30/08/2010

Available for over a year

Five years on from Hurricane Katrina - the story of the New Orleans Superdome Five years ago this week the American city of New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina in what would become one of the worst natural disasters in US history. Eighteen hundred people died when the city's flood defences - or levees - collapsed and water cascaded though the streets and into houses. In this special edition of Outlook we focus on the story of one iconic building at the heart of the drama five years ago - the city's football stadium - the Superdome. As the hurricane raged, it became a refuge for around twenty thousand people and there were reports of shootings, lootings and rapes as they crammed into what became an insanitary arena. The General Manager of the Superdome - Doug Thornton - tells us about the dreadful conditions there, but also about his own determination after the hurricane to rebuild the Superdome and have it completed by the time the football season opened in September 2006. Astonishingly he and his colleagues achieved their goal and the Superdome became a potent symbol of the city's rebirth. Hear the extraordinary story of the New Orleans Superdome in this special edition of Outlook with Matthew Bannister.