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The Katrina Files: Wildlife And Fisheries & A Bridge To Nowhere

WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio | By Paul Maassen,
Mark Cave
Published August 5, 2015 at 1:00 PM EDT

This month, as part of WWNO's ongoing Katrina+10 coverage, we bring you The Katrina Files: Reflections of First Responders — selections from oral histories conducted by The Historic New Orleans Collection and hosted by Paul Maassen.

Click here to listen to the first installment of The Katrina Files.

This episode features interviews from 2008 with agents and biologists from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

On August 29, 2005 theLDWFagents assembled in Baton Rouge to travel to New Orleans as soon as the storm passed. They established a boat rescue operation at the St. Claude Avenue Bridge in the 9th Ward by that Monday afternoon, but things were more chaotic than expected.

Children are triaged after being rescued from the Lower 9th Ward.
LDWF, Via Historic New Orleans Collection /
Children are triaged after being rescued from the Lower 9th Ward.
Members of the LDWF worked around the clock to pull families from Katrina floodwaters.
LDWF, Via Historic New Orleans Collection /
Members of the LDWF worked around the clock to pull families from Katrina floodwaters.

Copyright 2015 WWNO - New Orleans Public Radio
Louisiana News
Paul Maassen
Paul arrived at WWNO as general manager in March 2008. Since his arrival, Paul has strengthened the station’s finances, introduced new national news and information programs, revamped the digital WWNO2 schedule to complement 89.9, and launched digital WWNO3 as an all-jazz channel. He has placed new emphasis on WWNO’s role in the community, devoting resources to local news reporting and cultural features, and encouraging new collaborations among New Orleans’ cultural organizations and the region’s public media. Paul began his radio career in metropolitan New York – New Jersey, where, over eleven years, he served as on-air personality, operations manager, and program director for four commercial stations. In 1998 he became general manager of WNTI, a public station in Hackettstown, NJ affiliated with Centenary College, where he managed an all-volunteer staff. In 2005 he moved to the Dayton, OH area to serve as general manager of WYSO.
See stories by Paul Maassen
Mark Cave