It's the largest mass resettlement that America has seen since the Civil War, as over 400,000 people — victims of Hurricane Katrina — try to find a new place to live. From the Houston Astrodome to an abandoned New Orleans street, stories of people looking for home ... and finding something else.
Prologue.At the Astrodome complex in Houston, charities from Colorado and Florida and other states are competing to take in the hurricane's refugees. But Colorado, which offers the best package of any state, just can't get New Orleans residents to relocate there. (3 minutes)
Act One. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.
Producer Jane Feltes talks with the first people on line for the bus to Colorado: two twin, six-year-old sisters.
Act Two. No Place Like Dome.
Host Ira Glass talks to evacuees about what it's like to live on a cot in the Astrodome and the Reliant convention center next door. The lights never go out, and the p.a. runs announcements all day. But there are some upsides. (7 minutes)
Act Three. Land Grab.
As a half-dozen families — including a pregnant woman having contractions and another with a four-week-old baby — are driven around Houston looking for housing, they confront potential neighbors who they believe don't want them ... and neighbors they themselves don't want. This American Life producer Lisa Pollak reports. (16 minutes)
Song: " Promised Land," Chuck Berry
Act Four. The Long Way Home.
Nick Spitzer, host of the Public Radio International music show American Routes, drives through deserted streets to return to his own house, and finds it doesn't feel at all like home. (14 minutes)
Song: " Don't Ever Be Afraid to Go Home," Frank Sinatra
Act Five. Water Bed.
Louann Mims, a 78-year-old retiree, planned to leave her New Orleans house before the floodwaters rose, but then the water came rushing in and she was trapped in her house for eight days on the only thing that would float: her extra firm Sterns and Foster mattress. Ms. Mims talks with Alex Kotlowitz, the author of The Other Side of the River, Never a City So Real, There Are No Children Here, and other books.
Songs: "Float On," Modest Mouse; and "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" Louis Armstrong and his Dixieland Seven
Act Five. Water Bed.Louann Mims, a 78-year-old retiree, planned to leave her New Orleans house before the floodwaters rose, but then the water came rushing in and she was trapped in her house for eight days on the only thing that would float: her extra firm Sterns and Foster mattress. Ms. Mims talks with Alex Kotlowitz, the author of The Other Side of the River, Never a City So Real, There Are No Children Here, and other books.
Songs: "Float On," Modest Mouse; and "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" Louis Armstrong and his Dixieland Seven