A timeline of government response to Hurricane Katrina

Please add to or correct the following events, as needed. Please provide appropriate links to original source documents or interviews. Please do not link to or include hearsay.

June 23-27, 2002

In June 2002, the New Orleans Times-Picayune produced a five-part series examining what would happen to the city if a major hurricane struck.
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/

Quote: In the past year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have begun working with state and local agencies to devise plans on what to do if a Category 5 hurricane strikes New Orleans.

Shortly after he took office, FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh ordered aides to examine the nation's potential major catastrophes, including the New Orleans scenario.

"Catastrophic disasters are best defined in that they totally outstrip local and state resources, which is why the federal government needs to play a role," Allbaugh said. "There are a half-dozen or so contingencies around the nation that cause me great concern, and one of them is right there in your back yard."

July 23, 2004

FEMA concludes "Hurricane Pam" drill.
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=13051

Quote: Hurricane Pam brought sustained winds of 120 mph, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of southeast Louisiana and storm surge that topped levees in the New Orleans area. More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings. Emergency officials from 50 parish, state, federal and volunteer organizations faced this scenario during a five-day exercise held this week at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge.

The exercise used realistic weather and damage information developed by the National Weather Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the LSU Hurricane Center and other state and federal agencies to help officials develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana.

We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts," said Ron Castleman, FEMA Regional Director. "Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies."

Friday, August 26, 2005

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco declares state of emergency.
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Blanco asks President Bush to declare federal state of emergency for Louisiana.
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

Bush complies.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html

Quote: The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin orders a voluntary evacuation of all residents from the city of New Orleans.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Nagin makes his evacuation order mandatory. For residents who lack the means to leave the city, Nagin orders the Superdome opened as a shelter of last resort.

National Hurricane Center forecasters brief President Bush via video conference on Katrina, then a Category 5 storm, and its expected impact.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/08/30/State/For_forecasting_chief.shtml

Monday, August 29, 2005

Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana and Mississippi coast as a category 4 storm. A reported 9,000 people are in the Superdome.

FEMA press release: 'First Responders Urged Not To Respond To Hurricane Impact Areas Unless Dispatched By State, Local Authorities'
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

Quote: Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), today urged all fire and emergency services departments not to respond to counties and states affected by Hurricane Katrina without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities under mutual aid agreements and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.

Five hours after the hurricane hit, FEMA chief Michael Brown asks Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff for approval to send 1,000 Homeland Security workers within 48 hours to the Gulf Coast to provide assistance.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_disaster_response

Bush appears in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. for talk on prescription drugs for seniors.
http://www2.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_2984228

17th Street Canal levee breaks.
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/t-p/katrina.ssf?/hurricane/katrina/stories/083005_a1_risingwater.html

Quote: A large section of the vital 17th Street Canal levee, where it connects to the brand new ‘hurricane proof’ Old Hammond Highway bridge, gave way late Monday morning in Bucktown after Katrina’s fiercest winds were well north.

The breach sent a churning sea of water from Lake Pontchartrain coursing across Lakeview and into Mid-City, Carrollton, Gentilly, City Park and neighborhoods farther south and east.

As night fell on a devastated region, the water was still rising in the city, and nobody was willing to predict when it would stop. After the destruction already apparent in the wake of Katrina, the American Red Cross was mobilizing for what regional officials were calling the largest recovery operation in the organization’s history.

The Red Cross, while providing relief and support across the Gulf Coast, did not enter New Orleans to provide relief at the Superdome, or any other victim shelter in the city.
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Bush appears in Coronado, Calif. for a V-J Day commemoration.
http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/capm10208301856

The Coast Guard reports that it has rescued some 1,200 people from rooftops around the area.

The number of evacuees in the Superdome swells to 20,000, as people rescued or left homeless throughout the city are brought to the stadium. Gov. Blanco says the Superdome will have to be evacuated.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Evacuation of the Superdome begins.

Thursday, September 1, 2005

Bush tells "Good Morning America" that "I don’t think anyone anticipated a breach of the levees."

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff claims "we have a tremendous array of forces that are currently deployed in New Orleans," as cable TV networks show live images of looting, Superdome residents awaiting evacuation and people stranded without food and water throughout the city.
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4779

Friday, September 2, 2005

President Bush takes aerial tour of New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076468

Relief copters grounded in New Orleans during Bush visit
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_09.html#076556

Saturday, September 3, 2005

Construction equipment removed from broken levee after Bush visit.
http://landrieu.senate.gov/releases/05/2005903E12.html

Sunday, September 4, 2005

More than 4,600 active duty military personnel join almost 27,000 National Guard troops in Louisiana for disaster relief.
http://www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=7847

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard lambastes FEMA's response on NBC's "Meet the Press"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/

Quote: We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

More than 1,000 firefighters from around the country, responding to a FEMA appeal for help on the Gulf Coast, are held in Atlanta for training as community relations workers for FEMA.
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_3004197

Quote: "There are all of these guys with all of this training and we're sending them out to hand out a phone number," an Oregon firefighter said. "They [the hurricane victims] are screaming for help and this day [of FEMA training] was a waste."

Firefighters say they want to brave the heat, the debris-littered roads, the poisonous cottonmouth snakes and fire ants and travel into pockets of Louisiana where many people have yet to receive emergency aid.

But as specific orders began arriving to the firefighters in Atlanta, a team of 50 Monday morning quickly was ushered onto a flight headed for Louisiana. The crew's first assignment: to stand beside President Bush as he tours devastated areas.

Monday, September 5, 2005

Workers plug the breach in the 17th Street Canal.

Do have anything to add to or correct? E-mail the editor at rniles(at)usc.edu.

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