Katrina Genesis

Katrina Genesis is a gripping nonfiction account of Hurricane Katrina's devastating arrival in New Orleans and the harrowing fight for survival faced by detainees trapped inside Orleans Parish Prison. As the city descended into chaos, men being held on pending charges found themselves abandoned and locked inside the jail with no clear means of escape. With floodwaters rising and survival instincts taking over, detainees were forced to confront unimaginable conditions inside what had become the city's belly of the beast. For some, the disaster created an opportunity to break free from confinement. A few found liberation through escape, while others lost their lives attempting it. Thousands more were eventually removed from the jail at gunpoint under military guard and taken to the Broad Street Bridge, where they remained for days in brutal heat with little more than bottled water. Restrained, heavily guarded, and surrounded by armed personnel using rubber bullets, batons, and riot-control gas to maintain order, the detainees endured yet another stage of an already terrifying ordeal. Eventually, they were packed onto hundreds of Louisiana Department of Corrections buses and transported to facilities throughout the state-some waiting months or even years before appearing in court again, regardless of the charges that originally landed them behind bars. Katrina Genesis chronicles survival, desperation, confinement, and the struggle for freedom during one of the darkest chapters in New Orleans history.