Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the United States for several days before it made landfall in Florida on August 25, 2005. The storm that formed over the Bahamas on August 23 made its way in the direction of the Gulf Coast hitting Florida first then tracking over the Gulf of Mexico picking up power and more ocean water took aim on New Orleans.
Meteorologists tracking the storm were able to warn those along the Gulf Coast in states like Louisiana, parts of Florida and Texas but many people didn't have the means to leave or thought they could just shelter in place. A state of emergency was declared for New Orleans but a city of its size with more than one million people was difficult to evacuate.
The storm made landfall in New Orleans on August 29 before it tracked up into the rest of the U.S. losing steam as it went.
Seven Facts About Hurricane Katrina:
The name Katrina for a tropical cyclone was retired by the World Meteorological Organization because it was one of the storms considered to be particularly deadly and costly. It's retired because it could be inconsiderate to reuse the name.
Katrina was one of the most deadly hurricanes to ever hit the U.S. The storm caused 1,833 deaths, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The rain itself isn't what caused the damage in New Orleans, it was the storm surge that made the sea level rise and then breach the levees. In all there were 53 levees that were breached due to the storm, according to NOAA.
Waves in the eye of the storm reached more than 55 feet high, according to NOAA.
While some estimates say the city is below sea level, roughly half of the city sits above sea level, The Atlantic reported.
Hurricane Katrina is estimated to have cost $161 billion, the most a hurricane has officially ever cost the U.S. Hurricane Harvey is in second place at $125 billion, according to NOAA's Office for Coastal Management.
It's estimated that 250,000 people fled New Orleans to Houston and between 20,000 and 40,000 stayed for good.
About the writer
Nina was a breaking news reporter. She previously worked at Business Insider, The Boston Globe, and Boston.com.
