These are the blogs and articles of the The Times– Picayune, a local newspaper  in New Orleans, written during the storm and following the storm. During this time they weren’t able to print or deliver newspaper, thus they continued uninterrupted coverage through their web affiliate, NOLA.com through updated blogs, forums, and PDFs sent form their hurricane bunker. However, when the floodwaters rose too high around the building, they evacuated through their delivery trucks and found refuge in Baton Rouge where they continued their services. For their efforts, they won the 2006 Pulitzer Award for Pubic Service and Breaking News. Their blog and forums became lifelines for those in need of rescue and to find missing family members and friends. It was often used by rescue teams to help maneuver about the flooded city. If you look around the site you can find more information about Katrina from the words of its victims and details about the city a year later.

Online Blog During the Storm

Definitely worth a look. Hurricane Katrina hit land as a category 4 with winds of 150 mph slightly east of New Orleans. The eyewall was at Southwest Pass, at the mouth of the Mississippi around 3 AM. At first they weren’t sure how much flooding there would be and the eyewall  was 3 hours form the city. The blog continues its coverage as the Industrial Canal is topped and a 20-foot tidal surge breaches four of the pumping stations. There was a tornado warning reported to be found in the thunderstorms and Katrina’s rain bands. It continued to report massive destruction and devastation...

Hurricane Katrina brought in a massive storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain and flooded over the levees. New Orleans was 80% under water– contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. It took two months to pump the city dry and what was left was a putrid settlements, a million homeless and 50,000 dead. Reports say global warming is putting low, coastal cities at higher risk. Climatologists predict more powerful storms and more frequently this century. Despite these predictions, Louisiana is losing its natural protective marshes along the coast faster than any where else in the U.S. With no fresh sediment deposits, the Delta soils naturally compact and sink overtime and give way to fresh water and subsidence. Why? Canals, levees, drainage of the wetlands and control of the Mississippi. Find out more about the loss of the coastline at the National Geographic.

If you have time and are able to view PDFs, this article provides interesting insight as to the details of the damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane provided researches a rare opportunity to document the damage resulting from a tsunami-like event in an industrialized nation. They describe the details of Katrina and mention the fact that most damage came from the flooding. After describing some of its affects on homes, they pay particular attention to the hurricane’s effects on engineered structures and on coastal damage. This information will help engineers develop design guidelines that could help coastal structures resist future storm surge and tsunamis. Read more in their report, coupled with fantastic photographs of the damage.

The article describes what was damaged and what was saved from both hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and it gives statistical data on the extent of the damage. It is pretty shocking. It reported the wind damage was greatest in buildings four-stories or taller, whereas flooding damage took the cake for one and two-story buildings. Check it out and see for yourself.

This is an example of New Orleans bouncing back bigger and better ( in this case, its IT system). For the sake and survival of its municipal government, they made many critical changes and improvements. Some include the consolidation of its systems into a main data center vs. remote operation centers (70% flooded during Katrina), and one of its most important changes is the use of GIS technology. This is helping officials make important decisions on what needs to be built or repaired, what can be opened and even where to put police officers. Check out what else the new systems can do in New Orleans.

Any comments or questions? Please send them to lisataco@mit.edu