Her ordeal brought home to me how terribly the disaster response had failed, because it is hard to imagine any scenario in which the safety of the most vulnerable – the very old, the very young, and the ill – would not be paramount. She looked weak and exhausted when I saw her the morning before, so I took only two photographs, because I did not want to be any more intrusive than necessary. Police officers killed a man trying to flag them down for help virtually in front of her, and there was little food or water until the day before she was finally evacuated on September 4, 2005.
Milvertha Hendricks, wrapped in an American flag blanket, was 84 years old when she spent almost a week on the sidewalk in New Orleans, along with thousands of other people huddled near the Convention Center in the scorching heat after Hurricane Katrina. Michael Appleton, a World Press Photo winner and photojournalist based in New York City.Īlan Chin 84-year old Milvertha Hendricks wrapped in an American flag blanket after spending five days on the street at the Convention Center. People like Quintella Williams and her then nine-day-old baby girl, Akea, shown here, and tens of thousands of others, were essentially left to fend for themselves for days because of the failure of the government to properly respond to the disaster. Instead of sending buses to remove people from the city the day after the storm, the government sent in the National Guard and unneeded SWAT teams from around the country. It was a depressing scene, made all the more depressing by the fact that it didn’t have to be that way. Many chose to gather outside the ravaged stadium rather than endure the smell and spookiness inside. With no power or running water, it was a dark and rancid place to be. The Superdome was the epicenter of the calamity that was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Michael Appleton A stranded Quintella Williams holds her nine-day-old baby girl, Akea, outside the superdome in New Orleans, La.
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