Hurricane Katrina - the history

Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005 as the result of an interaction of a tropical wave and the remains of Tropical Depression Ten. The system was upgraded to tropical storm status on the morning of August 24 and at this point, the storm was given the name Katrina. The tropical storm continued to move towards Florida, and became a hurricane only two hours before it made landfall between Hallandale Beach and Aventura, Florida on the morning of August 25. The storm weakened over land, but it regained hurricane status about one hour after entering the Gulf of Mexico.[1]

The storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf, partly because of the storm's movement over the warm waters of the Loop Current.[2] On August 27, the storm reached Category 3 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, becoming the third major hurricane of the season. An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm to nearly double in size. Katrina again rapidly intensified, attaining Category 5 status on the morning of August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1:00 p.m. CDT that day, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar. The pressure measurement made Katrina the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time (a record also later broken by Rita).[1]

Katrina made its second landfall at 6:10 a.m. CDT[1] on August 29 as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h) near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. At landfall, hurricane-force winds extended outward 120 miles (190 km) from the center and the storm's central pressure was 920 mbar. After moving over southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound, it made its third landfall near the Louisiana/Mississippi border with 120 mph (195 km/h) sustained winds, still at Category 3 intensity.[1]

Katrina maintained hurricane strength well into Mississippi, but weakened thereafter, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi. It was downgraded to a tropical depression near Clarksville, Tennessee, but its remnants were last distinguishable in the eastern Great Lakes region on August 31, when it was absorbed by a frontal boundary. The resulting extratropical storm moved rapidly to the northeast and affected Ontario and Quebec.

Hurricane, Horror & Heroes

Katrina will be known as the 'Perfect Storm' when all elements came together to create the America's largest tragedy ever. Hurricane Katrina or just Katrina, as it will be referred to years from now, has destroyed, decimated and derailed hundreds of thousands of lives in the Gulf Coast region.

Katrina will also be known as a Perfect Storm of Failure on the part of the government agencies to protect, preserve and provide in a timely manner. Who can forget the quick response of the emergency personally after the September 11 tragedy in New York City?

For those in the Gulf Coast, if Katrina has not killed, it has destroyed your homes, businesses, employers, churches and disbursed you into new regions of the country. Katrina has separated you from spouses, children, family and friends and all that you once knew and loved. Getting back on your feet is barely a thought as survival is still fresh in your minds.

Katrina like all tragedies, points out the heroes as well as the villains when it comes to times of crisis. There will be plenty of time to deal with the villains as what comes around will surely go around. For the unspoken heroes in the Katrina tragedy, the ones who stayed, the ones who came back, the ones who fought their way to freedom and brought the young, the hurt, the sick and the elderly with them, a big thank you doesn't seem hardly enough.

Katrina has moved in and shaken up our lives like no other national disaster has touched us before. Not to take away from the terrible terrorist tragedy of 9-11 or even the Indonesian Tsunami that has touched us as well, Katrina has come at a time when we're all very tired of one crisis after another. Throw in the Iraq War and Afghanistan rebuilding and we're weary of just one more thing on our plates to handle emotionally.

Katrina is not only one more thing. Katrina is THE big thing. Katrina once again puts our own mortality right in our faces. Katrina shakes the foundation of our illusion of a safe world. And we need this illusion just to survive.

The Katrina crisis is now, but the effects of Katrina will be felt for generations. Besides the killing and destruction that Katrina immediately caused, she also has a longer term, insidious impact on the survivors and evacuees. Katrina means post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, suicide and homicide.

Who will ever forget the reports of medical personnel and first responders being fired upon from the watery, splintered remains in New Orleans? More stories of human beings acting their worst will emerge as time goes by, but hopefully the stories of humans at their bests will also emerge.

What has been missing from the news coverage of Katrina are the stories of the heroes. Not that there aren't any Katrina heroes to report. There are probably thousands. With the lack of communications within the Gulf Coast region that was knocked out by Katrina, the reporting of those stories has been less than one would come to expect from a tragedy of this scale.

Time will tell the stories of the Katrina heroes, though. Slow to come for now, the stories will come out. Katrina will be powerless over the human spirit contained in each act of bravery, compassion and simply being of service to others during a time of intense crisis.

Hopefully as we head into the next hurricane season we will have learned many lessons from Katrina and the response to a large-scale natural disaster that will make the response that much more timely and effective the next time something major happens. Then again if we are depending upon our government to make all of the necessary changes, then we may very well be disappointed again. It is important that we each do what we can to prepare for possible emergencies. Don't rely on our government for things you can do for yourself. Always have an exit strategy as well as a strategy for staying put for a while.