Hurricane+Katrina

In 2005, a category three hurricane devastated the coastal American region. The storm was first spotted on August 23, where it was thought to be a tropical storm. As it neared Southern Florida, the storm gained momentum and on Wednesday August 24th, it was deemed a hurricane-the 11th of 2005. The storm gained speed and depth and hit land on the 25th, doing slight damage to coastal Florida. Moving down the coast, the storm slowed to tropical storm status and continued towards Texas. At 5am on August 26th, the storm once again became classified as a hurricane, this time known as Katrina. As Katrina moved across the Gulf of Mexico gaining speed, researchers frantically tried to measure the storm and prepare the citizens. Chris Landsea, a hurricane chaser said after entering the storm via aircraft that, "It was certainly very strong and also was very large," Landsea said later. Landsea, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was aboard a flight into Hurricane Katrina. "When we were flying into it Saturday, its circulation covered the entire Gulf of Mexico." media type="custom" key="7047231"

By August 28th, the Katrina’s winds had reached 145 miles per hour and the city of New Orleans began a mandatory evacuation. As the storm reached the shore in New Orleans, water began to flow over one of the levees, and thus began the destruction of New Orleans. By August 30th, the hurricane had moved from New Orleans leaving flooding, power outages, and multiple casualties. Throughout the day on the 30th, water flowed through the now broken levee, sending water throughout the city and by September 1st, New Orleans was in a state of disarray and issued a formal “desperate SOS,” to the federal government.  The government’s response was not as fast as it needed to be as transportation into the city was impossible. When the National Guard finally arrived, they were met with a project that eventually spent Washington 10.5 million dollars to resolve. The guard gave out food and water to those stranded in the city and eventually, volunteers were able to begin to get New Orleans back on its feet. media type="custom" key="7047179"