Katrina Coverage

Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Susan Jackson responded to the news that Katrina was apparently weaker than originally reported as follows:
"In the Gulf, Katrina was a Category 5 storm, and the surge was still Category 5 when it hit the ground… It's the surge — the pressure of water against those levee walls — that's […]

I'll let those with meteorological experience indicate whether this report is completely accurate or not:
Katrina hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, not a Category 4 as first thought, and New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain likely were spared the storm's strongest winds, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday. New Orleans' storm levees were […]

The MSNBC article "Katrina forecasters were remarkably accurate" (subtitled "Levee breaks, catastrophic damage predicted, contrary to Bush claims") has an overview of the weather-related timeline and warnings. Plus, it manages to sneak in some anti-Bush asides:
For all the criticism of the Bush administration’s confused response to Hurricane Katrina, at least two federal agencies got it […]