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Chapter Chapter 1

 Section Hurricane Katrina Among Other Disasters

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Hurricane Katrina Among Other Disasters

Hurricane Katrina was the most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history. ² The overall destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, which was both a large and powerful hurricane as well as a catastrophic flood, vastly exceeded that of any other major disaster, such as the Chicago Fire of 1871, the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906, and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. ³

Hurricane Katrina’s devastating effects were felt before the storm even reached the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Katrina battered the offshore energy infrastructure and forced the evacuation of more than 75 percent of the Gulf’s 819 manned oil platforms. ⁴ Two days before landfall, U.S. energy companies estimated that the approaching storm had already reduced Gulf of Mexico oil production by more than a third. ⁵

Seventy-five hurricanes of Katrina’s strength at landfall—a Category 3—have hit the mainland United States since 1851, roughly once every two years. ⁶ Yet Katrina was anything but a “normal” hurricane. First, Katrina was larger than most. Hurricane Camille, a Category 5 storm that devastated the Gulf Coast in 1969, ⁷ had top wind speeds that exceeded those of Katrina upon landfall, but Camille’s hurricane force winds only extended seventy-five miles from its center, ⁸ whereas Katrina’s extended 103 miles from its center. ⁹ As a result, Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge affected a larger area than did Hurricane Camille’s. ¹⁰ In all, Hurricane Katrina impacted nearly 93,000 square miles across 138 parishes and counties. ¹¹ The extreme intensity that Hurricane Katrina reached before landfall on the Gulf Coast, as well as its size, meant that its storm surge was consistent with a more powerful storm. In fact, the National Hurricane Center concluded that the height of Hurricane Katrina and Camille’s respective storm surges were comparable to each other. ¹²

Hurricane Katrina’s winds and a storm surge that crested up to twenty-seven feet high dealt a ferocious blow to homes, businesses, and property on the coast and for many miles inland. ¹³ This storm surge overwhelmed levees all along the lowest reaches of the Mississippi River and the edges of Lake Pontchartrain. ¹⁴ The consequences for New Orleans, which sits mostly below sea level, were dire. Significant levee failures occurred on the 17th Street Canal, the Industrial Canal, and the London Avenue Canal. Approximately 80 percent of the city was flooded. ¹⁵

The flooding destroyed New Orleans, the Nation’s thirty-fifth largest city. ¹⁶ Much as the fire that burned Chicago in 1871 and the earthquake and fire that leveled San Francisco in 1906 destroyed the economic and cultural centers of an entire region, so too did Hurricane Katrina destroy what many considered to be the heart of the Gulf Coast. The destruction also called to mind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which thoroughly devastated the town of Galveston, Texas. At the time, Galveston was an economic and cultural center of Texas and was the State’s fourth largest city. ¹⁷

Even beyond New Orleans, Katrina’s span of destruction was widespread. Indeed, one of the gravest challenges presented by this particular disaster was the vast geographic distribution of the damage. Towns and cities, small and large, were destroyed or heavily damaged up and down the Gulf Coast and miles inland. From Morgan City, Louisiana, to Biloxi, Mississippi, to Mobile, Alabama, Hurricane Katrina’s wind, rain, and storm surge demolished homes and businesses. Large parts of the coastal areas of these States were devastated. As Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour stated, “The 80 miles across the Mississippi Gulf Coast is largely destroyed. A town like Waveland, Mississippi, has no inhabitable structures—none.” ¹⁸

Hurricane Katrina contradicts one side of an important two-part trend.  For at least a century, America’s most severe natural disasters have become steadily less deadly and more destructive of property (adjusted for inflation). ¹⁹ Figure 1.1 depicts this trend. Yet, Hurricane Katrina not only damaged far more property than any previous natural disaster, it was also the deadliest natural disaster in the United States since Hurricane San Felipe in 1928. The dark blue bars in the figure below show the decreasing number of deaths caused by natural disasters in the period from 1900 – 2005. The light blue bars show the increasing amount of damage caused by these same natural disasters adjusted to third quarter 2005 dollars. ²⁰

Figure 1.1 U.S. Natural Disasters that Caused the Most Death and Damage to Property in Each Decade, 1900-2005, with 2004 Major Hurricanes Added21 Damage in Third Quarter 2005 Dollars

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