Hurricane Katrina may well be the most exhaustively documented natural disaster in history. Over the course of seventy-two hours, a cataclysmic storm became a catastrophic flood, which in turn became an apocalyptic human tragedy. All the while, amateur videographers, news crews, government agencies, tourists, stormchasers, and countless others were recording the sights and sounds of the unfolding chaos.

Distilling over six hundred hours of video and audio from more than a hundred of these sources (many of them never before seen on network television), Witness: Katrina reconstructs Hurricane Katrina as it happened, entirely through the eyes of those who experienced it. From Biloxi to Bay St. Louis, from Slidell to the Superdome, this two-hour special captures the storm and its aftermath in all its epic human complexity—raw images of fear, grief, and anger, side by side with unforgettable scenes of resilience and even humor. Commemorating the fifth anniversary of the storm, Witness: Katrina is both a riveting documentary and an enduring document—the definitive portrait of a defining moment in American history. Witness: Katrina was awarded the 2011 News & Documentary Emmy for Historical Programming.

Premiered on the National Geographic Channel,
August 23, 2010.

Purchase Witness: Katrina on DVD from National Geographic Channel

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