Katrina's Timeline


By Rudy Bickel and Nancy Matthis  |  September 2005

We have compiled a wealth of source material on the Katrina hurricane disaster, showing clearly that the blame for the terrible aftermath lies squarely at the doorsteps of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (Democrat) and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco (Democrat). We have itemized the important events along Katrina's timeline.

  United States Geological Survey - Topographical Maps, Louisiana (1995)

The federal government fulfills its responsibility to provide the State of Louisiana with the technical information needed for intelligent land use development. The large areas below sea level are clearly marked with blue icons.



Everyone who chooses to live here or to invest in property here has ample information to understand the deliberate risk that they are taking. They are living in a bowl several feet below sea level almost completely surrounded by a lake, a river, and the Gulf of Mexico. They are defended by an aging system of pipes and pumps that cannot accommodate the full force of a major hurricane. Their survival to date is the result of probabalistic luck, which could run out at any time. They choose to gamble. Their choice, their responsibility.



  Louisiana State University Research (2001)

Researchers at Louisiana State University model the effects of a hurricane for the US Army Corps of Engineers.





  City of New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Plan - ANNEX I: HURRICANES

The City of New Orleans develops an emergency preparedness plan.

,,,The Hurricane Emergency Evacuation Standard Operating Procedure is designed to deal with all case scenarios of an evacuation in response to the approach of a major hurricane towards New Orleans. It is designed to deal with the anticipation of a direct hit from a major hurricane. This includes identifying the city’s present population, its projected population, identification of at-risk populations (those living outside levee protection or in storm-surge areas, floodplains, mobile homes, etc.)...

Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the Mayor of New Orleans...

The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

The person responsible for recognition of hurricane related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the Mayor of the City of New Orleans.


  Scientific American - Drowning New Orleans (2001)

Scientific American documents the inevitability of disaster and quotes the then-current New Orleans emergency preparedness official:

The boxes are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."....New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh--an area the size of Manhattan--will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one million people inside and another million in surrounding communities. Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would cut off the few escape routes. Scientists at Louisiana State University (L.S.U.), who have modeled hundreds of possible storm tracks on advanced computers, predict that more than 100,000 people could die. The body bags wouldn't go very far.


  Gambit Weekly (January, 2002)

Nagin is a candidate for Mayor of New Orleans and the local paper describes the nature of the city:

New Orleans is being choked by grinding poverty, chronic budget deficits, blighted housing and, above all, Third World politics. Businesses are fleeing. Our children and grandchildren are leaving in droves for brighter futures in other cities. Our people have lost hope....New Orleans needs jobs. We need a real economic boost -- not just the traditional changing of the hogs at the public trough.


  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(Saturday, August 27, 2005 early)

Again the federal government fulfills its responsibility to provide weather and atmospheric data to the officials of the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans so that they can make timely preparations for the safety of their citizens. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides complete current data and predicts the path of the storm.





  MetaFilter (Saturday, August 27 at 6:21 PM)

MetaFilter thread is started with this post full of relevant links:

Katrina targets New Orleans. Mandatory evacuations have been declared, and contraflow evacuation routes are in effect near New Orleans, as Hurricane Katrina, a very wet, drenching hurricane, approaches the city from the Gulf of Mexico, where it is gaining in size and strength, with an estimated 45% chance of making landfall as a category 4 or 5 hurricane. The computer models suggest that New Orleans will sustain a direct hit from Katrina, which could be "The Big One" warned about by experts, capable of flooding the city, polluting it with industrial waste, and even flooding the pump stations, leaving it incapable of pumping out the water. The hurricane is predicted to make landfall early Monday near Port Fourchon, which handles approximately 13% of U.S. oil imports, and 27% of U.S. domestic production.


The long string of comments following the post reveals that almost all of those using this discussion forum were more on the ball than Blanco and Nagin. One user suggested on Saturday that city officials should commandeer the hundreds of parish school buses to evacuate the city. Several people have observed that everyone, adults included, could have just waited at the corner of all the regular parish school bus routes and been easily evacuated.



  National Weather Service (Sunday, August 28 at 2, 5, & 8 AM)

National weather service updates paint an increasingly grim picture of the coming danger. The magnitude of the coming disaster is explicitly described. There is no room for optimism or misunderstanding. To fail to act in the face of these reports, coming every hour on the hour, with detailed updates (see below) every three hours, getting worse and worse, seems unthinkable.

2 AM EDT SUN AUG 28 2005  THIS SPECIAL ADVISORY IS BEING ISSUED TO UPDATE THE INITIAL AND FORECAST INTENSITY OF HURRICANE KATRINA. AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT REPORTED 700 MB FLIGHT LEVEL WINDS OF 137 KT IN THE NORTHWESTERN EYEWALL... CORRESPONDING TO ABOUT 125 KT AT THE SURFACE....IT IS POSSIBLE THAT KATRINA COULD GET STRONGER THAN FORECAST AND PERHAPS EVEN REACH CATEGORY FIVE STATUS SOMETIME DURING THE NEXT 36 HOURS.

5 AM EDT SUN AUG 28 2005   KATRINA CONTINUES TO INTENSIFY AND GROW LARGER....ADDITIONALLY...THE AIRCRAFT DATA AND SHIP OBSERVATIONS INDICATE THAT THE WIND FIELD CONTINUES TO EXPAND. THE INITIAL AND FORECAST WIND RADII HAVE AGAIN BEEN EXPANDED....DUE TO THE UNCERTAINTY IN BOTH THE TRACK AND SIZE FORECASTS...TROPICAL STORM WARNINGS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED BOTH EAST AND WEST ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST. THE INTENSITY FORECAST ANTICIPATES THAT KATRINA COULD APPROACH CATEGORY FIVE STATUS PRIOR TO LANDFALL....KATRINA WILL BE A VERY DANGEROUS HURRICANE AT LANDFALL.

8 AM EDT SUN AUG 28 2005   THE PURPOSE OF THIS SPECIAL ADVISORY IS TO REVISE THE INTENSITY OF KATRINA TO CATEGORY FIVE. AN AIR FORCE HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT REPORTED A PEAK 700 MB FLIGHT-LEVEL WIND OF 153 KNOTS...WHICH CORRESPONDS TO MAXIMUM SURFACE WINDS OF ABOUT 140 KNOTS....KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO BE A DEVASTING CATEGORY FOUR OR FIVE HURRICANE AT LANDFALL.

There is a whole series of these, which you can read in the archives. This is just a representative slice from early Sunday morning, which should be enough to compel evacuation of New Orleans. And the "Preparedness Plan" gives the officials the authority to compel their citizens to board school buses and be taken out of town.



  Lincoln Journal Star (Sunday, August 28)

President Bush calls Governor Blanco and urges her to evacuate the endangered areas. Publicly, he urges all those living in the path of the hurricane to put their personal safety ahead of all other concerns. He even takes the unprecedented step of declaring states in the path of the oncoming storm federal disaster areas ahead of time.

CRAWFORD, Texas -- President Bush, as he readied the federal government for a massive relief effort, on Sunday urged people in the path of Hurricane Katrina to forget anything but their safety and move to higher ground as instructed.

"We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities," Bush said as the storm roared across the gulf toward New Orleans and other communities. "I urge all citizens to put their own safety and the safety of their families first by moving to safe ground."

With forecasters warning of a category five storm, the president made sure the federal response would not be delayed by already declaring emergencies in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama just hours after a similar declaration for Louisiana. Such declarations make federal aid available to assist with disaster relief, but they are rarely made before a storm even hits.


  National Weather Service (Sunday, August 28 at 7 PM)

Up until now, the discussion centers around whether the pumps will continue to function and whether the levees will hold. Now for the first time the national weather service warns that the storm surge will overtop the levees.

7 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005  ...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA NOW MOVING NORTH-NORTHWESTWARD TOWARD THE NORTHERN GULF COAST...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF COAST FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ALABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE COMPLETED THIS EVENING.

...CONDITIONS ARE ALREADY BEGINNING TO DETERIORATE ALONG PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF COAST...AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORSEN THROUGH THE NIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 160 MPH...WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KATRINA IS A POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE....KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT CATEGORY FOUR OR FIVE INTENSITY. WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR GROUND LEVEL.

KATRINA IS A LARGE HURRICANE. HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 105 MILES FROM THE CENTER...

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED. SIGNIFICANT STORM SURGE FLOODING WILL OCCUR ELSEWHERE ALONG THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF OF MEXICO COAST.

RAINFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 15 INCHES...ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE PATH OF KATRINA ACROSS THE GULF COAST



  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

(Sunday, August 28 at 10 PM)

The eye of the storm is still off the coast and the federal government again fulfills its responsibility. NOAA supplies Louisiana state and New Orleans city officials with updated information predicting the path of the hurricane.



10 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005  ...POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE KATRINA CONTINUES TO APPROACH THE NORTHERN GULF COAST...

A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE NORTH CENTRAL GULF COAST FROM MORGAN CITY LOUISIANA EASTWARD TO THE ABAMA/FLORIDA BORDER...INCLUDING THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION....

...CONDITIONS ARE ALREADY DETERIORATING ALONG PORTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AND NORTHEASTERN GULF COAST...AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORSEN THROUGH THE NIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 160 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. KATRINA IS A CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE....KATRINA IS EXPECTED TO MAKE LANDFALL AT EITHER CATEGORY FOUR OR FIVE INTENSITY. WINDS AFFECTING THE UPPER FLOORS OF HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY STRONGER THAN THOSE NEAR GROUND LEVEL.

COASTAL STORM SURGE FLOODING OF 18 TO 22 FEET ABOVE NORMAL TIDE LEVELS...LOCALLY AS HIGH AS 28 FEET...ALONG WITH LARGE AND DANGEROUS BATTERING WAVES...CAN BE EXPECTED NEAR AND TO THE EAST OF WHERE THE CENTER MAKES LANDFALL. SOME LEVEES IN THE GREATER NEW ORLEANS AREA COULD BE OVERTOPPED....

RAINFALL TOTALS OF 5 TO 10 INCHES...WITH ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 15 INCHES...ARE POSSIBLE ALONG THE PATH OF KATRINA ACROSS THE GULF COAST....ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL BE POSSIBLE THIS EVENING OVER SOUTHEASTERN LOUISIANA...



  New Orleans mayor orders evacuation (Sunday, August 28 at 10:48 PM)

In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation is ordered for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin, but is not compelled. School and metro buses are not mobilized as provided for in the Emergency Preparedness Plan.

Clearly, Mayor Nagin understands what is going to happen. In an interview with CNN he described the expected result:

The city is below sea level in what amounts to a bowl that could be a death trap for any residents who chose to try to ride out the storm....In a worst case scenario, some estimates place the death toll from a direct hit in the tens of thousands....If the surge were to breach the city’s levee system, the water could rise to as high as 20 feet in places, Mayor Ray Nagin told CNN Sunday....That much water would overwhelm the city’s pump system and could take weeks to remove, Nagin said.

"We are facing the storm that we have feared," Nagin said.
So, he knows the storm and the storm surge are coming, he understands what will happen, and what does he do? Does he go to battle stations at once, as he should? Ask the governor to deploy the Louisiana National Guard, 1,500 of whom are not in Iraq and are immediately available?

The Louisiana National Guard is on alert, but thousands of guard troops from the state are now serving in Iraq....Nagin said 1,500 troops are immediately available, however, and another 2,500 have been mobilized.
Noooo..... The Louisiana Guardsmen just sit there waiting, and strangely, Mayor Nagin fails to use his emergency preparedness plan authority to commandeer the hundreds of New Orleans parish school buses and 364 New Orleans Regional Transit Authority buses and bring them to high ground. They could be used to evacuate those residents who do not have access to automobile transportation. Once the flood waters arrive, the buses can no longer be salvaged. Some of the resources the mayor could have used to evacuate people with are shown in this Yahoo! News photo:





   (Monday, August 29 at 6:10 a.m. CDT)

Katrina makes landfall, and federal officials continue to warn of danger.

Katrina Floods New Orleans, Gulf Coast Aug 29 01:33 PM US/Eastern By ADAM NOSSITER

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Hurricane Katrina plowed into this below-sea-level city Monday with shrieking, 145-mph winds and blinding rain that flooded homes to the rooflines and peeled away part of the Superdome, where thousands of people had taken shelter.

Katrina weakened overnight to a Category 4 storm and made a slight turn to the right before hitting land at 6:10 a.m. CDT near the bayou town of Buras. It passed just to the east of New Orleans as it moved inland, sparing this vulnerable city its full fury.

But National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield warned that New Orleans would be pounded throughout the day and that Katrina's potential 15-foot storm surge, down from a feared 28 feet, was still enough to cause extensive flooding.


  LA Times (Tuesday morning)

Some pumps begin to fail, and the first two levees break. Eastern evacuation routes are washed out.

New Orleans -- On Monday, Katrina dealt this city a glancing blow, making landfall nearby. Winds of more than 100 mph lashed the city, broke windows and caused many streets to flood.

But early this morning, another wave of storm-related surging water rushed through the levees, canals and pumps that protect this low-lying port. Two levees broke, allowing the waters to invade.

"We probably have 80 percent of our city underwater; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater," Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.

Nagin evacuated City Hall and ordered everyone who was still in the city -- including police officers who were not considered "central emergency personnel" -- to leave. But almost all of the evacuation routes were blocked by flooding and debris.

The twin spans of Interstate 10 -- the main artery in and out of town to the east -- were washed out in parts and seriously damaged, officials said. Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation and Development, estimated that about 40% of the eight-mile bridge was washed out by the storm....

Toward the west, the interstate was also impassable where it crosses Lake Pontchartrain because of high water. The causeway over the lake was inaccessible.

That left a tortuous route over the Mississippi River and through side streets as the only way in or out of the city -- but even that route could soon be closed, authorities warned.
It should be noted that Katrina dealt the city of New Orleans a "glancing blow" due to a last-minute change in course. If it had been the direct hit the federal government had been warning them about for days, everyone in the city would have died at once. But after landfall, they still had a couple of days to save themselves. And still they just sat there. Many even began congratulating themselves on another "miss."



  CNN (Tuesday night)

Nagin blames others for the desparate situation in New Orleans resulting from his complete failure to perform his mayoral duty and implement the emergency preparedness plan. He begins to swear.

A day after Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the Big Easy, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday night blasted what he called a lack of coordination in relief efforts for setting behind the city's recovery.

"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district.



   (Wednesday, August 31 8:30 AM)

First a pump near the 17th Street levee fails.

Then water from Lake Pontchartrain begins flowing through a 500-foot breach in the 17th Street Canal.

Two breeches open in the Florida Street levee and water from the Mississippi River pours through (picture). In no time water from the lake, the river, and the canals is mingling throughout the drowning city.



  WWL TV (Wednesday, August 31 at 8:04 PM)

In the face of looting, rape, and murder, Nagin finally declares martial law with respect to Miranda rights, but not "shoot to kill".

Disgusted and furious with the lawlessness of looters who have put fear into citizens, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared Martial Law in the city and directed the city's 1,500 person police force to do "whatever it takes" to regain control of the city.

Nagin said that Martial Law means that officers don't have to worry about civil rights and Miranda rights in stopping the looters.

Amid the chaos Wednesday, thieves commandeered a forklift and used it to push up the storm shutters and break the glass of a pharmacy. The crowd stormed the store, carrying out so much ice, water and food that it dropped from their arms as they ran. The street was littered with packages of ramen noodles and other items.

Looters also chased down a state police truck full of food. The New Orleans police chief ran off looters while city officials themselves were commandeering equipment from a looted Office Depot. During a state of emergency, authorities have broad powers to take private supplies and buildings for their use.


  Louisiana Gannett News (Thursday, September 1)

Three-and-one-half dreadful days later, Governor Blanco finally uses her emergency authority to commandeer school buses to rescue the flood victims, after the city has been in total anarchy for days and dead bodies are piling up in the streets. Many parishes have already lost their school bus fleet, due to failure to make timely transfers of the much needed buses to high ground. Notice that at this point she is just initiating the call for a bus inventory. It will be a while before the request is implemented.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has issued an order requisitioning school buses throughout the state to help evacuate people from New Orleans.

The order directs school superintendents in districts unaffected by Hurricane Katrinato to submit an inventory of buses and bus drivers to the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

The buses and drivers would be drafted to transport evacuees and hospital patients from flooded areas to selected points, possibly including the Astrodome in Houston Texas..

The governor ordered all school superintendents to work with local law enforcement to provide at least one peace officer to ride in each bus and two marked patrol cars to accompany every 10 buses.

Blanco used her emergency powers under the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, which gives the force of law to executive orders she issues in an emergency.


(Thursday night)

Mayor Ray Nagin ramps up the invective and poor grammar in an on-air interview with radio station WWL-AM in New Orleans.

NAGIN: I told him we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect.

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks.

And they don't have a clue what's going on down here. They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of g--damn -- excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.

WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States, "I need the military in here"?

NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."

Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] Honore.

And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done.

They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can save some people.

WWL: What do you need right now to get control of this situation?

NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their a--es moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

It's awful down here, man.

WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or not she has made that request?

NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.

We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak.

You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."

WWL: Who'd you say that to?

NAGIN: Everybody: the governor, Homeland Security, FEMA. You name it, we said it.

And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives.

And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people.

In addition to that, we had water flowing through the pipes in the city. That's a power station over there.

So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.

WWL: Why couldn't they drop the 3,000-pound sandbags or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just couldn't be done?

NAGIN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to manufacture. But, you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done.

Then they told me that they went overnight, and they built 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys on them and they were going to drop them.

I flew over that thing yesterday, and it's in the same shape that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.

WWL: If some of the public called and they're right, that there's a law that the president, that the federal government can't do anything without local or state requests, would you request martial law?

NAGIN: I've already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.

WWL: Did the governor do that, too?

NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.

But we called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control. And we redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from saving people, but they worked all night because we thought this thing was going to blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources, and we hold it under check.

I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the current resources.

And I am telling you right now: They're showing all these reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that, but people are desperate and they're trying to find food and water, the majority of them.

Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of this lawless -- this situation where, you know, we can't really control it, and they're doing some awful, awful things. But that's a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.

And one of the things people -- nobody's talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me, and that's why we were having the escalation in murders. People don't want to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it.

You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix, and that's the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will.

And right now, they don't have anything to take the edge off. And they've probably found guns. So what you're seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don't have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not overrun.

WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.

NAGIN: Really?

WWL: I know you don't feel that way.

NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?

You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.

WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9-11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their a-- on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

WWL: What can we do here?

NAGIN: Keep talking about it.

WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?

NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.

I don't want to see anybody do anymore g--damn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your a--es and do something, and let's fix the biggest g--damn crisis in the history of this country.

WWL: I'll say it right now, you're the only politician that's called and called for arms like this. And if -- whatever it takes, the governor, president -- whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes, I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.

NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just -- I'm at the point now where it don't matter. People are dying. They don't have homes. They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same in this time.

WWL: We're both pretty speechless here.

NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I got to go.

WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.


  Very early Friday morning
Moonbats begin blaming management failures of Blanco and Nagin on Bush.
Moonbats blame unprecedented global warming, not proven, on Bush.
Moonbats blame Katrina on global warming, therefore on Bush.


  Continuing

Other commentaries about this "blame and responsibility" issue:

Bill Hobbs -- Grassroots Journalism From Nashville

The New Libertarian: A Journal of Neolibertarian Thought

© Rudy Bickel and Nancy Matthis 2005