It was 10 years ago that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans August 29,2005 - August 29,2015

 

Hurricane Katrina makes landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane on this day in 2005.

Despite being only the third most powerful storm of the 2005 hurricane season, Katrina was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

 After briefly coming ashore in southern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina gained strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on August 29,2005

In addition to bringing devastation to the New Orleans area, the hurricane caused damage along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as other parts of Louisiana

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28, when Katrina briefly achieved Category 5 status and the National Weather Service predicted “devastating” damage to the area. But an estimated 150,000 people, who either did not want to or did not have the resources to leave, ignored the order and stayed behind.

Tens of thousands of people sought shelter in the New Orleans Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome.

The situation in both places quickly deteriorated, as food and water ran low and conditions became unsanitary

Frustration mounted as it took up to two days for a full-scale relief effort to begin.

 In the meantime, the stranded residents suffered from heat, hunger, and a lack of medical care. Reports of looting, rape, and even murder began to surface

As news networks broadcast scenes from the devastated city to the world, it became obvious that a vast majority of the victims were African-American and poor, leading to difficult questions among the public about the state of racial equality in the United States.

The federal government and President George W. Bush were roundly criticized for what was perceived as their slow response to the disaster.

The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown, resigned amid the ensuing controversy.

Finally, on September 1,2005 the tens of thousands of people staying in the damaged Superdome and Convention Center begin to be moved to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and another mandatory evacuation order was issued for the city.

The next day, military convoys arrived with supplies and the National Guard was brought in to bring a halt to lawlessness

In all, it is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages to both private property and public infrastructure.

One million people were displaced by the disaster, a phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression.

Some 1,836 people were killed, mainly in Louisiana

Four hundred thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. Offers of international aid poured in from around the world, even from poor countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Private donations from U.S. citizens alone approached $600 million.