Podcast Summary: "The Hurricane Betsy Conspiracy: New Orleans"

American History Hit
Host: Don Wildman
Guest: Andy Horowitz (Historian, Author of "Katrina: A History, 1915-2015")
Release Date: November 13, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Don Wildman and historian Andy Horowitz explore the impact and legacy of Hurricane Betsy—the catastrophic storm that struck New Orleans in 1965—and the conspiracy theories that followed in its aftermath. The episode delves deeply into the complex geography, history, and social dynamics that made New Orleans particularly vulnerable to hurricanes, drawing strong parallels with Hurricane Katrina 40 years later. Horowitz, drawing on his acclaimed book, discusses how disasters are not just natural phenomena but are shaped by historical and social forces, and he examines the roots and legacy of mistrust between New Orleans’ Black communities and the authorities tasked with their protection.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Unique Geography and Vulnerability of New Orleans

• Bowl-Shaped City Surrounded by Water
  • New Orleans sits at the Mississippi River’s end, bordered by Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico ([06:11]).
  • Most of the city is below sea level except for the “natural levee” along the Mississippi.
  • "New Orleans is at the end of the Mississippi river and it's essentially a coastal city...Its early colonial inhabitants thought of New Orleans as an island..." – Andy Horowitz ([06:11])
• Transformation of Land and Wetlands
  • The city relied historically on wetlands for storm surge protection.
  • Wetland loss was accelerated by levee construction (preventing sediment deposition) and the oil industry canal-building, which led to saltwater intrusion and the destruction of protective marshes ([07:38]).
  • "As oil was discovered... oil companies just carved up those wetlands and built canals. The saltwater killed the grass.... And over the course of the 20th century, some 2,000 square miles of Louisiana have disappeared." – Andy Horowitz ([07:38])

2. Social and Demographic Context: The Ninth Ward

• Ward System and Population Shifts
  • Wards are simply New Orleans’ version of city districts ([11:14]).
  • The Ninth Ward—especially post-WWII—became a predominantly middle-class, African American neighborhood due to white flight ([12:34]).
  • “The Ninth Ward was a place for African Americans in New Orleans who were on the economic ascent. This is a middle class neighborhood...these were a lot of the people who were building their new homes in the lower ninth." – Andy Horowitz ([13:28])
  • Notably, Fats Domino built a celebrated home in the Lower Ninth Ward in 1960.
• Role of Drainage and Development
  • The city’s growth depended on draining swamps and constructing a sophisticated pump system, modeled after Dutch engineering ([18:38]).
  • While it enabled city growth, the system created an illusion of safety.

3. Hurricane Betsy’s Impact (September 9–10, 1965)

• Storm Strikes
  • Hurricane Betsy made landfall as a Category 4, hitting New Orleans overnight with 125+ mph winds ([21:02]).
  • Poor forecasting caught many off-guard.
  • "It was probably a Category 4 storm, 130 mile per hour winds when it made landfall... Not only did it land in the middle of the night, it took a number of people by surprise, sort of how strong it was and that it came over New Orleans at all." – Andy Horowitz ([21:02])
• Engineering Catastrophe
  • Betsy’s storm surge pushed waters through the city’s canals, overwhelming floodwalls and inundating the Ninth Ward ([22:16]).
  • Industrial Canal floodwall failures caused catastrophic flooding—especially in the Lower Ninth, a predominantly Black, middle-class neighborhood.
  • "On the east side of the Industrial Canal, the flood walls in many places just collapse. And so water floods in at a much higher, at a fatal velocity into the Lower Ninth Ward and floods thousands of people there and kills dozens of people there as well." – Andy Horowitz ([22:16])
  • 76 people drowned; 164,000 residents were flooded ([23:29]–[23:33]).
• Aftermath and Suffering
  • Floodwaters remained for over a week, creating intolerable living conditions.
  • The overwhelming losses were borne by Black residents in the Lower Ninth, fueling anger and suspicion.

4. Racism, Mistrust, and the Levee Bombing Conspiracy

• Historical Precedents and Paranoia
  • Many Black residents believed the levee was bombed to save white neighborhoods, a fear rooted in fact: during the 1927 flood, officials purposefully destroyed levees to divert flooding ([25:56]).
  • "In 1927... the governor had proudly bombed the levee... and it was done in broad daylight. The Louisiana State engineers used dynamite and filmed themselves doing it..." – Andy Horowitz ([25:56])
• Contemporary Reality and Conspiracy
  • No evidence of deliberate dynamiting in 1965, but officials did take action that increased flooding in the Lower Ninth (e.g., closing a siphon to trap water) ([28:14]).
  • “It is a decision by the city to choose to make the flood higher in the Lower Ninth, you know, in order to lower flood levels in the Upper Ninth. So this is... exactly what the people in the neighborhood claimed happened.” – Andy Horowitz ([28:14])
• Generational Trauma
  • Mistrust stems from repeated governmental decisions that sacrificed Black and poor residents’ safety for others’ benefit.
  • "When you see patterns in history... what we're observing are structures of power that remain constant over time." – Andy Horowitz ([36:00])

5. Recovery, Federal Policy, and the Legacy of Injustice

• Post-Betsy Recovery and Policy Failures
  • Desire for grants for relocation/reparation was unmet; instead, residents forced into debt via loans using their flooded property as collateral, obligating them to rebuild in place ([33:00]).
  • "It was the federal policy that essentially forced them to rebuild in the Lower Ninth... They had petitioned against it... warned the people with power... were ignored and were forced to live in that kind of peril." – Andy Horowitz ([33:00])
• Birth of the National Flood Insurance Program
  • Betsy led to congressional action, creating the program so disaster relief could be handled (in theory) sustainably ([36:54]).
  • However, the new levee system—Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Program—was underfunded, poorly executed, and incomplete when Katrina hit ([38:37]).
  • "The Army Corps in an internal audit... called the Hurricane Protection System, quote, 'a system in name only.'" – Andy Horowitz ([38:37])

6. Katrina, Repetition, and the Lessons of History

• History Repeated
  • Betsy’s lessons went unheeded; the same communities were devastated in Katrina ([39:24]).
  • "They lived there because the federal government, in significant ways, made them [stay] and they had petitioned against it." – Andy Horowitz ([39:24])
• Broader Warning
  • Floods struck not only the poorest but the postwar, middle-class city—the very product of 20th-century development ([39:58]).
  • "It wasn't black New Orleans rather than white New Orleans... It was just 20th century New Orleans that flooded... The siren of Katrina's warning should really ring for anybody... who relies in some way on public investment..." – Andy Horowitz ([39:58])
• Future Outlook and Climate Crisis
  • New Orleans remains at risk; though post-Katrina levees are more robust, they’re not rated to withstand storms as powerful as Betsy or Katrina ([41:28]).
  • Similar vulnerabilities exist nationwide as climate change intensifies storms and exposes more Americans to risk.
  • "Of course New Orleans has an expiration date. I would not venture to say when it is. Every summer could be New Orleans last..." – Andy Horowitz ([41:28])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Illusion of Safety:
  "It was a technological marvel and Louisianans were quite proud of it... gave the illusion anyway that New Orleans had finally conquered its topography." – Andy Horowitz ([19:02])

• Disasters as Historical, Not Natural, Events:
  "You can't start the story of a flood with a broken levee because somebody had to build the levee before it could break. And...it helps events like this that can seem senseless...make sense, which is the real purpose of history, isn't it?" – Andy Horowitz ([20:04])

• On Repetition of Disaster and Policy Failure:
  "They understood this to be, in one way or another, the government's fault... [their] letters that I was talking about...were very difficult to read—physically—because they had flooded in Katrina..." – Andy Horowitz ([33:00])

• On Infrastructure and Inequality:
  "It's not that lower ninth's gonna flood every 40 years because there's some sort of cosmic rhythm to the thing. It's that the Army Corps has never adequately secured this city..." – Andy Horowitz ([36:00])

• On National Significance:
  "There are more people...living in the Hundred year floodplain in New York City than do in New Orleans. And so...everybody...should be lobbying...for better protections, better infrastructure protections..." – Andy Horowitz ([41:28])

Major Timestamps

• [05:15] – Introduction to the topic and guest
• [06:11] – Why New Orleans’ geography is so vulnerable
• [07:38] – Impact of levees and oil industry on coastal erosion
• [11:14] – Demographic shifts and the Ninth Ward
• [13:28] – Middle-class Black communities in the Lower Ninth
• [18:38] – The pump and drainage system; illusion of control
• [21:02] – Hurricane Betsy strikes: timing, impact
• [22:16] – How the flooding unfolded, engineering failures
• [25:56] – Historical memory of levee bombings (1927, 1965 beliefs)
• [28:14] – Contemporary actions increasing flooding in the Lower Ninth
• [33:00] – Post-Betsy recovery policy and resident activism
• [36:54] – Policy outcomes: flood insurance, levee system failures
• [39:58] – Lessons from the repeated disasters, the American city at risk
• [41:28] – Current risks, climate change, and the uncertain future

Conclusion

This episode of American History Hit provides a compelling, meticulously researched narrative that connects the disasters of Hurricane Betsy and Katrina through the lenses of geography, history, race, policy, and social memory. Andy Horowitz’s insights illuminate how natural disasters in New Orleans were shaped and worsened by historical decisions, flawed infrastructure, and entrenched inequalities—lessons that echo powerfully in today’s era of worsening climate crises.

“The siren of Katrina’s warning should really ring for anybody... who relies in some way on public investment to make their neighborhood possible, because that’s who’s at risk now.” – Andy Horowitz ([39:58])