Читать книгу The Worst World Disasters of All Time - Kevin Baker - Страница 11

Flooding in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Date: August 23^rd - September 3^rd 2005.

Location: The Bahamas, Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

Disaster Type: Destructive hurricane.

Fatalities: 1,833 deaths.

Resulting Damage: $108 billion dollars worth of mass destruction.

Hurricane Katrina will always be remembered as one of the strongest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It caused the deaths of almost two thousand people, making it the deadliest hurricane in nearly eighty years. In property damage, the total is estimated at around $108 billion, which is triple the amount of damage caused by another famous storm, Hurricane Andrew, in 1992.

The storm started over the Bahamas on August 23rd, 2005 as a tropical depression, at the time called ‘Tropical Depression Twelve’. It did not take long for meteorologists to realize that there was a major storm brewing in the Atlantic. The next morning, on August 24th, it was now bumped up to tropical storm status and given the name Katrina. By August 27th, the storm was already a Category 3 hurricane and evacuations were underway in the danger zones. The next morning it was a Category 5, the highest and deadliest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

At its peak, Hurricane Katrina had winds of 175 miles per hour and a central pressure of 902 mbar. The pressure measurement is what makes Katrina the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane in recorded history.

Katrina made its first landfall after it had been classified as a hurricane for only two hours. It touched down between Hallandale Beach and Aventura in Florida on August 25th. It moved on to the Gulf of Mexico, where it gained most of its strength. Its second landfall was on August 29th, 2005 near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. It had diminished to a Category 3 by then, with only 120 mph winds.

The storm continued to move inland, moving on to touch down near the Louisiana/Mississippi border, still a Category 3. It then continued strong as it moved into Mississippi, but finally weakened more than 150 miles inland. Katrina was downgraded to a tropical depression, but its lingering effects were still distinguishable in the Great Lakes region on August 31st.

Katrina is most famous for the damage it caused to the city of New Orleans on the morning of August 29th, 2005. Although 80% of the city had been evacuated, there were still tens of thousands of people in their homes when the levees broke and most of the city was submerged in water. About 180,000 homes were underwater during the flood, and all the electrical and water systems ceased to function.

However, Hurricane Katrina affected more than just New Orleans. Its storm surges affected the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama as well. Almost 240 of the deaths caused by Katrina were in Mississippi, although the majority of deaths were in Louisiana, at around 1,500. It destroyed buildings and bridges and lives.