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Credit: Jocelyn Augustino, FEMA.
A flooded neighborhood in New Orleans six days after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
Explorations: New Orleans and Hurricanes
Chapter 1 of The AMS Weather Book opens with the experiences of the National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist who issued a dire warning of Hurricane Katrina’s effects on the New Orleans area the day before the storm hit. His experiences and those of his extended family illustrate how anyone living anywhere that a hurricane could hit should prepare for and respond to a hurricane watch and warning.
Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans was no surprise; many organizations and individuals had been warning of the danger for many years.
The resources below will help you learn more about both what Hurricane Katrina did when it hit and what scientists, forecasters, and emergency managers knew about the likely effects of such a storm.
- NOAA’s Hurricane Katrina Web site has links to information about the storm’s meteorology, forecasting, and its effects.
- The New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper and its NOLA.com Web site published some of the best reporting and graphics on the hurricane danger before Katrina and some of the best after the storm hit:
- Hurricane Katrina Archive, original and later coverage
- Flash Flood: Hurricane Katrina’s Inundation of New Orleans, August 29, 2005, a large animated graphic
- Washing Away series, pre-Katrina warnings of the consequences of such a storm
Credit: Jocelyn Augustino, FEMA.
A U.S. Coast Guard boat transports residents and their pets from their flooded New Orleans neighborhood a week after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
The eight-day Hurricane Pam emergency response drill, in July 2004, showed emergency officials from 50 parishes (in Louisiana, counties are called parishes), state, federal, and volunteer organizations many of the things that should done to address the hurricane threat to Louisiana. Below are a few Hurricane Pam links:
- FEMA press release, July 23, 2004
- Global Serurity.org’s Hurricane Pam page
- About.com’s Hurricane Pam page
Credit: Win Henderson, FEMA.
Evacuees wait to board buses to take them out of New Orleans the day after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi.
Katrina and New Orleans Bibliographies
- Social Science Research Council’s Katrina Research Hub Web site
- The Information Collective’s Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans Web page
Meteorology and Forecasting of Katrina
- The National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) report on Hurricane Katrina, Abbreviated Tropical Cyclone Report: Tropical Depression Ten (PDF file), is a meteorological summary of the storm written after the end of the season.
