re: Who here remembers Hurricane Katrina and the Superdome?

The decision making at the State and local level was tragically bad. The governor was an empty suit for these purposes. She had no experience with leadership like this or making decisions with such dire consequences.

So, she punted. The decision making from the senior leadership of the Louisiana National Guard was not up to the challenge presented by this storm. This is true both of senior officers I considered mentors and positive examples as well as some of the *ahem* "others".

Doomed from the beginning - an officer made the recommendation for the state headquarters to ride out the storm at Jackson Barracks (a reminder that this facility is IN the lower ninth ward), a historic (and, plainly speaking, ceremonial) facility, no doubt, but not a base that facilitates a rapid response if there is any flooding at all. The governor and TAG (Landreneau at the time) accepted the recommendation.

So, instead of displacing to Carville on Sunday (the day before the storm), where they would have been high and dry for the storm itself and able to immediately respond to the challenges of the aftermath, the HQ of the entire Louisiana Guard was flooded and had to spend the bulk of the first day of the storm and aftermath evacuating itself (largely to the Superdome) and re-establishing communications and operations under what must be described as wartime conditions.

This amplified all the problems we encountered during that most acute and vital period - basically that first week from the storm through Labor Day. Losing an entire day was something they never fully recovered from.

Having said that, there was no shortage of food or water at the Superdome. If folks went hungry or thirsty, it was because they did not want to eat MREs or drink bottle water. Toilet facilities were overwhelmed by Tuesday (Wednesday at the latest) and portable toilets not in operation until Thursday (and, frankly, most of those were for the responders).

There were scattered reports of violence. The civilians were becoming more verbally and physically aggressive with guard soldiers responsible for security. I had arrived from Jackson Barracks late on Monday night. We spent that night in the business offices of the Dome, but as it was getting late on Tuesday, we were instructed to get our gear out of the Dome as we were "setting up a perimeter". We operated out of the parking area that doubled as a helicopter landing zone for the remainder of the mission at the Dome.

I would likely defer to Buck Wylde's memory, but IIRC, we had to suspend the evacuation of the Dome to handle the convention center and that is why we did not complete the evacuation of the Dome until Saturday morning. I could have some sequences of events mixed up.

*Sunday=August 28
Monday=August 29
Tuesday=August 30
Wednesday=August 31
Thursday=September 1
Friday=September 2
Saturday=September 3

I think there's a lot of them that come from Louisiana. We grew up in the swamps and bayous and lakes and marshes and that means you learn to swim early, you suffer daily with the heat and bugs and miserable conditions and terrain. And you just deal with it and have a good time anyway.

And we have families like mine that are very deeply ingrained in the US Military and have been for generations. People hear my brother was a SEAL and find that hard to believe so I don't tell them about the rest of the Spec Forces guys in my family. He was in SDV's and helped pioneer that group. SDV units these days are getting the choice missions. Dev Group guys are jealous of what they're getting away with right now and the SDV guys are now considered Tier 1 units by the rest of the community as a result of these missions. But he's not the only Tier one in my family. He's not even the second or third if we're counting cousins. A couple of them are active duty so we won't be discussing which branches they're in. But we've got them all covered. And honestly, I doubt we're unique in that regard.

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The time to act is hopefully 2 weeks before the storm arrives

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My point is that the Governor, State Police, GOSEPS, National Guard should have a plan to evacuate NOLA (or some other city) and rehearse that plan over and over to weed out the bugs.

Some say that no one could image that NOLA would flood like that. We need people in charge who can plan for the un for seen events that most would never imagine.

NOLA is below sea level, it might flood , let's plan for that.

If a major storm appears to be coming toward louisiana then put the Plan into motion, not after the storm hits.

Moved south of Baton Rouge less than 2 months post-Katrina from Tennessee. I had never been to Baton Rouge prior to moving to the area to look at houses. Had only been to New Orleans a handful of times. Check Katrina fridge poetry. I remember those being pretty somber markers in the aftermath. Also the symbols they would spray paint on the houses. Sad times.

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Also the symbols they would spray paint on the houses.

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I have a picture of my garage door with the “X” spray painted on it somewhere.

Baton Rouge was a giant mess in the months following Katrina. I saw an estimate back then that the population roughly doubled during that period. It was very difficult to drive anywhere with additional traffic, and lots of new idiot drivers on BR roads made it harder. “Don’t block the box” was a slogan on local news, telling people to wait for room before crossing an intersection.

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One Shell Square is 56 stories high.

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Quibbling, of course, but I think 51 is the correct number.

I have been on floor 49, 50 and 51 of that building

By coincidence, one of the senior guard leaders for Katrina worked at the top of that building in civilian life. For all I know, he still does.

I remember in the aftermath thinking how stupid Louisiana's governor was, and how great Mississippi's was.

In the long run Haley did prove to be an establishment hack though.