Examines Hurricane Katrina Survivors Challenging Yet Sometimes Triumphant Journey From New Orleans To Their New Homes and Lives In Houston

An Estimated 200,000 People Fled to Houston After The Storm Devastated Their City.

Nearly Three Years Later, Many Remain And Are Still Trying Recover

After the storm, the country pledged never to forget the lessons of Katrina,
and yet we have already moved on – Marc Morial, President/CEO of the National Urban League.

Houston, TX – Following one of the worst natural and humanitarian disasters to ever hit American soil, hundreds of thousands of Americans were transported out of New Orleans to cities around the country. Most of the evacuees took asylum in Houston. Today, Houston is still home for many of the survivors who desperately want to move beyond the storm.
The Storm Inside, is a hurricane of a documentary that has all of the elements necessary to inspire movement. Katrina became more powerful as it became organized. “The Storm Inside” our city and inside our survivors forced Houston to organize it’s social service system and forced the survivors of Hurricane Katrina to organize their lives and priorities in order to survive in their new environment.
The Storm Inside will sweep you away with the politics of disaster response, the hospitality of a neighboring city, the ongoing struggle for both communities to live as one and countless stories of loss, sadness, victory and hope. This documentary takes an intimate look inside the lives of displaced survivors living in and around Houston nearly three years after the floodwaters created their new reality.
Unlike other post-Katrina documentaries, The Storm Inside focuses on the survivors’ collective story of starting over in the fourth largest city in the country and their challenges. It seeks to answer the question “why don’t they just go home” and make Americans aware of their efforts and the roadblocks they continue to face. This is also a story about a large metropolitan city pooling its resources to provide the necessary support and care for its new residents.
Through hours and hours of interviews and conversations, the unanswered questions of recovery go far beyond the survivors and victims of Hurricane Katrina. The compelling stories should inspire all Americans to demand answers from our government about polices that govern disaster response and long term plans for recovery. Houston may very well become an example for cities around the country as it relates to handling catastrophic disasters.
Ruqayya Gibson, the Director and Executive Producer, has been intimately involved with the survivors since the first buses arrived at the Astrodome. As Executive Director of one of the agencies collaborating to provide services and on-going support, she knows first hand what the challenges and successes are. “After working with so many survivors, getting to know them and seeing what they’ve endured I really wanted to tell their story,” Gibson said. “No one has ever told the story of what’s happening in Houston for both the survivors and the city and that’s what inspired me to create The Storm Inside. Whether we realize it or not, we have all been changed by Hurricane Katrina.”