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    Total Devastation: The Story of Hurricane Katrina
    Total Devastation: The Story of Hurricane Katrina
    Total Devastation: The Story of Hurricane Katrina
    Ebook117 pages40 minutes

    Total Devastation: The Story of Hurricane Katrina

    By Michael Burgan

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    About this ebook

    In an immersive, exciting narrative nonfiction format, this powerful book follows a selection of people who experienced the events of Hurricane Katrina.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCapstone Young Readers
    Release dateAug 1, 2016
    ISBN9781515752622
    Total Devastation: The Story of Hurricane Katrina
    Author

    Michael Burgan

    Michael Burgan has written numerous books for children and young adults during his nearly 20 years as a freelance writer. Many of his books have focused on U.S. history, geography, and the lives of world leaders. Michael has won several awards for his writing, and his graphic novel version of the classic tale Frankenstein (Stone Arch Books) was a Junior Library Guild selection.  Michael graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s degree in history. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his cat, Callie.

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      Book preview

      Total Devastation - Michael Burgan

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Cover Page

      Title Page

      Foreword

      1 A Growing Storm

      2 Category 5

      3 Problems Everywhere

      4 Chaos and Hope

      5 On the Bus and in the City

      6 Good News, Bad News

      Epilogue

      Timeline

      Glossary

      Critical Thinking Using the Common Core

      Internet Sites

      Further Reading

      Selected Bibliography

      Index

      About the Author

      Copyright Page

      Back Cover

      FOREWORD

      On August 26, 2005, residents of New Orleans, Louisiana, kept an eye on weather reports as they wondered if an approaching hurricane would hit their city and affect their lives. Along with other people in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic regions, they were several months into hurricane season. So far tropical storms as well as several hurricanes had already come and gone. In July, two hurricanes, Dennis and Emily, had blown through. These storms had taken lives and caused damage in surrounding areas, but so far New Orleans—and most of the United States—had been spared.

      Local, state, and federal officials also watched the weather reports. They had the responsibility of deciding if a storm was severe enough that people should leave their homes and seek safety away from the coast.

      At the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, meteorologists stared intently at their computer screens, looking at satellite images and data. On a wall next to them, a large map showed the United States with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans on either side. Off the west coast of the southern end of Florida was a red marker that stood for Hurricane Katrina. It had just crossed into the Gulf of Mexico from Florida as a Category 1 storm. That meant Katrina was the least powerful kind of hurricane, with wind speeds between 74 and 95 miles per hour. The most powerful hurricane, a Category 5, would have sustained winds of more than 156 miles per hour—strong enough to destroy homes and uproot most trees in its path.

      The meteorologists analyzed data on the storm and kept watching their computers. There was no way to be sure which direction Katrina would go or how powerful it would become.

      1

      A GROWING STORM

      Max Mayfield

      Max Mayfield

      August 26, 2005, the National Hurricane Center, Miami

      Max Mayfield, the director of the National Hurricane Center, kept a close watch on Hurricane Katrina as it approached the Gulf Coast. He wanted to know what the storm’s next moves would be. During his career as a meteorologist, he had seen many powerful hurricanes pound the coasts of the United States. In 1992 he had tracked Hurricane Andrew as it devastated parts of Florida. Andrew was one of only three Category 5 storms in moderm times to come ashore in the country. Its top wind gusts reached at least 175 miles per hour, knocking out instruments the center used to measure the storm.

      When it was over, Andrew had directly killed 26 people. Several dozen more died indirectly, from causes such as heart attacks suffered while trying to cope with the storm. Andrew also left an estimated 250,000 people homeless and caused about $25 billion in damage.

      Mayfield knew the dangers of a storm like Andrew. But Katrina did not seem to pose the same threat—at least not at first. After hitting Florida, its winds weakened, making it a tropical storm rather than a hurricane. But the weakening didn’t last. Starting in the early hours of August 26, the storm reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Storms typically gain energy from the heat in those waters, and Katrina was no different. As it moved northwest, it became a Category 2 hurricane with winds of around 100 miles per hour. Mayfield knew the storm would strengthen even more. And as he followed its movement, he thought it might be on track to hit New Orleans, Louisiana.

      That afternoon, Mayfield called his friend Walter Maestri, who lived just west of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish. Maestri was the official in charge of preparing the parish’s residents for emergencies.

      This is it, Mayfield told his friend. This is what we’ve been talking about all of these years. Mayfield and other hurricane experts had predicted that a powerful hurricane could hit New Orleans directly, causing extreme damage. With the city sitting so close to the Gulf of Mexico, and with some areas below sea level, experts worried

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