On Friday night, August 26, fifty-six hours before Katrina’s eventual second landfall, the NWS issued an ominous warning to residents of the Gulf Coast. MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER…HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS. Not all states responded as quickly as Mississippi, with its mandatory evacuations. The state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans both waited until nineteen hours before landfall to mandate evacuation, leaving residents with precious little time to respond.
