A Timeline of Hurricane Katrina

Friday, August 26, 2005 – Landfall minus three

Hurricane Katrina crosses Florida and moves into the Gulf of Mexico, gathering energy from the warm seas. At 10 pm CDT the National Hurricane Center predicts that Katrina will strike the town of Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, about 65 miles southeast of New Orleans. This early prediction proves to be uncannily accurate.

Saturday, August 27 – Landfall minus two

By 5 am Katrina is a Category 3 storm. By 9 am officials in the parishes closest to the Gulf issue a mandatory evacuation order. In the parishes surrounding New Orleans—Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Bernard—the evacuation order is only voluntary.

Sunday, August 28 – Landfall minus one

By 7 am Hurricane Katrina is a Category 5 storm with sustained winds of 175 mph and gusts up to 215. At 10 am the National Weather Service issues a bulletin predicting “devastating” damage. At noon the Superdome is opened for those who cannot flee the city.

Monday, August 29 – Landfall

At 6:10 am Katrina makes landfall, but flooding in residential areas begins an hour and a half earlier due to an eighteen-foot storm surge pushed ahead of the storm. The levees along both sides of the Industrial Canal are quickly overtopped; by 7:45 the levees along the eastern side fail completely, allowing a twenty-foot wall of water to rush into the neighborhood and wash houses off their foundations. By 8 am water is seen rising on both sides of the Industrial Canal; one hour later there is 6-8 feet of water in the Lower Ninth Ward. By 10:30 am both the London Avenue Canal and 17th Street Canal levees fail, flooding downtown New Orleans.

Tuesday, August 30 – Landfall plus one

Sandbagging of the 17th Street Canal levee fails. Governor Blanco estimates that 50-100,000 people remain trapped in the flooded city. Officials call for anyone with a boat to assist in the rescue efforts.

Wednesday, August 31 – Landfall plus two

Hurricane Katrina is downgraded to a tropical depression. 80% of the city is now underwater; floodwaters in the city and in Lake Pontchartrain finally equalize at three feet above normal sea level, leaving the average home in six to nine feet of water. The NOPD is ordered to abandon search and rescue efforts in order to control widespread looting in the city; a curfew is put into effect.

Thursday, September 1 – Landfall plus three

National Guardsmen, accompanied by supply trucks and buses, finally begin to arrive in number at the Superdome, transporting evacuees to the Astrodome and Reliant Center in Houston.

Sunday, September 4 – Landfall plus six

Evacuation of the Superdome is completed.

Monday, September 6 – Landfall plus eight

The 17th Street Canal levee breach is finally repaired and officials begin to pump water out of the flooded city. 67 pumps will be able to remove more than five million gallons per minute, but officials estimate that the pumping could still take a month.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006 – Landfall plus six months

DMORT finally closes down its operations in Louisiana. During its six months of tireless efforts, about a thousand DMORT volunteer team members processed approximately 1100 victims of Hurricane Katrina as well as 612 disinterred caskets from flooded cemeteries, some of which were discovered thirty miles from their original place of burial.