Experts: Huricane Katrina had four deadly parts

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Experts reviewing the damage that Huricane Katrina caused to New Orleans last August, say that the category 5 storm actually had four deadly flooding elements.

Hassan Mashriqui, a researcher with the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, said the hurricane moved northeast with winds in excess of 125 MPH, bringing with it a 17 foot storm surge that made landfall at the town of Buras, where levees are only made to with stand a maximum 13 foot surge.

As the eye of the storm passed over Lake Borgne, it created an 18 foot storm surge that the 13 foot levees of St. Bernard's Parish could not contain.

The next major hit, came when Katrina forcefully shot water into New Orleans' Inner City Harbor Navigation Canal. These were the flood waters that obliterated the Lower Ninth Ward, said Mashriqui.

As Hurricane Katrina pushed eastward into Mississippi, it sent a final powerful surge towards New Orleans across Lake Pontchartrain, north of the city, which forced the lake's waters into the center of the city, the report stated.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the eleventh named storm, fifth hurricane, third major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, and was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.