A Few Inches From Total Darkness

GM Doug Thornton had his building engineers leave the room untouched during the $336 million rebuild that followed Hurricane Katrina. For Thornton, those markings represent the darkest moments during those four terrible days in August, where a few inches of water was all that separated the Superdome from total darkness. T

he crisis with the generator came on the morning after Katrina hit the Superdome, when huge wind gusts ripped the roof apart and sent large chunks of debris crashing onto the field below.

“The roof was failing above our head – it was peeling like an onion,” he said. “We were terrified that someone was going to be killed by falling debris.”

The Superdome was the city’s shelter of last resort and quickly deteriorated into an apocalyptic hell for the 50,000 evacuees stuck at the SMG-managed building. The smell was the worst – imagine armies of sweat-soaked refugees, surrounded by their own sewage, becoming increasingly desperate as each day passed. Ten people died at the Superdome, including several elderly evacuees.

One man killed himself. Another was likely murdered. Looking back, Thornton believes the loss of life would have been far worse if the backup generator had failed.

Rising flood waters that had seeped inside the building were threatening to submerge the small unit powering the Superdome’s backup lighting system.

“That would have meant no light in the building, which would have kicked off a panic” and led to dozens, maybe hundreds, of people being trampled to death, he said. Working with the 225th Engineering Division of the National Guard and a team of NOPD cadets, Thorton and his team quickly sandbagged the area to prevent the rising waters from taking out the generator.

A cadet was assigned to monitor the flood waters and mark the wall each time the water rose. Thorton estimated his team only had eight inches to spare – if the water levels rose five inches, he’d have to begin an evacuation of the building.

Later that day, Mayor Ray Nagin came to check out the building and delivered more bad news to Thorton. The levy failures were worse than he thought and Mayor Nagin asked Thorton if he and the 50,000 evacuees could hold out another six days.

“Mr. Mayor, this place won’t be here in six days,” he remembers telling Nagin. “We’re running out of food and water, there’s no functioning toilets and there’s water everywhere,” he said.

Thorton and his crew were able to only hold out for two more days; by Thursday, the SMG team had lost total control of the building.

Eventually buses arrived to begin the long process of rescuing the evacuees, and Thorton boarded a helicopter and said goodbye. “As I flew out that last day, I never will forget seeing the roof firsthand and I knew what I was leaving inside,” he said. “As we flew out over New Orleans, I could see many homes and businesses with floodwater reaching to the rooftops. I thought we had lost the city – and I was not sure that I’d ever be back.”