Everything about Hurricane Katrina totally explained
Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the five deadliest
hurricanes in the history of the
United States. It was the sixth-strongest
Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest hurricane on record that made
landfall in the United States. Katrina formed on
August 23 during the
2005 Atlantic hurricane season and caused devastation along much of the north-central
Gulf Coast. The most severe
loss of life and property damage occurred in
New Orleans,
Louisiana, which flooded as the
levee system catastrophically failed, in many cases hours after the storm had moved inland.
At least 1,836 people lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the
1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. The storm is estimated to have been responsible for $81.2 billion (2005
U.S. dollars) in damage, making it the costliest natural disaster in
U.S. history. The catastrophic failure of the flood protection in New Orleans prompted immediate review of the
Army Corps of Engineers, which has, by
congressional mandate, sole responsibility for design and construction of the flood protection and levee systems. There was also widespread criticism of the federal, state and local governments' reaction to the storm, which resulted in an investigation by the
U.S. Congress, and the resignation of
Federal Emergency Management Agency director
Michael D. Brown. Conversely, the
National Hurricane Center and
National Weather Service were widely commended for accurate forecasts and abundant lead time. On
August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the
Saffir-Simpson Hurricane 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. Katrina again rapidly intensified, attaining Category 5 status on the morning of
August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1:00 p.m. CDT that day, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central
pressure of 902
mbar. The pressure measurement made Katrina the fourth 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 (a record also later broken by
Rita). The NHC issued a hurricane watch for southeastern Louisiana, including the New Orleans area at 10 a.m. CDT
August 27. That afternoon the NHC extended the watch to cover the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines as well as the Louisiana coast to
Intracoastal City.
The
United States Coast Guard began pre-positioning resources beyond the expected impact zone starting on
August 26, and activated more than 400 reservists. Aircrews from the Aviation Training Center, in Mobile, staged rescue aircraft from Texas to Florida. All aircraft were returning back towards the Gulf of Mexico by the afternoon of
August 29. Air
crews, 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 Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi two days before the hurricane made landfall. (These declarations later proved to be a point of controversy; see below.) That same evening, the NHC upgraded the section of the hurricane watch from
Morgan City, Louisiana to the Alabama-Florida border to a hurricane warning, 12 hours after it was issued, and also issued a tropical storm warning for the westernmost Florida Panhandle.
On
August 28, as the sheer size of Katrina became clear, the NHC extended the tropical storm warning zone to cover most of the Louisiana coastline and a larger portion of the
Florida Panhandle. The
National Weather Service's New Orleans/Baton Rouge office issued a
vividly-worded bulletin 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.
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. (In fact, the declaration didn't 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 Governor Blanco hadn't included those parishes in her initial request for aid, a decision that he found "shocking." After the hearing, though, Blanco released a copy of her letter, which requested assistance for "all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting [evacuatedcitizens]."
Gulf Coast
On
August 26, the state of Mississippi activated its
National Guard 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 7:00 p.m.
EDT on
August 28, 11 counties and eleven 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.
Louisiana'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 care-taking facilities that relied on 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. 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.
By Sunday,
August 28, most infrastructure along the
Gulf Coast had been shut down, including all
Canadian National Railway and
Amtrak rail traffic into the evacuation areas as well as the
Waterford Nuclear Generating Station. The NHC maintained the coastal warnings until late on
August 29, by which time Hurricane Katrina was over central Mississippi. 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), 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 10:00 a.m. 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 couldn't 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.
Florida
Many people living in the area were unaware when Katrina strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane in one day and struck southern
Florida near the
Miami-Dade –
Broward county line. The hurricane struck between the cities of
Aventura, in Miami-Dade County, and
Hallandale, in Broward County, on
August 25,
2005. However,
National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted that Katrina would intensify to hurricane strength before landfall, and
hurricane watches and warnings were issued 31.5 hours and 19.5 hours before landfall, respectively — only slightly less than the target thresholds of 36 and 24 hours.
Impact
On
August 29, Katrina's
storm surge caused 53 different
levee breaches in greater
New Orleans submerging eighty percent of the city. A June 2007 expert report stated that two-thirds of the flooding were due to levee breaches
(External Link
). The storm surge also devastated the coasts of
Mississippi and
Alabama, making Katrina the most destructive and costliest
natural disaster in the history of the
United States, and the deadliest hurricane since the
1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $81.2 billion (2005
U.S. dollars), nearly double the cost of the previously most expensive storm,
Hurricane Andrew, when adjusted for inflation.
As of
May 19,
2006, the confirmed death toll (total of direct and indirect deaths) stood at 1,836, mainly from Louisiana (1,577) and Mississippi (238). However, 705 people remain categorized as missing in Louisiana, and many of the deaths are indirect, but it's almost impossible to determine the exact cause of some of the fatalities.
Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square miles (233,000 km²) 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.
South Florida and Cuba
Hurricane Katrina first made landfall on
August 25,
2005 in
South Florida where it hit as a
Category 1 hurricane, with 80 mph (130 km/h) winds. Rainfall was heavy in places and exceeded 14 inches (350 mm) in
Homestead, Florida,
Although Hurricane Katrina stayed well to the north of
Cuba, on
August 29 it brought tropical-storm force winds and rainfall of over 8 inches (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 city of Surgidero de Batabano was 90% underwater.
Louisiana
On
August 29 Hurricane Katrina made landfall near
Buras, Louisiana with 125 mph (205 km/h) winds, as a strong Category 3 storm. However, as it had only just weakened from Category 4 strength and the radius of maximum winds was large, it's possible that sustained winds of Category 4 strength briefly impacted extreme southeastern Louisiana. Although the storm surge to the east of the path of the eye in
Mississippi was higher, a very 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 m) storm surge was recorded in
Grand Isle.
Hard-hit
St. Bernard Parish was flooded due to breaching of the levees that contained a navigation channel called the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO). The search for the missing was slow. According to an interview in the
New Orleans Times-Picayune, the coroner was still trying to get a list of missing from the
Red Cross in November 2005. While there were some victims on this list whose bodies were found in their homes, the vast majority were tracked down through word-of-mouth and credit card records. As of December 2005, the official missing list in the Parish stood at 47.
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. From this the NHC concluded that it's likely that much of the city experienced sustained winds of Category 1 or Category 2 strength.
Katrina's storm surge led to 53 levee breaches in the
federally built levee system protecting metro New Orleans. Failures occurred in
New Orleans, Louisiana and surrounding communities especially St. Bernard Parish. The
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) breached its levees in approximately 20 places, flooding much of east New Orleans, most of
Saint 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 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.
On
August 29, at 7:40 a.m. CDT, it was reported that most of the windows on the north side of the Hyatt Regency New Orleans had been blown out, and many other high rise buildings had extensive window damage. The Hyatt was the most severely damaged hotel in the city, with beds reported to be flying out of the windows. Insulation tubes were exposed as the hotel's glass exterior was completely sheared off.
The
Superdome, which was sheltering many people who hadn't evacuated, sustained significant damage. Two sections of the Superdome's roof were compromised and the dome's waterproof membrane had essentially been peeled off.
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was closed before the storm but didn't flood. On
August 30, it was reopened to humanitarian and rescue operations. Limited commercial passenger service resumed at the airport on
September 13 and regular carrier operations resumed in early October.
Levee breaches in New Orleans also caused widespread loss of life, 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.
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. 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.
Mississippi
The Gulf coast of
Mississippi suffered massive 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, and afterwards, all 82 counties in Mississippi were declared disaster areas for federal assistance, 47 for full assistance. and that storm surges traveled as much as six miles (10 km) inland in portions of the state's coast. 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
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 east of Katrina's landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi border, was flooded from 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.
Northern and central
Georgia were affected by heavy rains and strong winds from Hurricane Katrina as the storm moved inland, with more than 3 inches (75 mm) of rain falling in several areas. At least 18 tornadoes formed in Georgia on
August 29, the most on record in that state for one day in August. The most serious of these tornadoes was a
F2 tornado which affected
Heard County and
Carroll County. This tornado caused 3 injuries and one fatality and damaged several houses. In addition this tornado destroyed several poultry barns, killing over 140,000 chicks. The other tornadoes caused significant damages to buildings and agricultural facilities. In addition to the fatality caused by the F2 tornado, there was another fatality in a traffic accident.
Other U.S. States and Canada
Hurricane Katrina weakened as it moved inland, but tropical-storm force gusts were recorded as far north as
Fort Campbell, Kentucky on
August 30, and the winds damaged trees in
New York. The remnants of the storm brought high levels of rainfall to a wide swath of the
eastern United States, and rain in excess of 2 inches (50 mm) fell in parts of 20 states. A number of tornadoes associated with Katrina formed on
August 30 and
August 31, which caused minor damages in several regions. In total, 62 tornadoes formed in eight states as a result of Katrina. Gusty winds downed some trees and power lines, though damage was minimal. In
Kentucky, a storm that had moved through the weekend before had already produced flooding and the rainfall from Katrina added to this. As a result of the flooding,
Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher declared three counties disaster areas and a statewide state of emergency. One person was killed in
Hopkinsville, Kentucky and part of a high school collapsed. Flooding also prompted a number of evacuations in
West Virginia and
Ohio, the rainfall in Ohio leading to two indirect deaths. 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.
The remnants of Katrina were absorbed by a new cyclone to its east across
Pennsylvania. This second cyclone continued north and affected
Canada on
August 31. In
Ontario there were a few isolated reports of rain in excess of 100 mm (4 inches) and there were a few reports of damage from fallen trees. Flooding also occurred both in Ontario and
Quebec, cutting off a number of isolated villages in Quebec, particularly in the
Cote-Nord region.
Aftermath
Economic effects
The economic effects of the storm were far-reaching. As of April 2006, the Bush Administration has sought $105 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the region, and this doesn't 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 forestry industry in Mississippi was also affected, as 1.3 million acres (5,300 km²) of forest lands were destroyed. The total loss to the forestry industry from Katrina is calculated to rise to about $5 billion.
Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, which became 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 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, approximately 90 miles (150
km) to the east of the point where the hurricane made landfall, the sand that comprised the
barrier island was transported across the island into the
Mississippi Sound, pushing the island towards land. The storm surge and waves from Katrina also obliterated the
Chandeleur Islands, which had been affected by
Hurricane Ivan the previous year. The US Geological Survey has estimated 217 square miles of land was transformed to water by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The lands that were lost were breeding grounds for marine mammals, brown
pelicans,
turtles, and
fish, as well as migratory species such as
redhead ducks. As a result, the hurricane affected the habitats of
sea turtles, Mississippi
sandhill cranes,
Red-cockaded woodpeckers and
Alabama Beach mice.
Reports of
carjacking,
murders,
thefts, and
rapes in New Orleans flooded the news. Several news media later determined that the majority of reports were based on unfounded rumors. Thousands of National Guard and federal troops were mobilized and sent to Louisiana along with numbers of local law enforcement agents from across the country who 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 (D-LA) told
ABC News: "There was shooting going on. There was sniping going on. Over the first week of September, law and order was gradually restored to the city." Several shootings were between police and New Orleans residents, including a fatal incident at
Danziger Bridge.
A number of
arrests were made throughout the affected area, including near the New Orleans Convention Center. A temporary jail was constructed of chain link cages in the city train station.
In Texas, where more than 300,000 evacuees are located, local officials have run 20,000 criminal background checks on the evacuees, as well as on the relief workers helping them and people who have opened up their homes. Most of the checks have found very little for police to be concerned about. The number of homicides in
Houston from September 2005 through
February 22 2006 went up by 23% relative to the same period a year before; 29 of the 170 murders involved displaced Louisianans as a victim or as a suspect.
Government response
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 communications systems at various levels.
Some
disaster recovery response to Katrina began before the storm, with
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) preparations that ranged from logistical supply deployments to a
mortuary team with refrigerated trucks. A network of volunteers began rendering assistance to local residents and residents emerging from New Orleans and surrounding parishes as soon as the storm made landfall, and continued for more than six months after the storm.
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 command on Sunday,
August 28. 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. 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 have been supplied, resulting in an enormous housing shortage in the city of New Orleans. 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 early July 2006, there are still about 100,000 people living in 37,745
FEMA-provided trailers.
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 away and another 60,000 households went over 750 miles (1,200 km) away.
Criticism of government response
The criticisms of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina primarily consisted of condemnations 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 Crescent 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,
2005 landfall, public debate arose about the local, state and federal governments' role in the
preparations for and response to the hurricane.
Criticism was prompted largely by televised images of visibly shaken and frustrated political leaders and of residents who remained in New Orleans without
water,
food or shelter. The deaths of citizens by
thirst,
exhaustion, and
violence days after the storm itself had passed also fueled the criticism, as did the treatment of people who had been evacuated to facilities such as the
Louisiana Superdome. Others alleged that
race,
class, and other factors could have contributed to delays in government response. The percentage of black victims among storm-related deaths (49%) was below their proportion in the area's population (approx. 60%
).
The government was accused of making things worse, instead of making things better, by preventing help by others while delaying its own response. 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. 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 praise from Bush with the now-well-known phrase,
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."
On
September 2,
2005, during a
benefit concert for Hurricane Katrina relief on
NBC,
A Concert for Hurricane Relief,
Kanye West was a featured speaker. Controversy arose when West was presenting, as he deviated from the prepared script:
I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I'd be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the teacher-the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help — with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way — and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!
Mike Myers, with whom West was paired to present, spoke next and continued as normal by reading the script. Once it was West's turn to speak again, West delivered the controversial phrase "
George Bush doesn't care about
black people." Although the camera quickly cut away to
Chris Tucker, West's comments still reached the East Coast broadcasts, and was replayed or discussed afterwards.
Kanye West and Mike Myers met again on a brief sketch on
Saturday Night Live, in which Myers joked that since the telethon, the government has stripped him of his American citizenship ("still got my Canadian citizenship to fall back on," Myers joked), and placed him under heavy government surveillance.
Criticism from politicians, activists, pundits and journalists of all stripes was directed at the local and state and governments headed by Mayor
Ray Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor
Kathleen Blanco. Nagin and Blanco were criticized for failing to implement New Orleans' 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 (by that time) couldn't find any way out of the city. 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
Over seventy countries pledged monetary donations or other assistance. Notably,
Cuba and
Venezuela (both hostile to US government themselves) 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 ($100 million),
South Korea ($30 million),
Australia ($10 million),
India,
China (both $5 million),
Pakistan ($1.5 million), and
Bangladesh ($1 million).
Israel sent an
IDF delegation to New Orleans to transport aid equipment including 80 tons of food, disposable diapers, beds, blankets, generators and additional equipment which were donated from different governmental institutions, civilian institutions and the IDF. The Bush Administration announced in mid-September that it didn't need Israeli divers and physicians to come to the United States for search and rescue missions, but a small team landed in New Orleans on
September 10 to give assistance to operations already under way. The team administered first aid to survivors, rescued abandoned pets and discovered hurricane victims.
Countries like
Sri Lanka, which was still recovering from the
Indian Ocean Tsunami, also offered to help. Countries including
Canada,
Mexico,
Singapore, and
Germany sent supplies, relief personnel, troops, ships and water pumps to aid in the disaster recovery.
Belgium sent in a team of relief personnel.
Britain's donation of 350,000 emergency meals didn't 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.
Despite receiving aid from around the world, there was also a heavy dose of criticism from around the world including accusations of racism that were revealed at the international level across global press. Quotations from the UK Mirror such as "Many things about the United States are wonderful, but it has a vile underbelly which is usually kept well out of sight. Now in New Orleans it has been exposed to the world." were common.
Non-governmental organization response
The
American Red Cross,
Southern Baptist Convention,
Salvation Army,
Oxfam,
Common Ground Collective,
Emergency Communities,
Habitat for Humanity, Service International, "A River of Hope" and many other charitable organizations provided help to the victims 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 $4.25 billion (
USD) in donations by the public, with the Red Cross receiving over half of the donations.
Volunteers from
amateur radio's emergency service wing, 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 corporations also contributed to relief efforts. On
September 13,
2005, it was reported that corporate donations to the relief effort were $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 different shelters across and registered 3.8 million overnight stays. 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 (such as toothpaste, soap, washcloths and toys for children) and 205,360 clean up 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 that the American Red Cross utilized its "Safe and Well" family location website.
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, 8.3 million sandwiches, snacks & drinks. 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.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Southeastern Louisiana and Southern Mississippi, the areas were in hardship for skilled workers. Immigrants (legal and illegal) from Mexico and Honduras flocked into these regions by the thousands and performed the bulk of clean up and rebuilding peoples properties. American small business contractors hired these immigrants and taught them what they needed to know and the area was cleaned up and rebuilt at fair prices compared to local price gaugers. These immigrants worked 16 hours a day for little pay while the contractors made a huge profit. Immigrants from Mexico and Honduras are cursed by local contractors but heavily appreciated by the average homeowner who was devastated in these States.
Analysis of New Orleans levee failures
A June 2007 report released by the
American Society of Civil Engineers states that the failures of the federally built levees in
New Orleans' were found to be primarily the result of system design flaws. The
US Army Corps of Engineers who by
federal mandate is responsible for the conception, design and construction of the region's flood-control system failed to pay sufficient attention to public safety.
According to new modeling and field observations by a team from
Louisiana State University, the
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO), a 200-meter (660 ft) wide canal designed to provide a shortcut from New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico, helped provide a funnel for the storm surge, making it 20% higher and 100%-200% faster as it crashed into the city. St. Bernard Parish, one of the more devastated areas, lies just south of the MRGO. The
Army Corps of Engineers disputes this causality and maintains Katrina would have overwhelmed the levees with or without the contributing effect of the MRGO.
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 testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water that "We have now concluded we'd problems with the design of the structure." He also testified that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn't know of this mechanism of failure prior to
August 29,
2005. The claim of ignorance is refuted, however, by the National Science Foundation investigators hired by the Army Corps of Engineers, who point to a 1986 study by the Corps itself that such separations were possible in the I-wall design.
Various
conspiracy theories began floating around that the levees were in fact deliberately demolished. A number of New Orleans residents described hearing "explosions" coming from the Industrial Canal levee in the Lower 9th Ward before the floodwaters rushed in. A National Guard worker claims he was sworn to secrecy upon finding explosives residue at the site of the break.
Many of the levees have been reconstructed since the time of 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. T-walls have a horizontal concrete base that protects against soil erosion underneath the floodwalls.
However, there are funding battles over the remaining levee improvements. In February 2008, the Bush administration requested that the state of Louisiana pay about $1.5 billion of an estimated $7.2 billion for Army Corps of Engineers levee work, a proposal which angered many Louisiana leaders.
On May 2, 2008, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal used a speech to The National Press Club to request that President Bush free up money to complete work on Louisiana's levees. Bush promised to include the levee funding in his 2009 budget, but rejected the idea of including the funding in a war bill, which would pass sooner.
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 storm also brought a dramatic rise in the role of
Internet sites - especially
blogging and community journalism. One example was the effort of
NOLA.com, the web affiliate of New Orleans'
Times-Picayune, which was awarded the Breaking News
Pulitzer Prize, and shared the Public Service Pulitzer with the Biloxi-based
Sun Herald. 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.
The role of AM radio was of importance to the hundreds of thousands of persons with no other ties to news. AM radio provided emergency information regarding access to assistance for hurricane victims. Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, radio station WWL-AM (New Orleans) was one of the few area radio stations in the area remaining on the air. The 870 frequency has a clear channel high power designation and the on-going nighttime broadcasts continued to be available up to away. Announcers continued to broadcast from improvised studio facilities after the storm damaged their transmitter tower.
During the period of several weeks when most area radio stations were off the air, WWL-AM's emergency coverage was simulcast on the frequencies of other area radio stations. This emergency service was named "The United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans." To reach emergency radio operators in storm ravaged areas, many of whom made their volunteer services available to the Red Cross and government entities, WWL-AM was simulcast on shortwave outlet WHRI, owned by World Harvest Radio International. It is important to note that the mobile phone transmission antennae network was severely damaged and completely inoperable for several months. The AM and shortwave radio efforts were crucial in coordinating rescue and relief efforts.
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.
Hurricane Katrina has also been the centerpiece of several documentary films including
Spike Lee's film,
When the Levees Broke, and
Darren Martinez's film,
Hellp.
Retirement
Because of the large loss of life and 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. It was replaced by Katia on List III of the
Atlantic hurricane naming lists, which will next be used in the
2011 Atlantic hurricane season.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hurricane Katrina'.
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