Inside Hurricane Katrina Page #3

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out of the line of fire...

But close enough to perform

rescue operations

after the storm hits.

FEMA headquarters.

Washington, D.C.

An emergency specialist and

union president named Leo Bosner

is also tracking Katrina.

Bosner believes

the agency is unprepared

for the kind

of disaster predicted

in the Hurricane Pam scenario.

And as this went along

Saturday night and into Sunday,

i think all of us just felt

this, this terrible

hollow feeling.

Why aren't greater measures

being taken?

Narrator:
The director of FEMA

is 50-year-old Michael Brown.

He's been running it since 2003,

and has handled disasters

including California wildfires

and the Columbia

space shuttle explosion.

FEMA is not the organization

it once was.

After 9/11,

as the country focused

on preventing

another terrorist attack,

congress voted to downgrade FEMA

from a cabinet-level agency.

In 2003 it became part

of the new homeland security

department.

The problem with putting FEMA

into the office

of homeland security

was that it took it

out of the white house,

and there is nothing

more effective

for any government agency

than being right next

to the president.

Narrator:
Saturday, August 27th.

7:
00 P.M. central time.

Katrina is a dangerous

category 3 hurricane.

She's barreling toward

Louisiana and Mississippi,

on her way to becoming

a cataclysmic 4 or 5.

Weather maps show Katrina

expanding so rapidly

that she seems to overwhelm

the entire Gulf.

Her 12-foot waves are already

approaching parts of the coast.

By this point,

across New Orleans,

floodgates are closing

on the levees

that surround and cut

through the city,

including the industrial canal

on the city's east side,

the 17th street canal

on the West Side,

and the London Avenue canal

in the gentilly neighborhood.

The levees are embankments

made of dirt.

Some are topped with reinforced

concrete floodwalls.

They range between

13 and 18 feet tall.

Some date all the way back

to the 1920s.

The army corps of engineers

maintains them

and acknowledges

that budget shortfalls

have prevented

urgently needed repairs.

The levees are built

to protect New Orleans

from the storm surge

of a category 3 hurricane.

Storm surge is when high winds

push massive amounts of water

above the normal sea level.

As thousands of people

stream out of New Orleans

on Saturday night,

jazz trumpeter Kermit Ruffins

is headed back in.

He's just finished

a gig in San Diego.

I said, man, I need

to get to home real quick

and board up my windows

and get my family together

and get out of here.

Narrator:
Ruffins is not

quite ready to evacuate.

He secures his house,

then heads to the French Quarter

to bar hop.

Ruffins:
The bars are packed.

Saw a lot of friends, and with

typical New Orleans, um, humor,

"hey, man, this place will be

under water tomorrow."

Narrator:
9:30 P.M.

Louisiana Governor Blanco

joins the conference call

with emergency officials.

She reports on her latest

conversations with FEMA.

Narrator:
And yet, despite the

warnings and doomsday scenarios,

a FEMA report will later note

that on Saturday night,

August 27, 2005,

"the bars were rocking"

in the French Quarter.

Woman:
The weather is fine!

Everything's nice and hot!

Narrator:
After midnight, as the

big easy slowly winds down,

Hurricane Katrina proves

the forecasters correct.

Sunday, August 28th. 12:40 A.M.

Katrina becomes

a category 4 hurricane,

hell-bent on destruction.

Hurricane Pam is no longer

just another doomsday theory.

The worst-case scenario

will soon be reality.

Sunday, August 28, 2005.

7:
00 A.M. central time.

Hurricane Katrina is 250 miles

out in the Gulf of Mexico.

She has become an extremely rare

category 5 monster,

forecast to come ashore

in less than 24 hours.

At this point,

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin

decides to announce a mandatory

evacuation of the city...

Something that's never

been done before.

He puts the plan in motion.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Narrator:
On a conference call

with state and FEMA officials,

the New Orleans representative

voices one overriding concern.

Narrator:
8:00 A.M.

the refuge of last resort,

the Superdome,

begins taking in evacuees.

Behind the scenes,

FEMA director Michael Brown

expresses frustration

that a mandatory evacuation

has not yet been announced.

Brown appeals

to New Orleans residents.

Voluntary evacuations right now.

I'll tell you this personally.

If I lived in New Orleans,

I'd be getting out of there.

Narrator:
Crawford, Texas.

9:
25 A.M.

President Bush:
cmo estas?

Narrator:
From his ranch, president

bush calls Governor Kathleen Blanco.

To discuss the New Orleans

evacuation plan.

At this point

the Governor and the Mayor

have the power,

and the responsibility,

for getting people

out of harm's way.

New Orleans. 9:
30 A.M.

President Bush called and

told me to share with all of you

that he is very concerned

about the citizens,

he is concerned about the impact

that this hurricane would have

on our people.

And he asked me to please ensure

that there would be a mandatory

evacuation of New Orleans.

Narrator:
Now there is one.

Katrina's landfall

is about 20 hours away.

Nagin:
This is going to be

an unprecedented event.

We want everybody to get out.

The city of New Orleans

has never seen a hurricane

of this strength

to hit it almost directly.

Narrator:
Mayor Nagin

also imposes a 6:00 P.M. curfew.

10:
11 A.M.

The National Weather Service

issues an apocalyptic advisory,

the kind of warning

it would seem positively

suicidal to ignore:

Devastating damage expected...

Most of the area will be

uninhabitable for weeks...

Perhaps longer.

At least one half

of well-constructed homes

will have roof and wall failure.

All windows will blow out...

Airborne debris

will be widespread...

Persons... pets... and livestock

exposed to the winds

will face certain death

if struck.

By this point on Sunday morning,

most people have either

fled New Orleans

or are in the process

of doing so.

But tens of thousands of people,

many in the lowest-lying

and poorest parts of the city,

are not leaving.

They scramble to grab

last-minute supplies.

We've got oil, we've got water,

we've got food.

Pray for us...

Pray for all of New Orleans.

They'll tell you,

"Well, I lived here

through Betsy or Camille"

or one of the previous

hurricanes.

There've been

all kinds of hurricanes

that have come through.

None of them could

truly devastate the area.

Narrator:
With a police force

of only 1,600,

the Mayor does not send

his officers out

to enforce

the mandatory evacuation.

It's not just a question

of manpower.

There is also a traditional bias

against forcing people

out of their own homes.

Still, officers do use

their powers of persuasion.

I went as far as telling people,

i said,

"Well, just do me a favor."

Make life easy on us.

Take a permanent marker.

Write your

social security number

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