Supplies were running low, and as the National Guard began to ration things like water and diapers the crowd grew incensed and accused them of hoarding goods for their own use. Initially, the Superdome was described as a "lawless, depraved, and chaotic" place, with reports of numerous murders. 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. FEMA reached out that morning: It was sending 400 buses to begin an evacuation. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. But subsequent investigations revealed that not only was there prior knowledge that the storm was going to hit but that "long-term warnings went unheeded and government officials neglected their duties to prepare for a forewarned catastrophe," according to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Water poured onto the field. [1] What were Hurricane Katrinas wind speeds? 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. It would be impossible to drive there with the roads in their current state, so Mouton called inBlackhawk helicopters to get them. When Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans poet Shelton Alexander to evacuate his home, he took his truck and video camera to the Superdome. First went the disabled and the elderly. A woman cries after returning to her house and business, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, on August 30, 2005, in Biloxi, Mississippi. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. Feces covered the walls of bathrooms. According to NBC News, the average age of victims was 69, and "just under half of all victims were 75 or older." After levees and flood walls protecting New Orleans failed, much of the city was underwater. Nothing.. The tropical depression that became Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and meteorologists were soon able to warn people in the Gulf Coast states that a major storm was. NOLA.com reports that FEMA also "turned away offers of personnel and supplies from the Department of Interior and denied a request from the state Wildlife & Fisheries agency for 300 rubber boats.". [25][26][27], On September 7, speculation arose that the Superdome was now in such a poor condition that it would have to be demolished. The National Weather Service writes that Hurricane Katrina is "one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States.". Finally. [33][40] It was confirmed that no one was murdered in the Superdome. She came up with the list, talked to the dozens of people there, her husbands employees, people she knew a little bit before the storm and now knew like family. . 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. When they got back to the Dome, they arrived to chaos. [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. Three people died one a distraught man who jumped to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving at the Superdome for nearly four hours, a near-riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show up. Katrina caused over 1,800 deaths and $100 billion in . Katrinas 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 killed more than 4,600 people in Puerto Rico in 2017; and the Okeechobee Hurricane, which hit Florida in 1928 and killed as many as 3,000. ", Socialist Alternative writes the budget of the Crops was slashed after 2003, largely to pay for the Iraq War and tax cuts for the wealthy: "A refusal to invest tens of millions of dollars into strengthening levees has led to a catastrophe that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars." And cars were overturned on Poydras Street.. Hurricane Katrina not only left more than 1,800 human deaths in its wake, it also rendered thousands homeless as more than 800,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged in the storm. Hurricane Ivan it was less than that. Across 13 nursing homes and six hospitals that were investigated in Louisiana, at least 140 patients died as a result of Hurricane Katrina. But it worked. The day . At their peak, hurricane relief shelters housed 273,000 people. appreciated. In April 2000, according to the Data Center, the population of New Orleans was 484,674; by July 2006, not quite a year after Katrina, it had dropped by more than 250,000, to some 230,172. As a result, the rumors of lawlessness in New Orleans actually made things much worse for stranded survivors. Governor Blanco herself stated, "They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. They guarded the office where Thornton and his team huddled, but that was about it. This is not normal.. The total damage from Katrina is estimated to be $125 billion (or $190 billion in 2022 dollars), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Blanco declined to seek reelection in 2007, and died in 2019. More women are coming forward with stories of sexual. Weve been here since 6 a.m., and this is getting worse and worse, State Police Officer K.W. Though leaving in the light of day would be easier, it could also cause hysteria from those left behind in the Dome. 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. He starts off the essay with his own personal account of the damage that Hurricane Katrina left. He escaped the chaotic shelter a few days . In the United States, Louisiana has the "highest rate of beds per 1,000 persons ages 85 or more," but over half of the nursing homes in New Orleans decided against early evacuation. Although FEMA had promised 360,000 military rations, only 40,000 had arrived by that day. 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. A few hours later, at 9:00 AM EDT, reports from inside the dome were that part of the roof was "peeling off" in the violent winds. However, this didn't happen because the storm was too strong it happened due to the failures of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. On May 12, 2015, rubble remains at what used to be the B.W. Hurricane Katrina had intruded on the last safe space. [21] The Astrodome started to fill up, so authorities began to transfer people to the nearby Reliant Arena, Reliant Center, and George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston in the following days. 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. This is 40 or 50 feet up in the air. One of the biggest issues was communication, since landlines weren't working, cell towers were down, and offices were flooded, writes State of Emergency. 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. 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. 4:23 PM EST, Mon January 16, 2023. [41], After the events surrounding Katrina, the Superdome was not used during the 2005 NFL season. The moonlight was shining on the water., She paused. Then the male employees, and, finally, the men who worked security would be the last to leave. Nagin had no solution. As a result, according to ESRI, most minority communities ended up living in neighborhoods that were cheaply built and in areas more susceptible to flooding. We took him to the terrace and said, Look. , As he saw the floodwaters rising around the stadium, the man broke down. The National Weather Service was revising its forecast again. The backup generator for the lights was barely able to be kept afloat, and after the water supply gave out, the toilets "became inoperable and began to overflow." The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. 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. 40% of deaths were caused by drowning. 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 agency also provided $6.7 billion in recovery aid to more than one million people and households. "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." You better move back. Widespread criticism of the federal response to Katrina led to the resignation of Michael D. Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and did lasting damage to the reputation of President Bush, who was nearing the end of a month-long vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas when Katrina struck. At noon, he boarded a helicopter. Thornton felt the seconds ticking, each one more dangerous than the last. On top of that, since most of the department's staff was sent to assist at state shelters, there was even a challenge of tracking down "missing workers.". Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Many Katrina evacuees made it to Houston, Texas, where they were housed in the Astrodome and other shelters. 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. Most of the tragedies associated with Hurricane Katrina could have been avoided, but due to a variety of reasons, the hurricane quickly became one of the worst disasters to ever occur in the United States. Just looking out I saw glare of the water, she said, choking up. By 11 a.m. on August 30, Katrina had dwindled to heavy rainfall and winds of about 35 mph. [4], On August 28, 2005, at 6 am, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced that the Superdome would be used as a public shelter. [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. The Associated Press stated there were two substantial holes, "each about 15 to 20 feet (6.1m) long and 4 to 5 feet (1.5m) wide," and that water was making its way in at elevator shafts and other small openings around the building. 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. But finding the children was only part of the battle. That night SMG sent a private helicopter to evacuate the staff and their families.