The Great Deluge

by Douglas Brinkley

  7:11 A.M. Telephone service fails in southeastern Louisiana, as landlines and most cell phone towers are affected by the storm.

  7:50 A.M. A massive storm surge sends water over the Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet (MRGO) and the Industrial Canal, causing immediate flooding in St. Bernard Parish and eastern neighborhoods of New Orleans. Water levels in most areas are 10 to 15 feet. In some places, the water is so deep that police officers in boats have to steer carefully around streetlights. Ninety-five percent of the parish is underwater.

  8:00 A.M. The eye of the hurricane is passing 40 miles to the southeast of New Orleans (29.7 N by 89.6 W), with a forward speed of only 15 mph. Winds are blowing steadily at almost 135 mph; the hurricane has grown in width with hurricane-force winds at least 100 miles from the eye. Katrina is a Category 4 storm, affecting all of southeast Louisiana. Winds and rain are also beginning to tear into the Mississippi Coast.

  Mayor Nagin appears on NBC’s Today show and, in the midst of an otherwise upbeat report, asserts that water is coming through the levees in places: “We will have significant flooding, it is just a matter of how much.”

  The Waveland Police Department building is pounded by water.

  8:14 A.M. The Industrial Canal is breached, flooding the Lower Ninth Ward.

  8:15 A.M. Water rises so quickly at St. Rita’s Nursing Facility in St. Bernard Parish that it overtakes bedridden patients. Thirty-five will die during the next half hour.

  The water inside the Waveland police headquarters has risen 3 feet in fifteen minutes. The twenty-seven people make their way and end up swimming for something solid to which they can cling.

  8:30 A.M. Hurricane Katrina pushes a 25-foot storm surge into the flat, unprotected Mississippi Coast.

  9:00 A.M. Two holes open up in the Superdome roof. The 8-mile-long bridge connecting New Orleans to Slidell along Interstate 10 is impassable, a crumpled wreck.

  9:30 A.M. In the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the water is 6 to 8 feet deep.

  9:45 A.M. The storm surge along the central part of the Mississippi Coast is now 28 feet deep.

  10:00 A.M. Hurricane Katrina makes a second landfall near Pearlington, Mississippi, at the border with Louisiana. The National Hurricane Center discontinues all hurricane watches. The eye of Katrina is moving ashore at the Louisiana-Mississippi border (30.2 N by 89.6 W). Winds are blowing steadily at almost 125 mph. Hurricane-force winds are felt 125 miles from the eye. Katrina is a Category 3 storm, moving at about 17 mph.

  10:30 A.M. President Bush declares emergency disasters in three states: Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

  10:40 A.M. The Waveland police are still clinging to the upper branches of bushes and trees, trying to survive in 10 feet of water. They will be rescued shortly.

  10:45 A.M. (approximate) President Bush calls Secretary Chertoff from Air Force One, but does not discuss the Gulf Coast, then in the throes of the hurricane. He has questions about immigration policy.

  11:00 A.M. Brown issues a memo ordering 1,000 FEMA employees to the Gulf Coast. He gives them two days to arrive. Word reaches the Emergency Operations Center in New Orleans of the breach in the 17th Street Canal levee. At the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center, located inland in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, the water is 3 feet deep. The building is 27 feet above sea level. Few other buildings in the vicinity are on such high ground.

  12:00 noon The eye of the hurricane is located 40 miles south-southwest of Hattiesburg, Mississippi (30.8 N by 89.6 W), increasing its pace to 17 mph. Winds are blowing steadily at 105 mph. Katrina is a Category 2 storm.

  The storm surge rises from the open sea, across Lake Pontchartrain, and finally over the communities on the north shore. In towns such as Lacombe and Slidell, the water is 15 to 20 feet deep.

  President Bush makes a speech in Arizona concerning Medicare reform. Michael Brown participates in a videoconference that includes Governor Blanco and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin. Brown states that he has spoken with President Bush twice during the morning. In response to a question from Hagin, Blanco says that she has not heard that any levees have breached, but that that could change at any time.

  12:15 P.M. The hurricane begins to take leave of the Mississippi coast. Barometric pressure rises so quickly that people report that their ears popped. The wind changes direction as the storm passes to the north. The same force that had been pushing water from the sea onto the land, causing the storm surge, begins to send it back in the other direction. The storm surge slowly drains from the coast.

  1:00 P.M. Mayor Nagin announces the breach of the 17th Street Canal but does not elaborate on the implication.

  1:00 P.M. (approximate) The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is the first official rescue group to begin operations in New Orleans, arriving in an initial convoy of seventy vehicles, with boats attached. Looting begins in various parts of New Orleans: Mid-City (sporting goods warehouse), Tremé (grocery store), and Uptown (hardware store).

  2:00 P.M. The eye of the hurricane is 20 miles west-southwest of Hattiesburg, Mississippi (31.4 N by 89.6 W). Winds are blowing steadily at almost 95 mph. Katrina is a Category 1 storm. U.S. Route 90 in Mississippi is covered by 7 feet of water in Harrison County, as the storm surge has yet to recede completely. People have been floating in the water or clinging to treetops since midmorning.

  3:00 P.M. Four feet of water is reported in the Lakeview section of New Orleans. With the storm proceeding to the north, the water trapped with the storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain shifts south, pressing against the levees and floodwalls protecting the city of New Orleans. The extra pressure widens the breached levees.

  4:00 P.M. The eye of the hurricane is located 30 miles northwest of Laurel, Mississippi (31.9 N by 89.6 W), moving at 18 mph. Winds are blowing steadily at 75 mph. Katrina is a Category 1 storm. The London Avenue Canal levees are breached in two places. Water is gushing into New Orleans.

  5:00 P.M. About 1,000 people rescued from flooded neighborhoods have been dropped off at the Ernest Morial Convention Center in New Orleans and told that buses would arrive to pick them up. The buses never arrive. Officials and workers inside the center, numbering about forty, tell the evacuees that there is no provision for sheltering people: no food, water, or other necessities. The doors are locked.

  6:45 P.M. The Coast Guard is conducting rescues with its initial fleet of seven helicopters.

  8:00 P.M. Governor Blanco speaks with President Bush to impress upon him the destruction caused by Katrina: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is attending a San Diego Padres baseball game, at the invitation of the team owner.

  9:27 P.M. Michael Chertoff’s chief of staff, John F. Wood, receives firsthand description of the levee breaks and the “extensive flooding” in New Orleans, courtesy of FEMA official Marty Bahamonde.

  9:30 P.M. (approximate) President Bush turns in for the night, without taking any action on the Katrina disaster or Governor Blanco’s requests for assistance.

  10:30 P.M. Homeland Security in Washington receives a message regarding Bahamonde’s firsthand description of the disastrous flooding in New Orleans.

  11:00 P.M. White House receives firsthand report of the levee breaks and the dangerous, extensive flooding in New Orleans.

  11:05 P.M. Deputy Homeland Secretary Michael Jackson receives e-mail report on Bahamonde’s account of New Orleans disaster.

  12:00 midnight (approximate) People outside the Convention Center break a door and force their way in, unlocking the other doors.

  TUESDAY, AUGUST 30

  As of Tuesday morning, people with nowhere else to go flock to the Convention Center; by the end of the day, there will be 20,000 inside.

  Patients and staff members are stranded in New Orleans hospitals, all but one of which are without power, and conditions are deteriorating. Six hundred are stuck in Charity Hospital (250 patients and 350 others), 1,200 in Tulane University Medical
Center (160 patients, 1,040 others—and 76 pets), 2,000 in Truro Infirmary (250 patients and 1,750 others), 650 in Methodist Hospital (150 patients and 500 others), and 2,060 in Memorial Medical Center (260 patients and 1,800 others).

  Eight oil refineries in Louisiana have ceased operation. They account for 8 percent of America’s refining capacity. Most offshore drilling operations are also shut down; 89 percent of production has been suspended.

  1:30 A.M. The boiler room at Tulane University Hospital, which houses the emergency generators, fills with water. Within three hours, all power is out.

  3:00 A.M. When the power fails at Methodist Hospital, volunteers, including some children, replace ventilator machines by hand-pumping air into the lungs of ailing patients, hour after hour.

  6:00 A.M. The area around the Superdome and New Orleans City Hall, which had been dry on Monday, is under 3 feet of steadily rising water.

  7:00 A.M. President Bush, in San Diego, is told of the severity of the crisis along the Gulf Coast. He is advised to end his six-week vacation early and he agrees. After finishing his appearances in California, he will return to his ranch in Texas and then return to Washington on Wednesday. In later statements, he maintains that as of Tuesday morning, he was informed that New Orleans had “dodged the bullet.”

  8:00 A.M. The number of National Guard troops on the ground in the disaster zones of their respective states is nearly 3,800 in Louisiana, more than 1,900 in Mississippi, and 800 in Alabama. In addition, Alabama has sent specialists to assist Mississippi.

  9:00 A.M. (approximate) Michael Chertoff leaves Washington for Atlanta, where he will attend a conference on avian flu. He later claims that he believed New Orleans to be safe, having read some early, positive reports in the morning newspapers. He does not explain why he ignored the dire descriptions delivered to his staff the night before.

  10:00 A.M. Mayor Nagin announces that efforts to use sandbags to block the breach in the 17th Street Canal levee have not been successful. The breach has grown to about 200 feet. Looting is reported all over New Orleans.

  10:53 A.M. Mayor Nagin decrees a mandatory evacuation for the city and empowers officers to take residents away, even against their will.

  11:00 A.M. President Bush makes remarks on the anniversary of V-J Day at the naval air station North Island in San Diego, California.

  11:30 A.M. In Louisiana and Mississippi, 1.1 million homes and other buildings are without power, according to Entergy.

  12:00 noon Fires are seen around New Orleans. The fire department struggles to reach them, let alone fight them. In Harrison County, Mississippi, 240 of the state’s National Guard troops have arrived for recovery work.

  1:00 P.M. (approximate) The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is operating more than 200 flat-bottomed boats in Greater New Orleans. “We’d load a boat with people, run to the nearest high ground or road, unload them, and go back out,” said a warden.

  1:30 P.M. Louis Armstrong International Airport is functioning again. Unscheduled flights for relief efforts use the facility.

  2:00 P.M. A casino official in Mississippi petitions the state legislature to enact changes in the regulations specifying that gambling is legal only on floating vessels; he wants inland casinos to be legalized.

  3:00 P.M. Governor Blanco, Senator Landrieu, Senator Vitter, and other officials report on conditions in southeast Louisiana. Water is still pouring into the city and streets are blocked with up to 10 feet of water.

  4:07 P.M. House Speaker Dennis Hastert suggests that Senator Trent Lott (R-Mississippi) call on President Bush to visit the Mississippi Coast, saying that “the people of Mississippi are flat on their backs. They’re going to need your help.”

  7:00 P.M. Secretary Chertoff designates the Katrina destruction an “Incident of National Significance.”

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31

  As of Wednesday morning, 78,000 people in Mississippi are living in shelters.

  Waters have stopped rising in New Orleans, as levels in the city and the lake reached parity.

  The population inside the Superdome has grown to 26,000 and officials have locked the doors.

  The temperature inside Methodist Hospital, which has been without power for more than twenty-four hours, is 106 degrees.

  The Coast Guard is continuing rescue operations with 4,000 personnel, 37 aircraft, 15 cutters, and 63 small boats.

  8:00 A.M. Two hospitals, Charity and University, lose their generators, from either flooding or lack of fuel. There is no light, air-conditioning, or power to run medical equipment. President Bush participates in a videoconference on the subject of Katrina; FEMA Director Mike Brown reports on flooding in Greater New Orleans and the breached levees.

  9:00 A.M. (approximate) Governor Blanco tries repeatedly to get a call through to the President; when he finally takes her call, she requests 40,000 troops.

  10:00 A.M. Governor Blanco makes a joint announcement with FEMA that plans have been laid to evacuate residents remaining in Greater New Orleans to the Astrodome in Houston. Air Force One flies low over the Gulf Coast, so that President Bush can see the damage. Joint Task Force Katrina, the Pentagon’s command center for disaster response, is organized at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. The person in charge is Lieutenant General Russel Honore.

  11:00 A.M. With the Superdome closed to new refugees, people with nowhere to go are now heading toward the Convention Center.

  11:30 A.M. Air Force One is seen in the skies over the Gulf Coast. President Bush sees the devastation of the Gulf Coast from the air, ordering the pilot of his official jetliner to fly low over the region.

  12:00 noon The water stops rising in New Orleans—the levels in the city and the lake have reached parity.

  12:00 noon (approximate) Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt declares that a public health emergency exists in the states affected by Katrina.

  12:15 P.M. Senator David Vitter (R-Louisiana) conveys a message to Governor Blanco from Bush political advisor Karl Rove, advising her that the White House wanted to federalize the evacuation of New Orleans.

  2:00 P.M. (approximate) Evacuation of the Superdome begins with first priority given to the 700 seriously ill and disabled people housed in the stadium. Officials finish moving them out in late evening.

  2:20 P.M. Governor Blanco telephones President Bush, informing him that federalization of the evacuation and the Louisiana National Guard will not be necessary. She asks him to announce when federal troops will arrive in the disaster zone.

  3:00 P.M. President Bush convenes a task force at the White House to discuss ways to improve the response. It meets for an hour.

  4:00 P.M. About 200 refugees from the flooded city of New Orleans are met on the Crescent City Bridge to the town of Gretna by police officers brandishing guns and shouting obscenities. The police chief, Arthur Lawson, had given orders to refuse entry to those needing help or a dry place to camp. “My obligation is to the people of Jefferson Parish,” he said.

  4:11 P.M. President Bush addresses the nation in his first speech devoted to Hurricane Katrina.

  7:00 P.M. Martial law is declared in New Orleans. Mayor Nagin pulls the police force off rescue detail and orders officers to focus entirely on controlling the looting, which has become rampant.

  THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

  As of Thursday morning, an estimated 4,000 people are stranded on the Interstate 10 overpass in New Orleans, many are elderly and sick and have been without their prescription drugs for days.

  The Convention Center houses 15,000 to 25,000 people—estimates are difficult to make—who are without supplies.

  Around the United States, the price of regular gasoline shoots past $3 per gallon, purportedly as a result of the disruption in refining in Louisiana.

  Baton Rouge has replaced New Orleans as the biggest city in Louisiana.

  2:00 A.M. The first of thousands of evacuees arrive in Houston and are welcomed into the Astrodome.

  6:12 A.M. In an int
erview on Good Morning America, Bush inexplicably says, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

  7:00 A.M. In an interview on National Public Radio, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff calls the reports of thousands of people stranded in and around the Convention Center in New Orleans “rumors,” and states, “Actually, I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the Convention Center who don’t have food and water.”

  8:00 A.M. According to a report in the morning’s Arlington Heights, Illinois Daily-Herald, House Speaker Dennis Hastert says “it doesn’t make sense” to rebuild New Orleans in the same low-lying area. “First of all your heart goes out to the people, the loss of their homes,” he told the editorial board, “but there are some real tough questions to ask about how you go about rebuilding this city.”

  10:00 A.M. (approximate) A detail of eighty-eight policemen attempt to take control of the Convention Center but are turned away.

  11:00 A.M. (approximate) Dr. Norman McSwain, chief of trauma surgery at Charity Hospital, calls the Associated Press to report that the institution has no food, barely any fresh water, and very limited power. It is being ignored by rescuers and was not on any rescue plan.

  1:44 P.M. President Bush appears in the Oval Office to introduce two presidential predecessors, his father, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, as co-chairmen of the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund. One of Bush’s associates describes him on this afternoon as “angry, tired, grumpy.”

  2:00 P.M. Mayor Nagin delivers an ultimatum to the rest of the country, on CNN. Calling his statement “a desperate SOS,” he insists that “I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need five hundred buses, man. This is a national disaster. I’ve talked directly with the President. I’ve talked to the head of the Homeland Security. I’ve talked to everybody under the sun.” The Army Corps of Engineers reports that water levels in Lake Pontchartrain are falling, meaning that the city is also draining somewhat. The Corps also says that progress is finally being made in the effort to plug the 17th Street Canal levee.