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What if someone in your school community had a similar issue? Based on what happened to the character in the story, what advice would you offer?

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What if someone in your school community had a similar issue? Based on what happened to the character in the story, what advice would you offer?

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At the end of the story in this picture book, Louis and his family went back home after the water drained away. This seems to be a happy ending for them, but the following danger like the trauma after disasters will present for them as well. According to the statistics provided by the author, “Katrina was the third strongest storm ever to make landfall in the United States, killing more than 1800 people. Approximately 850,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed” (p. 38). As an educator, it is imperative to create a safe learning environment for students. If students do not feel safe, how can they have a good academic performance? Teachers are the healer. We need to be ready to help support students similar to Louis who will experience trauma from disasters. According to one of the resources we found about the lasting effects of hurricane Katrina, “more than one in three kids displaced by Katrina suffered a serious emotional disturbance, ailments serious enough to impede a child’s academic progress or stunt overall development” (Rivlin, 2015). It is essential for educators to preserve students’ health and well-being. In other words, we must emphasize the importance of mental health at school. If this happens in our classroom, we can let students stretch their body to have some breaks after studying for a long time, and practice calm breathing. Torres (2021) indicated that “ Brains suffering from trauma are not primed to learn, so building brain breaks into each day — like regularly stepping away from desks, or practicing calm breathing — will be important in creating mental space for learning”.

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How does the author make visible who has power and who does not?

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How does the author make visible who has power and who does not?

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By directly looking at the story it is not super clear who has power and who doesn’t, as they don’t explicitly say anything that implies that someone has more power than someone else. However, what is shown in the story is that many of the people who are going to the Superdome for safety and shelter are black. I think that this is implicitly implying that people who are not black have more power in that their homes did not get flooded or destroyed, or they had safe places to go other than the Superdome. Many homes that were significantly affected by Katrina were homes that black communities and other communities of color lived in due to a history of racialization and redlining. Thus, if you were white, your home may not have been impacted or you probably had somewhere safe to go or the money to get out of the city rather than going to the Superdome.

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What is one thing you can do to bring awareness to this issue and its possible solutions?

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What is one thing you can do to bring awareness to this issue and its possible solutions?

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Representation is a huge factor in bringing awareness of the issue. There are plenty of personal accounts of people who lived and survived the tragedy which teachers can use to help students get a perspective of what happened. There are also plenty of sources teachers can use to teach students of how it happened and went wrong.

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Teachers need to be ready to help support students who have experienced trauma from events such as floods, tornados, hurricanes, and so on. In this book, it follows children as the deal with the aftermath of the hurricane and may be a good source to bring forth conversations of fear and security.

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Children of Katrina (The Katrina Bookshelf)

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Children of Katrina (The Katrina Bookshelf) [Fothergill, Alice, Peek, Lori] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Children of Katrina (The Katrina Bookshelf)

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Hurricane Katrina: A Huge Federal Failure (Youtube)

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Hurricane Katrina: A Huge Federal Failure (Youtube)

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There are many layers to what caused this hurricane's aftermath to be so troublesome. In this video, you can learn more about these factors and issues that you may have not been made aware of. It's good to understand what went wrong so that we can help students realize what did go wrong to prevent something like this from happening again.

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Hurricane Katrina: A Huge Federal Failure

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Hurricane Katrina: A Modern American Disaster (YouTube)

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Hurricane Katrina: A Modern American Disaster (YouTube)

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A visual and auditory way to teach children on some minor history of New Orleans but also issues as to what lead up to the disaster being as bad as it was.

Skip to 4:58 get past the minor history section

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Hurricane Katrina: A Modern American Disaster

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We need to bring awareness of what happened to students in a way they may understand. While most sources are actual accounts, this one may be easier for students to understand due to it being about two animals.

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Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival

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Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival [Larson, Kirby, Nethery, Mary, Cassels, Jean] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival

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A picture book adaptation of a black child's experience of the tragedy.

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Understanding the Impacts of Natural Disasters on Children (Website)

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Understanding the Impacts of Natural Disasters on Children (Website)

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Louis was young when he experienced the hurricane and the aftermath. As such, he saw things he may never have thought would be possible. From this, he may be traumatized from things he saw that day. This site can help a teacher try to explain to students how to help those who may have experienced something traumatizing. In addition, it's a good source for the teacher if they do encounter a student experiencing trauma

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Understanding the Impacts of Natural Disasters on Children | Society for Research in Child Development SRCD

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Natural disasters present a significant threat to children's health and well-being. Actions are needed now to mitigate this threat. Greater investments in infrastructure, remediation efforts, and more effective, evidence-based responses will help promote healthy development among children exposed to natural disasters.

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Social effects of Hurricane Katrina (Wikipedia)

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Social effects of Hurricane Katrina (Wikipedia)

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The effects after the hurricane were resounding. It's important to know all factors of a desastors, even the bad, so we can do our best to ensure something like this does not happen ever again

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Hurricane Katrina had many social effects, due the significant loss and disruption of lives it caused. The number of fatalities, direct and indirect, related to Katrina is 1,833 and over 400,000 people were left homeless. The hurricane left hundreds of thousands of people without access to their homes or jobs, it separated people from relatives, and caused both physical and mental distress on those who suffered through the storm and its aftermath, such as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

At the beginning of 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) detailed three unfortunate events that were considered more than probable to happen in the United States. These three included deadly earthquakes in and around San Francisco, an attack in New York City at the hands of a terror group, and a combined hurricane and levee failure in New Orleans. The latter of the three is what would become, four years later, the costliest natural disaster in United States history. This was not the first hurricane, however, that was of concern to local agencies-the ones who plan for and execute emergency evacuations, etc. Hurricane Georges, a Category 3 storm, started an evacuation in 1998 but missed downtown New Orleans after heading west several hours before expected landfall.

The purpose of the levees on the eastern and western banks of the Mississippi River is to keep water out of the city when levels become high. The juxtaposition of this is that while they may keep water out, after surges and storms overcome the levees, the structures also play a strong role in keeping the water trapped in the city. Continuing years later, inspections on the levees of New Orleans and its various parts of town and parishes details how insufficient these levees are and continue to be. Inspections through the Army Corps of Engineers showed several issues with the levees in place. These issues include wall erosion, pounding water, settling/tilting of flood wall panels, and animal burrowing

As the city began to grow, drainage and levees were not seen as "enough" when faced with the potential of endangering the 1.4 million persons who called the city their home. Planning for the need to evacuate the population that would be willing and able to evacuate in an emergency, officials implemented a highway contraflow system. With this, all major inbound roads would be flipped to provide extra lanes for outbound purposes. This method was used prior to Hurricane Katrina in nearby states, citing "mixed successes".

On August 28, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city, the first in its history. Most of the city's residents evacuated, but approximately 100,000-120,000 remained after the mandatory evacuation order. The Superdome was made available as a shelter for those who were not able to evacuate and did not have protection from the storm. On August 29, about 12,000 people sought shelter between the Superdome and other shelters provided by the Red Cross. The extreme flooding caused by the hurricane later caused an additional 18,000 residents seek shelter at the Superdome and about 20,000 to the New Orleans Convention Center, neither of which were adequately prepared for that high numbers of evacuees.

One year after the strike of Hurricane Katrina, about 53% of those displaced, had moved back to New Orleans and 12% were scattered throughout the rest of Louisiana. Of the rest of those who were displaced, about 40% moved to Texas and the rest went farther to either New York, Ohio, or even California.

Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Housing Authority managed 7,200 subsidized housing units that were occupied by low income families. After the flooding approximately 3,000 units were identified as significantly damaged and would need to be demolished and rebuilt. Although 3,000 units were destroyed, only 1,829 units were rebuilt and of these less than half met the criteria for subsidized housing. This further increased rental prices in New Orleans and caused the waitlist for subsidized housing became so long that it eventually closed and further prevented many of the lower income families from being able to move back to New Orleans. Some architects question if all of the 3,000 properties really sustained damage significant enough to warrant demolition. It is possible that the city of New Orleans used Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity for disaster capitalism by replacing subsidized housing with new homes to be sold to private owners and not setting priority on building housing that would have helped displaced citizens to return home.

Many evacuees from New Orleans, facing months without income, severely damaged or destroyed homes, and little in the way of recoverable possessions have begun expressing desires to permanently resettle elsewhere. Possible locations include the areas to which they were evacuated, or with friends or family in other states. This would lead to potentially large demographic effects not only on New Orleans but on the entire country, rivaled only by the Great Migration of African Americans in the first half of the 20th century, and the mass migration of the 1930s as a result of the Great Depression. The effects of this migration are likely to endure for decades as former citizens of New Orleans resettle in other areas yet retain strong cultural ties to New Orleans.

Studies have shown that the concentration of poverty is self-perpetuating, thus some postulate that the hurricane may have a small positive impact on future poverty levels.

Not only were evacuees displaced, but also some National Guard soldiers returning home from their deployment to Iraq were displaced because they were unable to find homes upon their arrival.

By July 2014, it was reported that nearly half of New Orleans neighborhoods have been restored back to over 90% of the residents from before Hurricane Katrina. Demographics of the city had shifted, with fewer African-American and white residents in the city now. This has allowed for a more diverse population with an increased number of Hispanic and Vietnamese residents after the storm. Of all age groups, children were the least likely to return to the city, decreasing the child population by 43%.

Due to the wide displacement caused by Hurricane Katrina, many people were separated from their family members, including young children separated from their parents and pets. A coordinated effort by the American Red Cross, Microsoft, and the San Diego Supercomputer Center, combined many diverse databases and has been very effective in reconnecting children with their parents. An effort to catalogue, identify, or even to collect remains of the dead is still ongoing as of April 2006, leaving those who do not know the whereabouts of loved ones to suffer uncertainty and anxiety. Over time both the reconnection and recovery operations have improved, but it will be much time before the majority of bodies are retrieved and people reunited.

While many existing organisations have worked to help those displaced, and some new groups and special efforts have been initiated, the survivors of Hurricane Katrina are still largely unorganized. Survivors have only recently begun to form associations for their own interests in the recovery effort. The largest of these associations is the ACORN Katrina Survivors Association, led by members New Orleans Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). The group has protested Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) policies in both Houston, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and claims over 2,000 members.

Aside from the lack of water, food, shelter, and sanitation facilities, there were concerns that the prolonged flooding might lead to an outbreak of health problems for those who remained in the hurricane-affected areas. In addition to dehydration and food poisoning, there was a potential for communicable disease outbreaks of Cholera and respiratory illness, all related to the growing contamination of food and drinking water supplies in the area.

President Bush declared an emergency for the entire Gulf Coast. Before the hurricane, government health officials prepared to respond, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began sending medical emergency supplies to locations near the worst-hit area within 48 hours after landfall.

Supplies shipped by CDC's Strategic National Stockpile provided pharmaceuticals, technical assistance teams, and treatment capacity for citizens otherwise stranded by the hurricane's catastrophic effect on hospital infrastructure in Louisiana and Mississippi. These supplies served an estimated 30 acute care hospitals south of Interstate Highway 10, and volunteers organized around its, "contingency stations," to become temporary stand-ins for hospitals, warehouses, and distribution facilities damaged by the storm. Alongside strong responses from state and local medical teams, CDC support remained crucial until normal infrastructure support began to return a week and a half later.

Within days after landfall, medical authorities established contingency treatment facilities for over 10,000 people, and plans to treat thousands more were developing. Partnerships with commercial medical suppliers, shipping companies, and support services companies insured that evolving medical needs could be met within days or even hours.

There was concern the chemical plants and refineries in the area could have released pollutants into the floodwaters. People who suffer from allergies or lung disorders, such as asthma, may have health complications due to toxic mold and airborne irritants, leading to what some health officials have dubbed, " Katrina Cough". In Gulfport, Mississippi, several hundred tons of chicken and uncooked shrimp were washed out of their containers at the nearby harbor and could have contaminated the water table. On September 6, it was reported that Escherichia coli ( E. coli) had been detected at unsafe levels in the waters that flooded New Orleans. The CDC reported on September 7 that five people had died of bacterial infection from drinking water contaminated with Vibrio vulnificus, a bacterium from the Gulf of Mexico.

Wide outbreaks of severe infectious diseases such as cholera and dysentery were not considered likely because such illnesses are not endemic in the United States.

Mental health issues were commonly experienced by residents affected by Hurricane Katrina, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Five to seven months after the hurricane, 20% of people who had evacuated had exhibited mild to moderate mental health issues, 11% had exhibited serious mental health issues, and 16% had been diagnosed with PTSD.

In addition to the increased risk of PTSD, the citizens of New Orleans that had been displaced to Houston, TX endured their own set of unique challenges. The media often covered stories of the increase in crime rate in Houston and often attributed the spike in crime to the displaced citizens of New Orleans which caused some Houstonians to become angry and resentful toward the victims of Hurricane Katrina. This created a moral panic in Houston; a sociological concept that describes the effect of media stories onto its audience. Case studies comparing the crime rates in Houston before and after Hurricane Katrina revealed that there was not a significant increase in crime rate. This moral panic created an unfair stigma onto the victims of Hurricane Katrina and it is believed that this may have led to loss of employment opportunities, barriers in education, and additional psychological stress.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, approximately 8,000 animals were rescued and brought to temporary shelters set up at the Lamar-Dixon Exposition Center in Gonzales, Louisiana, or the Parker Coliseum at Louisiana State University.

Most helicopter pilots and rescue boat captains refused to load pets in order to hold more people. Many families in the affected area refused to evacuate without their pets. While some field hospitals allowed pets to enter with their patients, those who were evacuated from the Superdome were not allowed to take their pets with them.

One case that attracted national attention was that of Snowball, a small white dog made famous by coverage of an Associated Press reporter, who said, "When a police officer confiscated a little boy's dog, the child cried until he vomited. 'Snowball, Snowball', he cried." The story of "Snowball" became a centerpiece in fundraising appeals by welfare organizations and various ad-hoc websites were created by people soliciting funds to help locate Snowball and reunite him with the boy.

Rescue teams were set up in the worst hit regions in response to desperate pleas from pet owners. Horses posed a particular problem, as they are easily stranded and cannot stand in water for long periods of time. Rescue agencies set up shelters and tried to find homes to adopt pets lost by their owners. Rescue centers were becoming overwhelmed in the days immediately following the hurricane. Several online resources were set up to give rescue groups, individuals, and businesses from around the country a centralized venue to publish their offers and requests for helping the animals displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Most of the 10,000 fish at the New Orleans Aquarium of the Americas died because the backup power ran out after four days. Most of the marine mammals and a large sea turtle survived. The Audubon Zoo lost only three animals out of a total of 1,400 due to good disaster planning and location on high ground.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in conjunction with the Louisiana SPCA and many other groups, had hundreds of staff and volunteers working in Louisiana and Mississippi. As of September 20, 2005, 6,031 animals were rescued and 400 were reunited with their owners. An estimated 600,000 animals were killed or left without shelter as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Inspired by the story of Snowball, US Representative Tom Lantos ( D- California) introduced the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act to the House of Representatives which would require states seeking FEMA assistance to accommodate pets and service animals in their plans for evacuating residents facing disasters. The bill passed with an overwhelming majority on May 22, 2006.

Katrina also had a significant impact on the popularity of the name for babies. According to the Social Security Administration, Katrina, which had ranked as the 281st female baby name in 2004, dropped down to 382nd most popular name in 2006, 600th most popular name in 2007, and 815th most popular name in 2009. This surprised experts in naming trends, as past major hurricanes such as Hurricane Camille in 1969 had typically increased the popularity of a name due to its greater exposure.

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Social effects of Hurricane Katrina - Wikipedia

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Hurricane Katrina had many social effects, due the significant loss and disruption of lives it caused. The number of fatalities, direct and indirect, related to Katrina is 1,833 and over 400,000 people were left homeless.

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Wikipedia is an excellent place to start if you need to find some information of even to get a good summery of what happened.

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Hurricane Katrina was a devastating Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused 1,836 fatalities and damage estimated between $97.4 billion to $145.5 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. At the time, it was the costliest tropical cyclone on record, later tied by Hurricane Harvey of 2017. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, gauged by barometric pressure.

Katrina began on August 23, 2005, with the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten. Early the following day, the depression intensified into a tropical storm and headed generally westward toward Florida. On August 25, two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach, it strengthened into a hurricane. After briefly weakening to tropical storm strength over southern Florida, Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and rapidly intensified. The storm strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before weakening to a high-end Category 3 hurricane at its second landfall on August 29 over southeast Louisiana and Mississippi.

The largest loss of life in Hurricane Katrina was due to flooding caused by engineering flaws in the flood protection system, particularly the levee around the city of New Orleans. Eventually, 80% of the city, as well as large areas in neighboring parishes, were flooded for weeks. The flooding destroyed most of New Orleans's transportation and communication facilities, leaving tens of thousands of people who did not evacuate the city prior to landfall with little access to food, shelter, and other basic necessities. The disaster in New Orleans prompted a massive national and international response effort, including federal, local, and private rescue operations to evacuate those displaced from the city in the following weeks. After the storm, multiple investigations concluded that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had designed and built the region's levees decades earlier, was responsible for the failure of the flood-control systems. However, federal courts later ruled that the Corps could not be held financially liable due to sovereign immunity in the Flood Control Act of 1928.

The emergency response from federal, state, and local governments was widely criticized, leading to the resignation of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael D. Brown and New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Superintendent Eddie Compass. Many other government officials faced criticism for their responses, especially New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, and President George W. Bush. However, several agencies, such as the United States Coast Guard (USCG), National Hurricane Center (NHC), and National Weather Service (NWS), were commended for their actions, with the NHC being particularly praised for its accurate forecasts well in advance. Katrina was the earliest 11th named storm on record, before being surpassed by Tropical Storm Kyle on August 14, 2020. The destruction and loss of life caused by the storm prompted the name Katrina to be retired by the World Meteorological Organization in April 2006.

On January 4, 2023, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) updated the Katrina fatality data based on a report by Rappaport (2014) which reduced the number from an estimated 1,833 to 1,392. The same NHC report also revised the total damage estimate keeping Hurricane Katrina as the costliest storm ever--$190 billion according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.

Meteorological history

Map plotting the storm's track and intensity, according to the Saffir-Simpson scale

Hurricane Katrina originated from the merger of a tropical wave and the mid-level remnants of Tropical Depression Ten on August 19, 2005, near the Lesser Antilles. On August 23, the disturbance organized into Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas. The storm strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina on the morning of August 24. The tropical storm moved towards Florida and became a hurricane only two hours before making landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering the Gulf of Mexico, and it continued strengthening over open waters. On August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification but caused the storm to nearly double in size. Thereafter, Katrina rapidly intensified over the "unusually warm" waters of the Loop Current, from a Category 3 hurricane to a Category 5 hurricane in just nine hours.

After attaining Category 5 hurricane status on the morning of August 28, Katrina reached its peak strength at 1800 UTC, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar (26.6 inHg). The pressure measurement made Katrina the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time, before Rita broke the record. The hurricane subsequently weakened due to another eyewall replacement cycle, and Katrina made its second landfall at 1110 UTC on August 29, as a high end Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (201 km/h), near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force winds extended outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar (27 inHg). After moving over southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound, it made its third and final landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi border with 120 mph (190 km/h) sustained winds, still at a mid range Category 3 hurricane intensity. Katrina maintained strength well into Mississippi, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi. It was downgraded to a tropical depression near Clarksville, Tennessee; its remnants were absorbed by a cold front in the eastern Great Lakes region on August 31. The resulting extratropical storm moved rapidly to the northeast and affected eastern Canada.

Preparations

Federal government

Flanked by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, left, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, President Bush meets with members of the Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Recovery on August 31, 2005.

The United States Coast Guard began pre-positioning resources in a ring around the expected impact zone and activated more than 400 reservists. On August 27, it moved its personnel out of the New Orleans region prior to the mandatory evacuation. Aircrews from the Aviation Training Center, in Mobile, staged rescue aircraft from Texas to Florida. All aircraft were returning towards the Gulf of Mexico by the afternoon of August 29. Aircrews, many of whom lost their homes during the hurricane, began a round-the-clock rescue effort in New Orleans, and along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines.

President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in selected regions of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi on August 27. "On Sunday, August 28, President Bush spoke with Governor Blanco to encourage her to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans." However, during the testimony by former Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief Michael Brown before a U.S. House subcommittee on September 26, Representative Stephen Buyer (R-IN) inquired as to why Bush's declaration of state of emergency of August 27 had not included the coastal parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, and Plaquemines. The declaration actually did not include any of Louisiana's coastal parishes, whereas the coastal counties were included in the declarations for Mississippi and Alabama. Brown testified that this was because Louisiana Governor Blanco had not included those parishes in her initial request for aid, a decision that he found "shocking". After the hearing, Blanco released a copy of her letter, which showed she had requested assistance for "all the southeastern parishes including the City of New Orleans" as well specifically naming 14 parishes, including Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines.

Voluntary and mandatory evacuations were issued for large areas of southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama. About 1.2 million residents of the Gulf Coast were covered under a voluntary or mandatory evacuation order.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

On the afternoon of August 26, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) realized that Katrina had yet to make the turn toward the Florida Panhandle and ended up revising the predicted track of the storm from the panhandle to the Mississippi coast. The National Weather Service's New Orleans/Baton Rouge office issued a vividly worded bulletin on August 28 predicting that the area would be "uninhabitable for weeks" after "devastating damage" caused by Katrina, which at that time rivaled the intensity of Hurricane Camille. During video conferences involving the president later that day and on August 29, NHC director Max Mayfield expressed concern that Katrina might push its storm surge over the city's levees and flood walls. In one conference, he stated, "I do not think anyone can tell you with confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that's obviously a very, very great concern."

Florida and Gulf Coast

In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency on August 24 in advance of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. By the following day, Florida's Emergency Operations Center was activated in Tallahassee to monitor the progress of the hurricane. Before Katrina moved ashore, schools and businesses were closed in the Miami area. Cruise ships altered their paths due to seaports in southeastern Florida closing. Officials in Miami-Dade County advised residents in mobile homes or with special needs to evacuate. To the north in Broward County, residents east of the Intracoastal Waterway or in mobile homes were advised to leave their homes. Evacuation orders were issued for offshore islands in Palm Beach County, and for residents in mobile homes south of Lantana Road. Additionally, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for vulnerable housing in Martin County. Shelters were opened across the region. Officials closed the Miami International Airport, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Key West International Airport, and Florida Keys Marathon Airport due to the storm. In Monroe and Collier counties, schools were closed, and a shelter was opened in Immokalee.

Radar loop of Hurricane Katrina making landfall in Louisiana

On August 28, Alabama Governor Bob Riley declared a state of emergency for the approaching Hurricane Katrina. On the same day, he requested President Bush to declare "expedited major disaster declaration" for six counties of South Alabama, which was quickly approved. Three hundred fifty national guardsmen were called on duty by August 30. The state of Mississippi activated its National Guard on August 26 in preparation for the storm's landfall. Additionally, the state government activated its Emergency Operations Center the next day, and local governments began issuing evacuation orders. By 6:00 pm CDT on August 28, 11 counties and cities issued evacuation orders, a number which increased to 41 counties and 61 cities by the following morning. Moreover, 57 emergency shelters were established on coastal communities, with 31 additional shelters available to open if needed.

By Sunday, August 28, most infrastructure along the Gulf Coast had been shut down, including all freight and Amtrak rail traffic into the evacuation areas as well as the Waterford Nuclear Generating Station. Since Hurricane Katrina, Amtrak's Sunset Limited service has never been restored past New Orleans.

Vertical cross-section of New Orleans, showing maximum levee height of 23 feet (7 m). Vertical scale exaggerated.

In Louisiana, the state's hurricane evacuation plan calls for local governments in areas along and near the coast to evacuate in three phases, starting with the immediate coast 50 hours before the start of tropical-storm-force winds. Persons in areas designated Phase II begin evacuating 40 hours before the onset of tropical storm winds and those in Phase III areas (including New Orleans) evacuate 30 hours before the start of such winds. Many private caregiving facilities that relied on bus companies and ambulance services for evacuation were unable to evacuate their charges because they waited too long. Louisiana's Emergency Operations Plan Supplement 1C (Part II, Section II, Paragraph D) calls for use of school and other public buses in evacuations. Although buses that later flooded were available to transport those dependent upon public transportation, not enough bus drivers were available to drive them as Governor Blanco did not sign an emergency waiver to allow any licensed driver to transport evacuees on school buses.

By August 26, many of the computer models had shifted the potential path of Katrina 150 miles (240 km) westward from the Florida Panhandle, putting the city of New Orleans directly in the center of their track probabilities; the chances of a direct hit were forecast at 17%, with strike probability rising to 29% by August 28. This scenario was considered a potential catastrophe because some parts of New Orleans and the metro area are below sea level. Since the storm surge produced by the hurricane's right-front quadrant (containing the strongest winds) was forecast to be 28 feet (8.5 m), while the levees offered protection to 23 feet (7.0 m), emergency management officials in New Orleans feared that the storm surge could go over the tops of levees protecting the city, causing major flooding.

At a news conference at 10 a.m. EDT on August 28, shortly after Katrina was upgraded to a Category 5 storm, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city, calling Katrina "a storm that most of us have long feared". The city government also established several "refuges of last resort" for citizens who could not leave the city, including the massive Louisiana Superdome, which sheltered approximately 26,000 people and provided them with food and water for several days as the storm came ashore. Some estimates claimed that 80% of the 1.3 million residents of the greater New Orleans metropolitan area evacuated, leaving behind substantially fewer people than remained in the city during the Hurricane Ivan evacuation.

On August 29, 2005, Katrina's storm surge caused 53 breaches to various flood protection structures in and around the greater New Orleans area, submerging 80% of the city. A June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers indicated that two-thirds of the flooding was caused by the multiple failures of the city's floodwalls. The storm surge also devastated the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, making Katrina one of the most destructive hurricanes, the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States (tied with Hurricane Harvey in 2017), and the deadliest hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $125 billion (2005 U.S. dollars). However, in February 2021, a severe winter storm struck the United States, causing a major power failure in Houston, which caused at least $195 billion (2021 USD) in damage in Texas. It surpassed both Katrina and Harvey to become the single-costliest natural disaster recorded in the United States.

The death toll from Katrina is uncertain, with reports differing by hundreds. According to the National Hurricane Center, 1,836 fatalities can be attributed to the storm: 1 in Kentucky, 2 each in Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio, 14 in Florida, 238 in Mississippi, and 1,577 in Louisiana. However, 135 people remain categorized as missing in Louisiana, and many of the deaths are indirect, but it is almost impossible to determine the exact cause of some of the fatalities. A 2008 report by the Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness journal indicates that 966 deaths can be directly attributed to the storm in Louisiana, including out of state evacuees, and another 20 indirectly (such as firearm-related deaths and gas poisoning). Due to uncertain causes of death with 454 evacuees, an upper-bound of 1,440 is noted in the paper. A follow-up study by the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals determined that the storm was directly responsible for 1,170 fatalities in Louisiana.

Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles (230,000 km ²) of the United States, an area almost as large as the United Kingdom. The hurricane left an estimated three million people without electricity. On September 3, 2005, 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, referring to the hurricane itself plus the flooding of New Orleans.

Even in 2010, debris remained in some coastal communities.

Florida, Bahamas, and Cuba

Hurricane Katrina first made landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura, Florida on August 25. The storm dropped heavy rainfall in portions of the Miami metropolitan area, with a peak total of 16.43 in (417 mm) in Perrine. As a result, local flooding occurred in Miami-Dade County, damaging approximately 100 homes. Farther south in the Florida Keys, a tornado was spawned in Marathon on August 26. The tornado damaged a hangar at the airport there and caused an estimated $5 million in damage. The rains caused flooding, and the combination of rains and winds downed trees and power lines, leaving 1.45 million people without power. Damage in South Florida was estimated at $523 million, mostly as a result of crop damage. Twelve deaths occurred in South Florida, of which three were caused by downed trees in Broward County, three from drowning in Miami-Dade County, three were from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by generators, one was due to a vehicle accident, one occurred during debris cleanup, and one was associated with a lack of electricity.

Significant impacts were also reported in the Florida Panhandle. Although Katrina moved ashore in Louisiana and Mississippi, its outer periphery produced a 5.37 ft (1.64 m) storm surge in Pensacola. High waves caused beach erosion and closed nearby roadways. There were five tornadoes in the northwestern portion of the state, though none of them caused significant damage. Throughout the Florida Panhandle, the storm resulted in an estimated $100 million in damage. There were two indirect fatalities from Katrina in Walton County as a result of a traffic accident. In the Florida Panhandle, 77,000 customers lost power. Overall, the hurricane killed 14 people and caused at least $623 million in damage.

Before striking South Florida, Katrina traversed the Bahamas as a tropical storm. However, minimal impact was reported, with only "fresh breezes" on various islands.

Although Hurricane Katrina stayed well to the north of Cuba, on August 28 it brought tropical-storm-force winds and rainfall of over 8 in (200 mm) to western regions of the island. Telephone and power lines were damaged and around 8,000 people were evacuated in the Pinar del Río Province. According to Cuban television reports the coastal town of Surgidero de Batabanó was 90% underwater.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, with 125 mph (200 km/h) winds, as a strong Category 3 hurricane. Although the storm surge to the east of the path of the eye in Mississippi was higher, a significant surge affected the Louisiana coast. The height of the surge is uncertain because of a lack of data, although a tide gauge in Plaquemines Parish indicated a storm tide in excess of 14 feet (4.3 m), and a 12-foot (3.7 m) storm surge was recorded in Grand Isle. The hurricane made its final landfall near the mouth of the Pearl River, with the eye straddling St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, and Hancock County, Mississippi, on the morning of August 29 at about 9:45 AM CST.

Hurricane Katrina also brought heavy rain to Louisiana, with 8-10 inches (200-250 mm) falling on a wide swath of the eastern part of the state. In the area around Slidell, the rainfall was even higher, and the highest rainfall recorded in the state was approximately 15 inches (380 mm). As a result of the rainfall and storm surge the level of Lake Pontchartrain rose and caused significant flooding along its northeastern shore, affecting communities from Slidell to Mandeville. Several bridges were destroyed, including the I-10 Twin Span Bridge connecting Slidell to New Orleans. Almost 900,000 people in Louisiana lost power as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, in St. Bernard Parish, 81% (20,229) of the housing units were damaged. In St. Tammany Parish, 70% (48,792) were damaged and in Plaquemines Parish 80% (7,212) were damaged.

In addition, the combined effect of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita was the destruction of an estimated 562 square kilometres (217 sq mi) of coastal wetlands in Louisiana.

New Orleans

As the eye of Hurricane Katrina swept to the northeast, it subjected the city to hurricane conditions for hours. Although power failures prevented accurate measurement of wind speeds in New Orleans, there were a few measurements of hurricane-force winds; based on this information, the NHC concluded that much of the city likely experienced sustained winds of Category 1 or 2 hurricane strength.

Katrina's storm surge caused 53 levee breaches in the federally built levee system protecting metro New Orleans and the failure of the 40 Arpent Canal levee. Failures occurred in New Orleans and surrounding communities, especially St. Bernard Parish. The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) breached its levees in approximately 20 places, flooding much of eastern New Orleans, most of St. Bernard Parish and the East Bank of Plaquemines Parish. The major levee breaches in the city included breaches at the 17th Street Canal levee, the London Avenue Canal, and the wide, navigable Industrial Canal, which left approximately 80% of the city flooded.

Most of the major roads traveling into and out of the city were damaged. The only major intact highway routes out of the city were the westbound Crescent City Connection and the Huey P. Long Bridge, as large portions of the I-10 Twin Span Bridge traveling eastbound towards Slidell, Louisiana had collapsed. Both the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and the Crescent City Connection only carried emergency traffic. However, access to downtown New Orleans and the "shelter of last resort" at the Convention Center was never closed because River Road in Jefferson Parish and Leake Avenue and Tchoupitoulas Street in New Orleans were not flooded, and would have allowed access throughout the immediate post-storm emergency period.

Levee breaches in New Orleans also caused a significant number of deaths, with over 700 bodies recovered in New Orleans by October 23, 2005. Some survivors and evacuees reported seeing dead bodies lying in city streets and floating in still-flooded sections, especially in the east of the city. The advanced state of decomposition of many corpses, some of which were left in the water or sun for days before being collected, hindered efforts by coroners to identify many of the dead.

A U.S. coast guardsman searches for survivors in New Orleans in the Katrina aftermath.

The first deaths reported from the city were reported shortly before midnight on August 28, as three nursing home patients died during an evacuation to Baton Rouge, most likely from dehydration. An estimated 215 bodies were found in nursing homes and hospitals in New Orleans, the largest number being at Memorial Medical Center where 45 corpses were recovered. Some 200 patients at Charity Hospital were not evacuated until Friday, September 2, having been without power or fresh water for five days. While there were also early reports of fatalities amid mayhem at the Superdome, only six deaths were confirmed there, with four of these originating from natural causes, one from a drug overdose, and one a suicide. At the Convention Center, four bodies were recovered. One of the four is believed to be the result of a homicide.

There is evidence that many prisoners were abandoned in their cells during the storm, while the guards sought shelter. Hundreds of prisoners were later registered as "unaccounted for".

Mississippi

The Gulf coast of Mississippi suffered extremely severe damage from the impact of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, leaving 238 people dead, 67 missing, and billions of dollars in damage: bridges, barges, boats, piers, houses, and cars were washed inland. Katrina traveled up the entire state; as a result, all 82 counties in Mississippi were declared disaster areas for federal assistance, 47 for full assistance.

After making a brief initial landfall in Louisiana, Katrina had made its final landfall near the state line, and the eyewall passed over the cities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph (190 km/h). Katrina's powerful right-front quadrant passed over the west and central Mississippi coast, causing a powerful 27-foot (8.2 m) storm surge, which penetrated 6 miles (10 km) inland in many areas and up to 12 miles (19 km) inland along bays and rivers; in some areas, the surge crossed Interstate 10 for several miles. Hurricane Katrina brought strong winds to Mississippi, which caused significant tree damage throughout the state. The highest unofficial reported wind gust recorded from Katrina was one of 135 mph (217 km/h) in Poplarville, in Pearl River County.

The storm also brought heavy rains with 8-10 inches (200-250 mm) falling in southwestern Mississippi and rain in excess of 4 inches (100 mm) falling throughout the majority of the state. Katrina caused eleven tornadoes in Mississippi on August 29, some of which damaged trees and power lines.

Battered by wind, rain and storm surge, some beachfront neighborhoods were completely leveled. Preliminary estimates by Mississippi officials calculated that 90% of the structures within half a mile of the coastline were completely destroyed, and that storm surges traveled as much as 6 miles (10 km) inland in portions of the state's coast. One apartment complex with approximately thirty residents seeking shelter inside collapsed. More than half of the 13 casinos in the state, which were floated on barges to comply with Mississippi land-based gambling laws, were washed hundreds of yards inland by waves.

A number of streets and bridges were washed away. On U.S. Highway 90 along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, two major bridges were completely destroyed: the Bay St. Louis-Pass Christian bridge, and the Biloxi- Ocean Springs bridge. In addition, the eastbound span of the I-10 bridge over the Pascagoula River estuary was damaged. In the weeks after the storm, with the connectivity of the coastal U.S. Highway 90 shattered, traffic traveling parallel to the coast was reduced first to State Road 11 (parallel to I-10) then to two lanes on the remaining I-10 span when it was opened.

All three coastal counties of the state were severely affected by the storm. Katrina's surge was the most extensive, as well as the highest, in the documented history of the United States; large portions of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson counties were inundated by the storm surge, in all three cases affecting most of the populated areas. Surge covered almost the entire lower half of Hancock County, destroying the coastal communities of Clermont Harbor and Waveland, much of Bay St. Louis, and flowed up the Jourdan River, flooding Diamondhead and Kiln. In Harrison County, Pass Christian was completely inundated, along with a narrow strip of land to the east along the coast, which includes the cities of Long Beach and Gulfport; the flooding was more extensive in communities such as D'Iberville, which borders Back Bay. Biloxi, on a peninsula between the Back Bay and the coast, was particularly hard hit, especially the low-lying Point Cadet area. In Jackson County, storm surge flowed up the wide river estuary, with the combined surge and freshwater flooding cutting the county in half. Remarkably, over 90% of Pascagoula, the easternmost coastal city in Mississippi, and about 75 miles (120 km) east of Katrina's landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi border was flooded from storm surge at the height of the storm. Other large Jackson County neighborhoods such as Porteaux Bay and Gulf Hills were severely damaged with large portions being completely destroyed, and St. Martin was hard hit; Ocean Springs, Moss Point, Gautier and Escatawpa also suffered major surge damage.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials also recorded deaths in Forrest, Hinds, Warren, and Leake counties. Over 900,000 people throughout the state experienced power outages.

Southeast United States

Although Hurricane Katrina made landfall well to the west, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were both affected by tropical-storm-force winds and a storm surge varying from 12 to 16 feet (3.7-4.9 m) around Mobile Bay, with higher waves on top. Sustained winds of 67 mph (108 km/h) were recorded in Mobile, Alabama, and the storm surge there was approximately 12 feet (3.7 m). The surge caused significant flooding several miles inland along Mobile Bay. Four tornadoes were also reported in Alabama. Ships, oil rigs, boats and fishing piers were washed ashore along Mobile Bay: the cargo ship M/V Caribbean Clipper and many fishing boats were grounded at Bayou La Batre.

An oil rig under construction along the Mobile River broke its moorings and floated 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwards before striking the Cochrane Bridge just outside Mobile. No significant damage resulted to the bridge and it was soon reopened. The damage on Dauphin Island was severe, with the surge destroying many houses and cutting a new canal through the western portion of the island. An offshore oil rig also became grounded on the island. As in Mississippi, the storm surge caused significant beach erosion along the Alabama coastline. More than 600,000 people lost power in Alabama as a result of Hurricane Katrina and two people died in a traffic accident in the state. Residents in some areas, such as Selma, were without power for several days.

Eastern Arkansas received light rain from the passage of Katrina. Gusty winds downed some trees and power lines, though damage was minimal. Katrina also caused a number of power outages in many areas, with over 100,000 customers affected in Tennessee, primarily in the Memphis and Nashville areas.

Other U.S. states and Canada

In Kentucky, rainfall from Katrina compounded flooding from a storm that had moved through during the previous weekend. A 10-year-old girl drowned in Hopkinsville. Dozens of businesses were closed and several families evacuated due to rising floodwaters. As a result of the flooding, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher declared three counties disaster areas and a statewide state of emergency. Additionally, wind gusts up to 72 mph (116 km/h) resulted in some damage. Downed trees and power lines were reported in several counties in western Kentucky, especially Calloway and Christian counties. Overall, more than 10,000 utility customers in western Kentucky experienced power outages. The remnants of Katrina spawned a tornado in Virginia, damaging at least 13 homes in Marshall. In addition, approximately 4,000 people lost electricity. Over 3 in (76 mm) of rain fell in portions of West Virginia, causing localized flooding in several counties. At least 103 homes and 7 buildings suffered some degree of water damage. A number of roads and bridges were inundated or washed out. The remnants of Katrina produced locally heavy precipitation in northeast Ohio, ranging from about 2 to 4 in (51 to 102 mm). Numerous streams and rivers overflowed their banks, forcing the closure of several roads, including Interstate 90 in Cleveland. Two deaths occurred due to a flood-related automobile accident in Huron County. Additionally, hundreds of homes and businesses suffered flood damage.

Katrina spawned five tornadoes in Pennsylvania, though none resulted in significant damage. Up to 5 in (130 mm) of rain fell in western New York. Gusty winds also left approximately 4,500 people in Buffalo without electricity. The remnants of Katrina brought 3 to 6 in (76 to 152 mm) of rain to portions of Massachusetts, causing flash flooding in Bristol and Plymouth counties. Several roads were closed due to floodwater inundation in Acushnet, Dartmouth, New Bedford, and Wareham, including Route 18 in New Bedford. Very minimal impact was reported in Rhode Island, with winds downing a tree and two electrical poles in the city of Warwick. In Vermont, 2.5 in (64 mm) of rain in Chittenden County caused cars to hydroplane on Interstate 89, resulting in many automobile accidents. The storm brought 3 to 5 in (76 to 127 mm) of precipitation to isolated areas of Maine and up to 9 in (230 mm) near Patten. Several roads were inundated or washed out by overflowing brooks and streams, including sections of U.S. Route 1 and Maine routes 11 and 159. Several structures and one parked vehicle were also affected by the waters. Wind gusts up to 60 mph (97 km/h) also impacted parts of Maine, felling trees and causing power outages in Bar Harbor, Blue Hill, Dover-Foxcroft, Sedgwick Ridge, and Sorrento.

In Canada, the remnants of Katrina brought rainfall amounts in excess of 3.94 in (100 mm) to many locations between the Niagara Peninsula and the Saint Lawrence River valley. Severe local flooding occurred in Quebec, forcing the evacuations of dozens of homes in some communities as rivers began overflowing their banks and sewage systems were becoming overwhelmed by the influx of precipitation. Inundated and washed out roads, including Route 138 along the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River, Route 172 north of Tadoussac, and Route 385 near Forestville left several communities isolated for at least a week.

Economic effects

The economic effects of the storm reached high levels. The Bush Administration sought $105 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the region, which did not account for damage to the economy caused by potential interruption of the oil supply, destruction of the Gulf Coast's highway infrastructure, and exports of commodities such as grain. Katrina damaged or destroyed 30 oil platforms and caused the closure of nine refineries; the total shut-in oil production from the Gulf of Mexico in the six-month period following Katrina was approximately 24% of the annual production and the shut-in gas production for the same period was about 18%. The forestry industry in Mississippi was also affected, as 1.3 million acres (5,300 km ²) of forest lands were destroyed. The total loss to the forestry industry from Katrina is calculated to rise to about $5 billion. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of local residents were left unemployed. Before the hurricane, the region supported approximately one million non-farm jobs, with 600,000 of them in New Orleans. It is estimated that the total economic impact in Louisiana and Mississippi may eventually exceed $150 billion. Forensic accountants were involved in the assessment of economic damages resulting from this catastrophe.

Katrina displaced over one million people from the central Gulf coast to elsewhere across the United States, becoming the largest diaspora in the history of the United States. Houston, Texas, had an increase of 35,000 people; Mobile, Alabama, gained over 24,000; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, over 15,000; and Hammond, Louisiana, received over 10,000, nearly doubling its size. Chicago, Illinois received over 6,000 people, the most of any non-southern city. By late January 2006, about 200,000 people were once again living in New Orleans, less than half of the pre-storm population. By July 1, 2006, when new population estimates were calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau, the state of Louisiana showed a population decline of 219,563 or 4.87%. Additionally, some insurance companies have stopped insuring homeowners in the area because of the high costs from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, or have raised homeowners' insurance premiums to cover their risk.

Environmental effects

Katrina also had a profound impact on the environment. The storm surge caused substantial beach erosion, in some cases completely devastating coastal areas. In Dauphin Island (a barrier island), approximately 90 mi (140 km) to the east of the point where the hurricane made landfall, the sand that comprised the island was transported across the island into the Mississippi Sound, pushing the island towards land. The storm surge and waves from Katrina also severely damaged the Chandeleur Islands, which had been affected by Hurricane Ivan the previous year. The US Geological Survey has estimated 217 sq mi (560 km ²) of land was transformed to water by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Before the storm, subsidence and erosion caused loss of land in the Louisiana wetlands and bayous. This, along with the canals built in the area, let Katrina keep more of its intensity when it struck. The lands that were lost were breeding grounds for marine mammals, brown pelicans, turtles, and fish, and migratory species such as redhead ducks. Overall, about 20% of the local marshes were permanently overrun by water as a result of the storm.

The damage from Katrina forced the closure of 16 National Wildlife Refuges. Breton National Wildlife Refuge lost half its area in the storm. As a result, the hurricane affected the habitats of sea turtles, Mississippi sandhill cranes, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and Alabama Beach mice.

Katrina produced massive tree loss along the Gulf Coast, particularly in Louisiana's Pearl River Basin and among bottomland hardwood forests. Before the storm, the standard mortality rate for the area's trees was 1.9%, but this interval increased to 20.5% by the end of 2006. Delayed mortality as an effect of the storm continued with rates up to 5% until 2011. This significant loss in biomass caused greater decay and an increase in carbon emissions. For example, by 2006 the decreased biomass in bottomland hardwood forests contributed an amount of carbon which equated to roughly 140% of the net annual U.S. carbon sink in forest trees.

The storm caused oil spills from 44 facilities throughout southeastern Louisiana, which resulted in over 7 million US gallons (26,000 m ³) of oil being leaked. Some spills were only a few hundred gallons and most were contained on-site, though some oil entered the ecosystem and residential areas. After a spill at the Murphy Oil refinery, for example, 1,800 homes were oiled in the towns of Chalmette and Meraux. Unlike Hurricane Ivan, no offshore oil spills were officially reported after Hurricane Katrina. However, Skytruth reported some signs of surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

Finally, as part of the cleanup effort, the floodwaters that covered New Orleans were pumped into Lake Pontchartrain, a process that took 43 days to complete. These residual waters contained a mix of raw sewage, bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, toxic chemicals, and oil, which sparked fears in the scientific community of massive numbers of fish dying.

Reestablishing governance

U.S. Army Infantry on patrol in New Orleans in an area previously underwater, September 2005.

Shortly after the hurricane moved away on August 30, 2005, some residents of New Orleans who remained in the city began looting stores. Many were in search of food and water that were not available to them through any other means, as well as non-essential items. Additionally, there were reports of carjacking, murders, thefts, and rapes in New Orleans. Some sources later determined that many of the reports were inaccurate, greatly exaggerated or completely false, leading news agencies to print retractions.

Thousands of National Guard and federal troops were mobilized and sent to Louisiana, with 7,841 in the area on August 29, to a maximum of 46,838 on September 10. A number of local law enforcement agents from across the country were temporarily deputized by the state. "They have M16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will", Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said. Congressman Bill Jefferson told ABC News: "There was shooting going on. There was sniping going on. Over the first week of September, law and order were gradually restored to the city." Several shootings occurred between police and New Orleans residents, some involving police misconduct; including an incident where police officers killed two unarmed civilians and seriously injured four others at Danziger Bridge. Five former police officers pleaded guilty to charges connected to the Danziger Bridge shootings in the aftermath of the hurricane. Six other former or existing officers appeared in court in June 2011.

Overall, a number of arrests were made throughout the affected area, including some near the New Orleans Convention Center. A temporary jail was constructed of chain link cages in the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, the city's main train station.

In West Virginia, where roughly 350 refugees were located, local officials took fingerprints to run criminal background checks on the refugees. The background checks found that 45% of the refugees had a criminal record of some nature, and that 22% had a violent criminal record. Media speculation fueled a popular perception that the displaced New Orleans residents brought a wave of crime into the communities where they relocated, however, detailed studies of crime statistics in these communities did not reveal a significant increase in violent crime.

Government response

President Bush stands with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt during a press conference from the Rose Garden, regarding the devastation along the Gulf Coast caused by Katrina.

Within the United States and as delineated in the National Response Plan, disaster response and planning is first and foremost a local government responsibility. When local government exhausts its resources, it then requests specific additional resources from the county level. The request process proceeds similarly from the county to the state to the federal government as additional resource needs are identified. Many of the problems that arose developed from inadequate planning and back-up communication systems at various levels.

Of the 60,000 people stranded in New Orleans, the Coast Guard rescued more than 33,500. Congress recognized the Coast Guard's response with an official entry in the Congressional Record, and the Armed Service was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation.

The United States Northern Command established Joint Task Force (JTF) Katrina based out of Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to act as the military's on-scene response on Sunday, August 28, with US Army Lieutenant General Russel L. Honoré as commander. Approximately 58,000 National Guard personnel were activated to deal with the storm's aftermath, with troops coming from all 50 states. The Department of Defense also activated volunteer members of the Civil Air Patrol.

Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, decided to take over the federal, state, and local operations officially on August 30, 2005, citing the National Response Plan. This was refused by Governor Blanco who indicated that her National Guard could manage. Early in September, Congress authorized a total of $62.3 billion in aid for victims. Additionally, President Bush enlisted the help of former presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush to raise additional voluntary contributions, much as they did after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. American flags were also ordered to be half-staff from September 2, 2005, to September 20, 2005, in honor of the victims.

FEMA provided housing assistance (rental assistance, trailers, etc.) to more than 700,000 applicants-families and individuals. However, only one-fifth of the trailers requested in Orleans Parish were supplied, resulting in an enormous housing shortage in the city of New Orleans. Many local areas voted to not allow the trailers, and many areas had no utilities, a requirement prior to placing the trailers. To provide for additional housing, FEMA has also paid for the hotel costs of 12,000 individuals and families displaced by Katrina through February 7, 2006, when a final deadline was set for the end of hotel cost coverage. After this deadline, evacuees were still eligible to receive federal assistance, which could be used towards either apartment rent, additional hotel stays, or fixing their ruined homes, although FEMA no longer paid for hotels directly. As of March 30, 2010, there were still 260 families living in FEMA-provided trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Law enforcement and public safety agencies, from across the United States, provided a " mutual aid" response to Louisiana and New Orleans in the weeks following the disaster. Many agencies responded with manpower and equipment from as far away as California, Michigan, Nevada, New York, and Texas. This response was welcomed by local Louisiana authorities as their staff were either becoming fatigued, stretched too thin, or even quitting from the job.

Two weeks after the storm, more than half of the states were involved in providing shelter for evacuees. By four weeks after the storm, evacuees had been registered in all 50 states and in 18,700 zip codes-half of the nation's residential postal zones. Most evacuees had stayed within 250 miles (400 km), but 240,000 households went to Houston and other cities over 250 miles (400 km) away and another 60,000 households went over 750 miles (1,200 km) away.

Criticism of government response

USNS Comfort takes on supplies at Mayport, Florida, en route to the Gulf Coast.

The criticisms of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina primarily consisted of criticism of mismanagement and lack of leadership in the relief efforts in response to the storm and its aftermath. More specifically, the criticism focused on the delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans, and the subsequent state of chaos in the city. The neologism Katrinagate was coined to refer to this controversy, and was a runner-up for "2005 word of the year".

Within days of Katrina's August 29 landfall, public debate arose about the local, state and federal governments' role in the preparations for and response to the hurricane. Criticism was initially prompted by televised images of visibly shaken and frustrated political leaders, and of residents who remained stranded by floodwaters without water, food, or shelter. Deaths from thirst, exhaustion and violence days after the storm had passed fueled the criticism, as did the dilemma of the evacuees at facilities such as the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Civic Center. Some alleged that race, class, and other factors could have contributed to delays in government response. For example, during A Concert for Hurricane Relief, a benefit concert for victims of the hurricane, rapper Kanye West veered off script and harshly criticized the government's response to the crisis, stating that "George Bush doesn't care about black people."

In accordance with federal law, President George W. Bush directed the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, to coordinate the Federal response. Chertoff designated Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the Principal Federal Official to lead the deployment and coordination of all federal response resources and forces in the Gulf Coast region. However, the President and Secretary Chertoff initially came under harsh criticism for what some perceived as a lack of planning and coordination. Brown claimed that Governor Blanco resisted their efforts and was unhelpful. Governor Blanco and her staff disputed this. Eight days later, Brown was recalled to Washington and Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad W. Allen replaced him as chief of hurricane relief operations. Three days after the recall, Michael D. Brown resigned as director of FEMA in spite of having received recent praise from President Bush.

Politicians, activists, pundits, and journalists also directed criticism at the local and state governments headed by Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor Blanco. Nagin and Blanco were criticized for failing to implement New Orleans's evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions. Perhaps the most important criticism of Nagin was that he delayed his emergency evacuation order until 19 hours before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths of people who could not find any way out of the city.

The destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina raised other, more general public policy issues about emergency management, environmental policy, poverty, and unemployment. The discussion of both the immediate response and of the broader public policy issues may have affected elections and legislation enacted at various levels of government. The storm's devastation also prompted a Congressional investigation, which found that FEMA and the Red Cross "did not have a logistics capacity sophisticated enough to fully support the massive number of Gulf coast victims". Additionally, it placed responsibility for the disaster on all three levels of government. An ABC News poll conducted on September 2, 2005, showed more blame was being directed at state and local governments (75%) than at the Federal government (67%), with 44% blaming Bush's leadership directly. A later CNN/ USAToday/ Gallup poll showed that respondents disagreed widely on who was to blame for the problems in the city following the hurricane-13% said Bush, 18% said federal agencies, 25% blamed state or local officials and 38% said no one was to blame.

International response

United States Navy personnel unload Canadian relief supplies from a Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft in Pensacola, Florida.

Over seventy countries pledged monetary donations or other assistance. Cuba and Venezuela (both considered as hostile to US government interest) were the first countries to offer assistance, pledging over $1 million, several mobile hospitals, water treatment plants, canned food, bottled water, heating oil, 1,100 doctors and 26.4 metric tons of medicine, though this aid was rejected by the U.S. government. Kuwait made the largest single pledge, $500 million; other large donations were made by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (each $100 million), South Korea ($30 million), Australia ($10 million), India, China (both $5 million), New Zealand ($2 million), Pakistan ($1.5 million), Norway ($1.8 million), and Bangladesh ($1 million).

India sent tarps, blankets, and hygiene kits. An Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft delivered 25 tonnes of relief supplies for the Hurricane Katrina victims at the Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, on September 13, 2005.

Countries like Sri Lanka, which was still recovering from the Indian Ocean Tsunami, also offered to help. Canada, Mexico, Singapore, and Germany sent supplies, relief personnel (like Technisches Hilfswerk), troops, ships and water pumps to aid in the disaster recovery. Belgium sent in a team of relief personnel. The United Kingdom's donation of 350,000 emergency meals did not reach victims because of laws regarding mad cow disease.

Russia's initial offer of two jets was declined by the U.S. State Department but accepted later. The French offer was also declined and requested later.

Non-governmental organization response

The American Red Cross, America's Second Harvest (now known as Feeding America), Southern Baptist Convention, Salvation Army, Oxfam, Common Ground Collective, Burners Without Borders, Emergency Communities, Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities, Direct Relief, Service International, "A River of Hope", The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many other charitable organizations provided aid to victims in the aftermath of the storm. They were not allowed into New Orleans proper by the National Guard for several days after the storm because of safety concerns. These organizations raised US$4.25 billion in donations from the public, with the Red Cross receiving over half of these donations. Some smaller organizations and individuals ignored the access restrictions and provided early relief. For example, two privately chartered planes from FasterCures evacuated 200 patients from Charity Hospital in New Orleans.

Volunteers from the Amateur Radio Emergency Service provided communications in areas where the communications infrastructure had been damaged or totally destroyed, relaying everything from 911 traffic to messages home. In Hancock County, Mississippi, ham radio operators provided the only communications into or out of the area and even served as 911 dispatchers.

Many private corporations also contributed to relief efforts. On September 13, 2005, it was reported that corporate donations amounted to $409 million, and were expected to exceed $1 billion.

During and after the Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita, the American Red Cross had opened 1,470 shelters and registered 3.8 million overnight stays. None were allowed in New Orleans, however. A total of 244,000 Red Cross workers (95% of which were non-paid volunteers) were utilized throughout these three hurricanes. In addition, 346,980 comfort kits (including such basic necessities as toothpaste, soap, washcloths, and toys for children) and 205,360 cleanup kits (containing brooms, mops, and bleach) were distributed. For mass care, the organization served 68 million snacks and meals to victims of the disasters and to rescue workers. The Red Cross also had its Disaster Health services meet 596,810 contacts, and Disaster Mental Health services met 826,590 contacts. Red Cross emergency financial assistance was provided to 1.4 million families. Hurricane Katrina was the first natural disaster in the United States in which the American Red Cross utilized its "Safe and Well" family location website.

Direct Relief provided a major response in the Gulf states so health providers could treat the local patients and evacuees. Direct Relief furnished $10 million in medical material aid and cash grants to support clinics and health centers in the area.

In the year following Katrina's strike on the Gulf Coast, The Salvation Army allocated donations of more than $365 million to serve more than 1.7 million people in nearly every state. The organization's immediate response to Hurricane Katrina included more than 5.7 million hot meals and about 8.3 million sandwiches, snacks, and drinks served in and around New Orleans. Its SATERN network of amateur radio operators picked up where modern communications left off to help locate more than 25,000 survivors. Salvation Army pastoral care counselors were on hand to comfort the emotional and spiritual needs of 277,000 individuals. As part of the overall effort, Salvation Army officers, employees, and volunteers contributed more than 900,000 hours of service.

Analysis of New Orleans levee failures

View of the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina taken on August 28, 2005, as seen from a NOAA WP-3D hurricane hunter aircraft before the storm made landfall on the United States Gulf Coast

According to a modeling exercise conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), two-thirds of the deaths in Greater New Orleans were due to levee and flood wall failure. On April 5, 2006, months after independent investigators had demonstrated that levee failures were not caused by natural forces beyond intended design strength, Lieutenant General Carl Strock, chief of engineers and commander of the Corps of Engineers, testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water that "We have now concluded we had problems with the design of the structure."

A June 2007 report released by the American Society of Civil Engineers determined that the failures of the levees and flood walls in New Orleans were found to be primarily the result of system design and construction flaws. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had been federally mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965 with responsibility for the conception, design, and construction of the region's flood-control system. All of the major studies in the aftermath of Katrina concluded that the USACE was responsible for the failure of the levees. This was primarily attributed to a decision to use shorter steel sheet pilings during construction in an effort to save money. According to a report published in August 2015 in the official journal of the World Water Council, the Corps misinterpreted the results of a 1985 study and wrongly concluded that sheet piles in the flood walls needed to be driven to depths of only 17 feet (5 m) instead of between 31 and 46 feet (9 and 14 m). That decision saved approximately US$100 million, but significantly reduced overall engineering reliability.

In January 2008, Judge Stanwood Duval of the U.S. District Court ruled that despite the Corps' role in the flooding, the agency could not be held financially liable because of sovereign immunity in the Flood Control Act of 1928. Exactly ten years after Katrina, J. David Rogers, lead author of a new report in the official journal of the World Water Council, concluded that the flooding during Katrina "could have been prevented had the corps retained an external review board to double-check its flood-wall designs".

Other factors may have contributed to the flooding. According to the authors of Catastrophe in the Making (Island Press, 2009), the straight design and lack of outward flow into the Gulf allowed the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal to become "the perfect shortcut for salt-water intrusion" which damaged buffering cypress forests and wetlands which historically had protected New Orleans from storm surge. The Army Corps of Engineers built and maintained the canal. Furthermore, according to storm surge researcher Hassan Mashriqui:

Storm surge pushing across shallow Lake Borgne from the east is constrained by these MRGO levees to the south and, to the north, by the long-standing levees of the Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW). Initially ten or more miles apart, these two channels meet, and when they do, the water building between their levees is squeezed into a single channel - the Funnel - only 260 yards wide, constrained by levees 14 feet to 16 feet high....In concert with the denuded marshes, it could increase the local storm surge hitting the Intracoastal Waterway by 20 percent to 40 percent - a critical and fundamental flaw.

View of flooded New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

The Corps of Engineers disputes these causalities. Nonetheless, in June 2008, the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District submitted a Deep-Draft De-authorization Study of the MRGO which stated that "an economic evaluation of channel navigation use does not demonstrate a Federal interest in continued operation and maintenance of the channel." Congress ordered the MRGO closed as a direct result.

Many of the levees have been reconstructed since Katrina. In reconstructing them, precautions were taken to bring the levees up to modern building code standards and to ensure their safety. For example, in every situation possible, the Corps of Engineers replaced I-walls with T-walls, which have a horizontal concrete base that protects against soil erosion underneath the flood walls.

Media involvement

Many representatives of the news media reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became directly involved in the unfolding events, instead of simply reporting. Because of the loss of most means of communication, such as land-based and cellular telephone systems, field reporters in many cases became conduits for information between victims and authorities. The authorities, who monitored local and network news broadcasts, as well as internet sites, would then attempt to coordinate rescue efforts based on the reports. One illustration was when Geraldo Rivera of Fox News tearfully pleaded for authorities to either send help or evacuate the thousands of evacuees stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The role of AM radio was also of importance to the hundreds of thousands of persons with no other ties to news, providing emergency information regarding access to assistance for hurricane victims. Immediately after Katrina, WWL-AM was one of the few area radio stations in the area remaining on the air. This emergency service, simulcasted on shortwave outlet WHRI, was named " United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans". Their ongoing nighttime broadcasts continued to be available up to 500 mi (800 km) away. Announcers continued to broadcast from improvised studio facilities after the storm damaged their main studios. The cellular phone antenna network was severely damaged and completely inoperable for several months.

The storm also brought a dramatic rise in the role of websites-especially blogging and community journalism. One example was the effort of NOLA.com, the web affiliate of New Orleans's Times-Picayune. A group of reporters were awarded the Breaking News Pulitzer Prize and shared the Public Service Pulitzer with the Biloxi-based . The newspaper's coverage was carried for days only on NOLA's blogs, as the newspaper lost its presses and evacuated its building as water rose around it on August 30. The site became an international focal point for news by local media, and also became a vital link for rescue operations and later for reuniting scattered residents, as it accepted and posted thousands of individual pleas for rescue on its blogs and forums. NOLA was monitored constantly by an array of rescue teams-from individuals to the Coast Guard-which used information in rescue efforts. Much of this information was relayed from trapped victims via the SMS functions of their cell phones, to friends and relatives outside the area, who then relayed the information back to NOLA.com. The aggregation of community journalism, user photos, and the use of the internet site as a collaborative response to the storm attracted international attention and was called a watershed moment in journalism. In the wake of these online-only efforts, the Pulitzer Committee for the first time opened all its categories to online entries.

As the U.S. military and rescue services regained control over the city, there were restrictions on the activity of the media. On September 9, the military leader of the relief effort announced that reporters would have "zero access" to efforts to recover bodies in New Orleans. Immediately following this announcement, CNN filed a lawsuit and obtained a temporary restraining order against the ban. The next day the government backed down and reversed the ban.

In September 2022, the Associated Press issued a style guide change to Katrina stating that reporters when writing about the storm in New Orleans should note that "...levee failures played a major role in the devastation in New Orleans. In some stories, that can be as simple as including a phrase about Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic levee failures and flooding...."

Retirement of name

Because of the large death toll and destruction of property along the Gulf Coast, the name Katrina was officially retired on April 6, 2006, by the World Meteorological Organization at the request of the U.S. government. The name will never again be used for another North Atlantic hurricane. It was replaced by Katia on List III of the Atlantic hurricane naming lists, which was used in the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season.

Studies concerning post-Katrina victims

An article published in the Community Mental Health Journal from January 2016 revealed information about a recent study on the psychosocial needs of Hurricane Katrina evacuees that temporarily resided in Dallas, Texas. More than one-fourth of the sample met the criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD). About one-third of the individuals received a referral to mental health services for meeting symptom criteria for incident MDD and PTSD.

In a study published in Maternal and Child Health Journal, five to seven years after the disaster, 308 New Orleans pregnant women were interviewed about their exposure to Katrina. Researchers found that there were associations between experiencing damage during Katrina and birthweight, thus researchers concluded that natural disasters may have long-term effects on pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, it was concluded that women who are most vulnerable to disaster may be more vulnerable to poor pregnancy outcome.

From a September 2015 journal of Current Psychology, a study examined the attitudes of older, long-term residents of Baton Rouge, Louisiana toward displaced newcomers to their community. After using multiple tests, analyses, and descriptive statistics, the study suggested residents grew to become more patient, tolerant, and friendly towards newcomers. The study also suggests, however, that residents felt more fearful and suspicious of the evacuees, as well as the fact that they were being taken advantage of more.

Reconstruction

Reconstruction of each section of the southern portion of Louisiana has been addressed in the Army Corps LACPR (Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration) Final Technical Report, which identifies areas to not be rebuilt and areas where buildings need to be elevated.

The Technical Report includes:

locations of possible new levees to be built

suggested existing levee modifications

"Inundation Zones", "Water depths less than 14 feet, Raise-In-Place of Structures", "Water depths greater than 14 feet, Buyout of Structures", "Velocity Zones" and "Buyout of Structures" areas for five different scenarios.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers submitted the report to the U.S. Congress for consideration, planning, and response in mid-2009.

Katrina is the costliest tropical cyclone on record, tying with Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The storm was the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record to make landfall in the contiguous United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, Hurricane Camille in 1969, and Hurricane Michael in 2018. Katrina was also the earliest eleventh named storm in the Atlantic until Tropical Storm Kyle surpassed it on August 14, 2020, beating Katrina by 10 days, as it was named on August 24, 2005.

Other similar tropical cyclones

References

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Further reading

Augustson, Alan (August 31, 2008). Bernstein, Jonathan (ed.). "Katrina: Three Years Later, The Lessons We Haven't Learned". Crisis Manager. Bernstein Crisis Management. ISSN 1528-3836.

Brennan, Virginia (2009). Natural Disasters and Public Health: Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9199-1.

Center for Public Integrity, ed. (2007). City Adrift: New Orleans Before and After Katrina. Baton Rouge: LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3284-5.

Dyson, Michael Eric (2006). Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. New York: Perseus Books Group. ISBN 978-0-465-01761-4.

Eyerman, Ron (2015). Is This America? Katrina as Cultural Trauma. The Katrina Bookshelf. Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 9781477303689. OCLC 900609113.

Harris, Paul (2008). Diary From the Dome. New York: Vantage Press. ASIN B003M69KSC.

Hartman, Chester; Squires, Gregory D., eds. (2006). There Is No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster: Race, Class, and Hurricane Katrina. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-95487-7.

Hirsch, Arnold R. "Fade to black: Hurricane Katrina and the disappearance of Creole New Orleans." Journal of American History 94.3 (2007): 752-761. https://doi.org/10.2307/25095136

Horowitz, Andy. Katrina: A History, 1915-2015 (Harvard University Press, 2020), long-term scholarly perspective.

Camden Burd, "How To Plan A Disaster: Politics, Nature, and Hurricane Katrina" Reviews in American History (2021) 49#2 pp. 303-309 doi:10.1353/rah.2021.0030 online review

Robinson, Sue. "A chronicle of chaos: Tracking the news story of Hurricane Katrina from The Times-Picayune to its website". Journalism 10.4 (2009): 431-450 online.

Rosenthal, Sandy. Words Whispered in Water: Why the Levees Broke in Hurricane Katrina (Mango, 2020), non-fiction account of author's battle to expose Army Corps of Engineers.

Saint-Saens, Alain (2010). Ordeal at the Superdome. Escaping Katrina's Wrath. New Orleans: University Press of the South. ISBN 978-1-889431-87-1.

Scott, Cathy (2008). Pawprints of Katrina: Pets Saved and Lessons Learned. Hoboken: Howell Book House. ISBN 978-0-470-22851-7.

Spielman, David G. (2007). Katrinaville Chronicles: Images and Observations from a New Orleans Photographer. Baton Rouge: LSU Press. ISBN 978-0-8071-3252-4.

Taylor, William M., ed. (2015). The "Katrina Effect": On the Nature of Catastrophe. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472595164. OCLC 893894307.

Usher, Nikki. "Recovery from disaster: How journalists at the New Orleans Times-Picayune understand the role of a post-Katrina newspaper". Journalism Practice 3.2 (2009): 216-232.

External links

Disaster recovery:

Images:

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Hurricane Katrina was a devastating Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused 1,836 fatalities and damage estimated between $97.4 billion to $145.5 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. At the time, it was the costliest tropical cyclone on record, later tied by Hurricane Harvey of 2017.

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The Lasting Effects of Hurricane Katrina

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The Lasting Effects of Hurricane Katrina

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This is an article along with a video that highlights an experience of a 14-year-old boy during the hurricane. It also explains when he goes to a different school in California, and his teacher kept pushing him to talk about it even though he didn't want to. This is really important for teachers to keep in mind as the mental health impacts of the hurricane were so large for many, and many people may not want to talk about these experiences that they have gone through.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Lasting Effects of Hurricane Katrina

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Thousands of kids who survived the 2005 storm are still dealing with the fallout

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Research Guides: Louisiana Hurricanes: Hurricane Katrina, 2005

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Research Guides: Louisiana Hurricanes: Hurricane Katrina, 2005

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This resource contains really great information about the impacts of the storm on communities, the economy, education, environment, and politics.

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Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. Its highest sustained winds measured at 175 mph and was the first category 5 storm to form in the Gulf of Mexico in 25 years. To date, Katrina is tied with Hurricane Harvey as the costliest Atlantic hurricane in history with $125 billion in damages across parts of the Bahamas, the Continental United States, and Canada. Between 1,200 and 1,800 fatalities are associated with Hurricane Katrina. Because of the catastrophic damage sustained, the unprecedented number of fatalities, and subsequent social, economic, and political consequences, the city of New Orleans has become inextricably associated with Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina formed as a tropical depression southeast of the Bahamas when the remains of an earlier tropical depression met a tropical wave. Within a day, it had strengthened to a tropical storm. On August 25, it passed over Florida as a small hurricane and into the Gulf of Mexico. Katrina rapidly strengthened, becoming a category 3 storm on August 27. Just after midnight on August 28, Katrina was upgraded to a category 4 storm. By 7:00 AM that morning, it had intensified to a category 5. At 10:00 AM, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued the first mandatory evacuation order in the city's history. At 3:00 PM, a hurricane warning was issued for areas along the Gulf Coast. It is estimated that 80% of the New Orleans population heeded the warnings of the local and federal governments and evacuated. Those who did not have the means to do so were often located in areas of the city that were most heavily affected in the following weeks as floodwaters submerged much of the city.

Katrina made landfall as a category 3 hurricane, with a storm surge of 12 ft, a wind speed of 125 mph, and 15 inches of rainfall. It is estimated that approximately 900,000 homes lost power throughout Louisiana, and many would remain without electricity, water, or gas for weeks to follow. Within hours of impact, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were flooded in the New Orleans area as floodwalls and levees began to fail in what the American Society of Civil Engineers called "the worst engineering catastrophe in US History." Approximately 10,000 citizens and first responders took refuge in the New Orleans Superdome, which was equipped as a "shelter of last resort," though conditions inside soon grew dangerous. Those stranded in their homes were left to wait for emergency rescue personnel.

LSU Special Collections houses hundreds of materials pertaining to the storm's impact in both New Orleans and surrounding areas. Further resources and subject headings are located on the pages for Katrina's Impact on Economy, Education, Environment, Politics, and Communities.

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Research Guides: Louisiana Hurricanes: Hurricane Katrina, 2005

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Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. Its highest sustained winds measured at 175 mph and was the first category 5 storm to form in the Gulf of Mexico in 25 years.

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This is a very good website to get some basic information about the storm. It is advertised to children so it would be a good resource for teachers to provide some surface level information of the storm to students.

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Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm formed over the Bahamas on August 23, where it moved east and hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane two days later. Katrina then crossed over Florida and strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm then hit Louisiana and Mississippi on the morning of August 29. The leftovers of Katrina then died out over the Great Lakes on August 31.

The damage Katrina brought was so bad that 80% of New Orleans was flooded when the levees to the city broke. Most of the people killed by Katrina were thought to have died from drowning. Because of Katrina's effect on the US, the hurricane was known to be one of the most deadly hurricanes in US history.

Storm history

Hurricane Katrina began as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005. The depression later strengthened into a tropical storm on the morning of August 24 where the storm was also named Katrina. Katrina continued to move into Florida, and became a Category 1 hurricane only two hours before it made landfall around Hallandale Beach on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but became a hurricane again while entering the Gulf of Mexico.

Katrina began to gain strength very quickly after entering the Gulf, partly because of the storm moving over to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. On August 27, Hurricane Katrina reached Category 3 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An "eyewall replacement cycle" once made Katrina stop becoming stronger for a short moment, but made Katrina to become nearly twice as large in the end.

Katrina again began to quickly strengthen, reaching Category 5 strength on the morning of August 28 and reached its strongest point with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar. Katrina's minimal pressure measurement made it the fourth most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be beaten by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season. In addition, Katrina was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time (a record also later broken by Rita).

Katrina made its second landfall on August 29 as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h) near St. Bernard, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force winds reached outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar. After moving over southeastern Louisiana, it made its third landfall over New Orleans, Louisiana and the levees were not made to withstand that much water and ended up collapsing leading to massive flooding. Katrina kept its hurricane strength well into Mississippi, but began to weaken later, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi. Katrina weakened to a tropical depression near Clarksville, Tennessee, but its remains were last seen around the eastern Great Lakes on August 31 when it died. The leftover extratropical cyclone moved quickly to the northeast and affected Ontario and Quebec.

American movie maker Spike Lee made a HBO documentary "When The Levees Broke" that shows the extensive damage in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The documentary suggests that the damage caused was due to the inability of the levees to weather the storm or a probable sabotage. The documentary also suggests that the federal government did a poor job of disaster management. Resources arrived after several days. Most of the people who died did so from drowning.

Retirement

The name Katrina was retired for the record breaking damage, the deaths, and the economic impact. This means that it will not be used as a name for any new storms in the future. A new name, Katia, replaced it for 2011.

Other pages

Images for kids

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Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm formed over the Bahamas on August 23, where it moved east and hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane two days later.

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This is an impactful blogpost about some of the inequalities from Hurricane Katrina. It seems like a good place to start when learning about what to teach students when it comes to the social inequality that stemmed from the hurricane.

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By lboghossian on February 04, 2019

The Exploring Urban Mobility: Using Data to Solve Problems of the Future is creating data-intensive lessons for high school students to think about issues of urban mobility. Hear from one of the curriculum authors about the focus of one of the lessons: Hurricane Katrina.

Catastrophes do not affect all individuals equally. Rather than "leveling the playing field", both natural and man-made disasters exacerbate existing patterns of social and economic inequality. When Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf of Mexico in the fall of 2005, it almost destroyed the city of New Orleans. Approximately 200,000 residents were trapped by the rising floodwaters, many of whom were poor, elderly, or who lacked the means to evacuate before the storm.

Hurricane Katrina has become a symbol of the devastating consequences of inequality. Even today, low-income communities continue to face disproportionate challenges in terms of risk, residents' ability to evacuate, and the area's ability to recover afterwards. Before, during and after a disaster, they are uniquely vulnerable.

To prevent similar, devastating consequences when faced with future catastrophes, we must learn from the data.

Low socioeconomic status (SES) significantly increases a community's vulnerability to disaster, and to flooding in particular. Across the globe, the price of property is often lower in low-lying neighborhoods that flood regularly. Safer areas can command higher rents, pricing out low-income residents and concentrating them in flood-prone neighborhoods. Crucial flood-control infrastructure, such as storm drains, culverts and levees, are often poorly maintained or not present in lower SES areas. In addition, each successive flood tends to result in a greater concentration of poverty. Residents who are financially better off often choose to relocate, while those who cannot afford to move remain behind to await the next deluge.

Socioeconomic status also affects a community's preparedness. Individuals who work long hours may be unable to attend community preparedness meetings, and may have less access to warnings and evacuation instructions. This combination of concentrated poverty and insufficient preparation can have deadly consequences.

Mobility, the ability to travel easily from one place to another, plays a crucial role in an evacuation when a storm is imminent. Vehicle access, health, and economic circumstances all contribute to residents' ability to leave an area. Those with lower incomes are often the least mobile, and may be unable to comply with evacuation orders even if they wish to do so. In an evacuation, public transportation networks are often overwhelmed and shut down well in advance of a storm, forcing most residents to flee by car. However, because low-income families are significantly less likely to own a vehicle, this escape route is not an option for them.

Additionally, low SES is highly correlated with both age and disability status. Individuals requiring accommodations such as a wheelchair-accessible van may be unable to secure transportation in an emergency. The elderly are uniquely vulnerable, for they are most likely to be in poor physical health and to be unable to drive. Indeed, a staggering 49% of Hurricane Katrina's victims were over the age of 75, despite comprising only 6% of the local population.
Photos (from top): New Orleans residents take refuge on an overpass as the flood waters rise. Source: Dallas Daily News; An abandoned wheelchair in a destroyed home. Source: FEMA
Many families simply cannot afford to shoulder the cost of food, lodging and transportation needed to evacuate, particularly in combination with lost wages. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, researchers surveyed hundreds of New Orleans residents who had not evacuated and who were subsequently trapped by the flood. Just 31% had a bank account, and only 28% possessed usable credit cards. Many cited both finances and lack of transportation as major factors in their decision not to leave. Had assistance been available, perhaps more residents would have fled before Katrina struck.

Low SES communities face obstacles to recovery after a disaster, in addition to being at greater flood risk and facing more challenges to evacuate. Safe housing and a comprehensive insurance policy are often unaffordable for struggling people. Around the world, people living in poverty tend to occupy more fragile housing units, which are far more susceptible to structural damage. When researchers surveyed New Orleans residents who had not evacuated, most reported that their homes had been destroyed. However, only 10% stated that they held insurance policies that would cover a significant portion of their losses.

To reduce future loss of life, we must acknowledge the unique needs of low income and low mobility regions. Using data to proactively identify high-risk areas, engaging with local community leaders, and arranging additional transportation in the event of an emergency are essential steps. Given the accelerating pace of climate change, it is inevitable that a powerful storm will again threaten a vulnerable community. It is up to us to be prepared.

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By lboghossian on February 04, 2019 The Exploring Urban Mobility: Using Data to Solve Problems of the Future is creating data-intensive lessons for high school students to think about issues of urban mobility. Hear from one of the curriculum authors about the focus of one of the lessons: Hurricane Katrina.

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This is a children's book that is somewhat similar to The Storm Called Katrina. It includes accounts from children about their lives before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.

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This one discussed some common stress reactions in children following a natural disasters at different ages. It is imperative to identify children who are most in need of assistance to preserve their health and well-being.

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References for teachers to help students understand the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina

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References for teachers to help students understand the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina

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It is an article showing how the teachers adapted the classroom and curriculum to meet the diverse needs of children who were evacuees, as well as those children who were affected in other ways by the hurricanes Katrina.

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We must place mental health as a top priority at schools. Creating curriculum by emphasizing students' mental health. Brains suffering from trauma are not primed to learn, so building brain breaks into each day — like regularly stepping away from desks, or practicing calm breathing — will be important in creating mental space for learning.

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When I think about teachers and students returning to their classrooms this fall, I think about my experience as a teacher in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.

I taught at a charter school on a military base, and as parts of New Orleans regained electricity and access to water, we were among the first schools to open our doors. I remember being in the gym learning which teachers returned, and wondering where the others were.

When I left my room before Katrina, our homeroom had 29 middle school students. When I returned in October, there were six. Our room had messages of thanks from the National Guard members who borrowed our snacks and slept under our desks. The room was dusty. The class fish was dead.

While we were all scared, we were in the experience together - and that was at least a great place to start. I might have been teaching Spanish, but my only real job was to provide space for my students to heal.

In this year of collective trauma, we should recognize the very real toll the pandemic disaster has caused and consider how this should alter the coming year. We must pay close attention to the trauma our youngest generation experiences during a disaster, and find ways to build trauma-informed practices into our schools.

The emergency evacuations during Katrina, immediate displacements from home, subsequent aftermath and eventual re-build remind me of our current moment - a worldwide shutdown, displacement from normalcy, severe health and mental health concerns and again, finally, an eventual re-build.

For those of us already suffering from mental health challenges, finding balance during the pandemic was an immense struggle. Some of us had the privilege of rearranging our homes for remote work and virtual school. Others lost jobs. Many had family members move in. Others found themselves alone for months or mourning the loss of loved ones. And on top of all this, for those who experience life in Black and brown skin, the trauma was (and is) even more significant.

We call it "survival mode" for a reason, but we were not built for such long periods of sustained, toxic stress.

Together, we all experienced cycles of immediate shock and residual uncertainty, over and over again. Throughout the pandemic, our children watched and absorbed this pain, uncertainty, anxiety and sadness.

Our bodies are built to prime us for survival. Adrenaline and immediate action are natural during a disaster. We call it "survival mode" for a reason, but we were not built for such long periods of sustained, toxic stress. And children, whose brains grow and change at a rapid pace, are particularly vulnerable to sustained stress, and they can experience long-lasting developmental and mental health consequences as a result.

To safely bring our children out of our current disaster, we need communities that value kindness, create connections and build resiliency. We must emphasize the importance of mental health at school and create programs for summer, fall and beyond, focusing on trauma-informed practices.

Brains suffering from trauma are not primed to learn, so building brain breaks into each day - like practicing calm breathing - will be important.

Each day needs a healthy routine, and students will need warning before changes to the routine. Brains suffering from trauma are not primed to learn, so building brain breaks into each day - like regularly stepping away from desks, or practicing calm breathing - will be important in creating mental space for learning.

Reading and writing are keys to healing, so we should carefully select stories that provide opportunities to learn from others who suffer trauma. We need to ensure all learners see themselves in stories and provide opportunities for children to write and talk about the events they have witnessed.

Most importantly, administrators and teachers need local governments to provide funding for training on trauma-informed practices so educators can recognize when children may be suffering and practice how to best respond. Local governments and districts must place mental health as a top priority as they determine their budgeting, staffing, scheduling and assessment plans.

After Katrina, new students arrived each Monday, and our class slowly grew. We welcomed new classmates, listened to each other's experiences and learned how to thrive with resilience, grace, humor and love. I struggle with anxiety and depression, a long-term companion on my own journey. The reality of the moment was that I needed resilience, grace, humor and love too. The reality of today's moment is that we will all need it - especially our students.

Related video:

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I taught during Katrina. Here's what I know about kids and trauma

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When I think about teachers and students returning to their classrooms this fall, I think about my experience as a teacher in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. I taught at a charter school on a military base, and as parts of New Orleans regained electricity and access to water, we were among the first schools to open our doors.

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This is a trailer of Katrina Babies. It is the video that asked Black children to speak. They are talked about often but rarely listened to. Teachers might need to give space for them sharing their context to better support those groups of students. We need to be the healer and helper for students. Like in this video, Black children are the narrators of their stories. We may need to ensure all students see themselves in stories and provide opportunities for children to write and talk about the events they have witnessed.

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NASA - Hurricane Season 2005: Katrina (Website)

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NASA - Hurricane Season 2005: Katrina (Website)

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Through this website, I was able to see geographically how big the hurricane was and what areas and how much damage it caused. It was much more serious when I looked at the damage range map in pictures than when I read it only in writing.

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Hurricane Season 2005: Katrina

10.13.05

Latest Update - October 13, 2005

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Storm Track Map and Animation

+ Avi (1 Mb): Tracking map animation

The above images, derived from NASA QuikSCAT satellite data, show the extensive pattern of rain water deposited by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on land surfaces over several states in the southern and eastern United States. These results demonstrate the capability of satellite scatterometers to monitor changes in surface water on land.

The color scale depicts increases in radar backscatter (in decibels) between the current measurement and the mean of measurements obtained during the previous two weeks. The backscatter can be calibrated to measure increases in surface soil moisture resulting from rainfall. The yellow color corresponds to an increase of approximately 10 percent or more in surface soil moisture according to the calibration site of Lonoke, Ark.

The two hurricanes deposited excessive rainfall over extensive regions of the Mississippi River basin. Basins the size of the Mississippi can take up to several weeks before such excess rainfall significantly increases the amount of river discharge. With hurricane season not over until November 30, the potential exists for significant flooding, particularly if new rain water is deposited by new hurricanes when river discharge peaks up as a result of previous rainfalls. River discharge should be closely monitored to account for this factor in evaluating potential flood conditions in the event of further hurricanes.

+ Larger image | + High resolution

Earlier Images and Information

NASA Katrina Poster

+ Click for larger image

Pumping Water Out of New Orleans

+ High resolution print still

The floods that buried up to 80 percent of New Orleans had noticeably subsided by September 15, 2005, when the top image was taken by the Landsat 7 satellite. In the two and a half weeks that had passed since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city, pumps had been working nonstop to return the water to Lake Pontchartrain. As portable pumps were brought in to supplement the permanent pumps already hard at work, as much as 380 cubic meters (380,000 liters or 23,190,000 cubic inches) of water were being pumped out of New Orleans every second, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The progress in draining the city is evident when the September 15 image is compared with an image taken one week earlier. In the lower image, taken by the Landsat 5 satellite on September 7, black flood water covers much of the city. By September 15, the dark flood water had all but disappeared, lingering only in a few sections of the city. The September 7 image does not show the full extent of the flooding. Taken more than a week after the hurricane struck New Orleans, the image shows a flooded city that had already started to drain. In a similar (but cloudy) image taken on August 30, the flood water in St. Bernard Parish, image right, extends almost to the Mississippi River. Credit: Images provided courtesy of the United States Geological Survey Center for Earth Resources Observation & Science (CEROS).

Flooding in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

MISR Images of Katrina

Click on image to view full resolution

These views of the Louisiana and Mississippi regions were acquired before and one day after Katrina made landfall along the Gulf of Mexico coast, and highlight many of the changes to the rivers and vegetation that occurred between the two views. The images were acquired by NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on August 14 and August 30, 2005. These multiangular, multispectral false-color composites were created using red band data from MISR's 46° backward and forward-viewing cameras, and near-infrared data from MISR's nadir camera. Such a display causes water bodies and inundated soil to appear in blue and purple hues, and highly vegetated areas to appear bright green. The scene differentiation is a result of both spectral effects (living vegetation is highly reflective at near-infrared wavelengths whereas water is absorbing) and of angular effects (wet surfaces preferentially forward scatter sunlight). The two images were processed identically and extend from the regions of Greenville, Mississippi (upper left) to Mobile Bay, Alabama (lower right).

There are numerous rivers along the Mississippi coast that were not apparent in the pre-Katrina image; the most dramatic of these is a new inlet in the Pascagoula River that was not apparent before Katrina. The post-Katrina flooding along the edges of Lake Pontchartrain and the city of New Orleans is also apparent. In addition, the agricultural lands along the Mississippi floodplain in the upper left exhibit stronger near-infrared brightness before Katrina. After Katrina, many of these agricultural areas exhibit a stronger signal to MISR's oblique cameras, indicating the presence of inundated soil throughout the floodplain. Note that clouds appear in a different spot for each view angle due to a parallax effect resulting from their height above the surface.

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82° north and 82° south latitude every nine days. Each image covers an area of about 380 kilometers by 410 kilometers. The data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbits 30091 and 30324 and utilize data from blocks 64-67 within World Reference System-2 path 22.

MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology.

Image credit: NASA/GSFC
Text credit: Clare Averill (Raytheon RIS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner and Barbara J. Gaitley (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

Katrina Rolls Barrier Island Landward

Images Above: Three-dimensional views of island topography (A-C), post-Katrina oblique aerial photograph (D)

Barrier islands are highly dynamic places that move and change in response to ocean waves and currents. Over long time scales, barrier islands move slowly landward as sea level rises. Large storms contribute significantly to an island's landward migration, a process also known as 'barrier island rollover.' Increased water levels, large waves and strong flows remove sand from the beach and then deposit it on the bay-side of the island. + Read More

Earlier Images and Information

Katrina's Aftermath from Space

The extent of flooding in the greater New Orleans metropolitan area is clearly visible in this image, acquired from the International Space Station on September 8, 2005, of areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Flooded areas are dark greenish brown, while dry areas to the west of the 17th Street Canal and along the banks of the Mississippi River (lower half of image) are light brown to gray. This cropped image (from the parent frame ISS011-E-12527) is oriented with north to the top. Credit: NASA

+ Read More

+ Feature Story on Sea Height in the Gulf, Ocean Heat, and Hurricane Intensification - Posted September 16, 2005

ASTER Images of New Orleans

Seventeen days after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, much of the city is still under water. In this pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA's Terra satellite, the affected areas can clearly be seen. The top image mosaic was acquired in April and September 2000, and the bottom image was acquired September 13, 2005.

The flooded parts of the city appear dark blue, such as the golf course in the northeast corner, where there is standing water. Areas that have dried out appear light blue gray, such as the city park in the left middle. On the left side of the image, the failed 17th Street canal marks a sharp boundary between flooded city to the east, and dry land to the west. The images cover an area of 10.4 x 7.1 kilometers and are centered near 30 degrees north, 90.1 degrees west. Image credit: NASA/JPL

+ High resolution JPEG

EAARL Images of the Gulf Coast

The image above was taken from NASA's Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Light Detection and Ranging (EAARL) system that has been surveying the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico this week. The aircraft is taking high-resolution observations that can be used to assess the amount of damage to communities and the environment. This activity is being conducted at the request of the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.+ For more images like this and additional information, click this link.

University of Wisconsin-Madison's Space Science and Engineering Center's role in Hurricane Katrina

Cloud Spirals and Outflow in Tropical Storm Katrina

Click on image to view full resolution.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2005, NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer retrieved cloud-top heights and cloud-tracked wind velocities for Tropical Storm Katrina, as the center of the storm was situated over the Tennessee valley. At this time Katrina was weakening and no longer classified as a hurricane, and would soon become an extratropical depression. Measurements such as these can help atmospheric scientists compare results of computer-generated hurricane simulations with observed conditions, ultimately allowing them to better represent and understand physical processes occurring in hurricanes.

Because air currents are influenced by the Coriolis force (caused by the rotation of the Earth), Northern Hemisphere hurricanes are characterized by an inward counterclockwise (cyclonic) rotation towards the center. It is less widely known that, at high altitudes, outward-spreading bands of cloud rotate in a clockwise (anticyclonic) direction.

The image on the left shows the retrieved cloud-tracked winds as red arrows superimposed across the natural color view from MISR's nadir (vertical-viewing) camera. Both the counter-clockwise motion for the lower-level storm clouds and the clockwise motion for the upper clouds are apparent in these images. The speeds for the clockwise upper level winds have typical values between 40 and 45 m/s (144-162 km/hr). The low level counterclockwise winds have typical values between 7 and 24 m/s (25-86 km/hr), weakening with distance from the storm center.

The image on the right displays the cloud-top height retrievals. Areas where cloud heights could not be retrieved are shown in dark gray. Both the wind velocity vectors and the cloud-top height field were were produced by automated computer recognition of displacements in spatial features within successive MISR images acquired at different view angles and at slightly different times.

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82° north and 82° south latitude every nine days. This image covers an area of about 380 kilometers by 1970 kilometers. These data products were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 30324 and utilize data from blocks 55-68 within World Reference System-2 path 22.

MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology.
Image credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team
Text acknowledgment: Clare Averill (Raytheon ITSS/Jet Propulsion Laboratory), David J. Diner, Mike Garay (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and Greg McFarquhar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

Updated - September 01, 2005 - 9:24 a.m. EDT

The animated GIF above shows the Gulf Coast area before Katrina hit on August 27 and after on August 30 and August 31, 2005. Flooding can be seen at Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans and at Mobile Bay. This GIF will play four times in succession. To see it play again, please refresh the page.
+ View Still Images

The images above show data from NASA's MODIS instrument, received and processed at the University of South Florida's Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS). In the color scheme in the images, red normally indicates dry land, while blue indicates water. The top image shows the same area before Katrina hit, showing red throughout New Orleans, meaning dry land. The second image was captured on August 31, 2005, showing large areas of New Orleans and the adjacent Gulf Coast inundated with water. Credit: NASA/USF/IMaRS

+ Click for more images of flooding in the Gulf Coast area including New Orleans and Biloxi.

+ Click for USGS site showing before and after images of Gulf Coast flooding.

Updated August 31, 2005

This image pair and animation ( Click on image to view animation) from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) shows the strong convective development of Hurricane Katrina on Saturday, August 27 as it moved west through the Gulf of Mexico. Over 7 minutes during which all 9 MISR cameras viewed Katrina, the animation captures the cloud-top sides, the counterclockwise rotation of the eyewall, and the bubbling growth of the towering cloud structures. At this time, Katrina was undergoing rapid development -- it had just been upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane, and within 24 hours it would reach Category 5. On Monday morning when the eyewall made landfall over the United States, it was again a Category 4 storm. Hurricane Katrina is one of the most powerful and destructive storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. + Click on this link for the rest of the story.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, much of New Orleans is under water in the top satellite image, taken on August 30, 2005, at 11:45 a.m. CDT by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. Early news reports say that as much as 80 percent of the city is flooded after levies failed to hold Katrina's massive storm surge back. The flooding is getting worse as water slowly seeps into the city from Lake Pontchartrain.

On Saturday, August 27, 2005, New Orleans formed a tan and green grid sandwiched between the lake shore and the river in the lower image. Three days later, dark pools of water covered the eastern half of the city, and a large section of Lake Pontchartrain ballooned into the region immediately west of the city. Widespread flooding is visible elsewhere in the top image. Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Maurepas have nearly blended into a single body of water, separated only by a narrow strip of land. Dark smudges line the rivers flowing into both lakes, a sign that water covers the ground around them.

The images are shown in false color to make water visible against the land. Water is black or dark blue where it is colored with mud, vegetation is bright green, and clouds are light blue and white. The large images provided above provide a broader view of the region. They show flooding along the Mississippi and Alabama coast, particularly around Mobile Bay and parts of coastal Mississippi. The large images are at MODIS' maximum resolution, but both the August 30 and August 27 images are available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Credit: NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Above are images of Hurricane Katrina created from AIRS infrared and microwave observations at 1:30 AM local time on Monday, August 29, 2005 as it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast. At the time of these images, Katrina was a Category 5 storm with peak winds of approximately 150 mph. The images to the right were taken at 2:00 AM local time on August 30, 2005.

The infrared image shows how the storms look through an AIRS Infrared window channel. Window channels measure the temperature of the cloud tops or the surface of the Earth in cloud-free regions. The lowest temperatures are associated with high, cold cloud tops that make up the top of the hurricane. The infrared signal does not penetrate through clouds, so the purple color indicates the cool cloud tops of the storm. In cloud-free areas, the infrared signal is retrieved at the Earth's surface, revealing warmer temperatures. Cooler areas are pushing to purple and warmer areas are pushing to red.

The microwave images reveal where the heaviest precipitation in the hurricane is taking place. The blue areas within the storm show the location of this heavy precipitation. Blue areas outside of the storm where there are moderate or no clouds are where the cold (in the microwave sense) sea surface shines through. Click on image to enlarge. Credit: NASA JPL

Updated August 30, 2005 - 4:15 p.m. EDT

At 1:30 a.m. local time this morning, the remnants of (now Tropical Depression) Katrina were centered on the Mississippi-Tennessee border. This microwave image from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecrat shows that the area of most intense precipitation was concentrated to the north of the center of activity.
NASA/JPL
+ Larger image

Updated August 30, 2005 - 2:05 p.m. EDT

This slide shows different views of the Precipitation-Energy-Winds in Katrina. These satellite images are from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring mission (TRMM), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) instrument from the Aqua satellite, and QuickSCAT respectively. Note the high energy content in the northern Gulf of Mexico (reds) prior to Katrina's arrival.
Credit: NASA

Katrina's Category 4 hurricane force winds were observed by NASA's QuikSCAT satellite on August 29, 2005, just before she made landfall. The image depicts wind speed in color and wind direction with small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. The highest wind speeds, shown in purple, surround the center of the storm. Measurements of the wind strength of Hurricane Katrina show sustained winds similar to those shown by these QuikSCAT observations, though not identical. This is because the power of the storm makes accurate measurements difficult. The scatterometer sends pulses of microwave energy through the atmosphere to the ocean surface, and measures the energy that bounces back from the wind-roughened surface. The energy of the microwave pulses changes depending on wind speed and direction, giving scientists a way to monitor wind around the world.
Image Credit: NASA JPL

Warm ocean waters fuel hurricanes, and there was plenty of warm water for Katrina to build up strength once she crossed over Florida and moved into the Gulf of Mexico. This image depicts a 3-day average of actual sea surface temperatures (SSTs) for the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, from August 25-27, 2005. Every area in yellow, orange or red represents 82 degrees Fahrenheit or above. A hurricane needs SSTs at 82 degrees or warmer to strengthen. The data came from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. Click on image above to view an animation which depicts the sea surface temperatures for the period June 9 through August 9, 2005. Also note the different tracks of Hurricanes Dennis, Emily, and at the very end Katrina. + Click for high resolution image. Credit: NASA/SVS

Latest National Hurricane Center Update on Katrina for August 29, 2005: At 10 a.m. CDT the center of Hurricane Katrina moved ashore near the Louisiana-Mississippi border. The center of Hurricane Katrina was located near the mouth of the Pearl River about 35 miles east-northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana and about 45 miles west-southwest of Biloxi, Mississippi. Katrina is moving toward the north near 16 mph, and maximum sustained winds are near 125 mph, with higher gusts. Katrina is now a Category Three hurricane. Coastal storm surge flooding of 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels along with large and dangerous battering waves can be expected near and to the east of the center. Rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches are possible along the path of Katrina across the gulf coast and the Tennessee valley. A few tornadoes are possible over portions of southern and eastern Mississippi, southern and central Alabama, and the western Florida panhandle today. This information was derived from the National Hurricane Center website.

The map below (dated August 28, 2005) from the National Hurricane Center shows Katrina's predicted path for the next three to five days.

Updated August 29, 2005 1:14 p.m. EDT

This is an image of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday, August 28, 2005 at 10:25 PM EDT (Or 2:27 UTC Monday, August 29) as seen by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ( TRMM) satellite's PR (Precipitation Radar), VIRS (Visible Infrared Scanner), TMI (Tropical Microwave Imager) and the GOES spacecraft. TRMM looks underneath of the storm's clouds to reveal the underlying rain structure. Blue represents areas with at least 0.25 inches of rain per hour. Green shows at least 0.5 inches of rain per hour. Yellow is at least 1.0 inches of rain and red is at least 2.0 inches of rain per hour. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall. + Click here for high resolution TRMM image. Credit: NASA/JAXA

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall. Credit: NASA/JAXA

Updated August 29, 2005, 11:55 a.m. EDT

This is an image of Hurricane Katrina on Sunday, August 28, 2005 at 5:30 PM EDT (21:33 UTC) as seen by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission ( TRMM) satellite's PR (Precipitation Radar), VIRS (Visible Infrared Scanner), TMI (Tropical Microwave Imager) and the GOES spacecraft. TRMM looks underneath of the storm's clouds to reveal the underlying rain structure. Blue represents areas with at least 0.25 inches of rain per hour. Green shows at least 0.5 inches of rain per hour. Yellow is at least 1.0 inches of rain and red is at least 2.0 inches of rain per hour.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall.+ Click here for high resolution TRMM image. Credit: NASA/JAXA

Updated August 29, 2005 8:20 a.m. EDT

Hurricane Katrina turned slightly eastward before slamming into shore redirecting the storm's most potent winds and rain away from the vulnerable, low lying New Orleans area. Katrina weakened slightly overnight to a Category 4 storm and her eastward movement put the western eyewall - the weaker side of the strongest winds - over New Orleans. This doesn't mean New Orleans has been spared her wrath completely, the city is still getting hit with 145 mph winds today and the possibility of a 20 foot storm surge.

Katrina, which cut across Florida last week leaving nine dead and massive damage, had intensified into a Category 5 storm over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, reaching top winds of 175 mph before weakening as it neared the coast.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the north-central Gulf Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line. Tornado warnings were posted for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.+ Click for high resolution satellite image. Credit: Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

Updated August 28, 2005 8:42 a.m. EDT

Hurricane Katrina strengthened into a powerful Category Five hurricane overnight with sustained winds of 160 mph. The National Hurricane Center put out a special advisory on the hurricane's gain in strength just before 8 a.m. EDT. The boost came just hours after Katrina reached Category 4, with wind of 145 mph, as it gathered energy from the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico.

According to the National Hurricane Center, a Category Five hurricane causes storm surges generally greater than 18 ft above normal, complete roof failure on many residences and industrial buildings. All shrubs, trees, and signs are blown down. Severe and extensive window and door damage can occur. Low-lying escape routes are cut by rising water 3-5 hours before arrival of the center of the hurricane. Major damage to lower floors of all structures located less than 15 ft above sea level and within 500 yards of the shoreline occurs and massive evacuation of residential areas on low ground within 5-10 miles (8-16 km) of the shoreline may be required. This is especially essential in the New Orleans area where most of the city lies below sea level and exists with the help of levees and pumps. To date, only 3 Category Five Hurricanes have made landfall in the United States since records began.+ Click for high resolution of image above. Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

Updated August 27, 2005 10:42 a.m. EDT

Hurricane Katrina left much destruction in her wake in South Florida killing as many as nine persons and causing upwards of $600 million dollars in estimated damage. And she was only a Category 1 when she struck South Florida. Gaining strength as she blows across the warm Gulf of Mexico Katrina is currently a Category 3 and experts are warning that by the time she reaches land on Monday, she may be a full blown Category Four storm. At 8 a.m. Saturday, the eye of the hurricane was located about 180 miles west of Key West or about 430 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was moving west at nearly 7 mph.+ Click here for high resolution image. Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

Hurricane Katrina had just become a category 1 hurricane when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image on August 25, 2005, at 12:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The hurricane formed as a tropical depression late on August 23 and developed quickly into a tropical storm by 11 a.m. the next morning. By the time MODIS acquired this image, the storm continued to develop into a category 1 hurricane, the lowest strength category in the hurricane strength scale. Katrina had winds of 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour).+ Click for high resolution image. Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

Quikscat Image of Katrina

Tropical Storm Katrina is shown here as observed by NASA's QuikSCAT satellite on August 25, 2005, at 08:37 UTC (4:37 a.m. in Florida). At this time, the storm had 80 kilometers per hour (50 miles per hour; 43 knots) sustained winds. The storm does not appear to yet have reached hurricane strength.

The greater danger may be not with her winds, but with Katrina's rains. The storm is moving slowly, just 13 km/hr (8 mph), and is expected to slow as it moves over land. This means that Katrina's heavy rains will linger longer over one area, dumping 15-25 centimeters (6-10 inches) of rain over Florida and the Bahamas and possibly up to 38 cm (15 inches) in some regions, the National Hurricane Center warns.

The image depicts wind speed in color and wind direction with small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. The highest wind speeds, shown in purple, surround the center of the storm.

Measurements of the wind strength of Tropical Storm Katrina show sustained winds similar to those shown by these QuikSCAT observations, though not identical. This is because the power of the storm makes accurate measurements difficult. The scatterometer sends pulses of microwave energy through the atmosphere to the ocean surface, and measures the energy that bounces back from the wind-roughened surface. The energy of the microwave pulses changes depending on wind speed and direction, giving scientists a way to monitor wind around the world.

Tropical cyclones (the generic term for hurricanes and typhoons) and to a lesser extent, weaker storm systems like Katrina, are difficult to measure. To relate the radar energy return to actual wind speed, scientists compare measurements taken from buoys and other ground stations to data the satellite acquired at the same time and place. Because the high wind speeds generated by cyclones are rare, scientists do not have corresponding ground information to know how to translate data from the satellite for wind speeds above 50 knots (about 93 km/hr or 58 mph). Also, the unusually heavy rain found in a cyclone distorts the microwave pulses in a number of ways, making a conversion to accurate wind speed difficult. Instead, the scatterometer provides a nice picture of the relative wind speeds within the storm and shows wind direction. Image credit: NASA/JPL.

For more information about the storm, please visit the National Hurricane Center.
+ High resolution image

Katrina Closes in on Florida

All eyes are on Tropical Storm Katrina as it nears the south Florida coastline. The storm, which is in the process of strengthening as it passes over the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, is forecast to become a Category 1 hurricane by the time it makes landfall. But, as it is already close to the Florida coast, it will not have time to develop into a major hurricane. However, the storm is moving very slowly, which poses a risk for flooding.

Katrina formed into a tropical depression (TD #12) from a broad area of low pressure in the central Bahamas on the afternoon of 23 August 2005 (LST). Over the next day, the system slowly moved northwest through the central Bahamas, becoming a minimal tropical storm on the morning (LST) of the 24th. Katrina then turned westward and started to intensify as it passed south of Grand Bahama Island on a heading for south Florida.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was launched back in November of 1997 to measure rainfall over the global Tropics but has proven itself to be instrumental in observing tropical cyclones. This first image was taken at 04:34 UTC (12:34 am EDT) on 25 August 2005 as Katrina was passing south of Grand Bahama Island. The image above displays the horizontal distribution of rain intensity within Katrina as obtained from TRMM's sensors. Rain rates in the center part of the swath are from the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR), the only radar capable of measuring precipitation from space. The PR can provide fine resolution rainfall data and details on the vertical structure. Rain rates in the outer swath are from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). The rain rates are overlaid on infrared (IR) data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS). At the time of the image, Katrina was a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds reported at 45 knots (52 mph) by the National Hurricane Center (NHC). In this image, an eye is visible along the western side of the central area of precipitation (blue ring). Most of the rainfall, however, is east of the center (green and blue area). Although, there is evidence of banding in the surrounding rain areas, the banding is not as distinct as with a more mature system. Also, rainfall in the eyewall is still fairly weak. These features indicate that Katrina is still in the process of organizing.+ Click for high resolution image.

The second image (above) was taken at the same time and shows a 3D perspective of Katrina via the vertical height of the precipitation-sized particles (as defined by the 15 dBZ isosurface). At few isolated tall towers (in red) are visible in the outer rain bands, but the core of Katrina is devoid of deep convection. This, coupled with the lack of intense rain near the center, indicates that the storm is not likely to intensify quickly very soon. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.+ Click for high resolution image. Credit: NASA/Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).

Tropical Storm Katrina

Tropical Storm Katrina had just become the eleventh named storm of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured this image on August 24, 2005, at 11:50 a.m., Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The storm formed late on August 23 and developed quickly into a tropical storm by 11 a.m. the next morning. By the time MODIS acquired this image, the storm was just starting to take the recognizable swirling shape of a hurricane. Katrina had winds of 64 kilometers per hour (40 miles per hour) and was expected to get stronger as it approaches the south Florida coast, possibly becoming a Category 1 hurricane before coming ashore.

A more serious danger is Katrina's rains. The storm is moving slowly, just 13 km/hr (8 mph), and is expected to slow as it moves over land. This means that Katrina's heavy rains will linger longer over one area, dumping 15-25 centimeters (6-10 inches) of rain over Florida and the Bahamas and possibly up to 38 cm (15 inches) in some regions, the National Hurricane Center warns. Credit: NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz at NASA GSFC

For more information about the storm, please visit the National Hurricane Center. This image is available in multiple resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. Goddard Space Flight Center

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Hurricane Season 2005: Katrina 10.13.05 Latest Update - October 13, 2005 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Storm Track Map and Animation + Avi (1 Mb): Tracking map animation The above images, derived from NASA QuikSCAT satellite data, show the extensive pattern of rain water deposited by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on land surfaces over several states in the southern and eastern United States.

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Hurricane Katrina: Superdome Survivor | History (YouTube Video)

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Hurricane Katrina: Superdome Survivor | History (YouTube Video)

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The characters in the book are not real people, but we looked at the actual survivors because they were made based on what really happened. And through their voices, I could hear vivid testimonies about the damage caused by hurricanes, and I could hear about the issues discussed in this book.

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Hurricane Katrina: Superdome Survivor | History

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5 Years After Katrina, Ruins - And a Natural Wonder - Remain | National Geographic (YouTube Video)

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5 Years After Katrina, Ruins - And a Natural Wonder - Remain | National Geographic (YouTube Video)

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The writer described the hurricane from the perspective of a 10-year-old boy. And the despair that the boy felt makes the reader think about the issue. This video shows you after the actual hurricane Katrina.

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5 Years After Katrina, Ruins - And a Natural Wonder - Remain | National Geographic

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This is a report on Hurricane Katrina. I looked at this report to objectively check information such as how this issue was resolved and what was lacking.

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Extent:
497 Interviews, approximately 481 transcripts

Object Name:
oral histories (document genres)
sound recordings
transcripts
photographic prints
digital images
reports
lists (document genres)
correspondence
digital images

Collection Type:
Oral Histories
Archival & Special Collections
Audio
Documents & Correspondence
Photography

Scope and Content:
This collection consists of oral history interviews with the first responders and volunteers who worked in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the weeks immediately after. The collection is composed of sound recordings and associated transcripts of some 497 interviews (96% transcribed) conducted with Hurricane Katrina's first responders. Also included are various associated materials gathered during the course of interviews. Those associated materials include notes, procedural manuals, photographs, video footage, publications, multimedia presentations, and correspondence.
Interviews were gathered by staff of The Historic New Orleans Collection for inclusion in the Through Hell and High Water Oral History Project beginning in October of 2005 and continued through 2010. The agencies represented by within the project include: the New Orleans Police Department, the New Orleans Fire Department, St. Bernard Parish Fire Department, Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office, The U.S. Coast Guard, Arkansas National Guard, WWL-TV in New Orleans, DMAT-CA 6 (a Disaster Medical Assistance Team from California); AZ TF-1 (Arizona Task Force One, Urban Search and Rescue Team); Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana; and the Louisiana Department of Corrections. Also included within the collection are interviews with civilians who participated in rescue efforts and assisted in recovery efforts in New Orleans. Many of the civilians interviewed for this project were recruited as volunteers by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Of note is an interview with former Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco.

Arrangement:
Interviews are arranged in 18 series. Within individual series and sub-series interviews are filed alphabetically by name of the interviewee. With the exception of oversized material and unaccessioned donations, additional photographs, video, and other documentary material are physically arranged in accession number order. Series Include: Civilian Volunteers; Arkansas National Guard; Congressman Charlie Melancon and Staff; Congressman William Jefferson's Office; DMAT(Disaster Medical Assistance Teams); New Orleans EMS; New Orleans Fire Department; New Orleans Police Department; Orleans Parish Criminal Sherriff's Office; Saint Bernard Parish Fire Department; United States. Coast Guard; New Orleans Media; Gulf Coast Archivists, Librarians, and Curators; Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries; Urban Search and Rescue Teams (USAR); Second Harvest Food Bank; Louisiana Department of Corrections; Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

Notes:
Preferred Citation: Interview with [name of interviewee], [date of interview], for the Through Hell and High Water: Katrina's First Responders Oral History Project, Mss 571, Williams Research Center, The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Restrictions:
Substantial portions of this collection are open to researchers. In some cases an individual interview or series of interviews are restricted from public access through agreements made with interviewees or the agencies which they represent. In these cases the term of restriction is 25 years from the date of the interview. Restricted interviews will not be made available to the public. Refer to series and item level descriptions for further information on restrictions. Researchers will only be granted access to un-restricted interviews.
Researchers will be granted access to digital audio [mp3] reference copies of audio recordings from un-restricted interviews. Audio recordings will be made available in person only and researchers must use the equipment provided by the HNOC. Researchers will only be granted access to sound recordings if digital audio [mp3] reference copy is available. Researchers will not be granted access to digital preservation master [WAV file or data CD] or analog recordings. Advanced notice will be required to review audio recordings.
Researchers may be limited to consulting one or two items at a time, per the discretion of the Reading Room staff.
The Historic New Orleans Collection retains all intellectual property rights, including copyright over all oral history interviews within the Hell or High Water collection. Permission to cite and/or quote beyond accepted fair use standards must be obtained in writing. Interviews may not be used in publications or for commercial use without express written permission. Upon gaining official written permission patrons should quote from the transcript, which is the document of record, not the audio recording.
Researchers are cautioned that the publication of information contained in these interviews may violate the legal rights of interviewees or interviewers. It is the sole responsibility of researchers to secure appropriate permissions, and to ensure that information gained from research within this collection is not used in any way that violates the rights of interviewees, interviewers, or their respective heirs.
For restrictions usage restrictions on photographs, video, and other documentary materials please refer to item level descriptions.

Requesting:
Please provide the reference staff with the manuscript call number.

Lower Level Records:
MSS 571.1; Civilian Volunteer Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.2; Arkansas National Guard Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.3; Charlie Melancon and Congressional Staff Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.4; William Jefferson Congressional Staff Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.5; Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.6; New Orleans Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.7; New Orleans Fire Department Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.8; New Orleans Police Department Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.9; Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff's Office Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.10; Saint Bernard Parish Fire Department Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.11; United States Coast Guard Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.12; New Orleans Media Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.13; Gulf Coast Archivists, Librarians, and Curators Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.14; Oral History Interview with Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, 2009 August 19, Item Level.
MSS 571.15; Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.16; Urban Search and Rescue Teams (USAR) Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.17; Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana Oral History Interviews, Series Level.
MSS 571.18; Additional Photographs, Video, and other Documentary Materials, Series Level.
MSS 571.20; Louisiana Department of Corrections Oral History Interviews, Series Level.

Permalink:
http://hnoc.minisisinc.com/thnoc/catalog/3/7931

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Extent: 497 Interviews, approximately 481 transcripts Object Name: oral histories (document genres) sound recordings transcripts photographic prints digital images reports lists (document genres) correspondence digital images Collection Type: Oral Histories Archival & Special Collections Audio Documents & Correspondence Photography Scope and Content: This collection consists of oral history interviews with the first responders and volunteers who worked in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the weeks immediately after.