Hurricane Katrina: Websites

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most intense and costliest hurricanes to hit the United States. On August 28, 2005, Katrina was a category 5 storm (on the Saffir-Simpson scale) in the middle of the Gulf of America. It made landfall the next morning as a strong category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 miles (200 kilometers) per hour. (From the USGS).

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the United States in recorded history. Katrina's destruction wasn't limited to just Louisiana and Mississippi with damage reported as far east as the Florida Panhandle due to the large wind field and storm surge associated with the hurricane. In all, Hurricane Katrina was responsible for 1,392 fatalities and caused $125 billion in damage [unadjusted 2005 dollars]. (from the National Weather Service).

Katrina was one of the most devastating hurricanes in the history of the United States. It is the deadliest hurricane to strike the United States since the Palm Beach-Lake Okeechobee hurricane of September 1928. (From the National Weather Service).

When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, devastating regions of Louisiana and Mississippi, three of NPR's correspondents saw the storm firsthand. These are their stories.

The affected area of Hurricane Katrina covered three states and approximately 90,000 square miles. In the state of Louisiana alone, approximately 1.7 million people were affected by the storm and needed to be evacuated. This was a daunting task that required evacuating the most densely populated area of the state to unaffected regions both within the state and in other states around the country. The state of Louisiana evacuated approximately 1.5 million people before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. However, approximately 150,000 to 200,000 individuals (accurate numbers were difficult to attain) remained during the storm. While many people chose to stay, others did not have an opportunity to evacuate because of unavailable resources, noted Jimmy Guidry of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. (From the National Library of Medicine).

Hurricane Katrina, catastrophic tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed nearly 1,400 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Some two decades after the hurricane, the lingering effects of Katrina continue to influence the economy and culture of the Gulf Coast.

The purpose of this study was to document changes in mental and physical health among 392 low-income parents exposed to Hurricane Katrina and to explore how hurricane-related stressors and loss relate to post-Katrina well being. (From the National Library of Medicine).

A comparison of communities in New Orleans & surrounding areas since Hurricane Katrina. How did communities recover, and what does recovery mean? We look at repopulation, rebuilding, emotional well-being or stress, evaluations of leaders, theological views, and hopes or fears about the future. We are especially interested to see what role social capital (civic engagement, community cohesion, social support, social networks, community organizations) plays, compared to economic and material factors.