The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reporters who documented the disastrous management of aid dollars by FEMA in 2004 thought that they had uncovered a scandal in its own right. As it turned out, Hurricane Frances was only a dress rehearsal for a much bigger disaster one year later: Hurricane Katrina, the cataclysmic 2005 storm that devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast while challenging FEMA's every emergency management tactic. Here's how the crisis unfolded:

September 5, 2004: Hurricane Frances makes landfall over Florida as a Category 2 storm, dropping as many as 13 inches of rain on parts of the state. The damage is so severe that the World Meteorological Organization retires the name "Frances" from the Hurricane naming cycle.

October 2004: The South Florida Sun-Sentinel begins researching FEMA's Hurricane Frances emergency relief payments made throughout Miami-Dade County, totaling $31 million.

February 13, 2005: In an interview responding to the Sun-Sentinel's charges of fraudulent relief claims being paid in the aftermath of Hurricane Frances, FEMA director Michael Brown says, "I really feel sorry for these folks who went through the process and got their assistance and now people keep using the words fraud, cheats and everything else. ... I think we need to give them the benefit of the doubt."

March 3, 2005: The first article in a series that would eventually total 70 reports over almost a year and a half appears in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The report exposes FEMA disaster relief fraud in response to Hurricane Frances.

August 5, 2005: Federal officials announce sweeping changes to the way that disaster aid is distributed. Reforms aim to tighten oversight of certain types of aid, including rental assistance and property reimbursement.

August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina makes landfall as a strong category 3 hurricane near New Orleans. Though Mayor Ray Nagin declared a mandatory evacuation of the city, many New Orleanians are trapped in shelters such as the Louisiana Superdome as much of the city flooded.

August 31, 2005: President Bush surveys damage to New Orleans from Air Force One. FEMA director Michael Brown states, "I must say, this storm is much, much bigger than anyone expected."

September 2, 2005: President Bush praises embattled FEMA director Michael Brown for his management of Katrina by saying, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

September 9, 2005: Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff removes Brown from the Gulf Coast, reassigning him to Washington to prepare for future storms.

September 12, 2005: Brown resigns as director of FEMA. "I came to the conclusion that this was in the best interest of not just the administration and not just me, but FEMA," he said in a statement.

October 13, 2005: The New York Times reports there are 600,000 Katrina refugees living in hotels, spending $11 million a day. The reliance on hotels is necessary because FEMA has been slow to install mobile homes and travel trailers for evacuees.

November 2005: Former FEMA director Michael Brown resurfaces as a hurricane preparedness consultant. In the private sector, Brown says that he hoped to help companies avoid the mistakes that doomed his tenure at FEMA.

February 2006: Michael Brown testifies before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee about FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina.

While many displaced Louisianans await FEMA help, thousands of mobile homes sit unused as federal officials dispute over where to place them.

April 2006: The Department of Homeland Security, the managing agency for FEMA, issues a report admitting that since "Sept. 11, 2001, [Homeland Security's] prevention and preparedness for terrorism have overshadowed that for natural hazards, both in perception and in application."

As instances of fraud and waste in FEMA's Katrina response come to light, Congress is under pressure to revamp the agency.

June 2006: One proposed solution from Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) is to abolish FEMA and create a new independent agency within the Department of Homeland Security called the U.S. Emergency Management Authority.

July 2006: Responding to months of criticism, the Department of Homeland Security announces it will revamp many of its core disaster relief programs, including sharply cutting emergency cash assistance from $2000 to $500 and more carefully controlling access to free hotel rooms.

While legislators negotiate FEMA's role in government in Washington, Katrina evacuees continue to face problems on the ground, especially with the standard-issue trailers that housed many whose homes were lost in the hurricane and ensuing flood. Among the complaints - concern over the presence of dangerous levels of formaldehyde in the trailers and faulty locks.

September 2006: According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report on Hurricane Katrina disaster relief, improper and duplicate relief payments could cost taxpayers over $1 billion dollars in the months after the hurricane.

March 2007: The effects of Hurricane Katrina continue to be felt on the Gulf Coast when FEMA orders residents in a Yorkshire, Louisiana trailer park to evacuate within a 48 hour timeframe. FEMA tells residents and reporters that the decision to evacuate was made because of fear of a power outage and concerns about the trailer park's sewage system, which was speculated as posing a health hazard. However, the Washington Post reports that at the time of the evacuations, power was available in the park and health officials declared the sewer system free of violations, leading some to speculate that the evacuations were caused by political and legal wrangling between the site's owners, local officials and FEMA.

June 2007: A federal appeals court rules that FEMA was wrong to withhold disaster relief records, including 1.3 million addresses of individual relief recipients, from news agencies requesting the information through the Freedom of Information Act. As a result of the case, FEMA will have to make available to news organizations, including the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the addresses, but not the names, of the residents who received aid.