Shortly after Hurricane Katrina unleashed its footprint of devastation from Louisiana to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Joe Thomas, then a member of the Louisiana National Guard, boarded a Blackhawk helicopter in Baton Rouge with Adjutant General Bennett Landreneau to survey the carnage in New Orleans.
As the chopper flew over the Crescent City, Thomas recalls seeing water spewing from the Lakeview breach and other areas that included the Ninth Ward, filling up city streets like an outdoor bathtub. He also saw fires caused by explosions from gas leaks continue to burn and the Louisiana Superdome roof littered with unwelcome skylights.
The return flight to Baton Rouge was more somber, the reality of the devastation beginning to sink in…