Hurricane Katrina 2005

Hurricane Katrina
RELATED TOPICS	Katrina Disaster Statistics Katrina Disaster Relief
SERMONS, ESSAYS AND OPINIONS
CONTENTS

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive tropical cyclones ever to hit the United States causing extensive damage to the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama on August 29, 2005. By late morning of August 29 the storm had caused several sections of the levee system in New Orleans, Louisiana to collapse. Subsequent flooding over most of the city, a large part of which lies below sea level, resulted in widespread damage and many deaths, largely due to inadequate hurricane preparedness for New Orleans.

Later estimates placed the death toll in the thousands, and the damage made the hurricane the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history (estimates run as high as $200 billion). Over a million people were displaced - a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

United States Federal Disaster Declarations blanketed 90,000 square miles (233,000 km) of the United States, an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. The hurricane left an estimated five million people without power.

Quotes

On September 3, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as

"Probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes" in the country's history

Links

• NASA Hurricane Resource Page
• 500 Satellite images

---

Return to Current events