Hurricane Katrina hits Grand Isle, Louisiana

PoD: Katrina takes a slight jog to the west while heading north, causing it to make landfall in Grand Isle, Louisiana and putting New Orleans in the eastern eyewall (where the most damage occurred)

Effects, anyone? The death toll and damage will certainly be much worse than OTL. The scary part was that Katrina actually passed east of the city and still helped cause massive damage via the canal levees failing.
 
well clearly it's going to be a mess. The one positive effect might be that the federal government reacts faster, as it can focus it's efforts on Louisiana. Also there won't be any excuses that other areas were hit worse than NOLA.
 
Far more wind damage to be sure. The reason Gulfport, MS. was so devastated by Camille in 1969, [a much smaller storm, with winds considerably stronger than Katrina] was because it was in the eastern eye wall. I have been in the eastern eye wall of 2 Cat. 3 hurricanes [Floyd and Jeanne] and it was downright scary, particularly Floyd.
 
Oh, so suddenly the State Guards that would have helped in those efforts will be home from Iraq? :rolleyes:

If that's what the whole poor response issue necks down to in hindsight then the blame should be placed squarely with the Pentagon/Department of Defense. Having the National Guard/Reserve troops from states that can be hit with hurricanes during hurricane season should be a no brainer and something that can be adjusted via troop rotations (ok so maybe only half of the troops and equipment are in state, better than none). Plenty other states to draw combat formations from.
 

Approximately 58,000 National Guard & Reserve troops were activated to aid in the storm's aftermath, from all 50 states.

As of this time in 2005, 80,000 of the Guard and Reserve forces were deployed in 40 nations. The largest portion was in Iraq, where Guard units accounted for eight of 15 Army combat brigades.

A US brigade contains 5,000 troops. 8 brigades x 5000 troops = 40,000 troops. That's nearly double the more boots on the ground that could have been assisting in operations in the affected areas post-Katrina, if they weren't in Iraq.

So, again; does Katrina taking a slightly different route than OTL suddenly bring home the troops to aid in the efforts helping out citizens? ;)
 
Well 1st the lack of local Guard units here (I live outside NOLA) was a factor in the delay of aid initially. The real problem was the Levee system failed after Katrina passed. Ray Nagin the Mayor in conference call with FEMA assessed damage to the N.O. metro as minimal, With the support of parish presidents in the 4 parishes that make up metro N.O. And in truth this was true had the 17th st ,London ave levees not failed N.O. wouldve been ok in need of a rebuilding effort but with minimal flooding and mostly wind damage.

Now had we had a Hugo (Charleston SC 86) were Katrina had come up the river with the eastern eye wall passing over N.O. well lets just say epic would barely describe the damage and causalities. in short everything below the River Parishes would be gone and even they which btw sustained minmal wind damage OTL wouldve been in dire straits. Even as far up river as Baton Rouge would suffer devastation to the power communications grid and massive flooding.

In short had Katrina hit Grand Isle 4$ a gallon would be nothing as youve wiped out the Refinery's and Oil field support structure . the Lower parishes Terrebone Lafouche and Plaquemines would be marsh again and N'Awlins would be a sad memory.
 
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