THE STORY TO REMEMBER
Hurricane Katrina
On Aug. 28, Hurricane Katrina tore through Louisina, with an estimated 1,800 people losing their lives and damage totalling $81 billion.
The response to Hurricane Katrina dogged much of President George W. Bush’s presidency – with criticisms that he didn’t act fast enough and that the Federal Emergency Management Association couldn’t and wasn’t able to act in a way that would help victims.
The criticism spread beyond Bush – involving criticisms and failures of communication between layers of local, city and state governments.
On Aug. 26, Katrina became a category 1 hurricane system, according to the National Hurricane Center. As it makes its way through Florida it leads to nine deaths and loss of power for 1.2 million people.
Katrina is downgraded Aug. 26 to tropical storm before once again becoming a hurricane. Meterologists fear Katrina could reach Category 4 as it makes its way to Mississippi or Louisiana.
Thousands of Louisianans evacuate Aug. 27 after President Bush declares a state of emergency in the state.
As Katrina develops wind speeds of 175 miles per hour, it upgrades to Category 5, the highest measurable hurricane category. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin orders a mandatory evacuation of the city.
As thousands are left homeless in neighborhoods across the state, two major levees of New Orleans give way.
The levees were not designed to withstand Category 4 or 5 hurricanes, which led to the mandatory evacuation of the city of New Orleans.
The Army Corps of Engineers estimates it could take as many as three months before the state’s hardest-hit areas are drained.
Fears of disease and citizens living in nightmarish conditions with no food or clean water arise.
Concerns of stagnant water also arise.
The effects of Hurricane Katrina are still being felt today. FEMA is still criticized for failing to act in a timely manner.
Infrastructure still isn’t in place to return Louisiana and other areas affected by the storm to normal.
Thousands are still without their homes and life is still struggling to get back to normal in many of the hardest hit areas.
Hurricane Katrina’s rapid destruction and devastation of Louisiana and surrounding states will go down in American history as a dark period where so many citizens lost their lives.
TOP STORIES
YouTube and the birth of home-made celebrity
In the growing years of the Internet, there was no collective outlet for videos of people playing with their pets, exploiting their children or embarrassing their friends by showing the world videos of them falling down a flight of stairs.
In 2005, a year after Facebook gave college students an outlet to waste their time creeping on each other’s profiles,
YouTube launched to give everyone else something to do.
Launched by two former employers of PayPal, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, YouTube offered the world a unique place to upload, for free, any videos they wanted.
That, of course, gave way to massive amounts of copyrighted materials making their way online.
By the next year, an estimated 65,000 videos were being uploaded every day, with 100 million videos being watched every day.
The massive amounts of hits caught the attention of search engine Google, which bought the company for a staggering $1.6 billion.
YouTube has only continued its success – becoming a major hub for users to watch content, with 43 percent of all online video traffic.
The cultural effect of YouTube has also encouraged citizen filmmaking – where any of its users can upload films and short clips that gain "viral" attention.
Three particular videos made their way quickly around The Daily Athenaeum newsroom – "Charlie Bit Me – Again!," "Jesse Spano Freakout" and the ever-popular Rick-Roll of Rick Astley’s "Never Gonna Give You Up."
Terror attacks in London
In an attack similar to those of Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States, suicide attacks took place during early morning hours in London, England.
Four bombs took the lives of 52 people, injuring 700 others in attacks and killing four suicide bombers.
Three bombs exploded in passenger trains in London’s underground transit system, each within 50 seconds of each other.
The fourth bomb exploded in a double-decker bus that tore the cage apart.
The attacks, terrorist sympathizers with possible ties to Al-Qaeda, were organized in protest of policies they believed "continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya."
The identities of the terrorists were obtained through surveilance cameras located around the Underground’s stations.
Subsequent raids would further net suspected partners in the attacks, including coordinators and radicals police believed helped establish the attacks.
Coverage of the attacks continued throughout the day, with many trapped underground sending in video of their experiences during the height of the drama to news stations across the country.
‘Deep Throat’ revealed
The identity of one of the biggest anonymous sources in the world – code-named "Deep Throat" – was finally unveiled.
W. Mark Felt announced in Vanity Fair he was the source used by Bob Woodward and Edward Bernstein, Washington Post reporters, to uncover political espionage by President Richard M. Nixon.
Felt’s appearance in Vanity Fair ended decades of speculation as to who helped the journalists.
Felt revealed information that led to the resignation of President Nixon and several of his administration’s officials.
Nixon and his staffers were implicated in a scheme to illegally obtain information from Democratic National Party Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel.
Nixon was later given a full pardon by incumbent President Gerald Ford.
Other news
Pope John Paul II dies aged 84. He is later succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI.
Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman in a persistent vegetative state, polarizes Washington as her husband seeks to remove her feeding tube. Her family seeks to keep her on the tube.
Democrats and Republicans both establish reasons why Schiavo should be kept alive.
Ultimately, Schiavo’s husband wish is granted and Schiavo dies aged 41, after 15 years with assisted living.
Nations across the world sign the Kyoto Protocol, a carbon-reduction agreement
that sees required percentage drops in carbon output.
America does not sign the agreement.
WVU NEWS
– Construction nears completion of the University Towne Center shopping center.
– Cold Stone Creamery opens downtown.
– Morgantown’s Cafe of India raises $12,000 for Tsunami relief.
– West Virginia University begins study of nanotechnology.
– Pita Pit opens downtown.
– A survey of local landlords is available through the MIX e-mail system.
– Two West Virginia University students, Will Slocum and Taylor Bickford, begin selling blue bracelets similar to the Livestrong bracelets. Ten percent of the proceeds benefit The United Way.
– Four students suffer burns after an accident in Clark Hall.
– The Motones, a local a capella group featuring The Daily Athenaeum’s own Matt Armstrong, raise money for Wheeling flood relief efforts.
– Student Government Association proposes online teacher evaluations.
– David Satterfield returns to West Virginia University after working in Gov. Bob Wise’s administration.
– Daily Athenaeum sports editor Chuck McGill is presented a gallon of heavy mayonnaise by head football coach Rich Rodriguez after signing Jason Gawltney to the football team. McGill had previously said he "would eat a whole jar of mayonnaise in front of the Mountainlair" if they signed the player.
– A new student group, Veterans of West Virginia University, appears on campus.
– The Free Application for Financial Student Aid begins enquiring about student drug use.
– West Virginia University’s Council for Women’s Concerns takes offense with WCLG’s "Drunk Bitch Friday" segment airing on nationally syndicated "Lex and Terry" show.
– Recycling containers placed outside the Mountainlair are removed, citing they had the least amount of recycled content.
– Despite four new hires, city police department still overwhelmed.
– Student Government Association votes on installing a Burger King in the Mountainlair, replacing Mean Gene’s restaurant.
– Fires spread across Morgantown after men’s basketball team advanced to the Elight Eight. One student had her car destroyed with up to $7,000 in estimated damages. SGA and local bank unite to help raise money for repairs.
– An update of the Metropolitan Theatre nears completion.
– A cigarette is deemed the cause of a fire at Life Sciences Building.
– West Virginia University expels 11 students for their roles in riots following the University’s placement in the Elight Eight basketball tournament; student seek appeals to expulsion. Student Government Association and Board of Governers question University’s decision.
– West Virginia University bandleader of 34 years Don Wilcox retires.
– Gov. Joe Manchin gives University discretion to disburse $100,000 in state funding originally allocated to rifle team.
– Plans finalize for a new dormitory to be built on the Evansdale Campus. The dormitory will become Lincoln Hall.
– Starbucks’ first Morgantown location appears on Van Voorhis Road.
– OAR and Cypress Hill appear at FallFest on the newly completed Mountainlair Plaza.
– Clery Act data show liquor violations on the rise in Morgantown.
– Bill Nevin steps in as the "voice" of the WVU marching band after the death of Frank "Doc" Stevens a year earlier.
– WVU’s Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism visits the Camp Dawson military base to retell the stories of New Orleans flood victims who are seeking refuge there.
– Alumni Association announces plans to seek a new facility.
– The West Virginia Sport Fish Association advises Morgantown residents not to eat fish from the Monongahela River.
– A new coffee shop is planned for the downtown Wise Library complex.
– Campus raises $65,000 for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
– Eyebrows raise as President David Hardesty is named to the board of directors of CONSOL Energy.
– Enrollment figures at WVU exceed 26,000 for the first time.
– The numbers of WVU and NBA basketball legend Jerry West and football player Sam Huff are retired.
– The WVU football team head to the Sugar Bowl. A lottery will determine who receives 500 tickets.
– A new plan allows the University bookstore to allocate $500 of student aid per semester for purchasing textbooks.
Top 5 Movies (IMDB)
- $380m "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith"
- $291m "The Chronicles of Narnia"
- $290m "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"
- $234m "War of the Worlds"
- $218m "King Kong"
Top 5 Songs (Billboard)
- Mariah Carey – "The Reason"
- Kelly Clarkson – "Since U Been Gone"’
- Kelly Clarkson – "Because Of You"
- Kelly Clarkson - "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
- Lifehouse – "You and Me"
BY THE NUMBERS
$2.27 per gallon of unleaded gasoline
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