StoryCorps Hurricane Katrina: DuPlantier

StoryCorps Hurricane Katrina: DuPlantier

Series: StoryCorps
From: StoryCorps
Length: 00:03:08

New Orleans police officer David Duplantier [doo-plan-tee-A] tells his wife, Melissa Eugene, about patrolling the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps Hurricane Katrina: DuPlantier
From: StoryCorps

Duplantier_small A 16-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, David Duplantier [doo-plan-tee-A] went on patrol at the Superdome on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005. He was there for more than a week. The Superdome was meant to be a refuge, a temporary shelter before those trapped in New Orleans could be evacuated. But instead of withstanding the storm, Duplantier says, "the roof literally looked like an eggshell. It started to peel. And you could hear the wind." The floodwaters rose all around the Superdome, essentially trapping those who sought shelter there. But, Duplantier says, "The people never stopped coming in." His wife, Melissa Eugene, had already fled inland as Katrina approached. And as he kept working -- and not sleeping, Duplantier says, "All I wanted to do was let you know I wasn't dead, I was alive." "The whole thing felt like a really bad dream," Duplantier says. When he was released from his duties at the Superdome, "I remember just feeling like I just escaped," Duplantier recalls. He immediately tracked his wife down. "That was the happiest day of my life," Melissa says.

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Piece Description

A 16-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, David Duplantier [doo-plan-tee-A] went on patrol at the Superdome on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005. He was there for more than a week. The Superdome was meant to be a refuge, a temporary shelter before those trapped in New Orleans could be evacuated. But instead of withstanding the storm, Duplantier says, "the roof literally looked like an eggshell. It started to peel. And you could hear the wind." The floodwaters rose all around the Superdome, essentially trapping those who sought shelter there. But, Duplantier says, "The people never stopped coming in." His wife, Melissa Eugene, had already fled inland as Katrina approached. And as he kept working -- and not sleeping, Duplantier says, "All I wanted to do was let you know I wasn't dead, I was alive." "The whole thing felt like a really bad dream," Duplantier says. When he was released from his duties at the Superdome, "I remember just feeling like I just escaped," Duplantier recalls. He immediately tracked his wife down. "That was the happiest day of my life," Melissa says.

Broadcast History

NPR's Morning Edition 8/25/06

Transcript

DD: As the night progressed we started seeing a whole starting to form
in the roof of the dome. And then the roof literally looked like an
eggshell, it started to peel, and at that point everybody knew, okay,
it's here, it's hitting us now. It wasn't a place, really, where people
could find refuge. I mean, as the days went on, the water continued to
rise so you couldn't go back out, and the people never stopped coming
in. There was a point where we were trying to get evacuation going, and
umm, the one image that haunts me to this day--there was a woman that
broke threw the crowd and she had a little boy in her arms, and he was
convulsing and she was screaming that he was sick, and I kept asking
her, "Do you need water?" and she was trying to tell me what was wrong
with him and she kept looking at me to do something and she kept asking
me, "Where are the doctors?" and I told her they were...
Read the full transcript

Musical Works

Come Sunday, Ellis Marsalis, Duke in Blue, Columbia, 1999, :20 seconds.