Diary of a mad hurricane: On paper, feds give an upbeat analysis
For several days as Hurricane Katrina first threatened and pounded the Gulf Coast, then flooded New Orleans, dozens of government agencies and private researchers helped predict, resist, and recover from the storm. In a series of timelines, U.S. News staffers detail the activities of:
FEMA officials: On paper, feds gave an upbeat analysis;
Climate researchers: Experts feared the worst;
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: 'It all started crashing pretty fast';
The Army's 82nd Airborne Division: A waiting game;
The Coast Guard: 'Hoisting up every vulnerable-looking thing;
The National Guard: 'We did respond with amazing speed';
State and local emergency officials: Getting through the storm;
and airborne storm chasers: A view from the eye.
Here, the FEMA officials' story:
Officials begin to realize that Katrina, having bounced off Florida, will probably only gain additional speed over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. "The hurricane just kept marching west," says Bill Lokey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's man on the spot in New Orleans. "It was like pouring gasoline on a fire." Already, the feds have contacted locals about setting up an emergency center in Baton Rouge.
SATURDAY, August 27
Lokey, a man with 19 years of disaster experience including stints as an operational coordinator for Hurricane Isabel and a rescuer at ground zero during 9/11, leaves his Washington home. He flies to the Baton Rouge Emergency Operations Center, a coordinating office from which most FEMA operations in New Orleans will be staged. He "immediately attaches to the hip" of his state counterpart, Louisiana Homeland Security Department Deputy Director Jeff Smith.
President Bush declares a federal state of emergency for Louisiana. But time is running out. A catastrophic hurricane plan that officials were in the process of developing for New Orleans in the year and half leading up to Katrina assumed 72 hours for evacuation.
"It's nice to plan like that," says a high-ranking FEMA official. "But Mother Nature isn't always so kind."
SUNDAY, August 28
FEMA chief Michael Brown leaves for the Baton Rouge command center. He's on the phone with Bush moments after landing. Brown and Lokey decide to wait out the storm in Baton Rouge. They send one FEMA employee to City Hall to scout out the scene.
MONDAY, August 29
Just before noon, Brown writes a memo to Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, a leisurely sounding missive requesting that 1,000 department employee volunteers arrive at the disaster scene in 48 hours.
"Thank you for your consideration in helping us meet our responsibilities in this near catastrophic event," Brown wrote near the bottom of his request. He also urged volunteers to bring insect repellant and plenty of cash, as "ATMs may not be working." (The memo would later get criticized widely when it is made public).
Brown issues a news release telling fire and police departments close to affected areas "not to respond" to calls for help from counties or states battered by the hurricane "without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements."
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