Hurricane Katrina

Satellite image of Hurricane Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast. Image taken from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website

Katrina was one of the most destructive hurricanes in recent history and it had an impact far beyond the initial devastation. On August 23, Katrina started as a tropical depression and grew to a Category 1 hurricane (winds of 80 mph) when it hit Florida on August 25. Hurricanes are energized by heat, therefore when the hurricane reached the warmer Gulf Coast waters it quickly grew to a Category 5 hurricane (winds of over 175 mph). When Katrina hit Louisiana on August 29, it had weakened to an extremely strong Category 3 hurricane (winds of120 mph). The storm prompted a mandatory evacuation from the city of New Orleans, a city that lies mostly below sea level, a great bowl for holding water. When the hurricane hit, the storm surge was record breaking, causing widespread damage to residential homes and historic buildings. The nail in the coffin for New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana was the levee failures of 17th Street Canal, the Industrial Canal, the London Avenue Canal, and the floodwaters from the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. The heavy rainfall after the Katrina hit did not help the flooding situation in any way.

The Superdome was filled to capacity. Image taken from ForTheWin article 'Refuge of Last Resort'

For those that could not evacuate the city (elderly, no car, etc.) the football stadium called the Superdome was designated as a shelter. Unfortunately is was packed past capacity. The hurricane had ripped part of the roof off and the knocked out the power out and there was no plumbing for the 30,000 people trapped inside. They also ran out of food and water, and anarchy ensued. According to many reports, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was unwilling to cooperate with non-government organizations, and so these dismal conditions were inescapable. Finally everyone was evacuated from the Superdome but for many the struggle was hardly over.

Katrina was at the time, the costliest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. with damages of 108 billion. In the wake of the destruction there at least $1.4 billion of disaster relief payments that were fraudulent. Katrina victims were relocated across the states and therefore many fraudulent claims came from some who had never even lived in Louisiana. One of the most demoralizing high profile cases was the conviction of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

Residential houses just east of downtown New Orleans. Image taken from The Telegraph article 'Hurricane Katrina by numbers'.

Works Cited:

US Department of Commerce, and NOAA. “Hurricane Katrina - August 2005.” National Weather Service, NOAA's National Weather Service, 29 Nov. 2016, www.weather.gov/mob/katrina.

Melgar, Michael. “Katrina - Events.” Maritime Theater, 2010, web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2010/finalwebsite/katrina/events.html.

Scott, Nate. “Refuge of Last Resort: Five Days inside the Superdome for Hurricane Katrina.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 22 Oct. 2018, ftw.usatoday.com/2015/08/refuge-of-last-resort-five-days-inside-the-superdome-for-hurricane-katrina.

Midgley, Robert. “Archive Footage: Hurricane Katrina by Numbers.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 27 Aug. 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11828148/Archive-footage-Hurricane-Katrina-by-numbers.html.