Katrina Timeline

Katrina Timeline
What happened, from my view point
Today and Now - well i got to go now.... i am heading to the DC Armory to help out with the work in Washington DC
Sept 4th 2005 - New Orleans is now Ghost City. Not many people left.
Sept 3rd 2005 - Lots of help. A lot of complains. But that is to be expected. Help cannot be everywhere at the sametime. But one only wishes these complaints were the ones we heard on Aug 30th 2005. Not a whole week after the storm hit the city.
Sept 2nd 2005 - Finally some help. 5 days after the hurricane crosses land. Thats worse than the response by countries like India, Sri Lanka, Thailand etc when the Tsunami hit their coasts.
Sept 2nd 2005 - George is finally down on the ground in MS. But flys over New Orleans !! Why ?
Sept 2nd 2005 - Mayor Ray Nagin blasts the feds: "Get Off Your Asses And Let's Do Something".
Sept 1st 2005 - No help. Lot of talk.
Aug 31st 2005 - No help yet. Its self help. TV channels are worried about looting, when people are dying. Some credit to CNN, to highlight the fact 'what else can you expect people to do'
Aug 30th 2005 - The storm is long gone... now the wait begins for help
Aug 29th 2005 - 2 pm - Levee Breaks, flooding New Orleans and the sorrounding Parishes
Aug 29th 2005 - 12 Noon - It seems ok. The worst seems to be over. Or is it.
Aug 29th 2005 - at 6:10 am - Katrina meets New Orleans,again missing New Orleans very very closely.
Aug 28th 2005 - The wait continues... will it... will it not. The evacuation is at full swing. People are storming into the SuperDome.
Aug 27th 2005 - Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana - White House declaration of 'State of Emergency' ( I am also posting this statement, just in case, our good friends take it off their web site soon)
Aug 27th 2005 - Evacuation of New Orleans. Is this the Big One ? Or will this also be another 'wannabe'. (I am introduced to the word 'Contraflow'. But the weather tracking chart shows a dead-aim target on NewOrleans)
Aug 26th 2005 - Katrina grows in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Emergency Warnings for the entire coastline from Florida to Alabama to Louisiana
Aug 25th 2005 - Katrina - Hits Florida as Category 1 Hurricane, crossing land over the same place as Hurricane Andrew did in 1992
Aug 23rd 2005 - Tropical Depression 12 is named Katrina
Aug 17th 2005 - Weather Channel's Stu Ostro emails warning on TD-10
Aug 14th 2005 - Tropical Depression 10 Dissipiates
Aug 13th 2005 - Tropical Depression 10
Courtsey - The Weather Channel and a few other sources on the internet

Some Near Misses

2002 - Hurricane Lilly - crosses land near Intercoastal Louisiana
1998 - Hurricane Georges - Hits Biloxi, after targeting New Orleans
1992 - Hurricane Andrew - Misses New Orleans, after completely destroying most of Florida (This is personal, my closest experience to a Hurricane in the US, and my experience as a survivor of a storm that never hit the Big Easy. But today, after seeing pictures of Katrina, i wonder what would have happened to me and my wife, if Andrew did come to land on New Orleans.)
1969 - Hurricane Camille - Misses New Orleans to smash into the Mississippi Coast
1965 - Hurricane Betsy - a direct hit on New Orleans



Early Warnings

PBS show on effects of a Category-5 storm on New Orleans.
The City in a Bowl - Sept 20th 2002 - PBS
"Well, when the exercise was completed it was evident that we were going to lose a lot of people we changed the name of the storm from Delaney to K-Y-A-G-B... kiss your ass goodbye... because anybody who was here as that Category Five storm came across... was gone." - WALTER MAESTRI

Article on Editor & Publisher
Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues
by Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News.
I am still searching for the original Times Picayune article. - ck

The foretelling of a deadly disaster in New Orleans
FEMA ranked hurricane scenario highly likely in '01
New Orleans in sinking - Dec 1st 2001 - Houston Cronichle
"So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country." - Eric Berger