August 28, 2005: Hurricane Katrina Live Coverage
Podcast: The Art Bell ArchivePublished On: Thu Dec 04 2025
Description: Art Bell broadcasts live as Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 storm packing 160-mile-per-hour winds, bears down on New Orleans. He takes calls from residents who have chosen to stay, including Scott from Harahan who remains with five dogs because no shelters accept pets. Storm researcher Mark Suddath reports from Gulfport, Mississippi, where his mobile command vehicle streams live video while automated weather stations record data from the storm's path.Art connects with his longtime friend Lynn Whitlake, a Lake Charles weatherman known on air as Rob Robin, who reports Gulf water temperatures reaching an unprecedented 90 degrees. Lynn explains that the warmer the water, the more readily it evaporates into vapor that fuels hurricane intensity. He notes the northeast quadrant of a hurricane produces the worst storm surge and tornado activity, and that eye wall replacement cycles remain poorly understood even by the National Hurricane Center.Whitley Strieber joins to discuss how events mirror their co-authored book about rapid climate change. He warns that if the levees breach, the toxic floodwaters mixing with chemicals and disturbed graves could render New Orleans uninhabitable for years. Art emphasizes the lesson that citizens can ultimately depend only on themselves when infrastructure collapses.
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