Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina, tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern

United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its
aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the
costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Development
Hurricane Katrina in numbers
Hurricane Katrina in numbers
The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced
on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas,
approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. Over the next
two days the weather system gathered strength, earning the
designation Tropical Storm Katrina, and it made landfall
between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a category 1
hurricane—a storm that, on the Saffir-Simpson scale, exhibits
winds in the range of 74–95 miles (119–154 km) per hour.
Sustained winds of 70 miles (115 km) per hour lashed the Florida
peninsula, and rainfall totals of 5 inches (13 cm) were reported in
some areas. The storm spent less than eight hours over land. It
quickly intensified when it reached the warm waters of the Gulf
of Mexico.

On August 27 Katrina strengthened to a category 3 hurricane,

with top winds exceeding 115 miles (185 km) per hour and a
circulation that covered virtually the entire Gulf of Mexico. By
the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most
powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170
miles (275 km) per hour. On the morning of August 29, the
storm made landfall as a category 4 hurricane at Plaquemines
Parish, Louisiana, approximately 45 miles (70 km) southeast of
New Orleans. It continued on a course to the northeast, crossing
the Mississippi Sound and making a second landfall later that
morning near the mouth of the Pearl River. A storm surge more
than 26 feet (8 metres) high slammed into the coastal cities of
Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, devastating homes and resorts
along the beachfront.
Damage
Hurricane Katrina
In New Orleans, where much of the greater metropolitan area is
below sea level, federal officials initially believed that the city had
“dodged the bullet.” While New Orleans had been spared a direct
hit by the intense winds of the storm, the true threat was soon
apparent. The levee system that held back the waters of Lake
Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne had been completely
overwhelmed by 10 inches (25 cm) of rain and Katrina’s storm
surge. Some levees buttressing the Industrial Canal, the 17th
Street Canal, and other areas were overtopped by the storm
surge, and others were breached after these structures failed
outright from the buildup of water pressure behind them. The
area east of the Industrial Canal was the first part of the city to
flood; by the afternoon of August 29, some 20 percent of the city
was underwater.