[Wolfstar]

Two early post-hurricane photos taken Monday in Mississippi as Katrina's dark clouds still moved overhead. Throughout the entire disaster area, including areas of Louisiana outside New Orleans, the kind of chaos and lack of local order seen in the city was almost completely absent. There were some sporadic reports of looting, but it was quickly brought under control.

Cathy Breazeale of Gulfport, Mississippi surveys damage to her home.

A view of the Sadler Apartments in Biloxi after Katrina destroyed them and close to 100 condominiums on the waterfront.

[Wolfstar]

This Reuters-Yahoo caption (accompanying a photo of a damaged TV station), which was posted Aug 30 12:15 AM EDT, documents that initially the worst of the damage was thought to have occurred in Mississippi. The only mention of New Orleans is the fact that crude oil production in the region was shut down.

A television station loses its broadcasting tower and roof during Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi,August 29. Much of the city was heavily damaged during the peak of the category four storm. The storm slammed into New Orleans on Monday with winds of 135 mph, shutting 91 percent of the normal 1.5 million barrels per day of crude oil production in the Gulf Coast region.