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Hurricane Katrina was a devastating and deadly Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $186.3 billion (2022 USD) in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area.
- Overview
- Development
- Damage
Hurricane Katrina was a 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.
Who was Hurricane Katrina named after?
There is no particular person for whom Hurricane Katrina was named. Rather, the hurricane was named in accordance with the World Meteorological Organization’s lists of hurricane names, which rotate every six years. Following the historical damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, the name Katrina was retired from the lists of names.
What were Hurricane Katrina’s wind speeds?
When Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. By the time the storm strengthened to a category 3 hurricane, winds exceeded 115 miles per hour. At its height as a category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina’s wind speeds exceeded 170 miles per hour.
Why did Hurricane Katrina lead to widespread flooding?
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.
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.
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Disasters of Historic Proportion
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city the previous day, and an estimated 1.2 million people left ahead of the storm. However, tens of thousands of residents could not or would not leave. They either remained in their homes or sought shelter at locations such as the New Orleans Convention Center or the Louisiana Superdome. As the already strained levee system continued to give way, the remaining residents of New Orleans were faced with a city that by August 30 was 80 percent underwater. Many local agencies found themselves unable to respond to the increasingly desperate situation, as their own headquarters and control centres were under 20 feet (6 metres) of water. With no relief in sight and in the absence of any organized effort to restore order, some neighbourhoods experienced substantial amounts of looting, and helicopters were used to rescue many people from rooftops in the flooded Ninth Ward.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 9, 2009 · Learn about the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005 and caused massive flooding, damage and displacement. Find out how the storm exposed the failures of the federal government and the vulnerability of New Orleans's poor and marginalized communities.
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Jan 16, 2019 · Hurricane Katrina made landfall off the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005. It hit land as a Category 3 storm with winds reaching speeds as high as 120 miles per hour. Because of the...
- 3 min
- Sarah Gibbens
- Sarah Pruitt
- 11 min
- Katrina first made landfall in South Florida. The storm initially formed as a tropical depression southeast of the Bahamas on August 23. By the evening of August 25, when it made landfall north of the Broward-Miami-Dade county line, it had intensified into a category 1 hurricane.
- Katrina Stalled over the Gulf of Mexico, gaining strength. In this satellite image, a close-up of the center of Hurricane Katrina's rotation is seen at 9:45 a.m.
- The eye of the storm hit the Gulf Coast near Buras, Louisiana on August 29. On the morning of August 29, 2005, Katrina made landfall around 60 miles southeast of New Orleans.
- Half of New Orleans’s 350-mile-long protection system of levees and flood walls was overwhelmed. At 5 a.m. on August 29, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which administered the levees, received a report that water had broken through the concrete flood wall between the 17th Street Canal and the city.
Learn about the extremely powerful and devastating hurricane that caused enormous destruction and loss of life in the northern Gulf Coast in 2005. See storm surge, wind, rainfall, and other impacts of Katrina in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.
Sep 13, 2005 · A detailed account of the historic storm, from its formation in the Bahamas to its devastating impact on the Gulf Coast. Learn how Katrina strengthened from a tropical depression to a Category Five hurricane, and how it caused catastrophic flooding and damage in New Orleans and other cities.
