Revisiting the time she broke down on “Good Morning America” whereas masking Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of her hometown Move Christian, Mississippi, Robin Roberts mentioned she feared dropping her job.
Solely three months after she was named a bunch of the ABC Information present with trade vets Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer, Roberts had performed it straight on the Gulf Coast. That is what reporters do: they preserve a lid on feelings to get the work carried out. Then Gibson requested, throughout a dwell shot, if Roberts had decided that her mom and different members of the family have been protected.
A lot for skilled reserve.
“It’s one thing if you shed a tear, but I was boo-hooing,” Roberts mentioned. “I was delighted that in the end people were touched by that in a way that I wasn’t expecting, that it was authenticity. That was proof that they just want you to be real in the moment.”
That clip of a a lot youthful Roberts — nonetheless a “Good Morning America” host — is replayed on her ABC Information particular wanting again at Katrina after 20 years. It airs Friday at 8 p.m. Jap and is streamed on Disney+ and Hulu beginning the subsequent day.
Roberts, 64, has been again within the area extra occasions than she will depend since then, each to report and go to household. Her mom, Lucimarian, died in 2012 at age 88. Her sister Sally-Ann, a longtime information anchor in New Orleans, has retired.
“I still can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” she mentioned. “Two decades. Going through the old footage was a little PTSD. You kind of blocked some of that out.”
Within the particular, Roberts retraces the journey she took from New Orleans to Move Christian 20 years in the past. There are fewer “staircases to nowhere” alongside the best way, proof of destroyed properties, every time she’s again. However remnants from Katrina are nonetheless there.
Retracing her steps again to hometown
She excursions Move Christian with the longtime former mayor, Chipper McDermott. They go to her rebuilt highschool — recognizing the image of Roberts on show — and the brand new model of a favourite household restaurant that had been washed away.
McDermott reveals new properties with residing areas constructed 20 toes within the air to guard towards future storm surges. “A lot of people say, ‘why would you live in a place where you have to live on stilts?’” Roberts mentioned. “It’s home. Pick anywhere in the world where Mother Nature can’t have the upper hand at some point. But home is home.”
Roberts needed to pay tribute each to individuals who stayed within the space and rebuilt, and individuals who got here to the Gulf within the storm’s instant aftermath to assist.
“It took a lot of strength to raise our hands and say we need help,” she mentioned. “It’s very hard for Southerners to do that. We like to do it on our own. We did a lot on our own, but we got a lot of help. And we’re very appreciative of that help.”
The particular does not ignore powerful points, like financial inequality within the tempo of rebuilding. Some reasonably priced housing was changed by inns and casinos. One efficient phase visits a New Orleans photographer, Jeremy Tauriac, and musician, Jasmine Batiste, who have been kids when rescued from Katrina and talked concerning the difficulties rebuilding their lives.
There’s music, too. What would a go to to New Orleans be with out it? Roberts talks with Harry Connick Jr., Trombone Shorty and Branford Marsalis.
“It is different, in some ways, of course,” Roberts mentioned. “Nothing stays the same, especially after something like that. But the heart and soul of what New Orleans is? It didn’t touch that.”
___
David Bauder writes concerning the intersection of media and leisure for the AP. Observe him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
