Hurricane Katrina caused an estimated $125 billion in damages, making it the most expensive natural disaster in U.S history, and killed more than 1,800 people when it hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.
Exactly seven years after Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Isaac has slammed into the Gulf coast, bringing flooding and high winds with it.
Tropical cyclones — the scientific name for hurricanes and tropical storms — form when warm air above the ocean rises. More air from the surrounding areas of higher pressure push in under this rising air, pushing it up and cooling it. The entire system just keeps growing and starts to swirl.
After several severe hurricanes, and two of the most productive hurricane seasons on record, we started to wonder — What makes hurricanes strong and destructive? Are hurricanes getting worse or is it just us? Why and what can we do about it? What if we don't?
A combination of factors made Hurricane Katrina so devastating. From a scientific standpoint, Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph when it hit New Orleans on Aug. 29. 2005. This is a strong hurricane, but not atypical.
Katrina wasn't as fast as, say, Hurricane Camille in 1969. But it was huge and it's approach over shallow water resulted in a stronger storm surge.
There were also engineering problems. Katrina was especially damaging because the levees designed to protect the below-sea-level city burst under the hurricane's 25-foot high storm surge. So what's different now?
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