The Hurricane Betsy Conspiracy: New Orleans

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Did New Orleans' officials bomb the levees protecting the Lower Ninth Ward in 1965?

When Hurricane Betsy swept through the Atlantic Basin, it killed at least 76 people, led to a 10 foot storm surge, and was the first tropical cyclone to cause $1 billion worth of damages.

It also left many of the residents of New Orleans wondering, was all that damage really natural? Or had the authorities given it a helping hand?

Andy Horowitz, author of 'Katrina: A History, 1915-2015' joins Don for this episode to explore where this conspiracy theory came from, and whether there is any truth to it.

Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Freddy Chick.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Since 8 p.m., the wind has been growling around the house, rattling the doors and windows in their frames.
0:09.0	There is a pressure drop to the atmosphere. You can feel the strange gloom overtaking us.
0:16.0	By nightfall, the wind increases to a steady roar, less weather than jet engine. And the air, now charged,
0:24.6	seems to be trembling. We are hunkered down for the real forces yet to come. Shortly before dark,
0:31.4	the lights flicker and die. In the blackout, the world is simply sound and shadow. Trees groaning, debris clattering down the streets.
0:41.3	There are bluish arcs like lightning as power transformers blow and lines flail in the wind.
0:48.8	It's September 9th, 1965, and New Orleans, Louisiana, meet Hurricane Betsy.
1:06.7	Hello, all. Welcome to this episode of American History hit. I'm Don Wildman. We are coming to you in the late stretch of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to September every year. Normally, this time of year is when things start to calm down, but normal is a relative term anymore, and storms seem to boil up and linger less predictably. As we record today, Hurricane Melissa is
1:29.1	rampaging through the Caribbean at Category 5 wind speeds, topping 185 miles per hour and the like,
1:36.8	heading past Jamaica today and towards Cuba and likely the Bahamas, images that are hard to conceive
1:42.9	when you see them on the news. Of course,
1:45.4	these storms are a reality every year to one degree or another, and back in 1965, there was
1:51.5	Hurricane Betsy, one of the worst. After crossing the Florida panhandle, Betsy veered west towards
1:58.2	New Orleans, and like Katrina, 40 years later, it made life very hard
2:02.9	in the Big Easy. In fundamental ways, the story of Betsy previewed Katrina and demonstrated how
2:08.3	deeply seated and generational the challenges are for that town so many of us love so much.
2:14.6	Our guests today rides on these wins. American historian and author Andy Horowitz
2:19.5	won the bankruptcy in 2021 for his book Katrina, A History, 1915 to 2015, all about the flooding
2:27.3	caused by Katrina and her aftermath. It was named Book of the Year by Louisiana Endowment
2:32.4	for the Humanities. Dr. Horowitz is an associate
2:35.2	professor of history at University of Connecticut and serves as the Connecticut state historian.
2:40.8	Andy Horowitz, glad to meet you, sir. Thanks so much for having me. We're going to be focused in this
	...

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