Hurricane Katrina Presents me with an Opportunity to Perform Small Acts of Kindness: Part I

President Bush aboard Air Force I Surveying

the Damage Caused by Hurricane Katrina

Katrina began as a category I storm as it hit Southern Florida with winds clocked at about 75-95 miles per hour. She left as many as nine people dead according to the BBC.

Instead of moving west towards the Florida panhandle, she turned southwest to hug the Florida coast. From there she changed direction and headed northwest toward the Louisiana Mississippi coast and by the time she struck the Louisiana coastline she had been upgraded to a category 4 storm with winds reaching 131-155 miles per hour.

Mayor Ray Nagin's repeated SOS's calls to the White House were at first ignored. The President had been informed by the National Weather Service that the levees protecting New Orleans were being breached.

The Superdome had been opened to accommodate over 30,000 residents. Food, water and optimal sanitary conditions were soon exhausted with people urinating and defecating whenever and wherever they could. There were reports of rapes.

The President's first glimpse of the horrific natural disaster took place from Air Force I, on Wednesday August 31st--nearly 4 days after the disaster struck. (see photo above)

The media flooded us with images of devastation and the horrors of a city of anomy amidst a sea of chaos.

Image source (1)

To be continued

For the first seven (of eleven) transformative events of the last decade begin here