According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Katrina is the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, inflicting some $125 billion in total damages. - The total damage from Katrina is estimated to be $125 billion (or $190 billion in 2022 dollars), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). One of the worst disasters in U.S. history, Katrina caused an estimated $161 billion in damage. A fire erupted in a trash chute inside the dome, but a National Guard commander said it did not affect the evacuation. And despite the fact that this was meant to be a temporary shelter, they ended up being stranded in the stadium for a week. [45] However, the Saints announced that they would be returning to New Orleans, with the first home game taking place on September 25, 2006 against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. [13][35] The attacker was later jailed. As of August 31, there had been three deaths in the Superdome: two elderly medical patients who were suffering from existing illness, and a man who committed suicide by jumping from the upper level seats. The storm initially formed as a tropical depression southeast of the Bahamas on August 23. Thornton recruited off-duty NOPD officers to come grab sandbags and carry them from the parking lot, through the loading dock, and back to the generator room from the inside. [Mouton] saved thousands of lives.. In some areas, floodwaters reached depths of 10 to 15 feet, and didnt recede for weeks. At 1:30 in the morning, Denise Thornton walked with her group up to the helipad, out in the open air, and there it was. Finally, Mouton spoke. The outer ends of the hurricane also produced tornados, although they only damaged power lines and trees. [5] Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau of the Louisiana National Guard, said that the number of people taking shelter in the Superdome rose to around 15,00020,000 as search and rescue teams brought more people from areas hit hard by the flooding.[6]. [52] The Mountaineers won, 3835. In 2006, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was responsible for the design of the levee system in New Orleans, acknowledged that outdated and faulty engineering practices used to build the levees led to most of the flooding that occurred due to Katrina. Although the rebuilt levees are supposed to protect the city against a flood with a severity that comes every 100 years, the flood brought by Hurricane Katrina was one that, in theory, comes once every 400 years. However, this didn't happen because the storm was too strong it happened due to the failures of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Some trapped inside also believe the curse is real. In 2004, the federal government sponsored a "planning exercise" involving local, state, and federal officials that resembled the eventual impact of Hurricane Katrina. Experts don't know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina, but 1,800 is one of the low estimates, and over 1 million people lost their homes and were displaced. Although they were meant to be used for 18 months, they were still in use up to six years after the hurricane. From Morgan City, Louisiana, to Biloxi, Mississippi, to Mobile, Alabama, Hurricane Katrina's wind, rain, and . Wind and water damage to the roof created unsafe conditions, leading authorities to conduct emergency evacuations of the Superdome. The Superdome was, as far as Thornton was concerned, completely destroyed. This was especially clear in the poor evacuations of nursing homes. Later, approximately 114,000 households were housed in FEMA trailers. According to PBS, two weeks after the storm, 25% of the children remained unaccounted for. When buses finally arrived yesterday, a desperate group of refugees broke loose from a cordon of National Guardsmen, but were stopped by heavily armed police toting machine guns. Her escape out. This place wont be here in six days.. Although there was a "maintenance regime" theoretically in place for the levees, the Senate committee found that it was "in no way commensurate with the risk posed to these persons and their property." According to National Geographic, "some argue that indirect hurricane deaths, like being unable to access medical care, should be counted in official numbers.". The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. Although FEMA had promised 360,000 military rations, only 40,000 had arrived by that day. It continued on a course to the northeast, crossing the Mississippi Sound and making a second landfall later that morning near the mouth of the Pearl River. Local residents gathering outside of the Superdome on September 2, 2005. The National Weather Service was revising its forecast again. Crack vials littered the bathrooms. A 2008 report from the Louisiana Health Department put the total at . Mouton suggested checking the water level every thirty minutes. But after the levees broke, the city buses went underwater. A Warner Bros. At St. Rita's Nursing Home, residents were reportedly abandoned by the staff, and 35 people drowned as a result. Hurricane Katrina had intruded on the last safe space. Brown. Twenty-five thousand miserable people - many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina - hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the. The Society Pages writes that there were six deaths in the Superdome: one by suicide, one by overdose, and four from natural causes. Several hundredof Thorntons part-time employees had shown up as well, unable to evacuate, and hed placed them in one of the club lounges along with the families of some New Orleans Police Department officers. Satellite view of the Superdome showing the damaged roof with the New Orleans Arena to the right on August 30, 2005. Deaths in the Superdome. That night, NOPD Chief of Police Eddie Compass arrived to see Thornton and Col. Mouton. There were no designated medical staff at work in the evacuation center, no established sick bay within the Superdome, and very few cots available that hadn't been brought in by evacuees. It was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Across 13 nursing homes and six hospitals that were investigated in Louisiana, at least 140 patients died as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Photo. Nagin told the men to get him a list of supplies they needed, and he would get it from FEMA. Katrinas death toll is the fourth highest of any hurricane in U.S. history, after the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people; Hurricane Maria, which killed more than 4,600 people in Puerto Rico in 2017; and the Okeechobee Hurricane, which hit Florida in 1928 and killed as many as 3,000. Engineers also didn't consider sinking land and soil quality, which led to a misjudgment of soil stability. 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. The White House writes that by February 2006, there were still over 2,000 people who were counted as missing, and many are still missing over 15 years after the storm. A school bus drops off a student in front of the Claiborne Bridge on May 12, 2015. Winds of 125 mph and storm surges of 28 feet devastated much of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi. But inside the Superdome, things were deteriorating rapidly. [15] Evacuees began to break into the luxury suites, concession stands, vending machines, and offices to look for food and other supplies. Following the historical damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, the name Katrina was retired from the lists of names. This was it. In response, guardsmanput up barbed wire at various areas around the building, protecting themselves from the general population. Denise Thornton was tasked with deciding the order of evacuation. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. A storm surge more than 26 feet (8 metres) high slammed into the coastal cities of Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi, devastating homes and resorts along the beachfront. And as the media portrayed New Orleans as a lawless place filled with violence with overblown and unverified reports, police and rescue efforts were redirected against the imaginary violence. Meanwhile, foster families struggled with making sure that their children had their medication. A FEMA employee told Thornton and Mouton they expected to find lots ofdead bodies, and had decided to bring them here, next to the place where those left in the city were fighting to live. Most of these rumors were caused because of the breakdown of cellular service, which prevented the distribution of reliable and accurate information. Though leaving in the light of day would be easier, it could also cause hysteria from those left behind in the Dome. And as Vox writes, this wasn't necessarily by choice "but rather because they were too poor to afford a car or bus fare to leave." [33] False reports of gunshots also disrupted medical evacuations at the dome. While Mouton and Thornton worked to find space for them to operate, two massive, 18-wheeler refrigerated trucks pulled into the loading dock, not far from the door where new arrivals entered the building. In the hours before the storm hit and thenafter it left when the levees failedand everything changed the people who remained in New Orleans streamed toward a place where usually they would go to watch football, the massive structure at the citys heart, the Superdome. The National Flood Insurance Program paid out $16 billion in claims. A man had been caught sexually assaulting a young girl. The water was still rising. When Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much Mayor, youve got to get these people out of here, he said. There was stillno word on when, exactly, the buses would arrive. All of our employees had left town with the mandatory evacuation, he said. He just broke down. The levee system that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne had been completely overwhelmed by 10 inches (25 cm) of rain and Katrinas storm surge. The population of New Orleans fell from 484,674 in April 2000 to 230,172 in July 2006, a decrease of over 50%. Ive been through a lot of hurricanes. In New Orleans, the evacuation plan reportedly "fell apart even before the storm hit." He started bawling. By 2007, 99% of the 1.2 million personal property claims had been settled by insurers. As some people tried to get supplies to survive, the media portrayed them as "looters," a term that the LA Times notes is more often applied to Black people than white people. The total damage from Katrina is estimated to be $125 billion (or $190 billion in 2022 dollars), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). People try to get to higher ground as water rises on August 30, 2005, in New Orleans. The New Orleans Saints played four of their scheduled home games at LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, three at the Alamodome in San Antonio, and one at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Hurricane Katrina caused up to $161 billion worth of damage, largely due to the fact that the breached levees led to flooding in 80% of New Orleans. People had broken up into factions by race, separating into small groups throughout the building that the National Guard struggled to control. And when the levees were breached, there were only two FEMA workers on the ground. At the peak of the Katrina recovery effort, 51,039 National Guard soldiers from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and three territories worked in Louisiana and Mississippi, making Katrina by far . Some 1.2 million Louisianans were displaced for months or even years, and thousands never returned. Robert Fontaine walks past a burning house fire in New Orleans' Seventh Ward on September 6, 2005. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Rumours spread in the press of reports of rapes, violent assaults, murders, drug abuse, and gang activity inside the Superdome, most of which were entirely unsubstantiated and without witnesses. However, National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted the strengthening, and hurricane watches and warnings . On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. As general manager of the facility since 1997, he had been through this several times before. He didnt realize how bad things are other there, Wells said. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. Corrections? By 11 a.m. on August 30, Katrina had dwindled to heavy rainfall and winds of about 35 mph. Ive been in there seven days, and I havent had a bath. By the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170 miles (275 km) per hour. A storm worth worrying about had entered the gulf. The Superdome was gone. By some estimates, between 80 and 90 percent of New Orleans population was able to evacuate the city prior to Katrina. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. [33], During the evening on August 31, about 700 elderly and ill patients were transported out by military helicopters and planes from Louis Armstrong International Airport to Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston. ", Socialist Alternative writes the budget of the Crops was slashed after 2003, largely to pay for the Iraq War and tax cuts for the wealthy: "A refusal to invest tens of millions of dollars into strengthening levees has led to a catastrophe that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars." Still, about 100,000 people were trapped in the city when the storm hit, and many took last-ditch refuge in the New Orleans Superdome and the Ernest J. Morial Convention Center as the storm approached. Feces covered the walls of bathrooms. She knew the destruction was bad, that water was everywhere. Widespread criticism of the federal response to Katrina led to the resignation of Michael D. Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and did lasting damage to the reputation of President Bush, who was nearing the end of a month-long vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas when Katrina struck. And although hurricanes are usually only 300 miles wide at most, Hurricane Katrina's winds stretched out over 400 miles, with wind speeds well in excess of 100 mph. [34] However, after a National Guardsman was attacked with a metal rod, the National Guard put up barbed wire barricades to separate and protect themselves from the other people in the dome, and blocked people from exiting. Southern Mississippi won over Arkansas State, 3119. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Huge crowds of seething and tense people jammed the main concourse outside the dome hoping to get on the buses to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Black middle class in particular was all but wiped out, and Black household incomes have fallen. The Social Science Research Council writes that this disparity occurred because elderly people were neither evacuated nor protected effectively. [32] New Orleans Police Department chief Eddie Compass appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and reported seeing "little babies getting raped" and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin also said he saw hooligans raping and killing people. Rather, the hurricane was named in accordance with the World Meteorological Organizations lists of hurricane names, which rotate every six years. After it made landfall in Louisiana on August 29, Hurricane Katrina produced widespread flooding in southeastern Louisiana because the levee system that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne was completely overwhelmed by 10 inches of rain and Katrinas storm surge. The air smelled toxic. Sept. 1, 2006, 3:09 PM PDT / Source: The Associated Press. By the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170 miles (275 km) per hour. Mouton was there, walking quickly toward him. This also disproportionately affected people of color. Katrina caused over 1,800 deaths and $100 billion in . FEMA infamously brought in trailers, "hastily built and steeped in toxic resins," that were used to house people after the hurricane. They took off running to the concourse, and saw a nightmare come true the roof in one section above the field had been torn off by the wind. [21] The Astrodome started to fill up, so authorities began to transfer people to the nearby Reliant Arena, Reliant Center, and George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston in the following days. The guardsmans gun went off during the confrontation. Just looking out I saw glare of the water, she said, choking up. A hurricane warning is issued for north central Gulf . Heres a look at some statistics from Hurricane Katrina. Although New Orleans levees and flood walls had been designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane, half of the network gave way to the waters. Before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, there were roughly 2,000 foster children registered in the state. estimated population had increased to 376,971. ", Messed Up Things That Happened During Hurricane Katrina, wonder if New Orleans can handle another Katrina, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared, Slow Violence, Neoliberalism, and Environmental Picaresque, Deaths Directly Caused by Hurricane Katrina. [44] The San Antonio Express-News reported that sources close to the Saints' organization said that Benson planned to void his lease agreement with New Orleans by declaring the Superdome unusable. Thornton and Mouton went to work, spending a hour writing up a two-page, handwritten list of everything they needed. Their first game, against Mississippi State University, was played on September 17 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. Security checks were conducted, and people with medical illnesses or disabilities were moved to one side of the dome with supplies and medical personnel. It was already known that the generators would not provide lights or air conditioning for the whole dome if the power failed, and also pumps providing water to second-level restrooms wouldn't function. And as Rob Nixon notes in "Slow Violence, Neoliberalism, and Environmental Picaresque," "Discrimination predates disaster: in failures to maintain protective structures, failures at pre-emergency hazard mitigation, failures to maintain infrastructure, failures to organize evacuation plans for those who lack private transport, all of which make the poor and racial minorities disproportionately vulnerable to catastrophe."