Off "The Island" ... New Orleans still hurts

"This city remains in shambles," says Times columnist.
Roy Lang III, assistant sports editor on assignment to the BCS National Championship in New Orleans, is struck by the contrast between the normalcy of life in the French Quarter and what lies a short drive away: "Many will assume New Orleans has recovered from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall 28 months ago. New Orleanians wouldn't want it any other way — the people of this city need folks to believe such a recovery has been made."
Journalists descending on New Orleans report inside and outside the Superdome. Lang's headline: " 'The Island' will shine tonight while rest of New Orleans cries for help"

Photos by Mike Silva/The Times: 1. After all this time a teddy bear still remains in a home that was flooded when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. 2. A group of pink tents sit in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. They are part of the Make it Right Project started by actor Brad Pitt in hopes of repopulating the ravaged area.
See the gallery of Katrina Damage.

Hurricane Nightmares Became Headlines

Two years ago...
Hurricane Katrina's category 4 winds and tidal surge hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005. The catastrophe left 1,464 dead in its wake.

• By 9 a.m. that day, fears of a disaster had us preparing the rare "EXTRA" edition to get the word out.
• Reports of flooding neighborhoods and levee breaches were unfolding by noon.
• Nightmares of a worst-case scenario were being realized by 2 p.m. Reports of Lower Ninth Ward flooding included anecdotes about people hacking their way through attics onto rooftops.
• Heroes came out of the woodwork. Every boat found was put to work.

The next 48 hours would leave most of New Orleans under water. Chaos ensued and headlines across the country shifted from a focus on the Mississippi coast to New Orleans as people realized a major metropolitan center was drowning.
Most of us will never forget the cacophony from the Superdome that caught local, state and federal leaders flatfooted. Those images stain their legacy. Review Katrina numbers.

The nations' front pages on Aug. 30, Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 were overcome by the disaster. See more dates and other major news front pages in the Newseum's archive of front pages.

New Orleans levees still weak?

“Stingy local officials actually helped scuttle a Corps plan to build pumps and floodgates along Lake Pontchartrain, a plan that could have prevented much of Katrina's flooding,” writes Michael Grunwald, author of the Time magazine article on New Orleans. Another “man-made” disaster in New Orleans looms in Time magazine article.
The review on New Orleans recovery and preparedness is pessimistic at best. Repaired levees don’t appear ready for another modest storm. “They're a frigging disgrace," says University of California, Berkeley, engineering professor Robert Bea. Louisiana State University hurricane researcher and author Ivor van Heerden anticipates another storm, "We better start getting ready." More “Katrinas” may be brewing.
Photo: Floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina flow over a levee along Inner Harbor Navigational Canal near downtown New Orleans Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. (David J. Phillip, AP Photo, 2005)