A Category 5 monster
By 1 a.m. CDT on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2005, Katrina had strengthened to a Category 4 storm, with 145 mph winds. By 7 a.m., it was a Category 5 storm, with 160 mph winds. The National Weather Service's 24th Katrina bulletin warned that the storm would hit land at Category 4 or 5 intensity and that some levees in the greater New Orleans area could be overtopped.
• From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Katrina whipped through the Gulf of Mexico at a peak intensity of 175 mph, with hurricane-force winds extending 105 miles from the storm's center and tropical-storm winds extending up to 230 miles.
• An urgent weather message issued by the National Weather Service in New Orleans at 10:11 a.m. CDT warned that Hurricane Katrina rivaled the intensity of Hurricane Camille in 1969 and that most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks.
• At 11 a.m., the mayor of New Orleans declared a state of emergency and ordered the first mandatory evacuation in the city's history. He also opened the Superdome as a shelter for those unable to flee the city.
• The storm had a minimum central pressure of 902 mb, the lowest ever recorded in the Gulf and the 4th-lowest ever recorded anywhere.
• A front-page story in The Dallas Morning News began with this sentence: As Katrina bears down on the Gulf Coast, thousands left homeless by last year's devastating storms are still waiting for new or repaired housing while living in temporary trailers or mobile homes.
