NGTI TO DISTRIBUTE PROGRAMME ON HURRICANE KATRINA

Published: 2 September 2005

National Geographic Television International (NGTI) today announces that it will be distributing an hour-long programme on the causes and effects of this week’s devastation brought about by Hurricane Katrina.

Entitled THE DAY THE BIG EASY DROWNED (1 x 52), the new programme will be made by National Geographic Television and Film and delivered towards the end of this year.

The programme will look at the vulnerability of New Orleans, and how this week’s events were a disaster waiting to happen for this city built below sea-level. Engineer Joe Suhayda has been predicting this disaster for years – in fact National Geographic filmed him standing on a New Orleans levee only a year ago - describing precisely what has just happened. National Geographic Magazine also ran a major feature in its October 2004 issue discussing, with startling accuracy, the likely impact of a hurricane hit on the city.

THE DAY THE BIG EASY DROWNED follows the chronology of the disaster, from New Orleans missing the worst of the storm, to the building water pressure that caused the levee to breach and then, minute-by-minute we will watch where the water goes and the havoc it wreaks. With New Orleans an 80-square-mile toxic lake, we also look at the work of the emergency services, the contingency plans and how individuals struggled to survive in the drowning city. Exclusive access to Suhayda and other engineers gives us real insight into this major natural disaster; what is being done to help restore New Orleans, the future prospects for the city when the water goes and what can be done to prevent such a thing happening again in the future.

Anna Fuge, head of sales at NGTI comments: “National Geographic has been one of the first documentary film crews on the ground and this early insight, together with strong science, CGI and the dramatic year-old footage from leading engineers predicting exactly how this disaster could happen, will make for compelling viewing.”