[Wolfstar]

President Bush is handed a map by Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin during a video teleconference with federal and state emergency management organizations on hurricane Katrina from his Crawford ranch, August 28, 2005. The President approved major disaster declarations for the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, clearing the way for the use of federal money to help respond to Hurricane Katrina, the White House said. In addition, the President urged the governor of Louisiana and mayor or New Orleans to issue mandatory evacuation orders.

[Wolfstar]

A woman walks in the middle of a street through the rain-soaked and deserted French Quarter of New Orleans in advance of Hurricane Katrina August 28. Hundreds of thousands of New Orleans residents fled inland as Katrina strengthened into one of the fiercest U.S. storms ever seen and barreled toward the low-lying Gulf Coast city.

NOAA satellite image of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico on August 28, 2005.