Reckoning with New Orleans flooding, a teenager investigates the city's water pumps | PBS Short Docs

High school student and poet, Chasity Hunter, experienced intense flooding in her New Orleans neighborhood during both Hurricane Katrina and recent summer rainstorms. Inspired to find out how safe her city really is, she investigates her city's infrastructure and questions water experts, finding her own voice along the way.

Station 15 | Reel South

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REEL SOUTH reveals the South's proud yet complicated heritage, as told by a diversity of voices and perspectives, through the curation and distribution of feature-length and short documentaries. Reel South is a PBS documentary series co-produced by PBS North Carolina, South Carolina ETV, and Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and produced in association with Alabama Public Television, Arkansas PBS, Texas PBS, Tennessee Public Television Council, and VPM. Reel South is a platform for and a service to non-fiction filmmakers in the American South working within the region’s tradition of storytelling.

[IHCOYT]

This was really great! Chasity was amazing too!

[reseswank]

Good Job Chasity Hunter. I am so impressed and proud of you for this investigation report. Water is Life.

[LynHannan]

10:38 "You are a person now". Thank you, I now know what to tell my two young adults.

[jamieprantil]

14:49 watched to end. Thx Reel South. Thx Chastity Hunter. This entire video was music to me, I also grew up where pump pipes get overwhelmed and have to release too much or too polluted water. Called Pipers Creek Watershed, in Seattle WA. I am a passionate Hydrogeologist. She will go far, and I wish her all the best. Connection to your time and place is a gift. Much luck, support and love.

[Dee-pmtl]

Any city would flood with extreme rates like 10 inches in 3 hours. Above, below, beneath, underneath sea level doesn’t matter. Tbh, the pumping system in Nola is actually amazing for what it is, especially when other cities are underwater after 3-6 inches (New York). My neighborhood in Nola usually clears within 20-30 minutes after extreme downpour storms. My aunt Uptown has also noticed improvements in drainage as infrastructure projects complete throughout the city. Again, other cities lose literally entire homes from far less rain.

[kbirds]

Great job Chasity! Unfortunately New Orleans has a long history of poor management by ignorant, corrupt politicians. Several of the pumps did NOT work during Katrina and because of the way we vote, that is still the case today. Very unfortunate. New Orleans is a beautiful city with a beautiful culture. Who we vote for in the city needs to change and Chasity, YOU can be the voice of change. (Costal Erosion and the destruction of our Barrier Islands is the root of the problem.) We need to rebuild the barrier Island system as well as the delta system to reduce the impact of future storms while getting city government to maintain our pump system. They should ALL be FULLY FUNCTIONAL 100% of the time 24/7.

[atomatman]

YOU SHOULD MOVE GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN.

[rsaunders]

9:52 Saying "instead of accepting what makes each place unique ..." is a great idea. Perhaps the things that make New Orleans unique make it a place where humans should not live.

[noanyobiseniss]

That guys a role model unlike all those cops that ran away like little girls.

[nadnavlis]

Why does New Orleans get flooded? Build a city that's 9 feet below sea level right next to the ocean an that's going to happen. It's been happening since the city was built hundreds of years ago. No investigation needed. Duh.

[ericmarks]

That's floods because the city is below sea level.

[onegreatstarfish]

the slowest moving short doc in history....

[Anuchan]

But what's the answer? What will political involvement solve? In 50 years New Orleans will be underwater.

[whitb]

Because it’s a swamp that humans pulled the water out of. Humans should have never lived there.