20 years later, reporter’s memories of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction still strong

Tree branches crushed cars. Boats smashed into rooftops.

I saw a coffin floating down the street in floodwaters.

Streetlights didn’t work. People drove the wrong way on the Interstates. Packs of wild dogs ran through downtown New Orleans.

It smelled like wet rot and despair. The air was hot and angry. The wind blew chaos into everything. Nothing resembled the civilization that had been there three weeks previously.

Twenty years ago, I spent 15 days embedded with a rescue team called California Task Force 5 after Hurricane Katrina. Photographer Bruce Chambers and I (we were working for the Orange County Register) rode along with a 90-member team, mostly comprised of first responders from the Orange County Fire Authority. We went by bus to the scariest, saddest and most shocking place on