Two decades ago, before Hurricane Katrina inflicted unprecedented devastation along the Gulf Coast, before it killed at least 1,392 people and displaced hundreds of thousands, before levees failed and floodwaters swallowed New Orleans, before the glaring lapses in the government response led to years of questions about how to better prepare for such disasters … before all that, there was the anticipation of a Category 5 hurricane carving a path toward the Louisiana coast.