Hurricane Katrina : Timeline of Events

Áine on September 3rd, 2005 filed in Politics

This timeline comes to us from Sam Seder of Majority Report Radio. I’ve added a little additional material to it. (OK, a lot.)

Thursday, August 25th and Friday, August 26th - The Beginnings of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina hit Florida late Thursday, August 25th, as a Category 1 hurricane. 9 people were killed. The storm then moved into the Gulf of Mexico, where it gained momentum and power. Below is a timeline of events over the next few days as the Bush administration ignored one of the biggest natural disasters ever to strike the United States.

George W. Bush still hasn’t made time to talk with Cindy Sheehan in Crawford, but he somehow found time in his schedule to invite the White House press corps over for fried catfish and Shiner Bock last night (25th). If you haven’t heard about the shindig yet, there’s a reason for that: Reporters were invited to hang poolside with the president on one condition — that they not report on any conversations that happened there.

As of today, 1,873 Americans have died in the war.

If the war in Iraq is a futile cause, we have a hard time understanding how more deaths can provide any additional honor for the lives that have already been lost. If 1,873 Americans have died in vain, then they have died in vain, regardless whether another 10 or a hundred or a thousand die after them. Cindy Sheehan said that she and her supporters are honoring the dead by working for peace.

Saturday, August 27th

Forecasters are predicting that Hurricane Katrina will hit Louisiana and Mississipi early Monday – and that it probably would be a Category 3 or 4 storm. Gulf Coast communities began to ask their residents to evacuate. Meteorologist warn that Katrina has the potential to be a major hurricane.

Bush was at his vacation home in Crawford, Texas – avoiding Cindy Sheehan and the dueling protests outside his ranch. He delivered his weekly radio address – asking for patience in Iraq – and saying that it will take more time for U.S. troops to complete their work in Iraq.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas — which is apparently made up mostly of the family of a man named Fred Phelps, but which echoes, albeit in a slightly uglier fashion, some of the wisdom of Jerry Falwell — turned out for the funerals of Tennessee National Guard Staff Sgt. Asbury Fred Hawn II, 35, and Spc. Gary Reese Jr., 22, the AP reports. With shouts and signs, the AP says, the church members conveyed messages like “God hates fags” and “God hates you.”

5pm – Mayor Ray Nagin called for a voluntary evacuation of the city. Greyhound & Amtrak stop service in New Orleans late Saturday Night.

Sunday, August 28th

At 11am - Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans. Experts predict that Hurricane Katrina will hit the city with all the force and power of a Category 5 storm – and that 60-80% of the city’s homes will be destroyed. Note that there is no Greyhound or Amtrak service, since they stopped service the night before.

“All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario,” Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

Bush is still on vacation at his Crawford ranch. He holds a press conference in a helicopter hanger at his Crawford Texas Ranch – taking a moment to urge Gulf Coast residents to evacuate before hailing the Iraqi draft constitution an inspiring success.

Governors of Louisiana and Mississippi request aid and additional security forces from the federal government. Louisiana Governor’s request (.pdf format).

Monday, August 29th

Katrina hit land at 6:10am.

The storm hammered the Gulf Coast with huge waves and tree-bending winds. Exploding transformers lit up the predawn sky in Mobile, Ala., while tree limbs littered roads and a blinding rain whipped up sand on the deserted beach of Gulfport, Miss.

Katrina’s fury also was felt at the Louisiana Superdome, which became the shelter of last resort for the area’s poor, homeless and frail.

Electrical power at the Superdome failed at 5:02 a.m., but the backup power runs only reduced lighting and cannot run the air conditioning.

Entire neighborhoods were submerged up to the roofs. Numerous people had to be rescued from rooftops and attics as the floodwaters rose higher and higher.

President Bush hits the road to promote prescription-drug plan to Medicare recipients. His first stop is Arizona, where he eats birthday cake with Senator John McCain and talks to senior citizens in Phoenix at a golf resort. Elsewhere, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) issued a statement blasting the Bush prescription-drug plan as “a fatally flawed” law that “includes billions in subsidies for HMOs and big drug companies at the expense of the Medicare program that seniors know and trust.”

In late afternoon, there are early reports of broken levees. The National Weather Service reported that a levee broke on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line.

President Bush travels to Southern California to talk to more seniors about changes to Medicare. He also plays golf. He spends the evening in San Diego to prepare for a Tuesday speech commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the end of World War Two.

Tuesday, August 30th

Breaches in at least two levees allowed water from Lake Pontchartrain to inundate sections of New Orleans. Officials planned to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags into the breach. Those helicopters were diverted to rescue missions.

An estimated 80 percent of New Orleans was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places, with miles and miles of homes swamped.

Unknown number of deaths.

Thousands remained in New Orleans Superdome, where storm ripped two holes in the vast roof; authorities forbid them to leave.

With a San Diego naval base and the USS Ronald Reagan as a backdrop, the president made a speech to celebrate the anniversary of V-J day two weeks after the actual Aug. 14, 1945 anniversary. He compared WWII to Iraq and gave a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting: protection of the Iraq’s vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorists. He spends 90 seconds of a 40 minute speech on Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans Mayor, former Mayor, and Louisiana’s governor make continued appeals for Federal Aid.

Afterwards, President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country Singer Mark Wills, backstage following his visit to Naval Base Coronado, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. He then flies back to his vacation home in Crawford.

As of today, 1,877 Americans have died in the war.

Wednesday August 31st

Bush heads back to Washington today. Pressed on what Bush could do in Washington that he couldn’t do in Crawford, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said: “We’ll talk to you all later. We’ve got to go. Thank you.”

President Bush exhibited his fundamental ignorance of what was happening in New Orleans when he told ABC’s Diane Sawyer Wednesday morning that he supported a “zero-tolerance” policy for looters, even for those merely seeking food and water.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says Hurricane Katrina probably killed thousands of people - an estimate that, if accurate, would make the storm the nation’s deadliest natural disaster since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Bodies are starting to pile up at the morgue in Mississippi’s Harrison County, with 40 corpses having been brought there already. Authorities have said the final death toll in the county will end up well above 100.

Health and Human Services Department declares a public health emergency, sends medical supplies, hospital beds and public health officers.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco asks the White House to send more people to help with evacuations and rescues, thereby freeing up National Guardsmen to stop out-of-control looters.

President George W. Bush and his top advisers held a video conference on the Gulf Coast disaster. Most of the staff was still on vacation and away from Washington. Afterwards he flew back to Washington to coordinate the federal response.

Bush cut short his working vacation in Texas by two days. Vice President Dick Cheney was still on vacation in Wyoming. White House chief of staff Andy Card was still in Maine

As Bush returns to Washington he does a flyover of devastated areas on Air Force One.

The President makes a recess appointment. RNC sends a desperate appeal to cut the estate tax. Hastert says it’s a bad idea to rebuild New Orleans.

More than 20 countries offer aid.

Columbia Christians for Life : The storm, the group says on Tuesday, is God’s way of punishing Louisiana for having 10 abortion clinics. On Wednesday, strike that, they’ve changed their minds - God sent Katrina after Louisiana to prevent Southern Decadence, an annual gay-themed bash that was scheduled for Labor Day weekend in New Orleans.

That evening Condi Rice goes to see Spamalot.

Thursday, September 1st

In the face of report after report that the levees were known to be vulnerable – Bush does an interview on Good Morning America and tells Diane Sawyer that no one expected the levees to break.

Looting, carjacking and other violence spread in the Gulf Coast region, with even rescuers being attacked.

The New Orleans mayor estimated the death toll in his city to be in the hundreds if not thousands. He pleaded for buses and supplies for survivors, saying, “This is a desperate SOS.”

Half a day after the military began evacuating the Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. Evacuees thinking it’s the best place to get a ride out of town poured into the Superdome and swelled the crowd to about 30,000.

Frustration grew among the thousands still awaiting help at the New Orleans Convention Center, where bodies lie among the living. Earlier, helicopter transfers of the sick and injured at the Superdome were suspended amid security concerns. No food, water, or aid was allowed into New Orleans, all traffic in or out was stopped by the National Guard.

Radio traffic among police and national guard troops on the scene in New Orleans indicates a total lack of coordination, malfunctioning gps units, and apparently no one coordinating search and rescue or relief efforts.

Bush discusses relief efforts with Diane Sawyer – plans to tour area.

1pm - Condi Rice goes Shopping for Shoes on 5th Ave. in NYC

Dick Cheney is still on vacation.

By the end of the day, approximately 7400 National Guard troops were to be in Louisiana, up from 4700 that morning.

The Senate convenes to issue and approve a $10.5 billion Katrina aid package; the measure is then sent to the House.

Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Wednesday that it “doesn’t make sense” to rebuild New Orleans. “It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed,” he said. Hastert’s office backtracked Thursday. It put out a statement in which Hastert said he was “not advocating that the city be abandoned or relocated,” and a spokesman said the speaker was only “asking the questions everyone is asking.”

Dennis Hastert goes to a fundraiser in Indiana.

Ken Mehlman sent an e-mail to supporters urging them to support a bill repealing the estate tax, which is scheduled for a hearing in Congress next week. Repealing the estate tax would reduce government revenue by up to $400 billion over the next decade, according to the Tax Policy Center.

In an interview with ABC, President Bush said the U.S. was not seeking foreign assistance. “This country is going to rise up and take care of it,” he said.

Friday, September 2nd

Mayor to feds: ‘Get off your asses’ - In the early morning hours, a desperate Mayor Nagin said in an interview with WWL Radio that federal officials “don’t have a clue” about what’s actually happening in New Orleans.

President Bush, facing criticism of the government response to Hurricane Katrina, acknowledges the results are “unacceptable” as he tours the Gulf Coast, and makes a stop at the airport at New Orleans. Two days back from his vacation and four days after Katrina struck, Bush vowed: “We’ll get on top of this situation. And we’re going to help the people that need help.”

Coincidentally (?) at the same time Bush arrives, Armed National Guard and regular U.S. Army troops try to restore order to the chaos in New Orleans, bringing emergency supplies for the desperate survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Virtually everything that’s happened in New Orleans since Katrina struck was forecast by experts and in computer models, so specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared.

NPR’s Robert Siegel seemed stunned when Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff suggested that the stories reporters were filing on conditions at the convention center amounted to a “rumor” that shouldn’t be believed.

Michael D. Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, defended his agency’s slow delivery of help to thousands of residents stranded at the convention center by saying that the federal government “did not even know about the convention center people until today.” Anyone watching cable news networks or following the disaster on internet news sites knew.

On ABC’s “Nightline,” an incredulous Ted Koppel asked Brown if FEMA staff didn’t watch television: The networks have been reporting on the refugees at the convention center since Tuesday.

Black leaders condemn the slow response to the devastation caused by Katrina and say poor and mostly black storm victims in New Orleans bear the brunt of the suffering.

Louisiana’s Republican senator, David Vitter, bluntly castigated the performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “FEMA has been completely dysfunctional and is completely overwhelmed, and I don’t know why,” he said. “It seems like there was no coherent plan, which I don’t understand because this precise scenario has been predicted for 20 years.”

Evacuation of Superdome continued and no more survivors were being accepted at the site, Houston Astrodome full, buses redirected to other cities.

Laura Bush wrapped up a press conference at a sparkling clean and orderly refugee center in Lafayette, La. In a remarkable bit of understatement, she observed: “This doesn’t really look like what we’re seeing on television.” What about the people still stuck in New Orleans? Bush was asked about the fact that most of them are poor and black. That’s just the way it is, she said. “This is what happens when there’s a natural disaster of this scope,” Bush said. “The poorer people are usually in the neighborhoods that are the lowest or the most exposed or the most vulnerable. Their housing is the most vulnerable to natural disaster. And that is just always what happens.”

A bus carrying refugees from New Orleans overturned on a Louisiana highway, killing one of them and wounding at least 12 others.

Private donations to U.S. charities bringing meals, water and shelter to victims of Hurricane Katrina soar past $200 million.

The U.S. House approves $10.5 billion in emergency aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, clearing it for enactment by Bush, who later signs the measure. That’s less than what the United States spends in two months in Iraq — and about one-twentieth of what the U.S. has spent on the war so far.

More than 50 countries have pledged money or other assistance to help Americans recover from the hurricane. Pledges of help included $1 million in fuel aid from Venezuela, Castro offered to send 1,100 doctors from Cuba, generators from Japan, and cash from Australia. Others offered boats, aircraft, medical supplies and blankets. Even impoverished Sri Lanka made a $25,000 donation, a gesture in recognition of Americans’ response to last year’s tsunami. The world asks how the Americans were able to take food and water so quickly to remote Indonesia and cannot save New Orleans.

Condi Rice plans visit to Alabama.

Hastert, who questioned earlier this week whether it would “make sense” for the federal government to spend money rebuilding New Orleans, was back in his home district, where he announced that the federal government is going to provide $1.84 million to build a road extension in the village of Annawan, Ill. “Illinois,” he said, “is finally getting their fair share.”

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has asked Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to table talk of the estate tax in the wake of Katrina, saying that members of the Senate “would have great difficulty explaining why we were debating the estate tax during our first days back when we know hundreds of thousands of families are suffering.”

As of today, 1,883 Americans have died in the war.

Saturday, September 3rd

Bush Tries for Damage Control : In a rare Saturday morning radio broadcast from the White House Rose Garden, President Bush announced he is sending additional troops to the Gulf Coast. He admitted “more can be done.”

The city, its levees breached, remains mostly underwater and without power or drinking water. The president used the visits, four days after Katrina came ashore, to defend his administration after the mayor of New Orleans angrily accused it of responding slowly and with inadequate resources — charges echoed by other political leaders, including prominent Republicans and the Congressional Black Caucus.

Images of the Victims Spark a Racial Debate : Some say authorities’ response time is affected by the victims’ skin color. Others say such accusations are a distraction right now.

As they begin to patrol the chaotic city, troops are surprised by what they don’t find : Met by Despair, Not Violence. Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, commander of the military emergency relief effort, said the news media had exaggerated the dangers.

News coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina turned confrontational, as many reporters shed their stance of neutrality and joined numerous commentators in criticizing local, state, and federal officials for their seemingly slow reaction to the calamity.

Lawmakers direct their anger at the White House and FEMA, which some say should be separated from Homeland Security.

Houston: ‘Shelters Full’ - With an estimated 100,000 evacuees, the city struggles to find enough space. Texas announces plans to accommodate thousands elsewhere.

At the New Orleans convention center, thousands waited days cut off until Friday, they said, from food, water and medicine. By nightfall on Saturday, almost 19,000 had been evacuated, according to the National Guard.

The Superdome was cleared of nearly all the evacuees by Saturday.

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., issued a statement criticizing the president for using the disaster and his visit for a photo op, having witnessed the staging of the event at one of the levees in New Orleans. “…desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment.”

Sunday, September 4th

Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, broke down on NBC’s “Meet the Press” when he talked about people who drowned waiting for the cavalry that didn’t show up in time.

Where Most See a Weather System, Some See Divine Retribution. Christian Right… err… Christian, RIGHT?

Groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter of New Orleans, forming “tribes” and dividing up the labor.

Nearing 1/4 million evacuees, Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered emergency officials to airlift some to other states. They are confronted with paperwork before even being offered a shower and clean clothes.

President Bush hasn’t let a day go by without a public event or photo op devoted to the storm. Monday will be no different. The Times-Picayune writes Bush an Open Letter.

Congressional hearings are likely, as the list of critics - both Republicans and Democrats - who say the feds were a no-show for days want to know what went wrong and why.

Homeland Security Sec Michael Chertoff took up the administration’s cause Sunday, dispatched to appear on all 5 network interview shows after damage-control efforts by the head of FEMA, Michael Brown, were met with jeers and disbelief last week.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., lashed back at those pointing fingers of blame at local officials, saying she won’t tolerate federal officials’ denigrating local efforts to deal with the catastrophe. Many see New Orleans Mayor Nagin as a hero, untrained in disaster control, he got things done while the feds stood around doing nothing.

Death toll : “I think it’s evident it’s in the thousands,” said HHS Sec Michael Leavitt.

No surprise : Cheney’s former company, Halliburton got the contract to restore power and rebuild naval bases in Mississippi.

Economists worry : Consumers aren’t in a festive mood. No one’s buying the “Go Shopping” therapy this time.

As of today, 1,888 Americans have died in the war.

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For the third time since George W. Bush became president, Americans are paying a catastrophic price for bad government.
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[Information will be added to this entry as I find it. Suggestions welcome.]

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