Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Category 5 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Katrina at peak strength on August 28, 2005
Formed	August 23, 2005
Dissipated	August 31, 2005
(Extratropical after August 30, 2005)
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 175 mph (280 km/h)
Lowest pressure	902 mbar (hPa); 26.64 inHg
Fatalities	1,245–1,836
Damage	$108 billion (2005 USD) (Costliest on record)
Areas affected	Bahamas, South Florida, Cuba, Louisiana (especially Greater New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida Panhandle, most of eastern North America
Part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Overall, at least 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods, making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. Total property damage was estimated at $108 billion (2005 USD), roughly four times the damage wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in the United States.

The eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Katrina originated over the Bahamas on August 23 from the interaction between a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten. Early the following day, the new depression intensified into Tropical Storm Katrina. The cyclone headed generally westward toward Florida and strengthened into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach and Aventura on August 25. After very briefly weakening to a tropical storm, Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and began to rapidly deepen. The storm strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but weakened before making its second landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29 in southeast Louisiana.