CASE STUDY- Hurricane Katrina

Nature of event

• Struck SE USA on 29th August 2005
• Formed over the Bahamas on 23rd
• Moved NW and strengthed into a hurricane just before it went over the tip of Florida into the Gulf of Mexico
• As it travelled over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico it strengthened to category 5
• On the night of the 28th ot weakened to category 3
• On the morning of the 28th it struck land bringing winds of 250kmh and 200-250mm of rainfall in Louisiana and a storm surge of up to 8.5m in Mississpi
• Centre pressure of 902mb making it the 5th most intense Atlantic basin hurrican on record
• It travelled over 240km inland before the winds dropped enough for it to be down graded to a storm

Where was impacted

• Hit louisiana and Mississipi the worst
• Florida and cuba also affected
• City of New Orleans was very badly damaged by the storm surge which overwhelmed the levees causing widespread flooding (over 80% of city under water)

Social impacts 

• 1836 people killed
• 300,000 homes destroyed
• Hundreds of thousands made homeless
• 3 million people left without electricity
• Power and water supplie…