Refuge of Last Resort

As someone who lived in Louisiana when Katrina hit ( I was 10) I remembered a lot of the things talked about happening. I also remember my parents telling me about it. I watched this to fill in some of the blanks. The filmmakers did a good job of telling the truth and showing the truth of what happened there.

As with any documentary, this is but one perspective of an event -- in this case, a harrowing, difficult-to-dispute, unflinching look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The story documents the experience of an ordinary, middle-class family faced with having to evacuate their home as Hurricane Katrina approached. Like most people, they didn't have the means or resources to do this, so they remained in their home. Certainly, some remained in New Orleans for the thrill of being able to say they survived a hurricane, but the vast majority of people who weathered the storm did so because they had no other choice. These were level-headed, responsible people who simply didn't have the cash to drive to a safer area and stay in hotels for weeks.

Interviews with people who lived through the disaster painted a very grim picture of what life was like on the ground, following the storm. It's easy to criticize the official response to the aftermath, but in this case the deficiencies are glaring. If American authorities ever enjoyed a reputation for competence, it is only a memory, or maybe it was only a myth, to begin with.

Although the narrator occasionally editorializes, there is no disputing the images captured by the camera.

This movie doesn't seem to match the "trapped" families of the description or review. The filmmaker's group appears to stay on purpose, then criticize efforts they are mostly NOT part of. They start off in a hotel with the story being they couldn't evacuate before the hurricane because no car nor money. Meanwhile, parts of the video he shoots are obviously shot from a vehicle and later they go with $400 cash to Wal-Mart. You think the first minutes maybe tourists that flew in and got caught, but no, they somehow are coastal locals that didn't have any plan or supplies together. I realize you can't live for long on $400 ,but it makes you wonder why they didn't use the $400 for gas, pack groceries from the house, get out of town, and get a hotel stay somewhere else. I did enjoy the first hand views.

As a tourist trapped in the Superdome during Katrina I found the raw footage from this documentary to be spot on for the most part. The rumors that spread like wildfire are discussed, the paranoia of some authority figures towards scared citizens just trying to survive was illuminating. So much film that many of us have never seen. While it could have delved deeper into the fact that most of the deaths were not caused by Hurricane Katrina but rather the failed Army Corp of Engineers levee system, I think it's purpose was more focused on families' personal experiences dealing with the unknown and little assistance till days later.