The Passion: New Orleans Perry emphasized the significance of using the city of New Orleans as the setting for the special; drawing parallels between Hurricane Katrina and the resurrection of Jesus, he stated that New Orleans had "literally [risen] again from a liquid grave." The special was an American adaptation of a Dutch television special of the same name, which has been broadcast annually since 2011, and was, in turn, a localized version of the BBC's 2006 special "Manchester Passion". Creator Jacco Doornbos, who conceptualized the special in 2007 after learning that only 25% of people in the Netherlands were aware of the story
Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans Hurricane Ivan's threat to the city resulted in the largest evacuation of the city to date. Mayor Ray Nagin issued a call for a voluntary evacuation of the city at 6 pm on September 13. An estimated 600,000 or more evacuated from Greater New Orleans. The contraflow plan was put into full effect for the first time, but rather late in the evacuation due to various confusions. This proved valuable practice, for the contraflow was implemented much more smoothly in 2005. Hurricane Pam was a hypothetical hurricane used as a disaster scenario to drive planning for a 13-parish area in