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Katrina refrigerators are refrigerators that were destroyed or rendered unusable during Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, and their aftermath. Many were made into temporary folk art.
When Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005, much of the Gulf Coast Region and almost the entire Metro New Orleans Area was forced to evacuate for several weeks, as local governments re-established basic infrastructure for electricity and water. Some residents emptied their refrigerators before they evacuated. However, most residents in the region did not know that they would lose power for weeks, or that they would be unable to return home until a month or more later.
When they returned, they found that their refrigerators were filled with decomposing food. This food was so rotten that it had dissolved plastic, corroded metal, and dissolved rubber refrigerator liners [ citation needed ]. Even residents who suffered no flood damage lost their refrigerators in this way. Residents took photographs of their destroyed refrigerators for the insurance companies, taped the doors shut, and carried them out of their homes as soon as possible.
However, the destruction throughout the region was so extensive that garbage collection was not fully restored for many weeks. Local government officials required residents to separate their garbage into daily trash, construction debris (insulation, carpeting, sheet rock), organic debris (grass clippings, fallen branches, fallen trees), and electronic appliances. Refrigerators were assigned their own specific pickup date, and were considered too hazardous to be mixed with other storm debris. Only waste collectors trained in the handling of hazardous materials and armed with special equipment and hazmat suits were assigned the task of collecting refrigerators.
For this reason, abandoned refrigerators sat in front of private homes for weeks. There were thousands of refrigerators lined along the streets of every neighborhood affected by the storms, usually surrounded by piles of garbage bags and other debris. Residents quickly began decorating their refrigerators with graffiti. It was at this point that the destroyed refrigerators became known as Katrina Refrigerators. At first, the graffiti featured humorous or satirical messages. The graffiti became increasingly elaborate, and soon developed into a form of art. People began photographing Katrina Refrigerators, and there were even exhibitions and books featuring these photographs. During the first Christmas after Hurricane Katrina, four months after the storm made landfall, some Katrina Refrigerators had not yet been collected. These refrigerators were decorated with festive Christmas ornaments and salutations.
By early 2006, occasional additional refrigerators continued to be hauled out to curbs as more locals gutted their houses, but as in parts of town with significant numbers of inhabitants back these were generally picked up within a week or so, as they were profitable for debris pickup teams paid by weight collected. Due to the shorter time staying curbside, the tradition of decorating the refrigerators died out.
Katrina Refrigerators set on curbs were eventually collected, the largest portion of them hauled to a scrapyard in an industrial area in back of Florida Avenue in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans to be harvested for scrap metal.
For New Orleans Mardi Gras 2006, several krewes had floats depicting Katrina refrigerators, and some revelers wore Katrina refrigerator costumes.
While there was much variation, there were some common themes seen frequently. Early themes included criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and its director Michael D. "Brownie" Brown (often with the infamous "Heck of a job" phrase). Some criticized the Orleans Levee Board, until studies revealed that the actual fault for the levee failures rested with the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who became locally nicknamed the "Corpse of Engineers," because the misbuilt levees, in combination with failure to evacuate residents, caused many deaths. Some inscriptions advocated the refrigerator be sent to politicians whose response to the disaster were considered lacking, for example "Sent to the White House" or "Send to Blanco". However the single most frequent target of inscriptions was Tom Benson, owner of the New Orleans Saints football team, during the time it was rumored he planned to move the team to Texas.
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused 1,392 fatalities and between $97.4 billion to $145.5 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the costliest tropical cyclone on record and is now tied with 2017's Hurricane Harvey. The storm was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record to make landfall in the contiguous United States.
As the center of Hurricane Katrina passed southeast of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, winds downtown were in the Category 1 range with frequent intense gusts. The storm surge caused approximately 23 breaches in the drainage canal and navigational canal levees and flood walls. As mandated in the Flood Control Act of 1965, responsibility for the design and construction of the city's levees belongs to the United States Army Corps of Engineers and responsibility for their maintenance belongs to the Orleans Levee Board. The failures of levees and flood walls during Katrina are considered by experts to be the worst engineering disaster in the history of the United States. By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet (4.6 m) of water. The famous French Quarter and Garden District escaped flooding because those areas are above sea level. The major breaches included the 17th Street Canal levee, the Industrial Canal levee, and the London Avenue Canal flood wall. These breaches caused the majority of the flooding, according to a June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The flood disaster halted oil production and refining which increased oil prices worldwide.
The article covers the Hurricane Katrina effects by region, within the United States and Canada. The effects of Hurricane Katrina, in late August 2005, were catastrophic and widespread. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history, leaving at least 1,836 people dead, and a further 135 missing. The storm was large and had an effect on several different areas of North America.
Michael DeWayne Brown is an American attorney and former government official who served as the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2003 to 2005. He joined FEMA as general counsel in 2001 and became deputy director the same year. Appointed in January 2003 by President George W. Bush to lead FEMA, Brown resigned in September 2005 following his controversial handling of Hurricane Katrina. Brown currently hosts a radio talk show on 630 KHOW in Denver, Colorado.
Hurricane preparedness in New Orleans has been an issue since the city's early settlement because of its location.
Criticism of the government response to Hurricane Katrina was a major political dispute in the United States in 2005 that consisted primarily of condemnations of mismanagement and lack of preparation in the relief effort in response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Specifically, there was a delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The disaster recovery response to Hurricane Katrina in late 2005 included U.S. federal government agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the United States Coast Guard (USCG), state and local-level agencies, federal and National Guard soldiers, non-governmental organizations, charities, and private individuals. Tens of thousands of volunteers and troops responded or were deployed to the disaster; most in the affected area but also throughout the U.S. at shelters set up in at least 19 states.
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).
Hurricane Katrina's winds and storm surge reached the Mississippi coastline on the morning of August 29, 2005. beginning a two-day path of destruction through central Mississippi; by 10 a.m. CDT on August 29, 2005, the eye of Katrina began traveling up the entire state, only slowing from hurricane-force winds at Meridian near 7 p.m. and entering Tennessee as a tropical storm. Many coastal towns of Mississippi had already been obliterated, in a single night. Hurricane-force winds reached coastal Mississippi by 2 a.m. and lasted over 17 hours, spawning 11 tornadoes and a 28-foot storm surge flooding 6–12 miles (10–19 km) inland. Many, unable to evacuate, survived by climbing to attics or rooftops, or swimming to higher buildings and trees. The worst property damage from Katrina occurred in coastal Mississippi, where all towns flooded over 90% in hours, and waves destroyed many historic buildings, with others gutted to the 3rd story. Afterward, 238 people died in Mississippi, and all counties in Mississippi were declared disaster areas, 49 for full federal assistance. Regulations were changed later for emergency centers and casinos. The emergency command centers were moved higher because all 3 coastal centers flooded at 30 ft (9 m) above sea level. Casinos were allowed on land rather than limited to floating casino barges as in 2005.
The reconstruction of New Orleans refers to the rebuilding process endured by the city of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of the city on August 29, 2005. The storm caused levees to fail, releasing tens of billions of gallons of water. The levee failure contributed to extensive flooding in the New Orleans area and surrounding parishes. About 80% of all structures in Orleans Parish sustained water damage. Over 204,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, and more than 800,000 citizens displaced—the greatest displacement in the United States since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Wind damage was less severe than predicted. The damage that took place that needed to be repaired cost about $125 billion.
This article contains a historical timeline of the events of Hurricane Katrina on August 23–30, 2005 and its aftermath.
Hurricane Katrina struck the United States on August 29, 2005, causing over a thousand deaths and extreme property damage, particularly in New Orleans. The incident affected numerous areas of governance, including disaster preparedness and environmental policy.
Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the top ten most intense Atlantic hurricanes in terms of barometric pressure ever recorded, Rita was the seventeenth named storm, tenth hurricane, and fifth major hurricane of the 2005 season. It was also the earliest-forming 17th named storm in the Atlantic until Tropical Storm Rene in 2020. Rita formed near The Bahamas from a tropical wave on September 18, 2005 that originally developed off the coast of West Africa. It moved westward, and after passing through the Florida Straits, Rita entered an environment of abnormally warm waters. Moving west-northwest, it rapidly intensified to reach peak winds of 180 mph (285 km/h), achieving Category 5 status on September 21. However, it weakened to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall in Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana, between Sabine Pass, Texas and Holly Beach, Louisiana, with winds of 115 mph (185 km/h). Rapidly weakening over land, Rita degenerated into a large low-pressure area over the lower Mississippi Valley by September 26th.
The Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. As the name implies, it is part of the 9th Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Industrial Canal; however, the City Planning Commission divides this area into the Lower Ninth Ward and Holy Cross neighborhoods.
This article covers the details of the Preparations for Hurricane Katrina, a major category 5 hurricane that devastated parts of New Orleans, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as the Hurricane Pam simulation and NWS forecasts that led to the U.S. government's decision to establish a Bipartisan Congressional Committee to investigate the country's preparedness for and response to Hurricane Katrina.
The National Weather Service bulletin for the New Orleans region of 10:11 a.m., August 28, 2005, was a particularly dire warning issued by the local Weather Forecast Office in Slidell, Louisiana, warning of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina could wreak upon the Gulf Coast of the United States, and the torrent of pain, misery and suffering that would follow once the storm left the area.
Internally displaced persons in the United States are people from the Gulf States region in the southern United States, most notably New Orleans, Louisiana, who were forced to leave their homes because of the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and were unable to return because of a multitude of factors, and are collectively known as the Gulf Coast diaspora and by standard definition considered IDPs. At their peak, hurricane evacuee shelters housed 273,000 people and, later, FEMA trailers housed at least 114,000 households. Even a decade after Hurricane Katrina, many victims who were forced to relocate were still unable to return home.
The Hyatt Regency New Orleans is a 32-story, 361-foot -tall hotel located at 601 Loyola Ave in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It has 1,193 guest rooms, including 95 suites. It is part of a complex of connected buildings, which includes the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, 1250 Poydras Plaza, Entergy Tower, and the Benson Tower. Originally opened in 1976, it was designed by Welton Becket and Associates. The Hyatt was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and remained closed for six years, until 2011.
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