Compiled by Mehammed Amadeus Mack and Joshuah Bearman

“Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast.”—FEMA regional director Marty Bahamonde, the only FEMA official in New Orleans when Katrina hit on August 28, in an e-mail to FEMA response specialist Deborah Wing, who arrived in Baton Rouge two days later“. . . the situation is......