Perry 1
Jordan Robert Perry
ANTH/GEO 101
Short Paper 1
9 July 2017
Hurricane Katrina
On August 29, 2005, one of the most devastating storms to hit the United States of
America made landfall in New Orleans.
On August 23, 2005 just 200 miles southeast of the
Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina formed and started making its way towards the south eastern United
States (Zimmerman 2015).
Katrina started out as a tropical depression according to the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (Zimmerman 2015).
As of August 25
th
, the storm had
reached Southern Florida; however it was only categorized as Category One (winds reaching
speeds a maximum of 95 mph based on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) and only
caused a little flooding but tragically took two lives (Zimmerman 2015).
Once over the Gulf of
Mexico, Katrina gained strength due to the fact that it “stalled beneath a very large upper level
anti cyclone” (Zimmerman 2015).
As of August 28
th
, speeds reached approximately 175mph,
which the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale classified it as Category Five Hurricane
(Zimmerman 2015).
As the storm approached the Louisiana/Mississippi border, wind speeds
reduced to 120 mph, which the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale classified it as Class Three
(Zimmerman 2015). In the span of U.S. History, Hurricane Katrina is considered the largest
residential natural disaster (Plyer 2016).
