NEW ORLEANS – Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore along the northern Gulf Coast, becoming one of the deadliest and most destructive natural disasters in U.S. history.

The Category 3 hurricane devastated Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, leading to more than 1,000 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage.

The cyclone first developed on Aug. 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the southeastern Bahamas and, within a day, strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina before moving toward Florida. 

Due to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, Katrina quickly organized and made landfall near the Miami-Dade and Broward County line as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph.

The storm did not lose much organization over the Florida Peninsula and, once over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it underwent explosive rapid intensification. 

Within 72 hours, Katrina became a Category 5 hurricane with peak sustained winds of 175 mph and a central pressure of 902 millibars.

Equally as impressive was its size, with NOAA estimating Katrina was nearly 800 miles wide and covered much of the Gulf.

“It was frightening beyond words,” FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross recounted. “A meteorologist at the National Weather Service in New Orleans wrote this epic warning that neighborhoods are going to be unlivable for a long period of time.”

WHY A STATE IS ASKING FOR HELP LOCATING AN ELUSIVE REPTILE

Forecasters say due to an eyewall replacement cycle, a process that powerful hurricanes undergo to reorganize, Katrina weakened to a Category 3 before landfall. It came onshore at 6:10 a.m. local time on Aug. 29, 2005, near the mouth of the Mississippi River near Buras, Louisiana. 

Despite the hurricane’s weakening, its overall size and status on the Saffir Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale produced a storm surge of what was reminiscent of a Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane across much of the northern Gulf Coast.

Along the Mississippi coast, surge levels reached nearly 28 feet in Pass Christian, leveling coastal neighborhoods. 

While New Orleans was on what was considered to be the weaker side of the storm, the combination of rainfall and surge overwhelmed levee systems and within 48 hours of landfall, authorities estimated that 80% of the Big Easy was underwater, displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.

Government assessments estimated that 1.5 million people were displaced across the region, many of whom never returned.

“If the flood walls had held, it would have been a tremendously different outcome, because the water wouldn’t come over the walls,” said Norcross.

Damage was initially estimated at $108 billion, making Katrina the costliest hurricane in U.S. history at the time, surpassing 1992’s Hurricane Andrew. 

Adjusted for inflation, NOAA estimates the 2024 value of damage caused by the storm to be north of $201 billion.

The storm’s death toll also ranks among the 10 deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history. 

While the official count stands at 1,392, discrepancies in medical records and incomplete reporting have led to debate over the exact number. 

Katrina is considered the deadliest hurricane to strike the continental United States since the 1928 “Okeechobee Hurricane” in Florida.

AMTRAK’S GULF COAST ROUTE RESTORED 20 YEARS AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA

In light of the destruction and lost lives, the World Meteorological Organization retired the name Katrina in April 2006, replacing it with Katia, which was used to name storms in 2011, 2017, 2023 and is on deck to be used again in 2029. 

Additional names removed after the record-breaking 2005 season included Dennis, Rita, Stan and Wilma.

The federal government’s response, particularly that of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, came under sharp criticism in Katrina’s wake. 

Then-FEMA director Michael D. Brown resigned in the storm’s aftermath amid widespread backlash over reported mismanagement and poor communication. 

The agency later underwent several major reorganizations and was credited with improved responses to later disasters, such as Hurricane Irene in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

For communities along the Gulf Coast, Katrina remains a solemn reminder of how a near-worst-case disaster can become reality.

“In those neighborhoods – in the Ninth Ward, in Gentilly, in northern Lakeview, the areas up by the lake – many homes that flooded were abandoned when people had to move out. Now, 20 years later, they’re still sitting there, empty, filled with mold and so forth inside,” said Norcross.