Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a strong category 3 hurricane. The catastrophe that followed was primarily an engineering failure: more than 50 breaches in the New Orleans levee and floodwall system inundated roughly 80 percent of the city, in places under three metres of water.
Around 1,830 people died and over a million were displaced across the Gulf Coast. Televised scenes of stranded residents at the Superdome and Convention Center made the response a national scandal and led to the reorganisation of federal emergency management.
With damages above 100 billion dollars, Katrina remains among the costliest natural disasters in history and a permanent reference point for evacuation planning, social vulnerability and infrastructure investment.
Why this event still matters
Historical incidents shape the rules that protect people today — building codes, evacuation policy, warning systems and inspection regimes almost always trace back to a specific disaster. Studying Hurricane Katrina alongside current events is how preparedness improves.
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