Chronology of a Catastrophe

• As rescue resources continue to stream in, Blanco calls for complete evacuation of New Orleans. Hospitals and the Superdome remain priorities.
• In the Superdome, evacuees are becoming increasingly angry and restless. With no power or water, the heat and stench become overwhelming. Violence abounds. Promised buses are diverted elsewhere and don't materialize.
• Thousands are at the Convention Center with no food or water. Crime explodes inside. Food and water for evacuees in Jefferson Parish has also been exhausted.
• Emergency generators at Charity and University hospitals-which host southeast Louisiana's only Level 1 trauma center, and are harboring around 350 patients and more than 1,000 doctors, nurses and evacuees-run out of fuel.
• Blanco asks Bush for more rescue resources, so that National Guardsmen can turn to stopping the citywide looting. Newsweek reports she is "transferred around the White House for a while" before speaking with presidential Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend. Hours later she calls back and finally gets through to Bush. 3,000 more troops are sent in the next 24 hours.
• Chertoff says he's "extremely pleased" with the response.
• Water levels stop rising once they equalize with adjoining Lake Pontchartrain.
• 52,000 are in various Red Cross shelters.
• Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt declares a public health emergency. HHS will set up as many as 40 more emergency medical shelters, providing thousands more hospital beds in the region.
• Around 1,600 patients and 8,600 others remain in area hospitals, awaiting evacuation.
• The U.S.S. Bataan, an 844-bed hospital ship with beds for 600 patients, sits unused off the Gulf Coast.
• Amtrak offers trains to take evacuees out of the area, but the first run doesn't happen until Saturday. Officials then tell Amtrak they won't need any more trains.
• Nagin orders police to stop search and rescue efforts and work to contain looting.
• Federal officials debate invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow them to take over law enforcement in the city, but decide against it after Blanco objects.
• Still desperate for buses, Blanco authorizes the National Guard to commandeer buses for the evacuation.

Thursday, September 1

• Superdome evacuees begin arriving in Houston.
• National Guard troops continue to pour into the region. The Coast Guard says it has rescued 3,000 thus far.
• Chertoff tells National Public Radio that he didn't know of evacuees at the Convention Center, which some estimates peg at 25,000. Brown says he'd just learned of them as well. Bush says no one expected the levees to break.
• Evacuation flights out of Louis Armstrong Airport slow dramatically once FEMA takes over. Airlines report being told the agency doesn't need any more planes for evacuees. Reports also come of FEMA stopping aid deliveries and additional manpower for bureaucratic reasons.
• New Orleans Homeland Security Director Terry Ebbert says that FEMA, after three days, has yet to establish command and control. He calls the response a "national disgrace."
• Northcom offers troops in a relief capacity, but Bush does not send them. Thousands more troops wait on standby.
• By afternoon, Blanco says there are fewer than 2,400 people left at the Superdome. By now, 76,000 are in Red Cross shelters.
• With the Astrodome full, Texas officials begin directing evacuees elsewhere.
• In much of New Orleans, order is gradually being restored, but some hospital evacuations are halted by sniper fire. Trapped at Charity Hospital with around 200 patients, no power, food and water precariously low and looters on lower floors, trauma chief Dr. Norman McSwain pleads to the media for help.
• Nagin blasts federal relief efforts as insufficient.

Friday, September 2

• Volunteer EMTs and deputies from Virginia spend 12 hours working with FEMA and state authorities to try to offer assistance, but leave when the agencies can't get the necessary paperwork in order.
• Speaking in Mississippi, Bush praises Brown for doing "a heck of a job." Later, however, he concedes federal efforts have fallen short.
• Local officials continue to plead for buses and gasoline to get shelter victims out. The National Guard's Lt. Gen. Steven Blum says he can't tell those remaining when they'll be rescued. "You cannot help everybody at the same time," he says.
• Coast Guard rescues reach 4,000 plus.
• By now, 58,000 National Guardsmen are on duty along the Gulf Coast, as are 17,000 active-duty military.
• Bush visits New Orleans and hears complaints from a number of local and state officials.

Saturday, September 3

• Bush orders more soldiers to the area, and the National Guard sends another 10,000.
• The Coast Guard says it has now rescued 9,500 people.
• Buses, trains and planes continue to carry victims out of the Superdome and Convention Center.
• The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) announces that 200 officers have walked off the job, and two have committed suicide.

Sunday, September 4

• The evacuation of the Superdome is completed, and only a few remain around the Convention Center. Ten died from various causes at the Superdome, 24 at the Convention Center.
• Texas Governor Rick Perry says his state may not be able to accommodate many more than the 220,000 victims it already has.
• A shelter in Biloxi, MS, is closed when more than 20 residents become ill with possible dysentery. The death toll in Mississippi stands at 144.

Monday, September 5

• House-to-house searches for survivors continue, and more troops are dispatched.
• The Army Corps of Engineers announces that one levee breach has been fixed, and a second is nearly so.
• Hurricane victims are given more than 100,000 items of clothing and other necessities seized by U.S. customs officials.

Tuesday, September 6

• Bush and Congress vow to investigate the federal response to Katrina.
• The Army Corps of Engineers begins pumping out New Orleans, now only 60% submerged.
• Rescuers continue to locate survivors; police say there are fewer than 10,000 left in the city.

Wednesday, September 7

• Police and soldiers are authorized to use force, if necessary, to remove the last holdouts in New Orleans.
• Bacteria in the floodwaters is confirmed to be at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety levels.