I personally heard Air Force One trying to find Mayor Nagin via shortwave radio for a while when they were doing the flyover on Wednesday afternoon. There was no communications from N.O. and the North Shore to Baton Rouge from the storm until that time, as the radio comms were all down from the Hurricane. (The City of New Orleans system was destroyed, as well as certain cells of the State system)
National Hurricane Center also finally made a contact with Slidell NWS during the same time, getting initial estimates. Bush was the first one from the Administration to see the damage.
from CNN
Bush, who cut short his Texas vacation to return to Washington following Hurricane Katrina, sat somberly on a couch on the left hand side of the presidential jumbo jet peering out of the window during the 35-minute flight over the hurricane-damaged areas.
"There wasn't a whole lot of conversation going on," McClellan said. "I think it's very sobering to see from the air.
"And I think at some point you're just kind of shaking your head in disbelief to see the destruction that has been done by this hurricane."
Air Force One descended as low as 2,500 feet (750 meters) over New Orleans during the flight and 1,700 feet (510 meters) over parts of Mississippi. Air Force One normally flies at an altitude of around 37,000 feet (11,100 meters).
Air Force One flew over the Superdome sports stadium in New Orleans, where thousands of refugees from Katrina are being sheltered, and downtown areas of the city before heading east over the devastated Mississippi coast.
At one point, Air Force Colonel Mark Tillman, the plane's chief pilot, brought the jet so low that it seemed to be barely above the skyscrapers of New Orleans.
From the air, New Orleans appeared to be almost completely under water. Residential neighborhoods were flooded up to the roofs and even above in some places.
Heading east, some suburban and rural communities were demolished. Forests were leveled and buildings reduced to matchsticks.
After flying over Louisiana and Mississippi, Air Force One circled over Mobile, Alabama, and headed north for Washington.
I heard the FEMA comms van on 40 meters callsign WGY906 looking for assistance from the amateur radio operators. His traffic was " he had a mission to get a message to the mayor of New Orleans that the President of the United States wants to talk to the Mayor". The operator gave the phone number for the FEMA van along with the message.
I agree that comms were shot in the hurricane area. There were no ham radio comms coming out of N.O. or the MS or AL coast. The comms were from places well north or west of the path Katrina took.