StormStock Now Exclusive Source for World’s Best Katrina Footage

Veteran storm cinematographer Martin Lisius battled fierce winds and  catastrophic flooding to capture the fury of Hurricane Katrina on film as the historic storm made landfall on the US coast in August 2005. Lisius shoots for StormStock, the world’s largest storm footage library which he founded in 1993.  He acknowledges the uniqueness of Katrina. “It occurred to me the day before Katrina made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico that it had potential to become the costliest storm in US history. It has since captured that title.”

The material photographed by Lisius on Super 35mm and HD video was recently made exclusive to StormStock. Some TV and film producers consider it among the best hurricane footage ever shot.

“We were able to capture the usual things like horizontal rain, trees bending over and debris flying through the air and scraping across the ground,” Lisius said. “But the most amazing scene we encountered was in Moss Point, Mississippi where we came upon a parking lot that was flooding with storm surge and covering cars. People were stranded inside the hotel there, staring down from the upper floors when a high water rescue team arrived. The team, from the local fire department, battled winds gusting to 100 mph to search each vehicle. It made for some very powerful imagery.”

“Katrina was an impressive hurricane from a scientific point of view,” Lisius said. “Unfortunately, there was a high level of human suffering associated with it unlike any other US storm since the Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900. I thought that event, which killed 8000, would not be duplicated again considering our modern day ability to forecast, track and effectively evacuate for dangerous storms. We did well on forecasting and tracking Katrina, but failed to effectively evacuate. That’s unacceptable.”

The StormStock team photographs extreme weather footage for licensed use in film and television productions. Footage can be viewed, licensed and downloaded at www.stormstock.com. Clients that require personal service can e-mail the staff at info@stormstock.com or call (817) 276-9500.