Cached Katrina news reports BEFORE landfall (Aug 27-Aug 29)

Times-Picayune (cached) ^ | Aug 27-29 | Times-Picayune

[xrhopsiomega]

http://www.geocities.com/alpomega@sbcglobal.net/TimesPicayune_Aug27_29_2005b.html
Here is a cached web page with of a bunch of news briefs from BEFORE Katrina reached New Orleans. It is interesting and a bit unsetteling to read it knowing the end result. However, it does provide insight into the planning and mindset before the hurricane struck. I have to admit that I had thought the planning at the time seemed well done.

Here are some quotes made before the hurricane hit:

Saturday, August 27, 2005

* The mayor said he would stick with the state's evacuation plan and not officially call for residents to leave until 30 hours before expected landfall, allowing residents in low-lying surrounding areas to leave first. But he recommended residents in low-lying areas of the city, such as Algiers and the 9th Ward, get a heard start. We want you to take this a little more seriously and start moving right now, as a matter of fact, Nagin said.

* Nagin said the city would open the Superdome as a shelter of last resort for evacuees with special needs. He advised anyone planning to stay there to bring there own food, drinks and other comforts such as folding chairs, as if planning to go camping. No weapons, no large items, and bring small quanties of food for three or four days, to be safe, he said. Police Chief Eddie Compass said he and Nagin will likely call a curfew at some point, and would station police officers at shopping centers to prevent looting. Looters will be dealt with severly and harshly and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, he said.

* LSU scientists took projected tracks of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday evening and produced a frightening scenario: A wall of water surging in from all sides pushing up against the urban levees.
[From all the worst-case predictions I've read, they only mentioned flooding from storm surges overtopping the levees. FEMA probably was correct in saying that no one expected to have the levees actually break.]

* The city has set up ten pickup areas to take people to emergency shelters. RTA buses will be picking up citizens for free and take them to these shelters.
[There has been a lot discussed about not busing the poor as planned. It could be that their busing plan wsa to only take people to the shelters]

Sunday, August 28, 2005

* New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called for a first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city this morning...
...The city has 30 boats at its disposal, the mayor said.

* The governor also said that President Bush had telephoned shortly before the 9:30 a.m. press conference began. She said Bush said he was very concerned about the storm's impact and urged Blanco and Nagin to order the evacuation.

* "I want to emphasize, the first choice of every citizen should be to leave the city, he said. He noted that the Dome is likely to be without power for days and possibly weeks after the storm fits, and said it will not be a comfortable place."

* The mayor urged residents to check on their neighbors and offer them help, in particular senior citizens. This is an opportunity for us to come together in a way we've never done before, he said.

* While officials were mostly concerned about preparing for the storm's impact, there was also some discussion of its aftermath.[yikes]

* 'Louisiana's senators thank Bush, urge tour Louisiana's U.S. senators' - Mary Landrieu and David Vitter - today sent a joint letter to President Bush, thanking him for his declaration of emergency in the state and his public comments urging residents to flee Hurricane Katrina. They also urged the president "respectfully but in the strongest possible terms to tour the devastated area as soon as practical," a visit they said would reassure residents that federal agencies are focused on helping the area recover.[Wow. The exact same people who are now complaining the Presidents visit was a photo-op]

* About 26,000 New Orleans residents sought refuge from Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome, which authorities describe as the "shelter of last resort," Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu said late Sunday. To help keep them fed and hydrated, the Louisiana National Guard delivered three truckloads of water and seven truckloads of MREs short for "meals ready to eat." That's enough to supply 15,000 people for three days,

[One last note: If the NO mayor kept calling the Superdome the "refuge of last resort", does it hold refugees or evacuees? Who would have thought linguistics would a big story in the USA's largest disaster?]

[Howlin]

FYI.

[DB]

As far as the levee failure is concerned, who knows if something big like a barge hit the levee wall during the storm and damaged it. A good question would be were there any barges (or other floating platforms) in the canal that could have hit it or is it strictly for water management.

[Paleo Conservative]

At what time were winds clocked as category 5?

[IrishCatholic]

I heard this only once on CNN tonight. The levees did not fail. All the breaks shown were in flood control channels with the flood control walls breaking, not the levees.
I think this is important and being glossed over with the blame game the Dems are playing against the President. The videos show the sandbags being dropped by these walls that are only two feet thick on top. They had a NO levee expert on saying the earthen levees are all intact. If this is accurate it puts all the hysteria on federal funding of the levees to an end. Hopefully this will be picked up on.

[skr]

Very interesting.

[Echo Talon]

He doesn't mind cussing now, maybe if he would have had some urgency in his voice BEFORE it hit more people would have taken him seriously and evacuated?
Maybe something like, "Hey suckas this is the f'n big one! You betta be Audi5000 when this thing hits or your gonna be starvin' with the sh*ts!"

I think that would have gotten their attention.

[xrhopsiomega]

Winds were 160 mph, Category 5, at 10pm Sunday.
At 2am Monday, It was slightly less and a category 4

[Lokibob]

bump for reference

[rineaux]

I think one reason for the breach at 17 canal was the fact the City had been working on a 50 ft bridge span, that crossed the canal, for about 3 years. Corp was most likely involved too. NO KIDDING.

A simple bridge. The levee was just temporary dividers until the bridge was complete. Lazy, city construction projects.

When the water rose, the pressure from the lake and canal broke the dividers, the pumps close to the levee were swallowed (sunk) making them inoperative.

Bucktown and Lakeview were the area affected the most by this canal.

The incompetence of this project resulted in many lives and homes lost.

[garbanzo]

The one of the pre-landfall NWS bulletins was certainly apocalyptic enough in tone that if a person didn't listen to that, they weren't going to listen to anything. Some people are just plain stubborn like that.

[ExTexasRedhead]

It's way past time for Republicans and the Administration to stop putting up with the garbage that Liberal (all) Democrats and the media keep spitting out. Catch them in their lies and distortions and tell it how it is. Not only is Liberalism a mental disorder--it's un-American and destroying our country.

[thegreatbeast]

Nagin said the city would open the Superdome as a shelter of last resort for evacuees with special needs. He advised anyone planning to stay there to bring there own food, drinks and other comforts such as folding chairs, as if planning to go camping. No weapons, no large items, and bring small quanties of food for three or four days, to be safe, he said. Police Chief Eddie Compass said he and Nagin will likely call a curfew at some point, and would station police officers at shopping centers to prevent looting. Looters will be dealt with severly and harshly and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, he said.

That one never got out of the gate, huh?

[Echo Talon]

I guess.

[expatguy]

Nagin ended up condoning looting and on two occasions even went so far as to tell people to just "take whatever they need".

It was at this point that the City of New Orleans decended into anarchy.

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[IrishRainy]

Hopefully, it will...but then again nothing will satisfy these clowns...er, liberals.

Sorry! I meant no disrespect to actual circus clowns....

[LucyJo]

Bump to save.

[lefty-lie-spy]

B-bump

[LibFreeOrDie]

Well, here's what I heard on WWL-TV last weekend,and posted on 8/28:

"The Superdome is the shelter of last resort" - Mayor of NO on WWL-TV. "Even if we round up the buses, where do we send people?" (Replay of interview from the previous night)
Posted on 08/28/2005 6:00:14 AM PDT

(Well, we know now that the Mayor had hundreds of yellow school buses available, but apparently he was waiting for Greyhound to volunteer!)

*****
According to the Mayor and the weatherman on WWL-TV, the levees were only 15 feet high when they were built, and have since settled to about 13 ft high. And they're just earthen levees. Debris - boats, pieces of structures - carried by the storm surge and waves will just punch holes into the levees. The city pumps water out to Lake Pontchartrain, but the hurricane winds will force water from the lake back into the city.

From http://www.weather.com/newscenter/specialreports/hurricanes/vulnerablecities/neworleans.html

"The levees that protect the city from flooding are also a flood threat themselves. "The biggest threat that the city has is that of a slow moving Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricane, which would create a surge of water that could be up to 30 feet high. Now if this (high) water comes into the city, it will top the levees. It will go over the top of the levees and actually fill up the city," "

*******
According to officials from Plaquemines Parish, the levees have never been tested against a Cat 3, so they're not counting on them even for that intensity.

Posted on 08/28/2005 8:18:26 AM PDT
*******

Here are aerial photos of damage. Click the second "New Orleans" button to see photo of broken levee. When CNN is saying no levees broke, perhaps they mean the ones along the Mississippi River?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9149055/site/newsweek/

[neuroconservative]

Thanks for putting this together. In light of the activity on Saturday the 27th, it is interesting that the New York Times ran not a single article on Hurricane Katrina the day before it struck (the 28th). This, despite the paper's editorial claim that "everyone knew [the disaster] was coming." I have the rather amusing details up on my blog.