On August 27, 2005, a Saturday, I sat in Lawless Memorial Chapel at Dillard University for the funeral of Clarence Barney, the longtime leader of the Urban League in New Orleans. Marc Morial, Dutch’s son, who had served eight years as mayor of New Orleans before becoming president of the National Urban League in New York, sat next to me. Both of us worried about the news of a massive storm building in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina was growing in scope and intensity more than any storm we had ever seen. Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco were discussing whether to order a mass evacuation. That would mean a huge allocation of state and local resources for first responders and public shelters. Many people weren’t waiting to be told to leave. By Saturday afternoon a record outflow of vehicles from the metropolitan area, including Jefferson, St. Bernard, and low-lying Plaquemines parishes, had caused gridlock on the highways headed east, west, and north. Everyone was racing away from the monster gaining force in the Gulf.
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