Hooked, lied to and snookered

“R&B; icon Fats Domino menaced by killer shark in his flooded New Orleans home!” OK, we made that one up, but these Katrina rumors gulled reporters and became urban legends.

-- SWATI PANDEY

Land sharks

Legend: Sharks from Lake Pontchartrain and local aquariums swam through flooded streets, according to early September reports in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and London’s Independent.

Likely source: Local officials claimed to have spotted a 3-foot shark.

True? Unconfirmed. Sharks do live in Lake Pontchartrain, and several died in their tanks at the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, according to a Times account Sept. 10. But whether they were spotted in city streets remains a mystery.

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Deadly dolphins

Legend: Navy-trained dolphins armed with toxic dart guns roamed the Gulf of Mexico after a storm surge swamped their coastal compound, reported London’s Observer on Sept. 25, 2005.

Likely source: The Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Miss., lost eight Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in the storm, and the Navy helped round them up.

True? No. The Navy denies losing any dolphins, armed or otherwise.

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Dynamited dams

Legend: Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said in mid-September that a levee “may have been blown up to destroy the black part of town and keep the white part dry.” Witnesses claimed to have heard explosions.

Likely source: This myth has a real-life precedent. Levees were dynamited during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 to ease flooding in New Orleans. Water inundated St. Bernard Parish instead.

True? No. Though the urban legend persists, engineers agree that the explosion-like sounds were the levees giving way.

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Refugees run amok

Legend: New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told Oprah Winfrey on Sept. 6 that he had been “in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.” Early September accounts from The Times and other papers noted reports of rapes in the Superdome and the convention center.

Likely source: Exaggerated claims from city officials probably led to the spread of rumors.

True? No. Four of the Katrina dead died of gunshot wounds, according to a Sept. 27, 2005, Times report. One body, found in the Superdome, likely was brought in; another was found in the convention center. There were no substantiated reports of rape, according to officials.

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Police intimidation

Legend: New Orleans residents, fleeing the flooded city over a Mississippi River bridge to nearby Gretna, were turned back by its police officers, who fired over their heads, the Socialist Worker reported Sept. 9.

Likely source: Two emergency responders in the crowd first wrote about the incident.

True? Yes. Gretna evacuated about 6,000 people before rifle-toting local police closed the bridge. Gretna Police Chief Arthur S. Lawson Jr. confirmed that his officers fired shots into the air. On Aug. 3, Orleans Parish Dist. Atty. Eddie Jordan announced a grand jury investigation.

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Helicopters under fire

Legend: Snipers shot at rescue helicopters as they attempted to pluck stranded residents off rooftops, National Public Radio and CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported Sept. 1.

Likely source: Helicopters were briefly grounded after rescue workers and a Coast Guard spokesman reported shots fired at them.

True? No. There’s no evidence shots were fired at rescue helicopters. “The hysteria about the sniper was so crazy,” Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in mid-September.