Hurricane Katrina |
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2005 Atlantic hurricane season |
General |
Impact |
Relief |
Analysis |
External links |
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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.
Many people living in the South Florida area were unaware when Katrina strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane in one day and struck southern Florida on August 25, 2005, near the Miami-Dade – Broward county line. However, National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted the strengthening, and hurricane watches and warnings were properly issued nearly 6–8 days, respectively, before hurricane conditions were felt in the area. [1] [2]
Florida Governor Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency on August 24 in advance of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Florida. Shelters were opened and schools closed in several counties in the southern part of the state. A number of evacuation orders were also issued, mostly voluntary, although a mandatory evacuation was ordered for vulnerable housing in Martin County.
On August 27, after Hurricane Katrina crossed southern Florida and strengthened to a Category 3 storm, President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi two days before the hurricane made landfall. [3]
On August 28, the National Weather Service in Slidell, Louisiana issued a bulletin predicting "devastating" damage rivaling the intensity of Hurricane Camille. [4] Mandatory evacuations were issued for large areas of southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama. [5]
On Sunday, August 28, Canadian National Railway (CN) suspended all rail traffic on its lines south of McComb, Mississippi (lines owned by its subsidiary Illinois Central Railroad that extend into New Orleans), in anticipation of damage from the hurricane. To help ease the resumption of services after the storm passes, CN also issued an embargo with the Association of American Railroads against all deliveries to points south of Osyka, Mississippi. CSX Transportation also suspended service south of Montgomery, Alabama until further notice.
Amtrak, America's rail passenger carrier, announced that the southbound City of New Orleans passenger trains from Chicago, from August 29 through September 3, would terminate in Memphis, Tennessee, rather than their usual destination of New Orleans. The corresponding northbound trains would also originate in Memphis. The southbound Crescent from New York City, for the same period, terminated in Atlanta, with the corresponding northbound trains originating in Atlanta as well. Amtrak's westbound Sunset Limited originated in San Antonio, Texas, rather than its normal origin point of Orlando, Florida. Amtrak announced that no alternate transportation options would be made available into or out of the affected area. [6]
The Waterford nuclear power plant was also shut down on Sunday, August 28, in anticipation of Katrina's arrival.
By August 26, the possibility of unprecedented cataclysm was already being considered. Some computer models were putting the city of New Orleans right in the center of their track probabilities, and the chances of a direct hit were forecast at 17% (with strike probability rising to 29% by August 28). [7] This scenario was considered a potential catastrophe because 80% of the New Orleans metropolitan area is below sea level along Lake Pontchartrain. Since the storm surge produced by the hurricane's right-front quadrant (containing the strongest winds) was more than 20 ft (6 m) near Biloxi, emergency management officials in New Orleans feared that the storm surge could go over the tops of levees protecting the city, causing major flooding. [8] This risk of devastation had been known for some time; previous studies by FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers had warned that a direct hurricane strike on New Orleans could lead to massive flooding, which would lead to thousands of drowning deaths, as well as many more suffering from disease and dehydration, as the flood waters slowly receded from the city. [9] [10] [11]
At a news conference 10:00 AM 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" and also saying it was "a once-in-a-lifetime event". [12] To speed up the evacuations, authorities used contraflow lane reversal on Interstate 10 leading west of New Orleans, as well as on Interstate 55 and 59 leading north from the city. The city government also established a "refuge of last resort" for citizens who could not leave the city, at the massive Louisiana Superdome, which housed approximately 26,000 people with food and water for two days as the storm came ashore. [13] The Louisiana National Guard delivered three truckloads of water and seven truckloads of MRE's to the Superdome, "enough to supply 15,000 people for three days" said Colonel Jay Mayeaux, director of the Department of Homeland Security's office for emergency preparedness. [13]
Louisiana's hurricane evacuation plan calls for local governments in areas along and near the coast to call for evacuations 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. [14]
However, many parishes were not able to provide sufficient transportation for citizens who did not have private means of evacuation, and many private care-taking facilities who relied on the same bus companies and ambulance services for evacuation were unable to evacuate their charges. Fuel and rental cars were in short supply and many forms of public transportation had been shut down well before the storm arrived. [15] The result was that hundreds of thousands of residents and tourists were unable to evacuate and remained in the city. Nonetheless, some estimates claimed that 90-92% of the 1.3 million residents of the New Orleans metropolitan region evacuated including 80% of Orleans parish. More than 80,000 people were homeless at the time.
Months before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on New Orleans, a hurricane simulation was created to warn the city of a potential hurricane crisis and its devastating outcomes. The simulation was named Pam, in which a category 3 hurricane's strong winds and flooding caused the levee system of New Orleans to fail and leave the city underwater. Many emergency officials were stunned by the lack of response to Hurricane Pam's simulation, expressing their concerns that if a disaster like this did occur, the effects would be catastrophic. [16]
It was indeed confirmed that Pam's disaster plan was seen by FEMA and Louisiana state officials, to no avail. Under Hurricane Pam's disaster plan, it was decided that preparations for the hurricane should have been happening for three days prior to the hurricane's arrival on land. In New Orleans, a mandatory evacuation was not ordered by the city until approximately 20 hours before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. On top of this, it was important that officials representing FEMA had critical resources ready to go before the storm hit the city, which they failed to do so. While it is true that the authorities of the city and state government were mainly in charge of moving people to safety, Hurricane Pam's disaster plan noted that there was a scarcity of resources in support shelters for the state of Louisiana. [16]
Shortly thereafter the effects of Hurricane Katrina were evident, President Bush made it clear that he wanted there to be an investigation regarding the government's preparedness for and response to Hurricane Katrina. [16]
The National Weather Center's (NWS) services are provided collaboratively with several different offices that specialize in certain areas regarding the weather. Some of these offices include the National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the Hydro-meteorological Prediction Center (HPC). The NHC is a component for the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, and the HPC is a provider of weather forecasts and analyses that support the NWS. [17]
Along with this, the HPC supplies the NHC with precipitation statements. After what is considered a tropical storm progresses inward on land and the NHS terminates any alerts they put out, the HPC then accepts the authority of watching over the system. The two offices work hand in hand with one another to ensure the most accurate information is released to the public. [17]
The storm that became Hurricane Katrina was recognized by both the NHC and HPC on August 22. After waiting a few days to monitor development, the HPC started formulating precipitation statements for Hurricane Katrina on August 24. on August 30, the HPC accepted responsibility for the release of warnings regarding Katrina. On August 31, the hurricane system was consumed by a system near the Great Lakes of the east, so the HPC terminated their advisories for Katrina. [17]
The NHC and HPC are essential to one another, especially in that the HPC routinely executes service backup for the NHC. An example of this is when the HPC conducted a respective amount of drills for service backup in the summer months leading up to Katrina. During Hurricane Katrina's landfall, the NHC's implementation and execution of policies was seen as excellent by many government emergency officials. Throughout the tracking of Hurricane Katrina, the NHC's forecasts were very consistent and provided strong evidence for the intensity and power of the storm. Not only were the forecasts made by the NHC accurate, but they were also timely, which allowed for workforce management operation members to in turn provide accurate information to their counterparts. As well as the accuracy and timeliness of the NHC's forecast, it was precisely expected that Hurricane Katrina would be a massive hurricane that caused detrimental effects to the northern Gulf coast. [17]
What seemed shocking to many after Hurricane Katrina had passed was the government failing to do much about the forecasts released by the NHC. It seemed clear to many what the potential effects of Katrina could amount to, yet the storm was not treated how it should have been.
Date | Time | Warning type | Areas |
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August 23 | 23:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | Central and northwest Bahamas |
August 24 | 03:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Watch | Seven Mile Bridge to Vero Beach, Florida |
15:00 UTC | Seven Mile Bridge to Florida City, Florida | ||
Tropical Storm Warning and Hurricane Watch | Florida City to Vero Beach, Florida | ||
21:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Watch | Vero Beach to Titusville, Florida | |
Tropical Storm Warning and Hurricane Watch | Lake Okeechobee | ||
August 25 | 03:00 UTC | Hurricane Warning | Florida City to Vero Beach, Florida, and Lake Okeechobee |
09:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Watch | Florida City to Englewood, Florida, including Florida Bay | |
15:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | Grand Bahama, Bimini, and the Berry Islands, Bahamas | |
21:00 UTC | Hurricane Warning | Florida City to Jupiter Inlet, Florida | |
Tropical Storm Warning | Jupiter Inlet to Florida Keys and Florida City to Longboat Key, Florida | ||
Tropical Storm Watch | Longboat Key to Anclote Key, Florida | ||
23:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning discontinued | Grand Bahama, Bimini, and the Berry Islands, Bahamas | |
August 26 | 03:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Watch discontinued | Vero Beach to Titusville, Florida |
Tropical Storm Warning discontinued | Jupiter Inlet to Vero Beach, Florida | ||
05:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | Deerfield Beach to Florida City, Florida | |
Hurricane Warning discontinued | Deerfield Beach to Jupiter, Florida, and Lake Okeechobee | ||
Tropical Storm Warning | Florida Keys including Florida Bay and Florida City to Longboat Key, Florida | ||
15:00 UTC | Florida City to Longboat Key and all the Florida Keys and Florida Bay | ||
21:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Watch discontinued | All | |
Tropical Storm Warning discontinued | Florida City to Longboat Key, Florida | ||
August 27 | 09:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | Dry Tortugas to Longboat Key, Florida |
15:00 UTC | Dry Tortugas to Key West, Florida | ||
Hurricane Watch | Morgan City to Pearl River, Louisiana | ||
21:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warnings discontinued | All | |
Hurricane Watch | Intracoastal City, Louisiana, to Florida-Alabama border | ||
August 28 | 03:00 UTC | Hurricane Warning | Morgan City, Louisiana, to Florida-Alabama border, including Lake Pontchartrain |
Tropical Storm Warning | Florida-Alabama border to Destin, Florida | ||
Intracoastal City to Morgan City, Louisiana | |||
Hurricane Watch | Florida-Alabama border to Destin, Florida | ||
09:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | Destin to Indian Pass, Florida, and Intracoastal City to Cameron, Louisiana | |
August 29 | 15:00 UTC | Hurricane Watches discontinued | All |
21:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning | Pearl River, Louisiana, to Florida-Alabama border | |
Tropical Storm and Hurricane Warning discontinued | Cameron to Pearl River, Louisiana, and Florida-Alabama border to Destin, Florida | ||
August 30 | 03:00 UTC | Tropical Storm Warning discontinued | All |
On September 15, 2005, it was announced that a Bipartisan Congressional Committee had been established to investigate the United States government's preparations for and responses to Hurricane Katrina. [18] This decision was preceded by many different positions of members of the House of Representatives, which are outlined below.
Honorable David Dreier was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980. He was a Republican Representative from California, and served as the House Rules Committee's Chairman. The following information is regarding the House of Representatives' debate and more specifically, Honorable Dreier's viewpoint on whether to establish a Bipartisan Congressional Committee to investigate the U.S. government's preparations for Hurricane Katrina. [19]
Honorable Dreier agreed with President Bush when he claimed that there were many undesirable characteristics of the government's initial response to Hurricane Katrina. In his debate to the House of Representatives, Honorable Dreier expressed that the Federal Emergency Management System's (FEMA) department head had resigned after the events of Hurricane Katrina. He stated that from what happened during the disaster, there were certainly lessons to be taken away. He called for action from his fellow representatives that there must be an acceptance of the Executive Branch's powers to investigate what went wrong in the response to Hurricane Katrina. In his strong declaration to the House of Representatives, Honorable Dreier made it very clear that a Bipartisan Congressional Committee was necessary in order to follow the nation's precedents and traditions. [19]
As well as this, many delegates viewed an independent commission to be a ridiculous idea and redundant of sorts. They believe that Americans wanted immediate solutions to the hurdles they were being faced with as a result of the lack of preparation for Hurricane Katrina. [19]
In 1993, Honorable Bennie Thompson was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was a Democratic representative from Mississippi, and served as the mayor of Bolton from 1973 to 1979. He also serves as the Homeland Security Committee's ranking minority member. Below is information regarding Honorable Thompson's viewpoint on whether to establish a bipartisan Congressional committee during the debate of the U.S. House of Representatives. [20]
Honorable Thompson's opposition began with his perspective that it is not necessary for a Congressional committee to be entrusted with the investigation. He compared Congress being permitted to investigate the government's preparedness to a fox guarding a hen house, in which he stated that the government is not safeguarding what needs to be safeguarded. He strongly believed that instead of establishing a Congressional committee, there should be an independent assessment of where the government went wrong. As the ranking minority member of the Homeland Security Committee, he submitted a document outlining the complexity of the problems regarding what happened during Hurricane Katrina and the need for an independent assessment. [20]
As well as Honorable Bennie Thompson, many other delegates of the U.S. House of Representatives were not shy in sharing their viewpoints as to why there should not have been a Congressional committee established. They gave their perspectives on a variety of issues why a Congressional committee was an inadequate idea. Many members of the Democratic party were not keen about establishing this Congressional committee, as it would have been composed of mainly Republican delegates. The Democrats involved in voicing their opinions did not want the power to be only in the hands of the Republicans, and therefore, voted in opposition of the establishment. [21]
Kathleen Marie Blanco was an American politician who served as the 54th governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first and, to date, only woman elected as the state's governor.
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.
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.
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 (8.5 m) storm surge flooding 6–12 miles (9.7–19.3 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 (9.1 m) above sea level. Casinos were allowed on land rather than limited to floating casino barges as in 2005.
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 Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina was the House of Representatives' congressional committee investigating the United States Government's failure to respond appropriately 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.
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts is a 2006 documentary film directed by Spike Lee about the devastation of New Orleans, Louisiana following the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina. It was filmed in late August and early September 2005, and premiered at the New Orleans Arena on August 16, 2006 and was first aired on HBO the following week. The television premiere aired in two parts on August 21 and 22, 2006 on HBO. It has been described by Sheila Nevins, chief of HBO's documentary unit, as "one of the most important films HBO has ever made." The title is a reference to the blues tune "When the Levee Breaks" by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.
Tropical Storm Chris was the fourth tropical storm of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season. Forming on July 31 in the Atlantic Ocean east of the Leeward Islands from a tropical wave, Chris moved generally to the west-northwest, skirting the northern fringes of the Caribbean islands. Chris was a relatively short-lived storm, reaching a peak intensity with winds at 65 mph (105 km/h) on August 2, while positioned north of St. Martin. The storm gradually weakened before finally dissipating on August 5, near eastern Cuba. Overall impact was minimal, amounting to moderate amounts of rainfall throughout its path. No deaths were reported.
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 Flood Control Act of 1965, Title II of Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law 89–298, was enacted on October 27, 1965, by the 89th Congress and authorized the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design and construct numerous flood control projects including the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity, Louisiana Hurricane Protection Project in the New Orleans region of south Louisiana.
Hurricane Gustav was the second most destructive hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. The seventh tropical cyclone, third hurricane, and second major hurricane of the season, Gustav caused serious damage and casualties in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba and the United States. Gustav caused at least $8.31 billion (2008 USD) in damages.
The approach of Hurricane Rita towards the United States Gulf Coast in September 2005 triggered one of the largest mass evacuations in U.S. history. Between 2.5 and 3.7 million people evacuated from the Gulf coast, mostly from the Greater Houston area of Texas, with forecasts from the National Hurricane Center projecting Rita to strike the Texas Gulf Coast. Seeking to avoid a repeat of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi less than a month prior, local officials began issuing evacuation orders on September 21 before the issuance of hurricane watches and warnings. Although evacuation orders anticipated smaller numbers of evacuees, uncertainties in projections of Rita's path and the fresh memory of Katrina's aftermath led many to evacuate, including from otherwise safe areas outside the scope of evacuation orders; approximately two-thirds of evacuees were not required to evacuate. The unexpectedly large scale of the evacuation overwhelmed Texas highways, producing widespread gridlock that was exacerbated by the implementation of previously unplanned contraflow on Interstates 10 and 45 while the evacuation was ongoing. Most traffic associated with the evacuation was clear of the threatened coastal areas by the early morning of September 23.