Floodlines

Floodlines is Vann R. Newkirk II’s history of Hurricane Katrina as it was lived in New Orleans, not as a montage of rooftops.

The Atlantic series uses interviews and archival audio to follow the days when the water rose and the years when the story about those days hardened.

Newkirk is from the Gulf. The narration knows which details outsiders treat as color. The series is about a flood, a federal failure, and the argument over what to call either one.

Eight parts, chronological. The rebirth language arrives late, and it sounds different once you have heard the week itself.