But that didn’t stop New Orleans police officers from killing two civilians as they tried to flee the chaos of New Orleans across the Danziger Bridg e, a bloody stain on the New Orleans Police Department’s reputation that resulted in it being placed under federal consent decree. Honoré says Blanco was reacting to rumors circulating about possible snipers - rumors he quickly determined were false. That perception was quickly confirmed, Honoré later told The Atlantic, when he heard the governor at the time, Kathleen Blanco, giving law enforcement the go-ahead to shoot looters on sight. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)Īccording to the lore, Honoré’s first command upon taking control of the Katrina Joint Task Force was “Put those damn weapons down!” He was speaking to New Orleans police who seemed to think, Honoré says, that they were in a war rather than a rescue mission. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen on the flight deck of the USS Iwo Jima September 20, 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana. This was especially true in the aftermath of Katrina. This is why people love the “Category 5 General” across the state - he doesn’t mince words. What scares him about that, he says, is that three years after Hurricane Maria, the Federal Emergency Management Agency “has not rebuilt the houses in Puerto Rico yet.”įor Hurricane Laura, Honoré emphasizes, “we can’t have a normal, FEMA, drag-ass response.” And that’s just a low-ball estimate, he says. Honoré estimates 20,000 to 25,000 homes have been destroyed in Lake Charles, a city with a population of about 70,000. “And now we’ve displaced them to hotel rooms throughout the state … and now their homes - many of them - are destroyed,” he says. “Calcasieu Parish,” where Lake Charles is located, “is one of the hottest places in the state when you look at areas that have a high percentage of people that have the virus,” Honoré explains. While the Gulf Region is used to hurricanes, Honoré describes Laura as “atypical,” largely because the disaster is compounded by the “COVID-19 environment.” Honoré says the parishes where Laura struck in southwest Louisiana are “hurting.” And as the storm makes its way into the northern part of the state, “the news will get worse before it gets better,” because many of the towns to the north are older and have many mobile homes, according to Honoré, a native of Lakeland, Louisiana. But he joined Here & Now’s Tonya Mosley from his landline in Baton Rouge Thursday morning to reflect both on Hurricane Katrina as well as Hurricane Laura, which made landfall the previous night in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Honoré, who also led the Joint Task Force following Hurricane Rita a mere month later in September 2005, is retired now. “He came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving,” Nagin said of Honoré, who was sent to New Orleans to evacuate the Superdome and command the Joint Katrina Task Force in the days following Hurricane Katrina 15 years ago this week. Russel Honoré was the “ Category 5 General.” To former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Honoré was a “Black John Wayne.” Russel Honoré delivers remarks during a Hurricane Katrina memorial service in New Orleans in August of 2007.
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