Storm Warning is an initiative of the America’s WETLAND Campaign, which annually engages the public in dramatizations that signal the opening day of the Atlantic hurricane season and demonstrate that coastal erosion is a national disaster that requires a national response. The event serves as a yearly alarm to raise awareness about the important role coastal wetlands play in Louisiana’s hurricane protection.

On June 1, 2005, three months prior to Hurricane Katrina, the America’s WETLAND Campaign held Storm Warning I, a dramatization in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter, “flooding” a portion of the French Quarter by draping it in blue to represent potential flooding caused by hurricanes.

The warning proved eerily prophetic three months later when Hurricane Katrina struck, inundating many other parts of the city with water.

The Women of the Storm, the Soul Rebels, high school bands and drill units, the Coast Guardians, the Wetland Watchers, celebrities, radio personalities and leaders of business, government and the environment gathered for Storm Warning II on June 1, 2006 on a football field-sized map of the United States at Tad Gormley stadium in New Orleans.

The event raised national awareness of the fact that America’s WETLAND is disappearing at the rate of a football field of land every 38 minutes. The dramatization depicted the increased danger caused by the continuing loss of America’s WETLAND and illustrated from which states members of Congress have visited New Orleans post-Katrina and which have not.

During Storm Warning III, held at the Port of New Orleans on May 31, 2007, the America’s WETLAND Campaign issued warnings to up-river states about the increased danger posed to the nation due to dramatic and continued wetland loss in coastal Louisiana. Members of Women of the Storm arrived via Coast Guard Vessel, the General Kelly, accompanied by leaders of parish government, port officials and representatives from Memphis, TN and Dubuque, IA and Chicago, IL..