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 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.
But an estimated , 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 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. 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. 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.
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Science Coronavirus Coverage How antivirals may change the course of the pandemic. Travel A road trip in Burgundy reveals far more than fine wine. Travel My Hometown In L. Subscriber Exclusive Content. Why are people so dang obsessed with Mars? How viruses shape our world. Bush helped with evacuations and resupplying food and water to those stranded at the Superdome and convention center, all of whom were finally evacuated on September 3. Many Katrina evacuees made it to Houston, Texas, where they were housed in the Astrodome and other shelters.
The Data Center , a New Orleans-based research organization, estimated that the storm and subsequent flooding displaced more than 1 million people, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless. It damaged more than a million housing units in the region. Widespread criticism of the federal response to Katrina led to the resignation of Michael D.
In , the U. Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for the design of the levee system in New Orleans, acknowledged that outdated and faulty engineering practices used to build the levees led to most of the flooding that occurred due to Katrina. On the state and local level, Louisiana Gov.
Blanco declined to seek reelection in , and died in Nagin left office in , and was later convicted on charges of bribery, fraud and money laundering committed while in office.
The mass exodus from the Gulf Coast and New Orleans during and after Katrina represented one of the largest and most sudden relocations of people in U. Some 1. This week, Ida struck as a Category 4, and nearly a Category 5. It was the fifth-strongest hurricane to hit the continental United States.
By comparison, Katrina made landfall with maximum sustained winds of kpm mph. Despite the higher-intensity winds, the most welcomed difference between the two hurricanes is that Ida resulted in far fewer lives lost. In , Katrina killed more than 1, Americans, nearly 1, of whom were from Louisiana.
In the aftermath of Ida, four deaths have been reported so far. Two of those victims are from Mississippi, where torrential rain caused a highway to collapse. In Louisiana, there were two deaths. One person was struck by a falling tree outside the capital, Baton Rouge, while another was a driver who drowned in New Orleans. The size of a hurricane can have a major impact on its ability to create a rise in seawater, known as storm surge. To the west, the suburb of LaPlace recently began a levee improvement project that remains unfinished.
Water from Ida poured into the town from an engorged Lake Pontchartrain, requiring some residents to climb to their roofs and await rescue. Because New Orleans is surrounded by water, and much of the city sits below sea level, a series of levees and pumps are required to keep residents safe. Sixteen years ago, that system — then long in need of improvement — was overwhelmed.
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