Hurricane Historical Sample

Hurricane Katrina, a powerful storm, caused devastating damage in 2005. The National Weather Service issued a warning about the destruction it would bring, including uninhabitable areas, destroyed homes and buildings, and dangerous winds. The warning was initially met with skepticism but later proved accurate. Despite weakening, Katrina caused severe flooding in New Orleans and significant damage in other areas. The storm resulted in billions of dollars in damage and the loss of many lives. The event highlighted the importance of understanding and predicting hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina in historical perspective. On Sunday, August 28, 2005, the National Weather Service issued a press release containing the following information. URGENT Weather Message National Weather Service, New Orleans, Louisiana, 10-11 a.m. Central Daylight Time. Sunday, August 28, 2005. DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED Hurricane Katrina, a most powerful hurricane with unprecedented strength, rivaling the intensity of Hurricane Camille of 1969. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. At least one-half of well-constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. The majority of buildings will become non-functional. Partial to complete wall and roof failure is expected. All wood-framed, low-rising apartment buildings will be destroyed. High-rise office and apartment buildings will sway dangerously. A few to the point of total collapse. All windows will be blown out. Airborne debris will be widespread and may include heavy items such as household appliances and even light vehicles. Sport utility vehicles and light trucks will be moved and blown debris will create additional destruction. Persons, pets, and livestock exposed to the winds will face certain death if struck. War outages will last for weeks, and transformers destroyed. Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards. Once tropical storm and hurricane-force winds onset, do not venture outside. While Ricks was writing down the document, he realized that he was issuing a dire warning. He went over his text line by line, looking for statements that seemed exaggerated but found them all to be accurate. Ten minutes after issuing the bulletin, Ricks received a call from National Weather Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. Ricks recalled, they were getting calls from the national press saying, we think this is a hoax. We've never seen a product come out like this. With this kind of wording, are you sure this is real? The Washington officials who confirmed that the message was legitimate wanted Ricks to know the reaction it had produced. A retired U.S. general later remembered that Ricks' message led the Army to move to a 24-hour ramp-up to full staffing for the deployment of Joint Task Force Katrina to New Orleans. A later Weather Service investigation of forecasting activities found that the bulletin helped reinforce emergency management officials and local authorities' evacuation orders for residents in southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi. Many residents of the region chose to stay at home anyway, hoping to ride out the storm. Katrina actually weakened between the time of Ricks' warning and reaching landfall, falling from a Category 5 storm, the highest type possible, to a Category 3. Despite its reduction in force, Katrina's storm surge approached 30 feet above sea level on the Mississippi coast. That's almost twice as high as the surge shown in this diagram. Although the surge did not reach that height at New Orleans, many levees and floodwalls failed in a city largely built below sea level. At least 80 percent of it was under floodwaters on August 31st. Damage extended eastward through Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle and northward through Mississippi. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had estimated that Katrina caused damage valued at $75 billion, and 1,392 people lost their lives. Katrina was a catastrophe, but it proved an opportunity to examine how hurricanes form and how our ability to recognize and predict them affects their impact on human life.