By Richard Wall
Few Americans will forget the images we watched late last summer as Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast with a power so devastating that even experts wondered if the entire hurricane-categorization process needed to be re-examined. Although technically a Category 4 hurricane when it made landfall, Katrina caused far more damage than any other storm in U.S. history, including Category 5 Andrew, which hit south Florida in 1992.
Most of the damage was due to the flood waters that rushed through New Orleans when the city's levees broke under the pressure of the additional rainfall from Katrina. The human drama was as inescapable as the flood itself for those who had ridden out the storm, assuming it would be no worse than its many vicious predecessors: Ivan, Andrew (which hit Louisiana with winds as high as 173 mph), Camille, Betsy and Audrey. They had no idea yet just how vicious a hurricane could be.
While the costs of Hurricane Katrina's effects on the people it touched cannot be calculated, numbers can tell the story of what the storm did in terms of destruction and damage to buildings and property. Hurricane Andrew, which set a new record for storm damage at $21 billion, caused the state of Florida to adopt the International Building Codes to minimize damage in future storms. Miami and Dade County went further, instituting new building codes that remain the toughest in the country. But Katrina's wallop makes Andrew's impact look like a pat on the back, as the following statistics attest:
- Estimates for Katrina damage go as high as $200 billion.
- Debris removal in Louisiana is only 60% complete.
- The storm destroyed 275,000-300,000 homes in the region. An equal number were damaged.
- Approximately 168,000 homes in the New Orleans area suffered major damage from flooding.
- Coastal Mississippi lost 68,000 homes, with another 55,000 damaged.
- Katrina’s wind damaged about 273,000 homes in Louisiana. If stricter building practices and storm-resistant features had been in place, wind damage could have been reduced by 75%.
Richard Wall, a writer and editor from St. Augustine, Fla., spent a week this July as a volunteer gutting ruined houses in St. Bernard Parish just east of New Orleans.
July 27, 2006
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