pumps allowed New Orleans to spread outward, into the former marshlands. Because the swampland was drained, the organic matter within the soil began to break down. This causes the soil to shrink. And, when levees were built to hold annual floodwaters back, the river could no longer deposit silt into the surrounding areas. This caused the soil to compact, like compost. Thus, the city began to sink.

In 1927, a flood broke the levees along the Mississippi River. It killed 500 people and destroyed more than 1 million homes in the poorest sections of the city. Because of this disaster, the Army Corps of engineers was placed in charge to rebuild the levees. Today, New Orleans has both dirt levees and steal and concrete flood walls. In the 1960s, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm, flooded New Orleans. The Army Corps of engineers was allotted money to upgrade the levees to withstand a fast moving Category 3 storm. The upgrades lasted as long as the early 1990s.

On Friday, August 26, tracking data suggests that Hurricane Katrina is headed to the immediate west of New Orleans. Because a hurricane spins counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere, the storm surge and the winds are stronger on the eastern side. Because of the building of the levees, the wetlands no longer flooded and silt was not deposited onto the soil. Therefore, the wetlands, which are vital to protecting New Orleans from storms, have been disappearing.

On Saturday, August 27, the Louisiana State University's department which deals with coastal flooding imputed the latest data from Hurricane Katrina into the Hurricane Pam model developed the previous year. The model showed that the hurricane would flood the city. The authorities then began to tell people to leave the city. It was estimated that 68.2% would leave the city; however, that means that over 300,000 would remain. The Army Corps of Engineers leaves a skeleton crew behind in New Orleans to ride out the storm in a bunker.

At 6:10 AM on Monday, August 29, Katrina makes landfall. The track of Katrina was within 15 miles of the predictions. The Sixteenth Street Canal and the Intracoastal Waterway are the most vulnerable levees in the city. The storm surge ripped through the levees and flooded the Ninth Ward and Saint Bernard Parish. At 10:00 AM, Katrina makes landfall in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Around 2:00 PM, it is discovered that the levees along the Seventeenth Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal had broken. Seventeenth Street Canal and the London Avenue Canal levees were not overtopped. Therefore, they believe that the foundation gave way.

By Tuesday, August 30, there are five levee breaches, leaving approximately 75% of New Orleans flooded. People are stranded all over the city. With all the roads flooded, rescuers use helicopters. More than 1,800 lost their lives and over 800,000 are left homeless. In Mississippi, not much is left standing. Hurricane intensity, on average, has risen over the past few decades. Rising ocean temperatures contributes to stronger hurricanes.

This documentary answered many of the questions about the flooding in the city of New Orleans. The day by day summary gives the viewer an adequate amount of information which thoroughly describes the how the city flooded. Investigations into the levee breaches explain why they did not hold. The documentary is definitely a good summary of the events of Hurricane Katrina and answers to many lingering questions.