Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time

It’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the formerly bustling New Orleans epicentre. With the Grenfell Tower fire having occurred in the UK 12 years later, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time is essential viewing for anyone in doubt about the recurring callous treatment of marginalised communities. Traci A Curry’s excellent documentary series lays bare the indignity with which the Katrina victims were met.

With so much misinformation having been disseminated at the time, the series commendably debunks the myths surrounding Hurricane Katrina. Namely, desperate New Orleanians, who had suffered without food, water and lavatories for days, broke into stores to acquire necessary supplies. These acts were dubbed “looting” by the media, but, as journalist Thanh Truong brilliantly puts it, “People come first; property comes second.”

Hurricane Katrina is undoubtedly a difficult and complex story to tell. However, Curry handles the material with sensitivity and meticulous positioning of the survivors’ stories: they are not passengers, they are not by-products – they are front and centre. Through their interviews, we learn that, soon enough, Katrina ceased being an evacuation mission and became one of crime prevention. For Black people already fighting for their lives amid the disaster, this also meant living in fear of being shot by armed law enforcement officials.

Curry’s documentary is by no means easy viewing. The survivors’ recollections of the faeces-ridden Superdome, in which they were encamped, illustrate the extent to which they were dehumanised. This is solidified with comments made not just by members of the right-wing media (archival footage sees reactionary polemicist Bill O Reilly calling for martial law), but by FEMA director Michael D Brown, who condemned the victims as “thugs” in a news interview. The series demonstrates that the victims were viewed, quite simply, as human animals.

Curry doesn’t sensationalise these horrors, instead delicately giving the survivors a space to tell their stories. In one particularly distressing scene, we hear of how white supremacist vigilantes participated in the so-called upholding of law and order, gleefully admitting to shooting at Black people with impunity. These acts of vigilantism led to the horrific lynching of a young man whose remains were found charred in a ditch.

Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time is a harrowing portrait of the realities of systemic disenfranchisement. The success of the documentary lies in its unyielding compassion, cutting through the untruths that became so prevalent at the time.   

Antonia Georgiou

Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time is released on Disney+ on 28^th July 2025.

Watch the trailer for Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time here: