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The hurricane would push water over levees, turning most of New Orleans into a lake. Evacuation plans would falter from poor planning and a scarcity of resources. Hundreds of people would die, and thousands more would be left homeless. New Orleans’ economy would collapse. Months would pass before the city was anything close to liveable.
Longtime New Orleans journalist Mark Schleifstein laid out this nightmarish scenario in a series of news articles published in 2002. Three years later, Hurricane Katrina would turn his predictions into a reality.
The warnings Schleifstein and his Times-Picayune colleagues presented in their “Washing Away” series had gone mostly unheeded. The city suffered because of it, as did Schleifstein himself. After the storm, he found floodwaters had swallowed up his home, leaving a muddy ring just below his bedroom’s second story window.
In a bitterly ironic twist, the journalism awards Schleifstein earned for “Washing Away” were destroyed by the very calamity the series foretold.
Brown stains on Mark Schleifstein’s home mark the height of floodwaters at his Lakeview home. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Schleifstein 
Mark Schleifstein’s water-damaged journalism awards after Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Schleifstein 
Mark Schleifstein’s water-damaged journalism awards after Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Schleifstein 
Mark Schleifstein checks on his flood-damaged home after Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Schleifstein 
Mark Schleifstein, a retired environment reporter who worked for the Times-Picayune, stands next to a framed copy of The Times-Picayune. Credit: Photo courtesy of Mark Schleifstein
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