Hurricane Katrina

(NOAA) HURRICANE KATRINA — MOST DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE EVER TO STRIKE THE U.S.
NYT Times Topics – Hurricane Katrina
Wednesday Night #1227 (7 September 2005)
(MSNBC) Rising from ruin Since early October 2005, MSNBC.com journalists have been documenting the efforts of the coastal Mississippi towns of Bay St. Louis and Waveland to rebuild from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Though the towns are far from the media spotlight on New Orleans, the intertwined fates of the people, businesses and institutions in these towns are emblematic of an entire region’s struggle to recover from the most destructive storm in U.S. history.
(BBC) In depth: Hurricane Katrina
From the [Guardian] archive, 30 August 2005: Katrina batters New Orleans
Originally published in the Guardian on 30 August 2005
Large areas of New Orleans were last night under water after Hurricane Katrina pummelled the city with winds of more than 100mph, causing damage to property and catastrophic flooding.
There were reports of people climbing into attics to escape rising water in the low-lying city, and witnesses described walls of water running down skyscrapers like waterfalls.
Local radio reported multiple bodies floating in the water in one area of the city.
Many were feared dead in flooded neighbourhoods, but the extent of casualties remained unclear as it was still too dangerous for rescue teams to enter affected areas.

For New Orleans, Katrina anniversary is both solemn and festive
(CSM) Dancing, singing, mourning, and crying mixed throughout New Orleans this weekend as the city showcased the progress made since Katrina and honored those who died.
Harsh memories certainly shadowed events throughout the city, but they are now being set aside for, or being combined with, discussions having to do with more urgent concerns – such as the strength of the levee system, jobs, school reform, and the ongoing effect of the Gulf oil spill on the local economy.
The end of ‘Canadaville’
(CBC) Frank Stronach’s social experiment in central Louisiana wraps up
Hurricane Katrina: Five Years Later
(HuffPost) Five years ago today Hurricane Katrina ravaged through New Orleans and parts of Mississippi and Alabama. The hurricane was so devastating that some people today are still struggling to recapture all that was lost and move on.
There’s been marked improvement over the past five years, particularly in New Orleans. Despite the improvement, a lot of work still remains before residents of New Orleans will no longer be cast as surviving victims of Hurricane Katrina.
According to some reports, as much as 30 to 40 percent of the areas affected by Katrina is still in need of repair. After five years of persevering and yet still needing help demonstrates how destructive Hurricane Katrina really was.
29 August
President Obama on the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
— The president paid his respects to the people of New Orleans on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by recognizing their perseverance and determination “to rebuild in the face of ruin.” Full remarks and video
Obama Pledges Commitment to New Orleans
President Obama on Sunday sought to assure this city, battered by two catastrophic disasters in five years, that federal efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina would not waver even as the city struggles with the aftermath of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
28 August
The State of New Orleans
New Orleans is emerging as a model of rebirth and reinvention.
(NYT) IN five years, New Orleans has weathered America’s costliest natural disaster, its worst recession since the 1930s and its largest oil spill. Believe it or not, some good news has come out of all this.
27 August 2010
Mapping the Recovery of New Orleans
(NYT) While New Orleans has not fully recovered from the effects of Hurricane Katrina, a local research group, GCR & Associates, estimates that up to 80 percent of the city’s population before the storm has returned. The group analyzed utility, sanitation, mail and voter activity statistics to track the number of people resettling in the city. (Interactive)
16 October 2008
The First Year After Hurricane Katrina: What the Federal Government Did
A partial account of federal agencies’ response in the first year following the August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Katrina update 2008
29 August 2007
Katrina Update: A Billion Dollars Later, New Orleans Still at Risk (2007)
Upbeat ceremony marks two-year anniversary
29 August 2006
(MSNBC) One year later, Bush takes blame for Katrina response – video
6 December 2005
Canadaville: Donating a village to Louisiana
Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf coast in late August 2005, devastating the city of New Orleans, La. The storm surge breached the levees protecting the “Big Easy” and left huge areas partially submerged in filthy water. The worst-hit area was the city’s Lower Ninth Ward – home to some of New Orleans’s poorest residents. With their homes and most of their jobs washed away and little prospect of any quick improvement in their situation, thousands of people were facing a bleak future indeed.
That was Frank Stronach’s cue. The Austrian-Canadian billionaire chairman of auto-parts giant Magna International offered to put up more than 200 Katrina evacuees in dorm rooms at a racetrack training facility his company owns in Florida. That gesture alone would have been noteworthy; Stronach and Magna, after all, have no links to Louisiana. But there was more.
13 November 2005
(Global issues) Hurricane Katrina was a devastating category 4 hurricane, that hit the Gulf of Mexico and various Southern regions of the United States at the end of August, 2005, causing some of the worst damage in that country’s history, estimated at $100 billion.
The famous New Orleans city and surrounding areas were worst hit as much of it sits some 6 feet below sea level. City defenses, such as levees, only designed for category 3 type hurricanes, gave way, leading to enormous flooding and associated damage, death and displacement of around 100,000 people who either chose to say the course, or could not afford to flee.
The BBC details some of the numbers:
* 90,000 square mile disaster zone — equivalent to area of Great Britain
* 10,000 originally feared dead — revised down by government
* 60 nations have offered aid as well as UN, NATO and WHO
* 13 states now have a state of emergency in force