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.