When the weather forecasters began to warn that the hurricane might take a turn up the Mississippi River, pass over our scented, magical city, then stall over Lake Pontchartrain, dumping millions of gallons of water on New Orleans, I took one look at my wife and said, "We're leaving."
Baton Rouge became the largest city in Louisiana overnight, when evacuees fleeing Hurricane Katrina ballooned the area’s population from roughly 400,000 to 800,000, according to Walter Monsour, the city’s chief administrative officer.
Louisiana's Senators, Mary Landrieu (D) and David Vitter (R), have proposed legislation to provide about $250 billion in federal aid to help their state rebuild from Hurricane Katrina.