MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 2005

3am

7pm

8pm

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2005

10pm

6pm

OUTSIDE THE LEVEE SYSTEM

The day before Katrina hit, high tides created by the storm’s outer bands already swell Lake Pontchartrain and engulf low-lying wetlands and communities outside the levee system.

11pm

12am

1am

2am

START

8am

9am

10am

11am

12pm

5am

4am

6am

7am

Sources: The IPET report* Army Corps of Engineers LSU Hurricane Center Dartmouth Flood Observatory Eyewitness accounts C&C Technologies Survey Services NASA Earth Observatory

MAIN MENU

*The Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force was a group of government, academic and private sector scientists and engineers who conducted a forensic investigation of the effectiveness and failures of the hurricane levee system in the New Orleans area during Hurricane Katrina. It was created by the chief of engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers, and its work was peer reviewed by an external review panel of the American Society of Civil Engineers and independently reviewed by a committee of the National Research Council. 

By 5 a.m., Katrina’s waves are pounding the MR-GO levee. By dawn, levee sections crumble and Lake Borgne advances into wetlands toward St. Bernard Parish.

ST. BERNARD WETLANDS

EASTERN NEW ORLEANS

Around 6 a.m., storm surge builds in the Intracoastal Waterway's "funnel," and levees protecting the area are overtopped or breached. Floodwaters pour in from every direction.

Storm surge tops the levee under the Paris Road Bridge in eastern New Orleans just west of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) during Hurricane Katrina. (Photo by Donald McCrosky, plant manager for Entergy at the Michoud Power Plant)

FUNNEL

A barge, a church, homes, vehicles and other debris are scattered about at the site of the floodwall breach in the Lower 9th Ward nearly two weeks after Katrina made landfall. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

As early as 4:30 a.m., two levee wall sections on the east side of the Industrial Canal fall, releasing a deluge of water into the Lower 9th Ward, tossing homes off their foundations.

LOWER 9TH WARD

KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL IN PLAQUEMINES

Around 6:10 a.m.: Katrina makes landfall at Buras. A wall of water 21 feet high crosses the Mississippi River and its levees, inundating most of Plaquemines Parish.

OUTFALL CANALS TAKE BEATING

By 6:30 a.m., storm surge and waves are slamming the levee walls of the outfall canals, meant to pump rainwater out of the city and into Lake Pontchartrain. Witnesses report levee wall sections of the 17th Street Canal are leaning toward the Lakeview neighborhood. Water leaks through cracks, but the flooding is minor.

Helicopters comb the flooded Desire Housing development area looking for survivors, with the Crescent City Connection in the background. (Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

By 7 a.m., possibly as early as 6 a.m., levee wall panels on the west side of the Industrial Canal breach, flooding the Desire area and the neighborhoods of St. Claude, St. Roch and the 7th Ward.

INDUSTRIAL CANAL LEVEE

A helicopter drops sandbags on the breached east side of the London Avenue Canal near Mirabeau Avenue in Gentilly.  (Photo by Kathy Anderson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

LONDON AVENUE CANAL

Around 7:30 a.m., I-wall levee panels on both sides of the London Avenue Canal are pushed over, releasing a torrent of water into homes throughout Gentilly.

MORE GENTILLY FLOODING

Shortly after 8 a.m., floodwaters travel up the Peoples Canal and through a culvert, inundating Pontchartrain Park and Gentilly Woods before merging with floodwaters from the London Avenue Canal.

Flooding in the Pontchartrain Park area of New Orleans that was a result of Hurricane Katrina.  (Photo by Kathy Anderson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

A man waits patiently on the roof of his home in Chalmette after flood waters inundated the region after Hurricane Katrina. (Photo by Ted Jackson, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

ST. BERNARD PARISH

By 8:20 a.m., Lake Borgne advances to St. Bernard Parish’s second line of defense, easily topping the 7-foot to 9-foot 40-Arpent Canal levee and filling neighborhoods from Poydras to Arabi.

ORLEANS AVENUE CANAL SWAMPS CITY PARK

By about 8:30 a.m., storm surge reaches an embankment at the foot of the Orleans Avenue Canal that is six feet lower than the floodwalls. Water overtops the embankment and pours into City Park.

BIG BREACH IN LAKEVIEW

Around 9 a.m., several 17th Street Canal levee wall panels fail, releasing a torrent of water into Lakeview. Water from this breach eventually fills much of New Orleans and parts of Metairie.

The gaping hole of the 17th Street Canal breach, showing flooding in Lakeview to the left of the canal, and a dry Bucktown to the right of the canal.  (Photo by Brett Duke, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

FLOODING THE NORTH SHORE

By 10 a.m., Katrina makes landfall on the north shore, near Slidell with a 15-foot storm surge. St. Tammany Parish neighborhoods from the Rigolets to Madisonville are flooded.

A stranded motorist along I-10 in Slidell tries to get to high ground after Hurricane Katrina passed through the area. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

NO PUMPS, NO DRAINAGE

By 10:30 a.m., neighborhoods in Kenner and Metairie are flooded. Lake water leaked through an unmanned pumping system as early as daybreak, causing canals to swell and spill into the area.

Hurricane Katrina flooding in Kenner around the intersection of Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Loyola Avenue. (Photo by Rusty Constanza, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

NEW ORLEANS FILLS UP

By noon, with Katrina’s eye north of the city and moving away quickly, surge levels drop and levee overtopping ceases. But Lake Pontchartrain remains swollen, and water continues bleeding into the city via levee breaches until the lake level equalizes with the floodwaters at midday on Sept. 1.

NEXT

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005

STANDING FLOODWATER DEPTHS

By Sept. 1, some neighborhoods are submerged in more than 10 feet of water. For a more detailed look at floodwater depths and what a storm worse than Katrina could do today, click the maps on the right.