Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[PIANO MUSIC PLAYING]
HARRY SHEARER (OFFSCREEN): We're back in New Orleans
meeting some people I know telling us their stories about
the last couple years since the city flooded.
Today, it's David Torkanowsky, pianist, composer
extraordinaire--
jazz, R&B, funk, whatever you like.
His dad was a symphony conductor, his mom was a
flamenco dancer, and he's a character and a half.
So Tork, what brought you to the Hotel Monteleone in the
days after the storm?
-Um, I waited too long to evacuate.
I was securing my house and I didn't feel like staying on
the highway for eight hours to drive to Baton Rouge.
I knew the family that owned the hotel, and it's been here
since 1886, so I figured it's not going anywhere.
I evacuated vertically, like many New Orleanians do, have
done in the past.
-Yeah.
And what floor--
-I mean, all-- all the hotels open up to pets and animals.
It's kind of cool.
-What floor were you on?
-The 12th.
-Well, let's go, let's go see what evacuating vertically
felt like.
-All right, good.
-You knew from having played here, a gig here?
-Right, right.
And you know, my mother was a flamenco artist who--
her troupe danced here as well.
-Wow, really?
-See, the thing is, the hotel didn't have any electricity,
except for the elevators and some hall lights.
There was no A/C, so the rooms were very stifling.
And everybody was gathered around on these steps with a
little AM radio.
In the beginning, it was a sense of
kind of refugee community.
You know, you might think evacuating to a hotel, oh,
yeah, really rough.
But the conditions were, you know, not very hotel-like.
-And they were getting worse day by day?
-It did-- it really did degenerate.
There were two events, it's important to understand-- the
hurricane, and this was the right decision.
When the levees broke right after and the water came up,
this was not the place to be.
-Why don't you take me to your room?
-All right, it was right over here.
-I mean, back then.
-OK, Harry.
-Did you have running water?
-Didn't.
They told us to fill up the tubs while the power was still
on for any drinking water we might want.
I'm not sure I want to drink out of a hotel tub, so--
-Well, beats the toilet.
-Yeah.
-This is where we passed the storm.
And this building had been here since 1884.
I'm not exaggerating--
the chandelier moved this much--
-Wow.
-During the storm.
And you know, you kind of felt like you were in Whittier
during the earthquake or something.
I mean, it was pretty amazing.
What had happened was little bits of the Superdome roof had
broken off and become projectiles and took out all
the windows in the downtown area high-rises.
Later on in the day, there was something kind of touching.
There was a little flotilla of little flat boats with what I
can only describe as rednecks being led by a tugboat down
the Mississippi River, going to rescue people
in the Ninth Ward.
It was kind of touching.
-So just going past your window like that?
-Right.
-And were you just sitting in here all day looking out at
it?
-I was.
I did manage to get WWL Radio to report a fire, what I
thought was a fire, at the aquarium right there.
-How does the aquarium have a fire?
-Well, that's what I--
I don't know.
But apparently it was a diesel generator just on the other
side of it.
I mean, looking at a big puff of smoke, either that or the
aquatic life just elected a new pope.
I wasn't sure.
These roofs, these flat roofs you see, were pealing up like
fabric being taken off of a stripper, if I may say so.
-And that was, that was still wind?
Or that was water happening?
-No, that was violent, violent wind.
-Wow.
Were you scared?
-Yeah.
-Yeah?
-Yeah.
I left that afternoon while it was still gale force winds.
And you can see Canal Place over there, where I had my
vehicles parked.
And I took my four-wheel drive truck and made it to my house.
And it was at that point I noticed that there were
geysers in the middle of the street the diameter of
manholes that were about four feet in the air.
And water was coming into the city.
And I thought, something ain't right.
Thursday-- this is the day after I left-- they put
everybody out on the street.
They had to walk to the convention center.
-Right.
So what-- what drove you out of this hotel?
-Gunshots.
-How did you get out of here?
-My car was parked in Canal Place.
I went and got it, and the scene--
-OK.
You went and got it.
You walked?
-I walked--
I was going to do it Tuesday night, but it was pitch black.
And there were-- just outside where you could see from the
hotel, I heard there were gangs, people getting robbed
at gunpoint.
And I said, well, you know, I'll wait
till tomorrow morning.
It was a mob scene out here.
Cars coming and going.
There were news photographers.
I went and got my car because I was bringing a family to the
Houston Airport.
The water's edge ended at Bourbon Street.
From here to the river was dry, as far as flood.
-OK.
So a lot of people are coming here because this is dry land.
-Correct.
So any car that pulled up, people were banging on the
hoods, please, take us.
Please, take us.
And you know, my car was full already with belongings and,
and people I was already taking out.
So it was weird.
It was like the evacuation of Saigon or something
HARRY SHEARER (OFFSCREEN): And you're driving
through a crowd of people?
DAVID TORKANOWSKY (OFFSCREEN): Yes.
It was definitely Soylent Green, trying
to get out of here.
And luckily the ramp to the bridge was high ground between
here and there, so I didn't have any water to traverse.
And then once we got up on the bridge, all we had to deal
with was the Gretna police shooting over our heads.
-And you-- you experienced that too?
-I heard it.
-You heard the shooting?
-Yeah.
-And what did you think, when you heard it?
-I thought--
I thought, am I going fast enough?
I went out to different musicians' houses who asked me
to go get their instruments.
HARRY SHEARER (OFFSCREEN): You're doing that while the
city is still water--
watered, as they--
DAVID TORKANOWSKY (OFFSCREEN): Right.
But I had a four-wheel drive truck so I could get around,
and I manufactured credentials at Kinko's and bought a little
flashing yellow light for my truck, put it in my window.
Disaster Response Team Leader.
-So you're doing this for how many days?
-Two to three weeks?
-Two to three weeks?
You're just going to get musicians' stuff--
-I'm going to check on my mama's house, I'm
checking on my house.
Some of it's with canoe.
You know, I remember paddling in a canoe and hitting an
underwater , obstruction thinking it was
the top of a car.
And it wasn't.
It was--
-A body?
-Mmhm.
HARRY SHEARER (OFFSCREEN): Who else were you seeing?
Other people.
Who else--
-People that-- that stayed throughout, that defied
National Guard guns in their face.
You know, these people just over from Iraq.
I'm, I'm gonna tell you again, one more time, sir.
You have to go.
You know.
So it's scary.
I worked on my mother's house first, got that happening.
And that was about a year ago.
And I'm finishing up my house now.
-So two years.
-Yeah.
-Nice two years.
-I mean, so many of my friends lost family members and
irreplaceable instruments in the storm.
I didn't lose anything I can't buy at Home
Depot, so I'm very lucky.