Hurricane Katrina: The Essential Time Line

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/09/0914_050914_katrina_timeline_2.html

MONDAY, AUGUST 29

2 a.m.: Hurricane Katrina turns north toward the Louisiana coast, but the storm's strongest winds have diminished slightly to about 155 miles an hour (250 kilometers an hour). The center of the storm is about 130 miles (210 kilometers) from New Orleans. A weather buoy about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of the river's mouth reports waves at least 40 feet (12 meters) high.

5 a.m.: The hurricane's strongest winds are now about 150 miles an hour (240 kilometers an hour), and its eye is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from New Orleans and about 120 miles (195 kilometers) from Biloxi.

7 a.m.: Hurricane Katrina's eye is about to come ashore in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. The hurricane's strongest winds are about 145 miles an hour (235 kilometers an hour). The eye is about 70 miles (115 kilometers) from New Orleans.

8 a.m.: Mayor Ray Nagin reports that water is flowing over one of New Orleans's levees.

9 a.m.: The eye is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from New Orleans and is expected to pass just to the east of the city. The storm's strongest winds are about 135 miles an hour (215 kilometers an hour).

11 a.m.: The hurricane's eye comes ashore again near the Louisiana-Mississippi border. The storm's strongest winds are about 125 miles an hour (200 kilometers an hour). Katrina's front-right quadrant—which contains its strongest winds and peak storm surge—slams into Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi, with devastating force, destroying much of both cities.

Meanwhile, a major levee in New Orleans has failed (See "New Orleans Levees Not Built for Worst Case Events"). Water is pouring through the 17th Street Canal, and the city is beginning to flood.

1 p.m.: Hurricane Katrina continues to weaken as it moves farther inland. Its strongest winds are about 105 miles an hour (170 kilometers an hour).

3 p.m.: The center of the hurricane is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Its winds are down to about 95 miles an hour (155 kilometers an hour).

Excerpt:As a journalist, I am used to writing about death and destruction. Natural disasters that rip through homes and lives, leaving tattered and torn pieces of towns in their paths. The tsunami, floods in California, earthquakes in Japan. I have become accustomed, even calloused to these horrors as I write about them and survey the video from a distance. I will never do that again. Hurricane Katrina brought all us down from our ivory towers. It opened our eyes to the frailty of human life, and man-made structures. We are so small compared to Mother Nature.

My TV station sits about four blocks from the beach, just behind the railroad tracks. I guess we thought we were invincible, because no one there evacuated. As the storm got closer I started to get nervous. Not because of the warnings we were giving to the community, or the projections on the Weather Channel, but because I could hear the fear in our own meteorologists’ voices. Professionals who have lived through hundreds of storms were shaking.

As Katrina hit land, the wind sounded like the ocean was in pain, and angry. In awe, we stepped out into our courtyard. I watched as the rain that was falling in sideways circles, ripped the roof off of our newsroom. I ran back inside, only to see a hole above my desk and rain pouring onto my computer. In a frantic rush we grabbed equipment, mainly weather computers, and raced to the other, “safer”, side of the building. Pieces of insulation began falling, and metal shards flew past, it felt like a combat zone with enemy fire coming from all directions.

The lights in our studio began pulsating, threatening to become hundred pound projectiles. We rushed to the cinder block section of the building that had been dubbed "hurricane proof" and set up makeshift operations, only to hear a crash above us. A piece of concrete had slammed through the roof and into the second floor. Water began seeping in the front and back doors. Then one of transmitting towers, weighing hundreds of pounds, collapsed. It looked like a twist tie that had been hastily discarded just inches from where were huddled.  If the storm had been any stronger, or lasted even an hour more, I don't know that we would have made it.