On Friday, August 26, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, then predicted to make landfall on the Florida Panhandle, shifted track in the Gulf of Mexico and headed toward the Louisiana/Mississippi Gulf Coast.
As city and state preparations began, I was at work, covering a pair of high school jamborees featuring Bogalusa and Franklinton high schools in Covington, La., for the Bogalusa (La.) Daily News. The Saints played their third preseason game earlier that night, and on the drive back to my apartment, the WWL 870 postgame show detailed the team's plans to fly out early on Saturday and ride out the storm in Oakland, Calif.