Survivors of one of the nation's worst natural disasters open up about their experiences in SURVIVING KATRINA, a two-hour special premiering Sunday, Aug. 27, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the Discovery Channel. Emergency phone calls, never-before-seen home video from the Superdome, and analysis of the meteorological superpower combined with heart-wrenching interviews and vivid reconstructions will shed new light on the dark days of August 2005, when a hurricane changed America.

Profiles of ordinary Americans who forged ahead through death-filled waters, mass confusion and devastation to save others and unite with loved ones provide a new face to the tragedy one year later. SURVIVING KATRINA covers the perfect storm of nature, science, politics and extreme human experience with a range of stories and interviews from all major aspects of the disaster, including Charity Hospital, the Convention Center and Superdome, and with former FEMA Director Michael Brown.

Viewers will meet a doctor who, forced to take matters literally into his own hands, performs open chest surgery on a patient without anesthesia and using only a flashlight, and the patient who lives to thank him; a brother-and-sister team who make a harrowing road trip to rescue loved ones on their own; and a National Guardsman who took on surreal and horrific conditions in the Superdome. Survivors who watched their homes wash away and whose lives changed forever share with viewers the inspiration that kept them going and the unbridled joy they felt when finally reunited with their families.