After Hurricane Katrina ripped the Gulf Coast, The Factor talked with two men who are engaged in rescue efforts. Lt. Col. Pete Schneider was on the ground in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "We woke up this morning asking ourselves if we did enough, if we got enough people out. Then Katrina veered to the east and there was a huge sense of relief. But we did see massive damage in St. Bernard Parish, which has taken the brunt of this. We're finding that some families in St. Bernard Parish remained, and we've been pulling them off roofs." David Rudduck of the American Red Cross provided a status report from Biloxi, Mississippi. "This was a day where everything that was in my view flowed horizontally - it didn't matter if it was a tree, a car, a sign, siding. It all flowed horizontally, and it was surreal. The damage was catastrophic, so our hearts are really out to the people who have lost so much."

The Factor then spoke with New Orleans resident Jake Calamusa, who remained in the city during the hurricane. "I'm sitting here with a very large tree on top of my house. There's no water, no electricity, no way of calling out on the telephone. But I consider myself one of the lucky ones." Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown predicted that city residents will be in for very tough times ahead. "There will be parts of New Orleans that will be without power for weeks, if not longer. There will be places that will be uninhabitable for weeks, if not longer." Brown added that FEMA had used New Orleans for its emergency training drills. "A lot of the things we anticipated and practiced for are coming true. We have breaches and water moving into New Orleans, and it's going to take a long time to get that water out." The Factor offered to help FEMA communicate with people who evacuated the city. "If you need any help from us, let us know. We're going to be on the story 24-7, and let us know if we can help you get the word out to any of the folks. But right now, the best advice is for everybody to stay where they are."

It appears that Hurricane Katrina will have an large effect on the US oil industry, which has many facilities in the Gulf Coast. Energy expert Phil Flynn predicted that President Bush will authorize the release of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. "I think he will. Not just to keep the prices down, but to keep the refineries running in the Midwest. This could be the thing that pushes us over the edge into an oil shock if these refineries are down for long." Flynn also predicted a 30% rise in home heating oil prices, and said he expects "this is going to be the most expensive winter ever." The Factor advised people to make their homes more energy efficient, warning that already-high oil prices will probably continue to rise. "Between OPEC and the greedy American oil companies and this natural disaster, there is no way it will turn around quickly. The American consumer can't take much more at the pump and we now have winter coming, and people are going to be getting angry. I'm not sure the politicians understand how intense this is."

Ron Fraiser of WABB Radio in Mobile, Alabama provided another eyewitness account of Hurricane Katrina's sheer power. "At one point a dumpster the size of a boat cruised past us like a boat on the open water. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen." Bernie Rayno of Accuweather.com compared Katrina with other devastating hurricanes. "Katrina was the strongest Gulf hurricane in recorded history. As far as the whole Atlantic Basin hurricanes ranked by pressure, it's fourth. So Katrina ranks up there with the most powerful. We have over a million people without power." Rayno forecast that Katrina will continue to cause damage. "The slow weakening of the storm will continue - we're going to hear more about heavy rains than weather. But this will continue to produce tropical storm wind gusts as far north as western New York State and Pennsylvania." The Factor asserted that the human toll in and around New Orleans could have been even worse. "At the moment, It looks like the media alerted everybody to the extent that most people got out of there."

Fox News host Sheperd Smith has remained in New Orleans through Katrina and its aftermath. Smith told The Factor that criminal activity, always a problem in natural disasters, so far seems minimal. "There's been some looting, but we've seen a lot more good stories - people who stay behind and help to feed people who didn't have anywhere to go." Smith reiterated that people will be suffering for weeks. "With all this standing water there are going to be mosquitoes, and they transmit disease. There is no food to buy, there is no gas to buy. This is a natural disaster, and it's going to take a long time." The Factor observed that whenever there is a catastrophe, looters aren't far behind. "You have to keep your eye on the thugs, because unfortunately it's a fact of life - where there's a disaster, they show up."

While humans evacuate and seek refuge, what happens to animals when a storm bears down? According to Ron Magill of the Miami Metrozoo, many animals don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. "In 1992 before Hurricane Andrew hit I remember going out and not seeing one native bird. It was a beautiful day, blue sky, but there was not one native animal to be seen. It seems to me that they have some kind of instinct that alerts them to a natural disaster. You saw that with elephants in the tsunami. Nature's given them this ability to predict these natural disasters. There's a lot we can learn from them."