‘Five Days at Memorial’: How Katrina forced life-or-death decisions at a New Orleans hospital

Dr. Anna Pou (Vera Farmiga, left) and hospital colleagues watch the flood waters rise in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in “Five Days at Memorial.” (Apple TV+)

On numerous occasions throughout its eight-episode run, the gripping and at times emotionally exhausting Apple TV+ series “Five Days at Memorial” is reminiscent of 1970s disaster films such as “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno,” in that a catastrophic event occurs and we follow a disparate group of people who will have to make some incredibly stressful, life-or-death decisions as they try to survive. In scene after scene, the special and practical effects create viscerally effective, heart-pounding scenarios.

Here’s the monumental difference. The aforementioned movies were pure fiction, and often relied on soap opera melodramatics and borderline camp storylines set against the backdrop of calamity, whereas “Five Days at Memorial” is an interpretation of real-life events in New Orleans in 2005, when the floods from Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed Memorial Medical Center, trapping thousands of patients and health care professionals for days.