The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. He started bawling. A hurricane warning is issued for north central Gulf . With the failure of the air conditioning, temperatures inside the Superdome reached the high 90s, with heavy humidity. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Some trapped inside also believe the curse is real. The smell of the air became humid, tropical. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary. Her husband would be on the last helicopter. Heres a look at some statistics from Hurricane Katrina. As a result, the rumors of lawlessness in New Orleans actually made things much worse for stranded survivors. The tiny jail cell down in the bowels of the Dome, which they kept for game-day security, was filling up. A violent, free-for-all riot seemed sure to break out with the next bit of bad news. However, National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted the strengthening, and hurricane watches and warnings . knock out power for about 1 million and cause $630 million of damage, Cities of the Underworld: Hurricane Katrina, about 100,000 people were trapped in the city when the storm hit, fourth highest of any hurricane in U.S. history, according to a report published in 2008 by the American Medical Association. By 7 p.m. everyone was inside and had been checked. Updated Please check your email for a confirmation. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Miller told a reporter. Photo taken from the I-10-US 90 junction showing most of the white rubber protective membrane over the roof of the Superdome torn away by strong winds during Katrina. Photo. As far as natural disasters go, Hurricane Katrina was a bad one. The levee system that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne had been completely overwhelmed by 10 inches (25 cm) of rain and Katrinas storm surge. Daryl Thompson and his daughter Dejanae, 3 months old, wait with other displaced residents on a highway to catch a ride out of New Orleans on August 31, 2005. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Initially, the Superdome was described as a "lawless, depraved, and chaotic" place, with reports of numerous murders. No lights. He just broke down. By 11 a.m. on August 30, Katrina had dwindled to heavy rainfall and winds of about 35 mph. According to FiveThirtyEight, the Black middle class in particular was all but wiped out, and Black household incomes have fallen. [7] According to many, the smell inside the stadium was revolting due to the breakdown of the plumbing system, which included all toilets and urinals in the building, forcing people to urinate and defecate in other areas such as garbage cans and sinks. They worked furiously. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. Several hundredof Thorntons part-time employees had shown up as well, unable to evacuate, and hed placed them in one of the club lounges along with the families of some New Orleans Police Department officers. It's not a hotel," said the emergency preparedness director for St. Tammany Parish to the Times-Picayune in 1999. 11:09. After levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans failed, much of the city was underwater. At one point, a desperate man, who had all the belongings he had brought to the Superdome stolen, tried to escape and had to be calmed by National Guardsmen. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. It also had burned through half of the fuel in the 1,000-gallon tank. The New Orleans Saints played four of their scheduled home games at LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, three at the Alamodome in San Antonio, and one at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin had stated that as a "refuge of last resort," only limited food, water, and supplies would be provided. In New Orleans, where much of the greater metropolitan area is below sea level, federal officials initially believed that the city had dodged the bullet. While New Orleans had been spared a direct hit by the intense winds of the storm, the true threat was soon apparent. The National Guards headquarters had flooded, so the entire operation had moved to the Superdome. [52] The Mountaineers won, 3835. In all, 1,833 people would lose their lives. There were no designated medical staff at work in the evacuation center, no established sick bay within the Superdome, and very few cots available that hadn't been brought in by evacuees. No one knew what would happen. With limited power, no plumbing, a shredded roof and not nearly enough supplies to deal with 30,000 evacuees, it became a symbol of how unprepared the city and country had been for a storm experts knew could arrive. Hours before three major levees were breached, President Bush announced that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet," despite the fact that Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco had already requested federal assistance two days before the hurricane hit, according to The Society Pages. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. According to National Geographic, "some argue that indirect hurricane deaths, like being unable to access medical care, should be counted in official numbers.". It is 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. More women are coming forward with stories of sexual. And food was running short. Michael Appleton/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images. They knew what that meant: The Superdome was now running on its backup generator, which could power the lights but not much more. A man in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward rides a canoe in high water on August 31, 2005. The dome's emergency generator was able to power the internal lighting but little else; the building's air conditioning system would no longer operate, nor would the refrigeration system which was keeping food from spoiling. It took two days for 1,000 more FEMA officials to arrive, but once they did, FEMA "slowed the evacuation with unworkable paperwork and certification requirements." When Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. The buildings air conditioning system would no longer run, nor would the refrigeration system keeping massive amounts of food from spoiling. ", Messed Up Things That Happened During Hurricane Katrina, wonder if New Orleans can handle another Katrina, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared, Slow Violence, Neoliberalism, and Environmental Picaresque, Deaths Directly Caused by Hurricane Katrina. [6] By this time, the population of the dome had nearly doubled within two days to approximately 30,000, as helicopters and vehicles capable of cutting through the deep flood waters picked up stranded citizens from hard-hit areas and brought them to the dome. Doug and Denise Thornton woke early to drive back to New Orleans. The men hooked up the line, fuel started flowing. "Flooded offices meant records were underwater," and although there were some computerized records, according to then-Assistant Secretary of Children Welfare for Louisiana's Department of Social Services Marketa Walters, "New Orleans was notorious for not doing good data entry." Although Louisiana and Mississippi were most heavily affected, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia also suffered casualties due to the disaster. President Bush was otherwise occupied during this time. But over the Gulf of Mexico, some 165 miles west of Key West, the storm gathered strength above the warmer waters of the gulf. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. As the already strained levee system continued to give way, the remaining residents of New Orleans were faced with a city that by August 30 was 80 percent underwater. A neighborhood east of downtown New Orleans remains flooded on August 30, 2005. [42] Their first "home" game was played on September 19, 2005 against the New York Giants at Giants Stadium, which resulted in a 2710 loss. In addition, many of the underlying systemic inequalities and problems that resulted in the severity of the disaster still have not been addressed. Hanging from her roof, a woman waits to be rescued by New Orleans Fire Department workers on August 29, 2005. Well, Thornton replied, our generator has 10 inches to spare. Out of 60 nursing homes in New Orleans, 21 had evacuated their residents in advance of Katrina. At St. Rita's Nursing Home, residents were reportedly abandoned by the staff, and 35 people drowned as a result. Hell if I know, the mechanic said. Many Katrina evacuees made it to Houston, Texas, where they were housed in the Astrodome and other shelters. Many of them boarded without having any idea of where they were headed. And although hurricanes are usually only 300 miles wide at most, Hurricane Katrina's winds stretched out over 400 miles, with wind speeds well in excess of 100 mph. Thornton and his skeleton crew he only had 18 management staff and security officers there, along with the National Guard had to figure out how to best prepare the building to serve as a shelter. The men found a weak spot in the wall, a metal panel around head height, and punched a hole through it. In addition, a Bleacher Report article quotes Thornton saying "We're not a hospital. And according to Vox, when the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses to help with the evacuation, only 100 were sent in response. By the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170 miles (275 km) per hour. "Because medical care for foster children is paid for by in-state Medicaid, accessing prescription drugs was complicated" (per PBS), and many families evacuated out of state. TV-PG. With maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, the storm killed a total of 1,833 people and left millions homeless in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Three people died one a distraught man who jumped to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. They had to find out if they could move these people. - Numerous failures of levees around New Orleans led to catastrophic flooding in the city. New homes stand along the rebuilt Industrial Canal levee on May 16, 2015. Then the male employees, and, finally, the men who worked security would be the last to leave. A FEMA employee told Thornton and Mouton they expected to find lots of dead bodies, and had decided to bring them here, right next to the place where those left in the city were fighting to live. [34] However, after a National Guardsman was attacked with a metal rod, the National Guard put up barbed wire barricades to separate and protect themselves from the other people in the dome, and blocked people from exiting. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Katrina's death toll is the fourth highest of any hurricane in U.S. history, after the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people; Hurricane Maria, which. At 7 am Katrina is a Category 5 with 160 mph maximum sustained winds. According to PBS, two weeks after the storm, 25% of the children remained unaccounted for. This death was one of only six deaths at the Superdome: one person overdosed and four others died of natural causes. Thornton and Mouton found this odd, but figured the drains in the city had been backed up. There was a plan. [13], On September 2, 475 buses were sent by FEMA to pick up evacuees from the dome and the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where more than 20,000people had been crowded in similarly poor living conditions. Tulane University postponed its scheduled football game against the University of Southern Mississippi until November 26. [48] Overall, the team used six different stadiums for their six home games, including Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Cajun Field in Lafayette, Joe Aillet Stadium in Ruston, Malone Stadium in Monroe, and LaddPeebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. He didnt realize how bad things are other there, Wells said. On May 12, 2015, rubble remains at what used to be the B.W. Thousands of survivors are at the Astrodome after the Superdome became unsafe following the levee breaks in New Orleans. Bloodstains smeared the walls near vending machines that had been pried open. In response, guardsmanput up barbed wire at various areas around the building, protecting themselves from the general population. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much And when the levees were breached, there were only two FEMA workers on the ground. Over the next several days the Domewould sink into chaos. Twenty-five thousand miserable people - many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina - hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the. And although President Bush said on September 1, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," days before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the White House was informed that the levees were likely to overtop and breach. So that means youre going to have to be here probably another 5 or 6 days., Mr. The storm spent less than eight hours over land. [2] Approximately 10,000 residents, along with about 150 National Guardsmen, sheltered in the Superdome anticipating Katrina's landfall. And although they were deemed unsuitable for habitation, according to Grist, little has been done to ensure that people no longer live in toxic trailers. This is a national disgrace, he said. WATCH:I Was There: Hurricane Katrina: Rescue Swimmer. On the flight out west, Thornton looked down and saw his home in Lakewood South, as well as the seven feet of water surrounding it. It was Mayor Ray Nagins office. As of August 31, there had been three deaths in the Superdome: two elderly medical patients who were suffering from existing illness, and a man who committed suicide by jumping from the upper level seats. Inside the Superdome, things were descending further into hell. No electricity in New Orleans meant no air conditioning in the dome, filling it with a horrible, muggy heat. The water pumps had failed, and without water pumps to the elevated building, they couldnt maintain water pressure. Hurricane Katrina survivors arrive at the Houston Astrodome Red Cross Shelter after being evacuated from New Orleans. Preparations by location South Florida. In the bathrooms, every toilet had ceased to function. [29] However, the eventual cost to renovate and repair the dome was roughly $185 million and it was reopened for the Saints' first home game in the city in September 2006. estimated population had increased to 376,971. Hurricane Katrina reached Category 5 strength in the Gulf Coast, and although it was a Category 3 when it made landfall, it was still one of the "worst disasters in U.S. history," according to World Vision. Apart from the foster children, roughly 5,000 additional children were listed as missing in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina. They mulled it over. If water engulfed the generator, the building would be cast into complete darkness. They couldnt find any vehicles to transport the patients safely. And as Rob Nixon notes in "Slow Violence, Neoliberalism, and Environmental Picaresque," "Discrimination predates disaster: in failures to maintain protective structures, failures at pre-emergency hazard mitigation, failures to maintain infrastructure, failures to organize evacuation plans for those who lack private transport, all of which make the poor and racial minorities disproportionately vulnerable to catastrophe." [Mouton] saved thousands of lives.. June 2006 - The Government Accountability Office releases a report that concludes at least $1 billion in disaster relief payments made by FEMA were improper and potentially fraudulent. Unfortunately, due to the sensationalist stories regarding the Superdome, the rumors were used to justify "turn[ing] New Orleans into a prison city," according to The Guardian. She had heard a lot, from the National Guard, from her husband, from rumors among the employees. The heavy death toll of the hurricane and the subsequent flooding it caused drew international attention, along with widespread and lasting criticism of how local, state and federal authorities handled the storm and its aftermath. The White House writes that by February 2006, there were still over 2,000 people who were counted as missing, and many are still missing over 15 years after the storm. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! On the day the storm hit, two sets of notes sat tucked in a drawer . By the evening of August 25, when it made landfall north of the Broward-Miami-Dade county line, it had intensified into a category 1 hurricane. Although the rebuilt levees are supposed to protect the city against a flood with a severity that comes every 100 years, the flood brought by Hurricane Katrina was one that, in theory, comes once every 400 years. [43], On October 21, 2005, owner Tom Benson issued a statement saying that he had not made any decision about the future of the Saints. Up to a month after Hurricane Katrina, over 100 children were still unaccounted for, and it took until November to find everyone. Just looking out I saw glare of the water, she said, choking up. Blood and feces covered the walls of the facility. But it worked. However, it was later found that despite the poor conditions in the Superdome, "it was not the murderous hellhole" it was reported to be. It was previously used in 1998 during Hurricane Georges and again in 2004 during Hurricane Ivan, on both occasions for less than two days at most. Thousands more were unable to evacuate, including the nearly 25,000 who sheltered in the Superdome. Temperatures had reached the upper 80s, and the punctured dome at once allowed humidity in and trapped it there. With Hurricane George, it was 36 to 48 hours. With no relief in sight and in the absence of any organized effort to restore order, some neighbourhoods experienced substantial amounts of looting, and helicopters were used to rescue many people from rooftops in the flooded Ninth Ward. Their first game, against Mississippi State University, was played on September 17 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana. However, there weren't enough trucks for the patients, so they had to stay in the dome. Later, approximately 114,000 households were housed in FEMA trailers. Feces covered the walls of bathrooms. Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. The 2005 hurricane and subsequent levee failures led to death and destructionand dealt a lasting blow to leadership and the Gulf region. Severe flooding damage to cities along the Gulf Coast, from New Orleans to Biloxi, Mississippi. We cant spare 6 feet.. Although most of these shootings led to criminal prosecutions, "several of the officers involved have avoided prison or [were] still awaiting a final resolution of their cases" up to a decade after the storm. The storm was coming. Katrina made landfall that morning as a Category 4 storm with sustained winds in excess of 135 mph. This is not normal.. The Bayou Classic was moved from the Superdome to Reliant Stadium in Houston. Sustained winds of 70 miles (115 km) per hour lashed the Florida peninsula, and rainfall totals of 5 inches (13 cm) were reported in some areas. As a result, thousands of people became stranded at the Superdome, while thousands more ended up on the roofs of their homes as floodwaters reached heights of 20 feet. The population of the festering, battered dome had gone from 15,000 to 30,000 in a short time as helicopters and vehicles capable of cutting through the water picked up stranded citizens and brought them to the only place left to go in the entire city. [19][20] The refugees were given three meals and snacks daily, along with hygiene supplies, and were allowed to use the locker rooms to shower. Most deaths were caused by acute and chronic diseases (47%), and drowning (33%). Despite the strength of Hurricane Katrina, there was little about the storm that made it intrinsically deadly. Nothing.. On the state and local level, Louisiana Gov. However, according to "Deaths Directly Caused by Hurricane Katrina" by Poppy Markwell and Raoult Ratard, only about one third of those deaths were due to drowning. [32] National Guard officials put the body count at 6, which was reported by The Seattle Times on September 26. "[2], Despite these previous periods of emergency use, as Katrina approached the city, officials had not stockpiled enough generator fuel, food, and other supplies to handle the needs of the thousands of people seeking refuge there. That would be sorted out soon, Thornton thought, or maybe never at all. Socialist Alternative writes that police were given the task of "defending the private property of businesses like the GAP and casinos" rather than concentrating on rescuing people. They had no good options. As buses finally started arriving to pluck refugees from the Louisiana Superdome yesterday, a horrifying picture emerged of the squalor, violence and mayhem that they faced during the days spent huddled in the stadium. Meanwhile, in the Senate committee report, race isn't mentioned once in over 700 pages. Weve been here since 6 a.m., and this is getting worse and worse, State Police Officer K.W. National Geographic writes that the storm hit the coast of Louisiana on August 29 and ended up affecting up to 90,000 square miles of land and over 15 million people. Food rotted inside of hundreds of refrigerators and freezers spread throughout the building; the smell was inescapable. A school bus drops off a student in front of the Claiborne Bridge on May 12, 2015. The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. At noon, he boarded a helicopter. [33] False reports of gunshots also disrupted medical evacuations at the dome. In Louisiana, where more than 1,500 people are believed to have died due to Katrinas impact, drowning (40 percent), injury and trauma (25 percent), and heart conditions (11 percent) were the major causes of death, according to a report published in 2008 by the American Medical Association. In addition, according to the journalSocial Science & Medicine, there were also long-term mental health consequences of Hurricane Katrina. [13], When the serious flooding of the city began on August 30 after the levees had broken, the Superdome began to fill slowly with water, though it remained confined only to the field level. It had barely risen at all maybe an inch. However, not a single one of those reports was "verified or substantiated. Never did we think wed be here for nearly a week.. As some people tried to get supplies to survive, the media portrayed them as "looters," a term that the LA Times notes is more often applied to Black people than white people. Four died of natural causes, one had a drug overdose, and one committed suicide. Between 20,000 and 30,000 people in New Orleans were evacuated to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. 4:23 PM EST, Mon January 16, 2023. The air conditioning ducts would have mold in them by now. The job was far from over; it took two days to get everyone out and onto buses. Huge crowds of seething and tense people jammed the main concourse outside the dome hoping to get on the buses to the Astrodome in Houston, 350 miles away. You have to fight for your life. [32] While numerous people told the Times-Picayune that they had witnessed the rape of two girls in the ladies' restroom and the killing of one of them, police and military officials said they knew nothing about the incidents. Theres five feet of water on Poydras Street.. Over the next two days the weather system gathered strength, earning the designation Tropical Storm Katrina, and it made landfall between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a category 1 hurricanea storm that, on the Saffir-Simpson scale, exhibits winds in the range of 7495 miles (119154 km) per hour. There was stillno word on when, exactly, the buses would arrive. And it's possible that the deaths may have even numbered as high as 10,000. In an analysis of 971 fatalities in Louisiana and 15 additional deaths of storm evacuees, 40% of deaths were caused by drowning. The moonlight was shining on the water., She paused. Hurricane Katrina was a tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. Cooper housing project play on mattresses on June 10, 2007. It was a good option, but one never used. Thanks for contacting us. The massive hurricane exposed major issues with the citys infrastructure, left thousands upon thousands of people without any place to stay, destroying their homes and leaving their neighborhoods in ruins. And it's possible that the deaths may have even numbered as high as 10,000. A man had been caught sexually assaulting a young girl. A woman slumped over in a wheelchair in a back corner, a The cost to repair the dome was initially stated by Superdome commission chairman Tim Coulon to be up to $400 million. Inside the Dome, though, a small group of women and men fought to retain whatever order they could. The area east of the Industrial Canal was the first part of the city to flood; by the afternoon of August 29, some 20 percent of the city was underwater. Hurricane Katrina, the tropical cyclone that struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, was the third-strongest hurricane to hit the United States in its history at the time. Thornton, whod been cooped up in the Superdome for going on five days, looked down on her city, at the soft waves lapping against the houses in the moonlight. After Hurricane Katrina struck, numerous federal officials, including President George W. Bush, claimed that there was little that could have been done to prevent the disaster. Everyone remembers Kanye West's infamous comment that "George Bush doesn't care about Black people," but the issue ran far deeper than just the feelings of the president. Nearly half the fatalities in Louisiana were people over the age of 74. But its the only shot we got.. Tempers began to flare as hunger and thirst deepened. Light was fading fast. We wont be able to feed these folks. Evacuees crowd the floor of the Astrodome in Houston on September 2, 2005. Local residents gathering outside of the Superdome on September 2, 2005. This also disproportionately affected people of color. 2023 Cable News Network. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. NBC News reports that although there were stories of freezers full of bodies, "no such pile of bodies was [ever] found.". Up to 47% "were caused by acute and chronic diseases." [7] Medical machines also failed, which prompted a decision to move patients to the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Southern Mississippi won over Arkansas State, 3119. They would later learnwhat had happened: Levees at various locations in and around the city had failed, and the pumping stations, overwhelmed with water and damaged by the storm, werent working. Ive been in there seven days, and I havent had a bath. She knew the destruction was bad, that water was everywhere. In many ways, the horrors of Hurricane Katrina were also exaggerated and in turn led to additional tragedies, such as the police shootings of unarmed residents and subsequent cover-up on Danziger Bridge. The National Flood Insurance Program paid out $16 billion in claims. [45] However, the Saints announced that they would be returning to New Orleans, with the first home game taking place on September 25, 2006 against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. The generator was near ground level behind the Superdome, and water was pushing against its exterior door. Still, about 100,000 people were trapped in the city when the storm hit, and many took last-ditch refuge in the New Orleans Superdome and the Ernest J. Morial Convention Center as the storm approached.