.Friday, Sept. 2

4:35 a.m. A series of explosions at a chemical storage facility shakes New Orleans. The blasts occur east of the French Quarter, near the Mississippi River, but vibrations can be felt all the way downtown. Witnesses say the explosions illuminate the predawn sky, and that a cloud of acrid black smoke hangs over the area. Officials emphasize that the smoke is not toxic, but nevertheless order that the surrounding area be evacuated.

8:05 a.m. Taking reporters' questions on the south lawn of the White House, President Bush acknowledges that although "a lot of people are working hard to help those who have been affected" by Hurricane Katrina, "the results are not acceptable." He then leaves Washington for an approximately six-hour air tour of the devastated coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Bush's tour will make several stops, including one at the ongoing repair of the 17th Street Canal breach in New Orleans, but will bypass more troubled sites like the convention center, the Supderdome and the makeshift trauma center at the city's Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. On the flight down to the Gulf Coast, Bush catches up on the catastrophe by watching a DVD of hurricane news coverage that presidential aide Dan Bartlett has compiled to help the reality sink in.

Also around this time, commercial airlines begin assisting the evacuation effort by airlifting refugees from the New Orleans airport. Most major U.S. airlines participate, including American, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and United. FEMA issues a statement saying it will oversee the evacuation; at least at first, evacuees will go to San Antonio's Lackland Air Force Base.

10:35 a.m. Bush holds a press briefing at the Mobile Regional Airport in Mobile, Ala. In a four-minute speech, he praises the rescue and relief efforts of the Coast Guard, the governors of the affected states, and FEMA director Brown: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." Bush also says: "The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

At another stop in Biloxi, Miss., Bush backs off a from his earlier statement that the results were "not acceptable": "I am satisfied with the response. I'm not satisfied with all the results," he clarifies.

12:49 p.m. Congress passes an emergency measure providing $10.5 billion for Hurricane Katrina rescue and relief efforts, which the president promises to sign upon his return to Washington that evening. But Rep. Karen Carter, a Democrat whose district includes New Orleans' French Quarter, tells reporters the region needs transportation help more than it needs cash: "Don't give me your money. Don't send me $10 million today. Give me buses and gas. Buses and gas. Buses and gas. If you have to commandeer Greyhound, commandeer Greyhound ... If you don't get a bus, if we don't get them out of there, they will die."

Midday: A convoy of National Guard troops arrives in the city, and a thousand troops are dispatched to the convention center to deliver food and water and provide much-needed security to an estimated 20,000 evacuees. Some people there cheer the arrival of supplies, while others are upset that the Guard lacks the one thing many people need -- buses to leave.

Evacuation of the Superdome resumes, with an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people standing in 100-plus degree heat and wading through knee-deep trash to board buses. Seven hundred evacuees who have been staying at a neighboring Hyatt hotel are allowed to board the buses before Superdome evacuees, reportedly so that the Hyatt can be prepared to house emergency workers. Given that conditions in the Hyatt were less dangerous and more sanitary than those in the Superdome, National Guard Capt. John Pollard calls the decision to let the Hyatt evacuees go first "very poor.''

After being postponed due to gunshots on Thursday, evacuations of the beleaguered New Orleans Charity Hospital and Louisiana State University Hospital resume and are completed: more than 600 people, including 110 patients, are evacuated from University Hospital, and about 2,200 people, including 363 patients, are evacuated from Charity Hospital. Three terminally ill patients die during the Charity Hospital evacuation; flooding of its morgue hamper efforts to ascertain how many bodies are inside. Conditions at Charity, which has been without power since Monday and without water since Tuesday, are said to be desperate.

Remaining staff and patients at Tulane University, Methodist and Kindred hospitals are also evacuated.

In Houston, Mayor Bill White announces that, with 15,000 evacuees inside, the city's Astrodome is full. The city opens the Reliant Center, which will hold another 11,000 evacuees. A total of 22,000 evacuees have taken refuge in Houston so far. Meanwhile, First Lady Laura Bush tours another evacuation center, the Cajundome in Lafayette, La., where approximately 6,000 refugees are sheltered. During a press briefing, she remarks, "This doesn't really look like what we're seeing on television."

President Bush, along with Sen. Mary Landrieu, visits the 17th Street Canal breach in New Orleans, where sheet piling has stopped the flooding into the city. For security reasons, all air traffic in the area is grounded until Bush departs; three tons of food intended for delivery by helicopter to evacuees in St. Bernard Parish and Algiers Point are delayed on the Crescent City Connection bridge until nightfall.

Gov. Blanco takes several official actions on the relief effort. She sends Bush an open letter reiterating her previous requests for many things, including "an additional 40,000 troops; trailers of water, ice and food; commercial buses; base camps; staging areas; amphibious personnel carriers; deployable morgues; urban search and rescue teams; airlift; temporary housing; and communications systems." The letter additionally requests "the expeditious return of the Headquarters of the 256th Brigade Combat Team as they have completed their mission in the Iraqi theatre of operations and they are urgently needed here at home." Also on Blanco's list of requests: an operating base for relief efforts in Baton Rouge, additional radio frequencies and tower crews to help restore cellphone service and public safety communication throughout the state, aerial and ground firefighters, a fleet of military vehicles, 175 generators, and public-health and livestock assistance.

Blanco emphasizes that state and local authorities cannot complete relief and rescue efforts without help: "Mr. President, only your personal involvement will ensure the immediate delivery of federal assets needed to save lives that are in jeopardy hour by hour."

The Bush administration does not respond specifically to these requests, but in his meeting with Blanco later in the day, Bush is reported to promise more resources.

In a press briefing, White House spokesman Scott McClellan says that bringing troops back from Iraq is not necessary because there are enough National Guard units at home to handle the situation.

Blanco also issues an executive order declaring a state of public health emergency and suspending Louisiana medical licensing requirements for out-of-state doctors and medical personnel providing emergency treatment, provided that those doctors and personnel prove that they are licensed in their home states. Because practicing medicine without a license is a crime carrying severe penalties, out-of-state doctors have been barred from volunteering their services in the wake of the hurricane; this belated order finally allows volunteer doctors to begin providing treatment.

Finally, Blanco issues a second executive order authorizing the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to commandeer all school buses for evacuation purposes, replacing a similar but less comprehensive order she issued on Wednesday. The order suspends the requirement that bus drivers have commercial driver's licenses, apparently in response to reports that many licensed bus drivers are unwilling to drive into lawless parts of New Orleans.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus hold a news conference blasting the federal response and charging that it was due to indifference to New Orleans' poor population.

5:01 p.m. Before departing the region for Washington, President Bush makes another statement to the press from the tarmac at the New Orleans airport. He thanks relief workers and reassures residents of several southern Louisiana parishes that "people are paying attention to them." He also reminisces about his party days in New Orleans, when he says he visited the city "to enjoy myself -- occasionally too much."

While still on the airport tarmac, Bush invites Louisiana Sen. Landrieu, Gov. Blanco, and New Orleans Mayor Nagin aboard for a meeting. If there are tensions between Bush and Nagin -- given Nagin's candid radio interview from the previous night -- neither man shows it. Bush invites Nagin to take his first shower in five days aboard the plane. Nagin says of meeting Bush, "He was brutally honest. He wanted to know the truth ... And we talked turkey. I think we're in a good spot now."

On board, Bush also asks Blanco to request a federal takeover of Louisiana's National Guard forces. The move would allow the federal government to exert unified control over all of the forces in the state, both active duty as well as National Guard. Federal officials believe such unified control will improve the efficiency of the hurricane response operation. Some state officials are suspicious of this request, fearing that once the federal government takes over, Bush officials will be free to blame all previous problems on state mismanagement. Blanco asks Bush for some time to think about his request.

Administration officials will later say that Bush lawyers determined that they could wrest the mission away from Blanco without her consent by invoking the Insurrection Act, but political worries prevented them from doing so. "Can you imagine how it would have been perceived if a president of the United States of one party had preemptively taken from the female governor of another party the command and control of her forces, unless the security situation made it completely clear that she was unable to effectively execute her command authority and that lawlessness was the inevitable result?" an unnamed aide rhetorically asks the New York Times.

Late afternoon: A bus carrying an estimated 50 Superdome evacuees overturns on the highway 130 miles west of New Orleans, killing one passenger and injuring at least 17 others. Police say the crash was a result of a struggle between a passenger and the bus driver, but one of the bus's passengers says there was no struggle and that the driver just wasn't looking at the road. FEMA director Brown announces that, as of Friday afternoon, 7,000 people have been rescued from rooftops and flooded regions by Urban Search and Rescue forces and Coast Guard teams. Some 15,000 people have been evacuated from the Superdome to the Astrodome in Houston; evacuations to Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, continue. Additionally, Brown estimates that 2,000 patients have been evacuated from the trauma center at the New Orleans airport.

At NBC's celebrity-studded Concert for Hurricane Relief Friday night, singer Kanye West expresses his outrage at the slow pace of the federal response, saying, "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

Shortly before midnight: The White House sends Gov. Blanco a legal memorandum formalizing its proposal that she request a federal takeover of the mission to evacuate New Orleans.

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