2005
Hurricane Katrina Slams Gulf Coast
Hurricane Katrina makes landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, as
a Category 4 hurricane on this day in 2005. Despite being only the third most
powerful storm of the 2005 hurricane season, Katrina was the worst natural
disaster in the history of the United States. After briefly coming ashore in
southern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina gained
strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on August 29. In addition to
bringing devastation to the New Orleans area, the hurricane caused damage along
the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as other parts of Louisiana.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of
the city on August 28, when Katrina briefly achieved Category 5 status and the
National Weather Service predicted “devastating” damage to the area. But an
estimated 150,000 people, who either did not want to or did not have the
resources to leave, ignored the order and stayed behind. The storm brought
sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, which cut power lines and destroyed
homes, even turning cars into projectile missiles. Katrina caused record storm
surges all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The surges overwhelmed the levees
that protected New Orleans, located at six feet below sea level, from Lake
Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Soon, 80 percent of the city was
flooded up to the rooftops of many homes and small buildings.
Tens of thousands of people sought shelter in the New Orleans
Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome. The situation in both places
quickly deteriorated, as food and water ran low and conditions became
unsanitary. Frustration mounted as it took up to two days for a full-scale
relief effort to begin. In the meantime, the stranded residents suffered from
heat, hunger, and a lack of medical care. Reports of looting, rape, and even
murder began to surface. As news networks broadcast scenes from the devastated
city to the world, it became obvious that a vast majority of the victims were
African-American and poor, leading to difficult questions among the public
about the state of racial equality in the United States. The federal government
and President George W. Bush were roundly criticized for what was perceived as
their slow response to the disaster. The head of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown, resigned amid the ensuing controversy.
Finally, on September 1, the tens of thousands of people staying
in the damaged Superdome and Convention Center begin to be moved to the
Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and another mandatory evacuation order was issued
for the city. The next day, military convoys arrived with supplies and the
National Guard was brought in to bring a halt to lawlessness. Efforts began to
collect and identify corpses. On September 6, eight days after the hurricane,
the Army Corps of Engineers finally completed temporary repairs to the three
major holes in New Orleans’ levee system and were able to begin pumping water
out of the city.
In all, it is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,300
deaths and up to $150 billion in damages to both private property and public
infrastructure. It is estimated that only about $40 billion of that number will
be covered by insurance. One million people were displaced by the disaster, a
phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression. Four hundred
thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. Offers of
international aid poured in from around the world, even from poor countries
like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Private donations from U.S. citizens alone
approached $600 million.
The storm also set off 36 tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, resulting in one death.
President Bush declared September 16 a national day of
remembrance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.