Experts and eyewitnesses present a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the devastating floods that Hurricane Katrina unleashed on New Orleans.

At 6.10 am on Monday 29 August, Hurricane Katrina surged up the Inter-coastal Waterway toward the vulnerable eastern sections of New Orleans. By 7am, a fifteen foot wave smashed into the Industrial Canal. Examine what made Katrina so deadly and how, despite technically advanced flood and storm defences and extensive disaster relief planning, this event resulted in destruction on an unprecedented scale for the region.

This program offers eyewitness testimony of what actually happened along with state-of-the-art graphic depictions of the calamity. The program also examines the question of whether storms like Katrina are increasing in frequency. It also shows how the long-term ecology of New Orleans and the shrinking wetlands surrounding the city steadily increased the city's vulnerability. There is also an explanation as to why, despite improvements in the city's flood and storm defences, the protective levee system ultimately failed. The program also looks to the future and asks if anything can be done to restore the city to a habitable and safer city.