I\'m Mayor Ray Nagin, Mayor of America\'s Most Unique City, New Orleans.
A City that is being allowed to die as we speak. Thank you for the
opportunity to be here today.\
\
On August 29th, New Orleans was a victim to the largest natural disaster
in the nation's history. I would like to thank you for taking the time
to try to understand the magnitude of Katrina\'s impact, not only on New
Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but also on our nation. I encourage each of
you to visit New Orleans to see first hand the complexity of the
devastation.

Please allow me to take a moment to thank the American people for the
compassion, support and generosity they have shown our city and our
residents over the last few months. The outpouring from private citizens
and corporations all over the world has been remarkable.\
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I begin my testimony by painting a picture of New Orleans before
Katrina. Our city government was transparent and fiscally sound.  We had
more than \$3 billion in construction activity, real estate was on fire
and Donald Trump had just announced the latest Trump Tower would grace
our skyline.

We had a starring role as \"Hollywood South\" with hundreds of millions
of dollars in films being made in the area. Tourism was better than
ever, with a record 10.1 million visitors coming to our city and
thousands of people cruising out of New Orleans.

Equally as important, about 38,000 people moved from the poverty rolls
into the several thousand new jobs created in 2004. New Orleans and its
port continued to supply raw goods and our nation's energy supply.

The Friday before landfall, August 26, 2005, Katrina crossed Florida
into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the path was still projected to hit
the Florida panhandle, I notified the citizens that we needed to watch
this storm closely.

I activated essential staff and worked with regional and state officials
to enact our emergency plans and Contra flow.

On Saturday, August 27, models started to converge showing the path of
the Category 3 storm changed placing New Orleans in the middle of the
cone.

I called for a voluntary evacuation urging all citizens that were able
to evacuate the city to leave.  I reminded citizens of how important it
was to prepare for the worst.  Many New Orleans residents boarded up
their homes, packed up, and got on the road to safety.  We enacted
Contra flow and encouraged citizens to follow the plan created by the
State of Louisiana and implemented on a parish by parish basis. 

Our region had one of the most successful mass evacuations in the
history of the United States.  90% of our residents evacuated.  Over a
million people left the region within 24 hours. Compare that to what
happened in Texas during Hurricane Rita. We were successful in saving
lives.

On Saturday evening, the Governor called to tell me that she had just
spoken to Max Mayfield with the National Weather Center and that I
should call him.  He told me that in his over 30 years experience in
watching hurricanes, he had never seen a storm or conditions like this.
 I immediately called my staff and visited every television station in
the city to alert the citizens to stress the need for evacuation.

To provide a safety net to seniors and other citizens who relied on
public transportation, I took another very important step by encouraging
our faith based community to reinforce evacuations through buddy systems
within their communities.  

On Saturday night, the National Weather Service reported that Katrina
was now a category 5 hurricane and was approximately 250 miles away from
New Orleans with 190 mile per hour sustained winds. Katrina had
increased its size within hours and had a predicted storm surge of 15 to
20 feet high.

After a Sunday morning statewide conference call, I announced the first
ever citywide Mandatory Evacuation order, opened the Louisiana Superdome
as our refuge of last resort, staged busses throughout the city to
transport people to the Superdome and set a curfew for dusk.

The City evacuated 400 special needs residents to a state shelter and
then opened the Superdome at 8 a.m. for the remaining special needs
population.

There were thousands of residents that did not leave, including those
with means who would choose to ride out the storm like their parents had
done during Hurricane Betsy. When reality set in for many of them on
Sunday, they made their way to the refuge of last resort.

On Monday, August 29, 2005, Katrina, the most powerful Category 4
hurricane to hit the region, made landfall. We began to receive reports
of levees breaking. Waters rose as high as 18 feet with 80% of the City
receiving some level of flooding. Thousands of people were stranded on
their rooftops, or in attics, needing to be rescued.  Hundreds died in
the waters that engulfed our city. The fact that thousands did not die
was a blessing because all predictions estimated by scientist was that
10,000 should have died.  Primary and secondary power sources, sewerage
and draining systems and Communication and power lines were
incapacitated.

Later that evening, in a meeting with FEMA, we gave a priority list
identifying commodity and equipment needs to FEMA to get the appropriate
resources needed. I also devised a rescue recovery and rebuilding plan. 
Marty Bahamonde, the FEMA Sr. representative, told me \"This is one of
the best plans I have ever seen presented by a city after a disaster\". 

After the storm hit, the swelling crowd at the Superdome and the number
of people needing shelter required us to open the Convention Center as
another refuge. In discussions with FEMA on Monday, 350 busses were
promised.

In other parts of the city, our first responders were jumping into the
water to rescue people as 911 operators were consumed with traumatic
calls for rescue. They received thousand upon thousands of frantic and
desperate calls.

Those limited resources were further strained as people desperate for
necessities and others taking advantage of the unstable situation caused
a security problem.

Fires were breaking out in the city and firefighters had very little
means to contain them.  The lack of utilities and communications
crippled our city.

During the week, we faced a serious set of new challenges daily. We
faced them head-on ready to do whatever it would take to save our city.

I directed our team to focus on the following priorities:

1.  Search and rescue of people trapped and stranded

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1.  Evacuation of the Superdome, Convention Center and bridges

2.  Patching the levee breaks

3.  Draining the floodwaters

4.  Recovery of the dead

Every day, requests were sent to the State and Federal authorities for
emergency assistance needed to save lives and restore order. 

We requested search and rescue assistance, busses for evacuation,
assistance in patching the levees, food, water, medical supplies, police
and fire equipment and pumps to drain water.

I don't know if I can convey the desperation, but I was looking at my
city with thousands of people who were on the street, on our bridges, in
the water, in the Dome and at the Convention Center....people from St.
Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes, the lower-lying areas beneath New
Orleans, being dropped into our city. We were in most desperate need for
assistance. 

On Wednesday, the situation in the Superdome was tenuous at best and no
food or water had arrived at the Convention Center. Rescue efforts by
air were only beginning to get underway. Because communication channels
were down and inconsistent, we found creative ways to communicate via
text messaging to a communications person in Houston. We were trying to
get a message to anyone we though that could get the busses we needed to
evacuate people.

Little help had arrived as the day turned to night and you could feel
the heaviness of the aftermath. Imagine the nights \-- pitch black, no
power, intense heat and people crying for help. It was a horrible
situation and Wednesday night was touch and go for the City.

On Thursday, conditions continued to deteriorate. I received word from
the National Guard and New Orleans police that the suffering in the
Superdome and Convention Center was becoming in humane, there was
increasing pressure to leave the buildings and incidents of violence
were escalating. As the day passed, I sent out more urgent pleas for
help.

Finally, on Friday afternoon we began to see passengers loading into
busses. Late Friday night, I watched the last bus leave the Convention
Center. Saturday, the final bus left the Superdome. Many people had been
there for 7 full days.

I should point out that at the Superdome, the New Orleans Police
Department and the National Guard held security intact.  That Guard unit
and those officers were heroes.  People could not leave the Dome as it
was surrounded by water and there were no busses.  The rations were
stretched. There was no power and sanitation. Good people suffered
needlessly. 

In the end, it was a horrible lesson but one that I am hopeful we will
learn from. By far, most of the people showed tremendous compassion for
their fellow man and heroism existed in the waters, at the Dome, at the
Convention Center, on the bridges and on the streets. 

Since then, we are a financial crippled municipality struggling to bring
our city back. Hurricane Katrina, like 9-11 and other disasters before,
has taught us that improvements must be made at all levels of
government. Our plans for the future include enhanced evacuation routes,
staging necessary resources outside of the City and not being as
dependent on the rescue efforts of other levels of government. This
storm has challenged us and we are responding. 

Before I conclude, I need to recognize our emergency response team, led
by Col. Ebbert. Their work has gone largely unnoticed.  Despite
tremendous personal loss, police officers, fire fighters, National Guard
and EMS workers experienced horrific tragedy and stayed true to their
tasks. They are our heroes.

I want to thank you again for allowing me to be here with you today. I
am confident that by working together, we can achieve a common vision: a
vibrant New Orleans with a thriving economy, prosperous citizens, and
the chance to once again contribute to our great nation.

Thank you.