Thanks so much for sharing this again, Alan. You and your NWS Jackson crew did amazing work before, during, and after Katrina, I’m quite sure. About ten days after Katrina’s landfall, I and about 30 of my electric cooperative colleagues from Oklahoma traveled to Franklinton, LA, to help the great folks at Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative begin the power restoration effort across their multiple parish service area. The devastation that I witnessed even that far north of Katrina’s landfall was something I will never forget. Being from Oklahoma and having witnessed damage from several F3 to F5 tornadoes, I thought I’d seen it all. But this was far different. As you mentioned, the power of walls of water coupled with upper F3 Category wind speeds was absolutely incredible. My two weeks helping restore electricity to the members of Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative were enhanced by my interactions with people who had been without power for at least a couple of weeks - they were all so thankful, and joyous to see crews arrive to help them get power back into their homes and businesses. It’s an experience that I will never forget. - Sid Sperry
Thanks so much for posting, Alan. A couple of thoughts that I hope are useful going forward.
Go back to the day of Katrina's landfall. As Dr. Ivor van Heerden (paraphrasing) published in his book (where he blamed everyone else for the drowning deaths in MSY): "On Monday evening, August 29, 2005—hours after landfall—staff at the EOC were congratulating one another that the city had 'dodged the bullet.' Van Heerden drove home exhausted after little sleep, assuming the Army Corps of Engineers would sound any alarm about the levees." van Heerden had been assigned to work with MSY emergency management during the runup to the storm and while it moved inland.
The NWS had sounded the alarm (as you show in your piece, Alan) but the Corps of Engineers, MSY city government, emergency management, and the news media were asleep.
van Heerden was +completely unaware+ the worst case catastrophe was in progress. The news media was listening to the ever inept Mayor Ray Nagin and people like van Heerden and telling everyone things would be fine! Meanwhile, they should have been frantically evacuating people.
The night of Katrina's landfall, Dr. David Johnson -- then head of the NWS -- was on "Nightline." Ted Koppel introduced a report from Chris Bury that relayed the party line that all was well in MSY. Ted then switched to Johnson and asked (again paraphrasing), "How did you get the forecast so wrong? The flooding didn't occur! The damage wasn't that bad."
Evidently, Dr. Johnson had not been completely briefed and did NOT correct Koppel that New Orleans was indeed flooding! He sat there and took bullet after bullet from Koppel and frankly, looked hapless. The NWS -- which did a great job -- ended up looking terrible on the highly popular national program.
Lesson #1: Can't just "show up" for interviews. One must prepare and prepare well.
#2: We are sitting here more than 20 years later and the NWS is still dealing with the exact communications problems that you suffered with during Katrina.
Two years later, during Sandy, the entire NWS web infrastructure crashed. So did The Weather Channel's. AccuWeather's didn't even slow down. One would think someone from the NWS might have made a phone call to State College and asked how AW did not crash during Katrina, Sandy or another other event since. It is simply unbelievable the NWS has made so little progress in this regard.
While we wait (and wait) for Congress to create a National Disaster Review Board, if it ever does, the NWS's culture of "we can do it all ourselves" needs to change. The definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result.
Similar to the thoughts in the above paragraph: Think what Google has done with innovative weather modeling. NWS gets farther behind by the year.
I'll say it if no one else will: Is the current leadership of the NWS up to the challenge?
Thanks for these thoughts, Mike. One thing I will say in some defense of DL is that the issues on the ground that you note with local officials in NOLA - along with the major comms issues - made the knowledge of what was going on in NOLA very sketchy for quite some time. The massive devastation on the Mississippi coast definitely made knowledge of what had happened there very slow to arrive.
As far as your comments on the NWS, I have been raising very similar issues in recent conversations and interviews about the absolute need for the NWS to be building partnerships with the private sector. It seems clear to me that as AI, computing and comms continue to advance that the private sector will be where the resources and expertise will exist for it to be maximized. I do think there are parts of the NWS that are becoming more proactive in building private sector partnerships - NMP comes to mind - but obviously I have written about there are other areas where the NWS is really losing its transparency and engagement with the community. I worry that what is happening - or not happening - with the NWS reorg will not help enable more transparency and collaboration with the private and academic sectors but hopefully community encouragement and speaking out will help.
Thanks so much for sharing this again, Alan. You and your NWS Jackson crew did amazing work before, during, and after Katrina, I’m quite sure. About ten days after Katrina’s landfall, I and about 30 of my electric cooperative colleagues from Oklahoma traveled to Franklinton, LA, to help the great folks at Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative begin the power restoration effort across their multiple parish service area. The devastation that I witnessed even that far north of Katrina’s landfall was something I will never forget. Being from Oklahoma and having witnessed damage from several F3 to F5 tornadoes, I thought I’d seen it all. But this was far different. As you mentioned, the power of walls of water coupled with upper F3 Category wind speeds was absolutely incredible. My two weeks helping restore electricity to the members of Washington-St. Tammany Electric Cooperative were enhanced by my interactions with people who had been without power for at least a couple of weeks - they were all so thankful, and joyous to see crews arrive to help them get power back into their homes and businesses. It’s an experience that I will never forget. - Sid Sperry
Thanks so much for posting, Alan. A couple of thoughts that I hope are useful going forward.
Go back to the day of Katrina's landfall. As Dr. Ivor van Heerden (paraphrasing) published in his book (where he blamed everyone else for the drowning deaths in MSY): "On Monday evening, August 29, 2005—hours after landfall—staff at the EOC were congratulating one another that the city had 'dodged the bullet.' Van Heerden drove home exhausted after little sleep, assuming the Army Corps of Engineers would sound any alarm about the levees." van Heerden had been assigned to work with MSY emergency management during the runup to the storm and while it moved inland.
The NWS had sounded the alarm (as you show in your piece, Alan) but the Corps of Engineers, MSY city government, emergency management, and the news media were asleep.
van Heerden was +completely unaware+ the worst case catastrophe was in progress. The news media was listening to the ever inept Mayor Ray Nagin and people like van Heerden and telling everyone things would be fine! Meanwhile, they should have been frantically evacuating people.
The night of Katrina's landfall, Dr. David Johnson -- then head of the NWS -- was on "Nightline." Ted Koppel introduced a report from Chris Bury that relayed the party line that all was well in MSY. Ted then switched to Johnson and asked (again paraphrasing), "How did you get the forecast so wrong? The flooding didn't occur! The damage wasn't that bad."
Evidently, Dr. Johnson had not been completely briefed and did NOT correct Koppel that New Orleans was indeed flooding! He sat there and took bullet after bullet from Koppel and frankly, looked hapless. The NWS -- which did a great job -- ended up looking terrible on the highly popular national program.
Lesson #1: Can't just "show up" for interviews. One must prepare and prepare well.
#2: We are sitting here more than 20 years later and the NWS is still dealing with the exact communications problems that you suffered with during Katrina.
Two years later, during Sandy, the entire NWS web infrastructure crashed. So did The Weather Channel's. AccuWeather's didn't even slow down. One would think someone from the NWS might have made a phone call to State College and asked how AW did not crash during Katrina, Sandy or another other event since. It is simply unbelievable the NWS has made so little progress in this regard.
While we wait (and wait) for Congress to create a National Disaster Review Board, if it ever does, the NWS's culture of "we can do it all ourselves" needs to change. The definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result.
Similar to the thoughts in the above paragraph: Think what Google has done with innovative weather modeling. NWS gets farther behind by the year.
I'll say it if no one else will: Is the current leadership of the NWS up to the challenge?
Thanks for these thoughts, Mike. One thing I will say in some defense of DL is that the issues on the ground that you note with local officials in NOLA - along with the major comms issues - made the knowledge of what was going on in NOLA very sketchy for quite some time. The massive devastation on the Mississippi coast definitely made knowledge of what had happened there very slow to arrive.
As far as your comments on the NWS, I have been raising very similar issues in recent conversations and interviews about the absolute need for the NWS to be building partnerships with the private sector. It seems clear to me that as AI, computing and comms continue to advance that the private sector will be where the resources and expertise will exist for it to be maximized. I do think there are parts of the NWS that are becoming more proactive in building private sector partnerships - NMP comes to mind - but obviously I have written about there are other areas where the NWS is really losing its transparency and engagement with the community. I worry that what is happening - or not happening - with the NWS reorg will not help enable more transparency and collaboration with the private and academic sectors but hopefully community encouragement and speaking out will help.
Things get worse by the day!
https://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2026/09/worsening-weather-service-woes.html
Wow had not seen that about CYS!!