The Digital Journalist
© Ted Jackson/The New Orleans Times Picayune
CHALMETTE Late Monday afternoon, reporter Brian Thevenot and I headed out for Chalmette on the eastern edge of the city in a civilian rescue boat. Water reached the roof line of every home in sight. People cried out for help, waved towels from windows, shot off flares, virtually anything they could think of to attract attention. It was hard to comprehend what we were seeing. Brian tried to size up the devastation and muttered, "It can't get any worse than this." We didn't know that the 17th Street Canal levee in Lakeview was beginning to leak, and would soon become a 500-foot-wide breach. Brian wouldn't regret his words until the next morning.