Word: stormed
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Katrina was a big, vicious storm, it must be said. But Katrina was not the worst-case scenario. Katrina was a test...
BEFORE THE STORM...
...money it asked for? Lieut. General Carl Strock, commander of the Corps, insists it would not have. The system might have been able to drain the floodwaters more quickly, but the big breach occurred in a levee that had recently been strengthened. "We were just caught by a storm of an intensity that exceeded the design of the project we have in place," Strock says. In other words, the levees worked just fine; it was the storm that screwed things up by being so powerful...
Even if we accept that logic, it's not yet clear whether Strock is right. Since the storm center passed to the east of New Orleans, congressional investigators are not convinced that the part of Katrina that swept through the city was in fact a design-trumping Category 4. It's possible that the levees just did not work the way they were supposed to. It's not even certain that the water overtopped the levees, as the Corps claims. Congressional investigators, experts and even some Corps officers tell TIME that the failure might have been caused by leaks...
Hurricane Katrina got its name on Thursday, Aug. 25, as it formed in the Bahamas, and by the time it reached Category 3 strength, it was obvious that the storm was a major threat. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a test. This is the real deal," New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said at a news conference ordering city residents to evacuate on Saturday. "Board up your homes, make sure you have enough medicine, make sure the car has enough gas. Treat this one differently because it is pointed towards New Orleans." At FEMA's urging, on the same...