After The Deluge

September 5, 2007 5:25 PM

A.D. (After The Deluge) is a serialized webcomic about what it was like in the days leading up to, during & immediately after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. The story is true, all dialogue taken from direct quotes. An ongoing project with updates monthly (scheduled to run from Dec 06 - Dec 07), the most recent chapter takes place right at the end of the storm, prior to the collapse of the levees, but to get the full effect, read from the very beginning. For those who want to know more about the project, there's an FAQ.
posted by jonson (20 comments total)

The two prologue chapters ripped my heart out. Now it seems to be MeDotted.

This was definitely drawn by people who actually live here.
posted by localroger at 6:05 PM on September 5, 2007

Crap, you're right localroger, it's totally down now. Sorry about that - I hope it's not traffic related, I mean it's not like we're Digg or BoingBoing or something. Hopefully it'll come back up soon.
posted by jonson at 6:10 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Ah. Now it's back up. Temporary outage or something.
posted by jonson at 6:21 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

I'm not ashamed to say that I'm crying real tears reading this.
posted by ColdChef at 6:24 PM on September 5, 2007

Thanks for the post.
posted by nola at 6:33 PM on September 5, 2007

Fuck. I've gotta stop reading this. It's too much.

I read most of it (that goddamn cat got to me. I lost it completely), and I can assure those of you not familiar with the city of New Orleans that it rings 100% true. I'll be forwarding this to a lot of people.

Thank you. (I'll try to finish it after a cocktail or two...)
posted by ColdChef at 6:33 PM on September 5, 2007

I'm halfway through chapter 2, and even though I know what happened - in the general sense, at least - I have this ohgodwhatsgoingtohappennext feeling. Reckon I'll be crying soon.

thanks again, jonson - great post.
posted by rtha at 6:35 PM on September 5, 2007

Read it all up to chapter 6. Effing brilliant. Captures the spirit of the city, its neighborhoods, and the people in a way I've not seen elsewhere, and with great economy.
posted by localroger at 6:36 PM on September 5, 2007

I shed some tears about the poor kitty (Gucci) and her hurt leg. Please let ol' Gucci make it through the storm.
posted by porn in the woods at 6:39 PM on September 5, 2007

KatrinaDerail: I don't think I've ever mentioned online how I went through the storm.

I spent the week before Katrina in Detroit, MI at a manufacturer's training seminar. I was scheduled to fly home Saturday. On Friday evening I checked the weather; cat 1 hurricane headed for Florida, minor problem, no worry.

When I wake up in a hotel I usually don't turn on the TV. I checked out, called a cab, went to the airport. At DFW they have these bigass monitors that play CNN 24/7 and they were all blaring CAT 5 HURRICANE GONNA HIT NOLA EVERYBODY'S GONNA DIE. I am only exaggerating a little. Nevertheless, Northwest flew me home.

I got my company car out of the Park-N-Fly and drove into chaos -- lines at the gas stations, first beginnings of the evacuation. Drove across the Causeway to Mandeville, a whole 15 feet above sea level. My wife was very worried, and decided to evacuate with our pets. Our branch manager in Jackson, MS found her what was probably the last hotel room in the city (he's an old sales hound, good at that kind of thing). I said I'd follow if it looked worse Sunday morning.

I woke up Sunday, bright and early, turned on the TV, and started throwing shit in the van. At 10:00 there was still a lot of shit I wanted to save but I knew that if I didn't leave soon I wouldn't get out at all.

I made Jackson around 3:00 PM. Rode the storm out in a nice cinder block hotel where the storm hit as a cat 2. Being from NOLA we laugh at cat 2 storms, but of course the power went out. Turns out Mississippi does not laugh at cat 2 storms. Half the trees in the state fell on power lines. We had to leave the hotel because the sewerage lift pumps weren't working.

So we drove to Knoxville, TN to stay with my in-laws; her dad lives alone in a four bedroom house. The drive out of MS was surreal; we didn't find an open gas station until we got to Tuscaloosa, AL. Trees and signs were shredded 250 miles inland. We made it though and I watched the rest of it on TV and the internet, dumbstruck. My hometown. Every place I had ever lived, worked, and gone to school, pretty much devastated.

I went back 9 days later; nice perk of working in industry is they let you into places that need to be fixed. I think I need to stop writing now. *cries*
posted by localroger at 6:49 PM on September 5, 2007 [5 favorites]

Now that I think of it I realize I told the above story on Kuro5hin, in a FP story at that. I guess that says something about either my memory or K5, not sure which.
posted by localroger at 6:59 PM on September 5, 2007

For reference, here is the MetaFilter "live-as-it-happened" thread.

Reading this comic is making me cry, too.
posted by trip and a half at 7:43 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

Jesus.

My girlfriend and I evacuated and sat in Birmingham watching the news getting heartsick.
I was prepared to return on Labor Day but ended up not getting back into town until the 16th. The scene was so unreal, I don't know if I'll ever be able to convey how weird it felt.
It's funny how memories can fade with time and then resurface with the right trigger. I'm glad I read that and at the same time I kind of regret it.
Now I'm going to have trouble getting to sleep, I just know it.

Still, awesome post.
posted by djeo at 8:55 PM on September 5, 2007

The amount of details here that the artist has gotten right is amazing. It's not just the buildings or the layout of the homes - they got the NHC-NOAA 5 day cone, the radio with WWL 870 two stations back, the sign on the Superette (HOT LUNCHES PO'BOYS SEAFOOD)...

...which makes the occasional mistake that much more annoying. I am sorry, but the 4500 block of Freret is NOT Central City. Shit, Central City doesn't even get up past Jackson. I will brook no argument here.

[NOT NEIGHBORHOODIST]
posted by suckerpunch at 10:01 PM on September 5, 2007

Without derailing...

It might be disingenuous to say it killed New Orleans, but there seems like there was such a major change pre vs. post katrina that I can't think of a different term....

Has that large of a shift in an american city ever happened? Hell, internationally and recently (past 100 years)...

I guess you can go back to things like San Fran Earthquake and the like, but I can't think of a shift in more recent times...
posted by Lord_Pall at 11:25 PM on September 5, 2007 [1 favorite]

That would be "...San Francisco Earthquake...", and I assume you mean the '06, not the '89. (Sorry, I can't help it.)
posted by trip and a half at 12:30 AM on September 6, 2007

Great read. Wish I hadn't read it.

[NOT NEIGHBORHOODIST]

C'mon now, you lived here. Don't lie. It isn't a city, it's a big ridiculous pile of neighborhoods, each anchored by a dive bar or two. At least, that's the thought that occurred to me one night drinking a dollar schlitz at snake & jake's, so it should probably be taken with a grain of salt.
posted by gordie at 9:31 AM on September 6, 2007

Update: I was right. I slept really poorly last night.
posted by djeo at 10:45 AM on September 6, 2007

The cat made me cry too. Well, okay, made me cry harder.
posted by sarcasticah at 12:36 PM on September 6, 2007

[this is good]
posted by sillygwailo at 4:37 PM on September 6, 2007