“Cajundome City” film to premier at Louisiana’s LITE Center
With crammed shelters in Louisiana forced to turn away busloads of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in 2005, then-Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco enlisted the Cajundome.
The venue’s transformation from a home to sporting events and concerts to a makeshift home for about 18,500 people total over the course of 58 days is examined in a new documentary film.
“Cajundome City: Hurricane Katrina and America’s First Mega-Shelter” will premiere at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 25, at the University of Louisiana’s LITE Center, 537 Cajundome Blvd. A social at 6 p.m. will precede the free screening.
Acadian House Publishing and Vidox Motion Imagery collaborated to make “Cajundome City.” It explores how the country’s first large-scale, long-term shelter with a medical clinic, pharmacy, commissary and post office was established and functioned.
Evacuees began arriving the Cajundome on Aug. 30, 2005, the day after Katrina struck. It provided a roof but no supplies, including cots. “The needs of the evacuees were far greater than our ability to service those needs,” former Cajundome director Greg Davis explains in the film.
Dr. Paul Azar, who directed the Cajundome’s medical clinic, says in the film that medical issues were of great concern. “We had people that were diabetics that hadn’t had their medicine in three days. Just about anything in medicine that you could imagine.”
Throngs of community volunteers quickly stepped in, working alongside military leaders, American Red Cross volunteers and public officials. Local health care professionals donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and medicine, and coordinated health care.
Community members who, all told, would number in the thousands donated supplies, time and labor. “We made a call out to our community for them to bring us things that evacuees needed and they responded,” Davis says.
The International Association of Venue Managers asked Cajundome officials to document its procedures and processes following its time as a shelter. The resulting operations manual is a model for disasters that require large evacuations and extended shelter.
The film comes after a book from Acadian House Publishing in 2017 – “The Day of the Cajundome Mega-Shelter: The Small City that Sprang Up in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina.” “Cajundome city” melds recent interviews of evacuees and volunteers with past interviews and archival footage.
“Like the book, the film will resonate with many in the community. People have heard the Katrina story and so many aspects of it for a long time, but no one has ever done a film about the Cajundome’s role,” Trent Angers, Acadian House publisher and editor, said during a recent interview.
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