Part LIII
The Big Muddy
In 2001 an assessment of threats to the United States determined that the greatest dangers to the homeland were an earthquake in California, a terrorist attack in New York, and a hurricane in New Orleans. To counter the latter scenario a hypothetical ‘Hurricane Pam’ mock exercise was carried out, it determined that preparations for such an incident were woefully insufficient for a powerful storm and subsequent persistent flooding.
…
On August 23rd, 2005, a tropical depression merged southeast of the Bahamas and began to organize, it was named Tropical Storm Katrina. The National Hurricane Centre in Miami Florida issued an advisory warning that hurricane conditions were possible within the next 36 hours. Across the country, corporations and government entities began to prepare for a potential emergency.
“Hurricanes are one of the few natural disasters that are predictable”. Said Jason Jackson an emergency coordinator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the cabinet department
[1] better known as FEMA.
On August 25th Katrina built strength, reaching the level of a Category 1 Hurricane, able to fall trees, snap powerlines, and damage homes. Later in that day, Katrina came ashore in eastern Florida slowly moving inland. The hurricane killed a dozen people, especially deadly for Category 1 due to its slow movement speed (8 miles per hour, less than half the usual speed of the hurricane). Once Katrina exited Florida and re-entered the gulf it re-energized.
“The conditions were exactly right,” said Louisiana climatologist Barry Keim
“for one of the biggest storms on record”.
(Left) Hurricane Centre, Florida study Katrina, (Right) Flooding in Miami
On Friday, August 26th, Katrina built tremendous strength, reaching a Category 2, and was now predicted to target somewhere along the gulf coast between the Florida panhandle and east Texas. FEMA, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Army were on the move. Opening shelters and feeding units, while positioning supplies in warehouses across the gulf.
But as fears were growing in the minds of those paying attention, in the city of New Orleans, the good times kept rolling as the metropolis of half a million played to its own beat. The port city was built nearly entirely below sea level, with the Gulf to its south, Lake Pontchartrain to its north, and the Mississippi River running right through it, protected from overflowing by a network of earthen levees and flood walls.
Hour after hour, Katrina sucked up more energy now predicted by some to reach Category 3 before making landfall, across the country, local, state, and national officials were made aware of the monster on the way. With emergency planners in Baton Rouge (Louisiana’s state capital) in battle mode, preparing the state’s defenses, and organizing local forces for the coming storm
. “Our preparations begin at the ground level, we have a saying, all disasters are local,” says FEMA coordinator David Fukutomi.
Throughout the day the EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) coordinated with FEMA, State, and Local offices, and both Mississippi and Louisiana declared states of emergency allowing the Governors to maneuver hundreds of national guardsmen to aid the storm preparations. Additionally, the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard were placed on standby
[2], further out in the gulf, oil companies evacuated their rigs causing an immediate spike in petroleum prices.
With predicted landfall in 72 hours and New Orleans in the direct firing line, critical decisions were and weren’t taken. The streets of the Big Easy were packed, many unbent by the grim predictions, on Saturday, Katrina was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane with wind speeds of up to 115 miles per hour. Coastal Louisiana parishes began a mandatory evacuation of their residents, but not New Orleans, the idea being that rural communities needed to get out first before New Orleanians' traffic could clog the highways.
Later on the 27th New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin in accordance with the state's plan, called a state of emergency and announced a voluntary evacuation of the lowest-lying
areas “This is not a test, we don’t want you to worry, we want you to be safe”. He also announced that the Superdome, the 70,000 ft stadium built to withstand 200mph winds would be a
‘shelter of last resort’. Emergency evacuations then began as all road lanes were opened to outbound traffic but regardless the streets became swamped with cars.
(Left) Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco (Right) New Orleans Superdome
Across the entire gulf, thousands streamed further inland hoping to avoid Katrina's wrath, they lined up for gas and groceries and booked out hotels or stayed with relatives, but still, there were tens of thousands of people staying put, some resolute, some unwilling, and some unable. Determined or forced to ride out the storm. Analysis shows that nearly 20% of the city’s residents were without transportation, many had no money for busses, trains, or hotels, and many were dependent on welfare that tends to run out at the end of the month. New Orleans was a poor, predominantly black city, with twice the national poverty and murder rate, with thousands jammed into ramshackle housing standing 4 feet below sea level.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco wrote and sent a request to President Edwards, then on vacation at Camp David for a state of emergency to be declared. The President signed the request enabling Federal Agencies and the Military to be deployed to greater lengths in the area, including the Army, Marines, and Airforce to carry out recovery operations after the storm hits, designating FEMA as in charge of relief efforts
[3].
Some believed that the measures being taken were too few. Former FEMA agent Leo Bosner brought to light several of these critics in an essay, where he said that budget cuts, and political staffers had watered down FEMA’s ability to act, he blamed the Bush administration for nearly 30 billion dollars in cuts
[4] under Secretary Joe Allbaugh and Michael Brown
[5] as well as a desire for those secretaries and the Edwards FEMA secretary Tim Roemer to focus on FEMA’s role in national security rather than natural disasters.
(Left to right) FEMA Secretaries, Joe Allbaugh 2001 - 2003, Michael Brown 2003 - 2005, and Tim Roemer 2005 - Present, Logo of FEMA
And on the ground, some were already warning that the decision by the Mayor to delay evacuation was dangerous, Cedric Richmond of the lower 9th ward pushed the Governor to urge evacuations and went from parish to parish to tell people to
“get the hell out … no one was taking it seriously, I went from bar to bar saying ‘Y’all need to go’.” Slowly the sirens started to blare as FEMA Secretary Roemer warned Gulf residents about the need to evacuate
“There is still time to take action, everyone should prepare to evacuate the area or be evacuated from the area”. [6]
By the afternoon of Saturday, the 27th, Katrina continued barrelling toward Louisiana and Mississippi expanding so rapidly that its effects were rippling across the entire gulf, as 12-foot waves lapped the coast and New Orleans flood gates closed. Thousands fled and thousands remained, boarding up their homes before heading out to surf-crammed bars and restaurants. A roundtable conference at the EOC with the Mayor and Governor laid out some of the direst predictions and statistics, yet according to a later report
‘city life was still rocking’, On Sunday Morning the 28th, Katrina was upgraded to Category 4 then hours later a Category 5 hurricane, the worst case scenarios were coming true.
Following the conference Mayor Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation for the first time in the city’s history. Quickly the EOC was confronted with a hundred thousand people without transportation in sudden need of evacuation, including the poor, elderly and disabled, the Superdome was opened with enough supplies for 20,000 people for 3 days but even with the 1200 National Guard to control the crowds a long entry line formed. In a joint press conference, the Mayor and the Governor pressed for citizens to evacuate New Orleans and enacted a curfew
“This is unprecedented” the Mayor said
“A Hurricane of this strength to hit the city directly will cause enormous damage … everyone should leave the city” but the Mayor had failed to enact a sufficient plan for those without transportation.
Moments later the weather service issued an apocalyptic warning, more reminiscent of the Book of Revelations than a science report, predicting
‘certain death’ for anyone without shelter in the storm, and that the area would be ‘
uninhabitable for weeks’ with a headline that read
‘devastation expected’. The language was so incendiary that NBC didn’t run with it fearing it was a bogus dispatch.
And still, tens of thousands of the city's inhabitants remained, stocking up, usually equipped with the same logic
“We survived Betsy, Camille, Rory, Jean, etc we will survive this”. In a 'lessons learned' interview Mayor Nagin explained that enforcing the mandatory evacuation was tough to do, that the city of New Orleans was stretched to the bone in terms of resources, and because regular officers were unsure of their power to enforce the evacuation usually resorting to persuasion alone.
By the time the mandatory evacuations were in place, they were unenforceable, roughly a hundred thousand residents were still in the city and 200,000 in the surrounding parishes. The mayor dispatched regional and school busses to pick up people to be taken to the Superdome and other shelters but the service was erratic, until later in the day private drivers and Guardsmen were able to supplement the service, National Guardsmen also began evacuating medical and elder care facilities
[7]. While FEMA trucks dispatched food, water, and emergency gas generators
[8] while aiding the evacuees and contracting drivers.
The situation had become so ominous that the national hurricane director personally briefed President Edwards. Thousands of people were standing in the 90-degree heat waiting for buses and trucks with scant possessions between them. There was additional confusion at railways when last-minute trains were canceled to take electronic equipment out of the city instead. More and more people piled into the Superdome while conflicting reports between City and State offices arguing that either the Mayor, the Governor, or both were severely unaware of the coming threat. Both Nagin and Blanco were political rivals and despite their Democratic part allegiances and the crisis at hand, they would remain so.
With the Mayor's curfew in place, the city finally quietened, with all news reports repeating the same epic pronouncement ‘CAT 5 on the way’ ‘THE hurricane is here’. In a final pre-storm conference, the EOC discussed as a matter of fact the size and scope of the coming devastation and that the city's Levees would be overtopped. A high-level video conference took place between the President, emergency managers from across the Gulf, the Defence Secretary and the FEMA Secretary going over the final state of FEMA and Military preparations for the storm and a last-minute Presidential announcement endorsing evacuation.
Across the gulf, the holdouts battened down the hatches and prepared as the first rains fell. Most were optimistic, the evacuations had been seen as successful, though last-minute roughly 80% of residents were out of the city, Mayor Nagin put it in baseball terms, batting an .800 was phenomenal. But Nagin wasn’t in city hall, where the police, FEMA, and military headquarters were. He was in the 18-story Hyatt building, safely tucked away from the command center.
(Top Left to right) Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco, and President Edwards
Bottom (left) cars trying to leave New Orleans, people boarding up windows
On Monday, August 29th Katrina made landfall. Millions had evacuated, but too many had stayed, in homes, shelters, and the Superdome and now it is where they would stay. The winds pushed a storm surge of 17 ft toward the coast. Parts of the city lost electricity, including the Superdome which resorted to backup and emergency FEMA generators. The city's decimation began, as water rushes down the Mississippi River and its canals, and powerful winds battered the city, picking up debris to collide with cars and buildings, and throwing glass into the streets. The Superdome began creaking and then leaking, pump stations were overwhelmed and workers were forced to abandon their posts in fear for their lives. Water poured into the stadium and 15ft sections of the roof were stripped away by the wind to the terrifying awe of its denizens, while painful bullets of rain blinded anyone left in the streets.
The storm surge converged in the eastern part of the city and its levees were overtopped, cascading water into New Orleans. Signs spun like weathervanes before crashing to the ground, powerlines, and phone lines were torn apart, cutting off communications between emergency services, trees shook and streetlights shattered. Terrified evacuees in the Superdome feared that the building could collapse as more and more of its ceiling was torn away. Terrified families tried hopelessly to call 911. On the eastern side, the earthen levees, some constructed in the 1920s and in dire need of repairs, began to break, eroded by the surge. New Orleans East, floods rapidly to 12 feet above sea level completely submerging many homes, and the flooding is only accelerating, more and more levees are overtopped as the city goes under, sinking into 'the bowl’. City Councilman Oliver Thomas describes the scenes.
“I heard the glass shattering out from the Hyatt, where the mayor was,” Thomas recalled. “And the car windows just burst out in the street. Each popped windshield sounded like a little bomb. It was deafening. It was frightening. The lights in City Hall had gone out. All darkness. I kept being drawn to the window. I feared that the windows would break out. But it was calling me. It was like ‘Come see the devastation.’ And you could feel it. It felt like the end of the world.”
At Police Headquarters the telephones were still barely working dispatchers were overwhelmed: roofs were blowing off, levees were breaching, storm surges were topping flood walls, sewers were backing up, homes were being destroyed, and people were dying. The calls included fellow officers trapped in their homes, drowning.
Katrina moved north to the Mississippi border shutting off its roads, as water floods the lower levels of buildings forcing people to higher ground, where it is available. Images of debris floating, furniture floating, cars floating, houses floating, bodies floating. A soldier at Keesler Air Force Base described the hurricane as
“God and the Devil fighting it out here with Godzilla as the referee”. Moving east, Mobile Alabama was hit with 10 feet of water, and death was everywhere along the coast. Where there had been neighborhoods neatly filled with houses, there was empty despair. But back in New Orleans the nightmare only got worse as levees continue to buckle. Across the country, however, news reports were underselling the devastation as a
‘dodged bullet’.
(Left to right) Flooded New Orleans street, busted Levee, a barge drifting amongst houses
Among those stuck in the flood, 500 Louisiana National Guardsmen were at their barracks as they became consumed in the flood water, as its brick buildings toppled, forcing them to save themselves from the flood before they could respond to anyone else. And across the city, people remaining in their homes were left with dire choices, fleeing upstairs, their roofs, into neighbors’ homes, or sometimes their attics where many would remain trapped. Reporters at the
Times-Picayune eerily reported caskets floating out of mausoleums in the first hours of the devastation, many emergency workers were unable to take action worried that first responders at this stage could become victims of the storm.
“We were in the fog of war, if we sent people out with no knowledge or information that would be a mistake, we know it’s hard for people to hear that, especially in a crisis, but it is necessary,” said FEMA Secretary Roemer in an interview with PBS. Two reporters Byrn and Maccass scribbled down the names of the flooded structures ‘Shopping Centre (7 feet), Elementary School (8 feet), Coffee House (7 feet), Walgreens (8 feet), Blockbuster (7 feet).
As the storm curve north, water from Lake Pontchartrain was pushed toward the city and more levees and flood walls collapsed on the east and west. The average home in New Orleans is more than 6ft underwater. Rescue missions manned by Police, National Guard and Military moved in, manning hundreds of boats gathered from every department in their vicinity
[9]. Following reports of hundreds trapped on their roofs through the former city streets
“The lower 9th ward was now a lake, it just so happened it was full of houses, we knew this was going to be bad” said one marine. But just as many response forces were in disarray, Police systems were wrecked and most had no means of transport in the aftermath, precincts were fending for themselves referred to as renegade police. Some became vigilantes or thugs enforcing order at the end of a gun, some abandoned their posts altogether. National reports were leaking out scenes of poor African Americans wandering the streets, through the rubble. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer awkwardly quipped
“You simply get chills every time you see those poor individuals…so many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor, and they’re so black.”.
Phones were out, TV and Radio stations were down, and all that was left was shoddy satellite phones.
[10] Lt General Russel Honore commander of the Katrina Task Force described the storm as an attack
“The storm gathers strength, attacks the coast with overwhelming force, it took out our communications, it blinded us, it cut the road network to hold us back, and protected its flank with the flooding, a textbook military attack”. If it was a battle, the storm seemed to be winning.
By Monday afternoon, the scope of the disaster was becoming clear just how unprecedented it was, and with the city's communications gone, organizing relief and rescue missions was impossible. Buildings had been thrown hundreds of feet, oil rigs twisted and corpses were floating in the street, but still, news reports don’t depict the full picture, ABC News only reports that
‘Levees have been topped but not broken, this is not the apocalyptic hurricane that many had feared’. Governor Blanco reminded her staff of Murphy’s Law, everything that could go wrong had.
The only reliable method of communication was e-mail on a handheld device where survivors could eke out messages of ‘OK’ or ‘Fine’. The mayor from his hotel, was completely out of contact, practically on another planet, for all intense and purposes Terry Ebbert the FEMA director for New Orleans ran the city while the mayor remained in the tower.
The perception was growing that the city was in chaos and no one seemed to be helping. Governor Blanco with a severe lack of charisma scolded the press and she failed to explain the decisions she had made to send nearly a thousand boats into the flood zone from every department under her control, sheriffs, firemen, state guard,
“we don’t have boats for the media, every spot is for survivors” she grimaced
“we need more bodies down here, anyone who’s available to help”.
On Monday evening, Bill O’Reilly opened his Fox News program with a stunning revelation: “
At least forty thousand homes just east of New Orleans—forty thousand—have been destroyed.” He was referring to the flooding of St. Bernard Parish. On CNN, Paula Zahn spoke live to a woman who reported that on the Mississippi coast,
“there are like eighteen-wheelers on top of cars and homes in the middle of the streets. And there’s people wandering down the streets with nowhere to go, homeless. They’ve got maybe a bag over their shoulder, and they’re all in the middle of the streets, with nowhere to go. And the homes, houses and boats and cars are just…debris is just everywhere. It’s just…it’s very catastrophic down here.” Although many media reports on Monday morning had been tinged with relief that
“it could’ve been worse,” by night-time the real situation was becoming apparent.
With the city sinking, fear took hold, and looting broke out, as citizens wade through waste-deep water, shattered store windows and made off with supplies. Some for necessity, some for greed. There were also other reports of violence, muggings, murder, and rape, both from civilians and police. Many reports are later deemed erroneous but regardless, feed into the terror. With the city still flooded, Governor Blanco ordered for the Superdome to be evacuated but with roads still flooded or blocked transport was slow, and as night dawned again thousands were still trapped. President Edwards called Governor Blanco where reportedly she broke down in tears
“We need your help” she pleaded
“send everything you’ve got”[11].
(Left to right) Flooded New Orleans, Governor Blanco, stranded New Orleanians
On Tuesday, August 31st the sun beamed down on the Gulf, the New York Times reported on its front page
“Escaping Feared Knockout Punch, Barely, New Orleans is One Lucky Big Mess”. But the real scene is one of total devastation, 80% of the Greater New Orleans area is underwater, 200,000 homes are destroyed, and the survivors weave their way through the city on makeshift rafts through a concoction of mucky brown sludge, a combination of flood water, chemicals, and sewage, thousands more are trapped. National Guard and Police Forces were severely depleted with hundreds deserting their posts. But a mix of FEMA search and rescue, Coast Guard, Local Police, National Guard, Marines, Army and Navy, and even the Louisiana Department for Fisheries were atop boats and helicopters to aid the stranded. But flood water was still entering the city.
Following his call with the Governor, President Edwards returned to Washington to deal with the Hurricane, Mayor Nagan tried to manage the crisis from the 27th floor of the Hayat, but with no clear picture everyone remained in the dark as to the level of the crisis.
“the problem was big and was escalating, and there was no SOS button for the city” said Colonel Wagener of the US Army Corps of Engineers. With rescue workers bringing people to the Superdome, the stadium became an island amongst the flood. But trucks couldn’t reach the dome and the crowd inside and out, stretched to 35,000 with conditions deteriorating. Elsewhere across the city, large buildings like the Convention centre became spontaneous refuges for up to 28,000 people but unlike the Superdome, they had no emergency supplies.
[12] Others sit on bridges exposed to the elements without electricity.
FEMA director Reomer arrived in Baton Rouge where he, Governor Blanco, and the President conversed. For the first time, the news of levee breaks reached the highest levels and it was becoming obvious that the forces in the Gulf were insufficient. Roemer was a former Indiana congressman accused by many of receiving his post not because of his experience, but because he was an early supporter of President Edwards, but by all evidence showed that he leaned into his new job diligently focused on improving the nation's resilience to a potential attack on the homeland, Roemer had a finely tuned political ear as a 6-term congressman and earned a reputation for methodically reading and relaying data. Roemer issued an appeal for emergency responders across the country to help, an extraordinary request for assistance from a cabinet secretary, and FEMA’s request was granted, planes from Florida, dingies from Arkansaw, boats from Texas, trucks from WalMart, and waste disposal facilities MRE’s and bottled water in droves from DoD supplementing food from the agriculture department, but it still wasn’t enough, quickly enough.
[13]
In the White House, schedules were canceled and the cabinet assembled, to confront the deluge in the Gulf, where in a Rose Garden response the President unveiled a ‘Hurricane Task Force’ led by FEMA to aid emergency operations and coordinate better with the Federal Government.
“The highest levels of government are taking action now, the country is watching, and it is time to show that this administration will do what needs to be done to fix this, thank you.”[14]
(Left to right) FEMA secretary Tim Roemer, New Orleans convention center, President Edwards takes a question in a press conference
The sky was filling with helicopters, from the Louisiana Naval and Aerial Guard, the Coast Guard, and the Navy, as the stationed ships USS Bataan, the USS Harry S Truman USS Iwo Jima, and USS Comfort flew supplies and rescue craft into the city, while on the ground, rescue workers and civilians alike jumped into the fray so vast an operation the Coast Guard dubbed the mission ‘Operation Dunkirk’ and slowly more and more television airtime was focused away from the disaster and onto the rescue.
But by the evening the city was still on the brink, Mayor Nagin was in whiplash between fits of rage and distraught fear, while he the Governor, and FEMA contended with the fact that New Orleans simply wasn’t fit to live in, anymore. FEMA secretary Roemer, head of the Hurricane Task Force looked up and down the streets, and realized that even all the resources he could muster weren’t enough, the boats, the medical teams, the trucks, the generators, the food, and water. It couldn’t save a city with a hole in it this big. He fielded a call to the White House informing them of just how big the problem was.
On Wednesday 48 hours since Katrina struck the unprecedented scale of the devastation was still slowing relief efforts, supply trucks and evacuation busses sporadically entered but struggled to navigate the city without proper communications. The sound of random violence, looting, and gunshots echoed. On the morning news, Americans awoke to the continuing terror, the dispossessed, the derelict, the unhinged mass of humanity. Governor Blanco flew in a Blackhawk chopper to New Orleans to meet with the mayor and witnessed as the first of 500 FEMA supply trucks and busses snaked to the Superdome and Convention Center relieving the areas at last and allowing FEMA to set up its base of operations at the Center
[15].
And as reports streamed to Washington and the country about the ongoing disaster President Edwards prepared to take further executive action. The White House was watching the coverage closely
“It's become clear the President is the only person with the resources necessary” said former New Orleans Mayor Sidney Barthelemy on CNN that morning. Other commenters were becoming less accommodating Joe Scarborough on MSNBC spoke from his gut
“There isn’t enough, people need to be evacuated out of the city, those responders are out there helping every person they can, but it clearly isn’t enough, this is becoming a national scandal” The Governor received a call first thing in the morning that told her the President was on his way to Baton Rouge.It was the clear signal the Governor needed that her pleas had gotten through.
As the President touched down, the Governor, the Mayor and everyone at the EOC rattled off what they needed, more troops, more boats, more trucks, more helicopters, more food, more water, and more money. The President landed and met with the Governor, the FEMA secretary, and Louisiana's two Senators Mary Landrieu and John Breaux who had encamped themselves in the EOC and each took turns relaying the scale of the devastation and the unending need for the city to the President, including dire predictions that as many as 10,000 people could have been killed. After listening Edwards gave reassurance that the
‘Full weight of the Federal Government is behind you, we’re going to be taking action, we’re headed down there now’. The President then indicated to his staff and the room that he would be going to New Orleans via Marine One to meet with city officials and see the damage for himself.
[16]
The President did so, venturing into the bowl. The city smelled of death, referred to as ‘toxic gumbo’. A swill of rotting flesh, and human waste, stewing in the warm tropical climate. Rubber tires, house paint, gasoline, and dead rats. Sour cheese, and curdled milk a smell that burned the sinuses and left those that breathed it too long with a
“Katrina cough” or worse. It was impossible for anyone who smelled that air to not understand the utter calamity that had befallen an American city.
After meeting with Mayor Nagan and the city hall headquarters, the President visited the decimated 9th ward with officials and an on-edge secret service, maneuvering the waterlogged street and meeting a few pre-screened survivors, before returning to Washington. Working with the Governor and Mayor on the Federal plan of action, a declaration of national emergency.
“Good afternoon, as I speak to you tonight, New Orleans is underwater, thousands of homes and businesses are destroyed Most of the Mississippi gulf coast is completely gone, Mobile is flooded. We are dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history. And the people there feel forgotten. YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN. That is why after speaking with Governor Blanco, Governor Barbour, and Governor Riley as well as consulting with the cabinet, I have declared a national emergency by reason of natural disaster. This will allow the Federal Government to better direct an effective, responsive relief effort. This disaster has challenged the limits of despair, but I know the American people can show compassion to those that are struggling and deserve our help, there is a job that needs doing here.”
(Left to right) President Edwards visits New Orleans, Marine One over New Orleans, President Edwards announces the national emergency
The emergency federalized both the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard and deployed 60,000 troops, mostly national guard but also regular, armored and airborne soldiers and marines to aid in the search and rescue missions and ‘restore order’. Additional U.S. Navy ships would be deployed to the region and the airforce would work to bring water and MREs to stranded citizens. Task Force Katrina equaled the greatest deployment of military forces within the United States since the civil war. On top of the emergency, President Edwards invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 for the first time since the LA riots in 1992, enabling the U.S. Military and Federalized National Guard to carry out law enforcement duties and effectively authorizing martial law.
[17]
The Federal Government had essentially taken control of the relief operations by the afternoon of the 31st and the President delivered another national address about the ongoing crisis in New Orleans and the operation underway to relieve them. Hours later the first of many military convoys led by the cigar-chomping Lt Honere entered the city in force and begin shuttling people out to centers across the country.
After another night of round-the-clock aid and rescue missions, a sense of stability returned as troops moved in and basic communications were finally re-established, the images of the troops helped put to rest stories about havoc on the streets, and rumors that widespread looting, murder, and rape was going unpunished, including fantastical and ugly claims about slaughtered children, basements filled with corpses and roving gangs of escaped bloodthirsty prisoners. Blackhawk Pilot Tammy Duckworth reported that seeing the city in person showed that ”the cameras did no justice to what we saw in person, everyone under the sun was helping to rescue this city from devastation”.
Some decried that the military was forcefully evicting people from their homes leaving what little they had left (including pets) behind. But bit by bit, the U.S. Army engineers started to clog the flood walls, people were evacuated and a new sense of strange order returned to a devastated city. In an interview, President Edwards described the crisis as
“Weather of mass destruction” and thanked all the forces for their
“tremendous efforts to save lives” before setting off again to travel to tour the wreckage in the Gulf. The U.S. Congress in an emergency session signed a relief package of 16 Billion Dollars, it would not be the last or the biggest to come.
Within a week New Orleans water pumps were restored, and the ever-present flood was finally being pumped out of the city back into the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain but half of New Orleans homes remained unsalvagable and under the emergency order, practically all of the city was evacuated.
(Left to right) Military aid New Orleans, Secretary Roemer and President Edwards, Naval rescue efforts, Lt General Honere
Hurricane Katrina was the worst disaster in the United States in living memory leaving upwards of 700 people dead
[18]. And in its aftermath people’s hearts poured open in collective horror, and billions in charity relief were collected from within the United States and across the world, as the brutal photographs and footage (not dissimilar to those following the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean the previous year) splashed front pages. The sense of collective grief and praise for rescue workers was enough to dispel even the most brutal critics of the handling of the crisis within its early hours tipping their hats to the first responders, military, FEMA, and the public efforts.
As the Hurricane dissipated and the flood waters eventually dropped, minds turned to the reconstruction of what once was New Orleans. Though Congress had signed a relief package it was clear that more needed to be done and the President gave a speech from New Orleans on the 15th of September to address just that.
“Good evening, I speak to you tonight from a devastated city, New Orleans, many parts of this great city are still underwater, Hundreds of thousands of Americans from here to Florida have been left homeless, and many have lost the lives of loved ones, taken from them by a storm.
These past few days we have seen fellow Americans, desperate, searching the ruins of their homes, carrying what little they have left on their backs, and grieving for the dead. Desperate people in a desperate place.
…
But we have also seen acts of compassion and courage that can make us proud, emergency response workers in FEMA, our military, and ordinary men and women, helping to rescue tens of thousands of people from drowning neighborhoods. This compassion has stretched the country, congregations, schools, and businesses who have donated time, money, and blood, and those who have opened their homes to people with nowhere to go.
…
This tragedy has given us the opportunity to rebuild, to rebuild a New Orleans that is a shining example of this country at its finest. To rebuild here and Biluxi and Mobile and other cities, to provide homes for those without them. To get support to those starting from scratch. This is a great historic city but as we have all seen, there is a deep persistent poverty, inseparable from its racial history and we have a duty to confront this with bold action to fulfill our responsibility to the people here to get New Orleans and the Gulf back on its feet … Thank you and may God bless America.
(Left to right) Katrina survivors in the Houston Astrodome, President Edwards rebuilding speech, Federal troops raise the U.S. flag
[1] FEMA was downgraded from cabinet rank and merged into Homeland Security following 9/11, a massive blow to the agency and by putting DHS in the way stalled relief
[2] Only the Coast Guard was there IOTL along with the USS Bataan which had to disregard orders, a better organized FEMA has better pre-hurricane response
[3] More or less OTL, but with a clearer chain of command.
[4] FEMA being merged with the DHS cut its budget by about 100 billion
[5] Michael Brown was incompetent pure and simple basically the worst kind of person in a crisis who actively hindered relief operations you would genuinely struggle to find a worse person for the role.
[6] Brown didn't push for an evacuation
[7] The presence of more National Guardsmen due to no Iraq War is a big butterfly allowing for more education prior to the hurricane, including the elderly and infirm some of whom died
[8] FEMA has no generators on the scene due to cuts
[9] The National Guard was severely underequipped for Katrina due to the Iraq war
[10] Communications would be even worse ITTL, after 9/11, police and national guard communications systems were upgraded
[11] Blanco and Bush were on bad terms through Katrina. As the administration tried to blame her, and she rejected federal overtures after that, seeing them as disingenuous
[12] Better evacuations after the storm makes matters worse at the Superdome as more and more people are dropped off there
[13] inexplicably Brown put out a message saying the opposite, telling FEMA and federal troops to block extra assistance in a desperate attempt to better organize relief which he then couldn't do
[14] Bush kept his schedule on Tuesday and remained on vacation until Wednesday and several high-profile cabinet members also remained on vacation, massively contributing to the 'Bush doesn't care' narrative
[15] FEMA wanted to make its base the Convention Center but got lost and set up in a Walmart instead, a better-organized FEMA makes it
[16] infamously Bush didn't come, instead, he flew over the city, which even he admits was one of the greatest mistakes of his Presidency
[17] After several more days IOTL, some in the White House wanted to Federalize the efforts but backed off when Blanco was against it suspecting they were just doing it save face
[18] Roughly half as many dead, I will cover the repercussions and long-term aftermath at some point
