Search results
Learn about the extremely powerful and devastating hurricane that hit the northern Gulf Coast in 2005, causing enormous destruction and loss of life. See maps, photos, and data of storm surge, wind, rainfall, and other impacts of Katrina.
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.
- August 23, 2005
- 175 mph (280 km/h)
- Overview
- Development
- Damage
Hurricane Katrina was a tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
Who was Hurricane Katrina named after?
There is no particular person for whom Hurricane Katrina was named. Rather, the hurricane was named in accordance with the World Meteorological Organization’s lists of hurricane names, which rotate every six years. Following the historical damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, the name Katrina was retired from the lists of names.
What were Hurricane Katrina’s wind speeds?
When Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. By the time the storm strengthened to a category 3 hurricane, winds exceeded 115 miles per hour. At its height as a category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina’s wind speeds exceeded 170 miles per hour.
Why did Hurricane Katrina lead to widespread flooding?
The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. Over the next two days the weather system gathered strength, earning the designation Tropical Storm Katrina, and it made landfall between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a category 1 hurricane—a storm that, on the Saffir-Simpson scale, exhibits winds in the range of 74–95 miles (119–154 km) per hour. Sustained winds of 70 miles (115 km) per hour lashed the Florida peninsula, and rainfall totals of 5 inches (13 cm) were reported in some areas. The storm spent less than eight hours over land. It quickly intensified when it reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
On August 27 Katrina strengthened to a category 3 hurricane, with top winds exceeding 115 miles (185 km) per hour and a circulation that covered virtually the entire Gulf of Mexico. By the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170 miles (275 km) per hour. On the morning of August 29, the storm made landfall as a category 4 hurricane at Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, approximately 45 miles (70 km) southeast of New Orleans. It continued on a course to the northeast, crossing the Mississippi Sound and making a second landfall later that morning near the mouth of the Pearl River. A storm surge more than 26 feet (8 metres) high slammed into the coastal cities of Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, devastating homes and resorts along the beachfront.
In New Orleans, where much of the greater metropolitan area is below sea level, federal officials initially believed that the city had “dodged the bullet.” While New Orleans had been spared a direct hit by the intense winds of the storm, the true threat was soon apparent. The levee system that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne had been completely overwhelmed by 10 inches (25 cm) of rain and Katrina’s storm surge. Some levees buttressing the Industrial Canal, the 17th Street Canal, and other areas were overtopped by the storm surge, and others were breached after these structures failed outright from the buildup of water pressure behind them. The area east of the Industrial Canal was the first part of the city to flood; by the afternoon of August 29, some 20 percent of the city was underwater.
Britannica Quiz
Disasters of Historic Proportion
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city the previous day, and an estimated 1.2 million people left ahead of the storm. However, tens of thousands of residents could not or would not leave. They either remained in their homes or sought shelter at locations such as the New Orleans Convention Center or the Louisiana Superdome. As the already strained levee system continued to give way, the remaining residents of New Orleans were faced with a city that by August 30 was 80 percent underwater. Many local agencies found themselves unable to respond to the increasingly desperate situation, as their own headquarters and control centres were under 20 feet (6 metres) of water. With no relief in sight and in the absence of any organized effort to restore order, some neighbourhoods experienced substantial amounts of looting, and helicopters were used to rescue many people from rooftops in the flooded Ninth Ward.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sep 13, 2005 · Follow the historic storm's birth, path, landfall, and aftermath in this blow-by-blow account. See when and where Katrina strengthened, weakened, and caused devastation along the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Aug 31, 2005 · Zoom Earth provides satellite images, weather maps and tracks of Category 5 Hurricane Katrina from 23 to 31 August 2005. See the path, wind speed, pressure and other data of the storm that devastated the Gulf Coast.
DateTimeTypeWind31 Aug06:00E3031 Aug03:00E3031 Aug00:00E3530 Aug21:00D35Nov 9, 2009 · Learn about the path, impact and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the United States in 2005. Find out how the storm caused massive flooding, levee failures, government failures and human tragedies.
This is an annotated map of the path of Hurricane Katrina, a viscous hurricane that hit the southern coast of the United States on August 28, 2005 (Florida on 8-25-05). I included the cities...
