Economic effects The economic effects of the storm reached high levels. The
Bush administration sought $105 billion for repairs and reconstruction in the region, which did not account for damage to the economy caused by potential interruption of the
oil supply, destruction of the Gulf Coast's highway infrastructure, and exports of commodities such as grain. Katrina damaged or destroyed 30
oil platforms and caused the closure of nine
refineries; The forestry industry in Mississippi was also affected, as of forest lands were destroyed. The total loss to the forestry industry from Katrina is calculated to rise to about $5 billion. Forensic accountants were involved in the assessment of economic damages resulting from this catastrophe. Katrina displaced over one million people from the central Gulf Coast to elsewhere across the United States, becoming the largest
diaspora in the history of the United States.
Houston, Texas, had an increase of 35,000 people;
Mobile, Alabama, gained over 24,000; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, over 15,000; and
Hammond, Louisiana, received over 10,000, nearly doubling its size. Chicago, Illinois received over 6,000 people, the most of any non-southern city. By late January 2006, about 200,000 people were once again living in New Orleans, less than half of the pre-storm population. By July 1, 2006, when new population estimates were calculated by the
U.S. Census Bureau, the state of Louisiana showed a population decline of 219,563 or 4.87%. Additionally, some
insurance companies have stopped insuring homeowners in the area because of the high costs from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, or have raised homeowners' insurance premiums to cover their risk.
Environmental effects Katrina also had a profound impact on the environment. The storm surge caused substantial
beach erosion, in some cases completely devastating coastal areas. In Dauphin Island (a
barrier island), approximately to the east of the point where the hurricane made landfall, the sand that comprised the island was transported across the island into the
Mississippi Sound, pushing the island towards land. The storm surge and waves from Katrina also severely damaged the
Chandeleur Islands, which had been affected by Hurricane Ivan the previous year. The US Geological Survey has estimated of land was transformed to water by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Before the storm,
subsidence and
erosion caused loss of land in the Louisiana wetlands and
bayous. This, along with the canals built in the area, let Katrina keep more of its intensity when it struck. The lands that were lost were breeding grounds for marine mammals, brown
pelicans, turtles, and fish, and migratory species such as
redhead ducks. As a result, the hurricane affected the habitats of
sea turtles, Mississippi
sandhill cranes,
red-cockaded woodpeckers, and
Alabama Beach mice. Delayed mortality as an effect of the storm continued with rates up to 5% until 2011. This significant loss in
biomass caused greater decay and an increase in carbon emissions. For example, by 2006 the decreased biomass in bottomland hardwood forests contributed an amount of carbon which equated to roughly 140% of the net annual U.S.
carbon sink in forest trees. , before Katrina (left) and after (right), showing the impact of the storm along coastal areas The storm caused
oil spills from 44 facilities throughout southeastern Louisiana, which resulted in over of oil being leaked. Some spills were only a few hundred gallons and most were contained on-site, though some oil entered the ecosystem and residential areas. After a spill at the
Murphy Oil refinery, for example, 1,800 homes were oiled in the towns of
Chalmette and
Meraux. Unlike
Hurricane Ivan, no offshore oil spills were officially reported after Hurricane Katrina. However, Skytruth reported some signs of surface oil in the Gulf of Mexico.
Reestablishing governance Special Response Team searches a hotel room-by-room in New Orleans in response to Hurricane Katrina. Shortly after the hurricane moved away on August 30, 2005, some residents of New Orleans who remained in the city began
looting stores. Many were in search of food and water that were not available to them through any other means, as well as non-essential items. Additionally, there were reports of
carjacking, murders, thefts, and rapes in New Orleans. Some sources later determined that many of the reports were inaccurate, greatly exaggerated or completely false, leading news agencies to print retractions. Thousands of National Guard and federal troops were mobilized and sent to Louisiana, with 7,841 in the area on August 29, to a maximum of 46,838 on September 10. A number of local law enforcement agents from across the country were temporarily deputized by the state. "They have
M16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and I expect they will", Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said. Congressman
Bill Jefferson told
ABC News: "There was shooting going on. There was sniping going on. Over the first week of September, law and order were gradually restored to the city." Several shootings occurred between police and New Orleans residents, some involving
police misconduct; including
an incident where police officers killed two unarmed civilians and seriously injured four others at
Danziger Bridge. Five former police officers pleaded guilty to charges connected to the Danziger Bridge shootings in the aftermath of the hurricane. Six other former or existing officers appeared in court in June 2011. Overall, a number of
arrests were made throughout the affected area, including some near the New Orleans Convention Center. A
temporary jail was constructed of chain link cages in the
New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, the city's main train station. On September 30, the New Orleans Police Department confirmed that 12 police officers were participating in looting and property theft. In West Virginia, where roughly 350 refugees were located, local officials took fingerprints to run criminal background checks on the refugees. The background checks found that 45% of the refugees had a criminal record of some nature, and that 22% had a violent criminal record. Media speculation fueled a popular perception that the displaced New Orleans residents brought a wave of crime into the communities where they relocated, however, detailed studies of crime statistics in these communities did not reveal a significant increase in violent crime.
Government response after Hurricane Katrina ,
Elaine Chao, and
Mike Leavitt during a press conference from the
Rose Garden, regarding the devastation along the Gulf Coast caused by Katrina. Within the United States and as delineated in the
National Response Plan, disaster response and planning is first and foremost a local government responsibility. When local government exhausts its resources, it then requests specific additional resources from the county level. The request process proceeds similarly from the county to the state to the federal government as additional resource needs are identified. Many of the problems that arose developed from inadequate planning and back-up communication systems at various levels. Of the 60,000 people stranded in New Orleans, the Coast Guard rescued more than 33,500. Congress recognized the Coast Guard's response with an official entry in the Congressional Record, and the
Armed Service was awarded the
Presidential Unit Citation. The
United States Northern Command established
Joint Task Force (JTF) Katrina based out of
Camp Shelby, Mississippi, to act as the military's on-scene response on Sunday, August 28, with Lieutenant General
Russel L. Honoré as commander. Approximately 58,000 National Guard personnel were activated to deal with the storm's aftermath, with troops coming from all 50 states. The
Department of Defense also activated volunteer members of the
Civil Air Patrol. Michael Chertoff,
Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security, decided to take over the federal, state, and local operations officially on August 30, 2005, citing the National Response Plan. This was refused by Governor Blanco, who indicated that her National Guard could manage. Early in September, Congress authorized a total of $62.3 billion in aid for victims. Additionally, President Bush enlisted the help of former presidents
Bill Clinton and
George H. W. Bush to raise additional voluntary contributions, much as they did after the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and
tsunami.
American flags were also ordered to be
half-staff from September 2, 2005, to September 20, 2005, in honor of the victims. FEMA provided housing assistance (rental assistance,
trailers, etc.) to more than 700,000 applicants—families and individuals. However, only one-fifth of the trailers requested in Orleans Parish were supplied, resulting in an enormous housing shortage in the city of New Orleans. Many local areas voted to not allow the trailers, and many areas had no utilities, a requirement prior to placing the trailers. To provide for additional housing, FEMA has also paid for the hotel costs of 12,000 individuals and families displaced by Katrina through February 7, 2006, when a final deadline was set for the end of hotel cost coverage. After this deadline, evacuees were still eligible to receive federal assistance, which could be used towards either apartment rent, additional hotel stays, or fixing their ruined homes, although FEMA no longer paid for hotels directly. As of March 30, 2010, there were still 260 families living in FEMA-provided trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi. Law enforcement and public safety agencies, from across the United States, provided a "
mutual aid" response to Louisiana and New Orleans in the weeks following the disaster. Many agencies responded with manpower and equipment from as far away as California,
Michigan,
Nevada, New York, and
Texas. This response was welcomed by local Louisiana authorities as their staff were either becoming fatigued, stretched too thin, or even quitting from the job. Two weeks after the storm, more than half of the states were involved in providing shelter for evacuees. By four weeks after the storm, evacuees had been registered in all 50 states and in 18,700 zip codes—half of the nation's residential postal zones. Most evacuees had stayed within , but 240,000 households went to Houston and other cities over away and another 60,000 households went over away.
Criticism takes on supplies at
Mayport, Florida, en route to the Gulf Coast. The criticisms of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina primarily consisted of criticism of
mismanagement and lack of
leadership in the relief efforts in response to the storm and its aftermath. More specifically, the criticism focused on the delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans, and the subsequent state of chaos in the city. Within days of Katrina's August 29 landfall, public debate arose about the local, state and federal governments' role in the
preparations for and response to the hurricane. Criticism was initially prompted by televised images of visibly shaken and frustrated political leaders, and of residents who remained stranded by floodwaters without
water, food, or shelter. Deaths from
thirst,
exhaustion and violence days after the storm had passed fueled the criticism, as did the dilemma of the evacuees at facilities such as the Louisiana Superdome and the New Orleans Civic Center. Some alleged that
race, class, and other factors could have contributed to delays in government response. For example, during
A Concert for Hurricane Relief, a benefit concert for victims of the hurricane, rapper
Kanye West veered off script and harshly criticized the government's response to the crisis, stating that "George Bush doesn't care about
black people." In accordance with federal law, President George W. Bush directed the
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, to coordinate the Federal response. Chertoff designated
Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as the Principal Federal Official to lead the deployment and coordination of all federal response resources and forces in the Gulf Coast region. However, the president and Secretary Chertoff initially came under harsh criticism for what some perceived as a lack of planning and coordination. Brown claimed that Governor Blanco resisted their efforts and was unhelpful. Governor Blanco and her staff disputed this. Eight days later, Brown was recalled to Washington and Coast Guard Vice Admiral
Thad W. Allen replaced him as chief of hurricane relief operations. Three days after the recall, Michael D. Brown resigned as director of FEMA in spite of having received recent praise from President Bush. Politicians, activists, pundits, and journalists also directed criticism at the local and state governments headed by Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor Blanco. Nagin and Blanco were criticized for failing to implement New Orleans's evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions. Perhaps the most important criticism of Nagin was that he delayed his emergency evacuation order until 19 hours before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths of people who could not find any way out of the city. A later
CNN/
USAToday/
Gallup poll showed that respondents disagreed widely on who was to blame for the problems in the city following the hurricane—13% said Bush, 18% said federal agencies, 25% blamed state or local officials and 38% said no one was to blame.
International response personnel unload Canadian relief supplies from a
Royal Canadian Air Force transport aircraft in
Pensacola, Florida. Over seventy countries pledged monetary donations or other assistance. Cuba and Venezuela were the first countries to offer assistance, pledging over $1 million, several mobile hospitals, water treatment plants, canned food,
bottled water, heating oil, 1,100 doctors and 26.4 metric tons of medicine, though this aid was rejected by the U.S. government. Kuwait made the largest single pledge, $500 million; other large donations were made by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (each $100 million), South Korea ($30 million), Australia ($10 million), India, China (both $5 million), New Zealand ($2 million), Pakistan ($1.5 million), Norway ($1.8 million), and Bangladesh ($1 million). India sent tarps, blankets, and hygiene kits. An
Indian Air Force IL-76 aircraft delivered 25 tonnes of relief supplies for the Hurricane Katrina victims at the
Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, on September 13, 2005. Israel sent an
IDF delegation to New Orleans to transport aid equipment including 80 tons of food, disposable diapers, beds, blankets, generators and additional equipment which were donated from different governmental institutions, civilian institutions, and the IDF. The Bush administration announced in mid-September that it did not need Israeli divers and physicians to come to the United States for search and rescue missions, but a small team landed in New Orleans on September 10 to give assistance to operations already underway. The team administered first aid to survivors, rescued
abandoned pets and discovered hurricane victims. Countries like Sri Lanka, which was still recovering from a
tsunami last year, also offered to help.
Canada,
Mexico,
Singapore, and Germany sent supplies, relief personnel (like
Technisches Hilfswerk), troops, ships and water pumps to aid in the disaster recovery. Belgium sent in a team of relief personnel. The United Kingdom's donation of 350,000 emergency meals did not reach victims because of laws regarding
mad cow disease. Russia's initial offer of two jets was declined by the U.S. State Department but accepted later. The French offer was also declined and requested later.
Non-governmental organization response and being helped by the Red Cross and other agencies and associations. The
American Red Cross, America's Second Harvest (now known as
Feeding America),
Southern Baptist Convention,
Salvation Army,
Oxfam,
Common Ground Collective,
Burners Without Borders,
Emergency Communities,
Habitat for Humanity,
Catholic Charities,
Direct Relief, Service International, "A River of Hope",
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and many other charitable organizations provided aid to victims in the aftermath of the storm. They were not allowed into New Orleans proper by the National Guard for several days after the storm because of safety concerns. These organizations raised US$4.25 billion in donations from the public, with the Red Cross receiving over half of these donations. Some smaller organizations and individuals ignored the access restrictions and provided early relief. For example, two privately chartered planes from
FasterCures evacuated 200 patients from Charity Hospital in New Orleans. Volunteers from the
Amateur Radio Emergency Service provided communications in areas where the communications infrastructure had been damaged or totally destroyed, relaying everything from 911 traffic to messages home. In Hancock County, Mississippi, ham radio operators provided the only communications into or out of the area and even served as 911 dispatchers. Many private corporations also contributed to relief efforts. On September 13, 2005, it was reported that corporate donations amounted to $409 million, and were expected to exceed $1 billion. During and after the Hurricanes Katrina,
Wilma and
Rita, the American Red Cross had opened 1,470 shelters and registered 3.8 million overnight stays. None were allowed in New Orleans, however. A total of 244,000 Red Cross workers (95% of which were non-paid volunteers) were used throughout these three hurricanes. In addition, 346,980 comfort kits (including such basic necessities as toothpaste, soap, washcloths, and toys for children) and 205,360 cleanup kits (containing brooms, mops, and bleach) were distributed. For mass care, the organization served 68 million snacks and meals to victims of the disasters and to rescue workers. The Red Cross also had its Disaster Health services meet 596,810 contacts, and Disaster Mental Health services met 826,590 contacts. Red Cross emergency financial assistance was provided to 1.4 million families. Hurricane Katrina was the first natural disaster in the United States in which the American Red Cross used its "Safe and Well" family location website. Direct Relief provided a major response in the Gulf states so health providers could treat the local patients and evacuees. Direct Relief furnished $10 million in medical material aid and cash grants to support clinics and health centers in the area. In the year following Katrina's strike on the Gulf Coast, The Salvation Army allocated donations of more than $365 million to serve more than 1.7 million people in nearly every state. The organization's immediate response to Hurricane Katrina included more than 5.7 million hot meals and about 8.3 million sandwiches, snacks, and drinks served in and around New Orleans. Its SATERN network of amateur radio operators picked up where modern communications left off to help locate more than 25,000 survivors. Salvation Army pastoral care counselors were on hand to comfort the emotional and spiritual needs of 277,000 individuals. As part of the overall effort, Salvation Army officers, employees, and volunteers contributed more than 900,000 hours of service.
Analysis of New Orleans levee failures There were over 50 breaches of the flood protection system during Hurricane Katrina. The system is called the
Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project (LPVHPP). The system was authorized by Congress in the
Flood Control Act of 1965. It tasked the
Army Corps with responsibility for the conception, design and construction. The LPVHPP was initially estimated to take 13 years, but when Katrina's surge arrived in 2005, parts of the project were 60-90% complete with a revised completion date of 2015. According to a modeling exercise conducted by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), two-thirds of the deaths in
Greater New Orleans were due to levee and
flood wall failure. On April 5, 2006, months after independent investigators had demonstrated that levee failures were not caused by natural forces beyond intended design strength, Lieutenant General
Carl Strock,
chief of engineers and commander of the Corps of Engineers, testified before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Energy and Water that "We have now concluded we had problems with the design of the structure." A June 2007 report released by the
American Society of Civil Engineers determined that the failures of the levees and flood walls in New Orleans were found to be primarily the result of system design and construction flaws. According to a report published in August 2015 in the official journal of the
World Water Council, the Corps misinterpreted the results of a 1985 study and wrongly concluded that sheet piles in the flood walls needed to be driven to depths of only instead of between . That decision saved approximately US$100 million, but significantly reduced overall engineering reliability. In January 2008, Judge
Stanwood Duval of the U.S. District Court ruled that despite the Corps' role in the flooding, the agency could not be held financially liable because of
sovereign immunity in the
Flood Control Act of 1928. Exactly ten years after Katrina, J. David Rogers, lead author of a new report in the official journal of the World Water Council, concluded that the flooding during Katrina "could have been prevented had the corps retained an external review board to double-check its flood-wall designs". Other factors may have contributed to the flooding. According to the authors of
Catastrophe in the Making (Island Press, 2009), the straight design and lack of outward flow into the Gulf allowed the
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal to become "the perfect shortcut for salt-water intrusion", which damaged buffering cypress forests and wetlands that historically had protected New Orleans from storm surge. The Army Corps of Engineers built and maintained the canal. Furthermore, according to storm surge researcher Hassan Mashriqui: The Corps of Engineers disputes these causalities. Nonetheless, in June 2008, the Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District submitted a Deep-Draft De-authorization Study of the MRGO which stated that "an economic evaluation of channel navigation use does not demonstrate a Federal interest in continued operation and maintenance of the channel." Congress ordered the MRGO closed as a direct result. Many of the levees have been reconstructed since Katrina. In reconstructing them, precautions were taken to bring the levees up to modern building code standards and to ensure their safety. For example, in every situation possible, the Corps of Engineers replaced I-walls with T-walls, which have a horizontal concrete base that protects against soil erosion underneath the flood walls. Funding battles continue over the remaining levee improvements. In February 2008, the Bush administration requested that the state of Louisiana pay about $1.5 billion of an estimated $7.2 billion for Corps of Engineers levee work (in accordance with the principles of local cost-sharing required by Congress as early as the
Flood Control Act of 1928), a proposal which angered many Louisiana leaders. On May 2, 2008, Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal used a speech to The National Press Club to request that President Bush free up money to complete work on Louisiana's levees. Bush promised to include the levee funding in his 2009 budget but rejected the idea of including the funding in a war bill, which would pass sooner.
Media involvement Many representatives of the news media reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became directly involved in the unfolding events, instead of simply reporting. Because of the loss of most means of communication, such as land-based and cellular telephone systems, field reporters in many cases became conduits for information between victims and authorities. The authorities, who monitored local and network news broadcasts, as well as internet sites, would then attempt to coordinate rescue efforts based on the reports. One illustration was when
Geraldo Rivera of
Fox News tearfully pleaded for authorities to either send help or evacuate the thousands of evacuees stranded at the
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The role of AM radio was also of importance to the hundreds of thousands of persons with no other ties to news, providing emergency information regarding access to assistance for hurricane victims. Immediately after Katrina,
WWL-AM was one of the few area radio stations in the area remaining on the air. This emergency service, simulcasted on shortwave outlet
WHRI, was named "
United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans". Their ongoing nighttime broadcasts continued to be available up to away. Announcers continued to broadcast from improvised studio facilities after the storm damaged their main studios. The cellular phone antenna network was severely damaged and completely inoperable for several months. The storm also brought a dramatic rise in the role of websites—especially
blogging and
community journalism. One example was the effort of
NOLA.com, the web affiliate of New Orleans's
Times-Picayune. A group of reporters were awarded the Breaking News
Pulitzer Prize and shared the Public Service Pulitzer with the Biloxi-based
Sun Herald. The newspaper's coverage was carried for days only on NOLA's blogs, as the newspaper lost its presses and evacuated its building as water rose around it on August 30. The site became an international focal point for news by local media, and also became a vital link for rescue operations and later for reuniting scattered residents, as it accepted and posted thousands of individual pleas for rescue on its blogs and forums. NOLA was monitored constantly by an array of rescue teams—from individuals to the Coast Guard—which used information in rescue efforts. Much of this information was relayed from trapped victims via the SMS functions of their cell phones, to friends and relatives outside the area, who then relayed the information back to NOLA.com. The aggregation of community journalism, user photos, and the use of the internet site as a collaborative response to the storm attracted international attention and was called a watershed moment in journalism. In the wake of these online-only efforts, the Pulitzer Committee for the first time opened all its categories to online entries. As the U.S. military and rescue services regained control over the city, there were restrictions on the activity of the media. On September 9, the military leader of the relief effort announced that reporters would have "zero access" to efforts to recover bodies in New Orleans. Immediately following this announcement, CNN filed a
lawsuit and obtained a temporary
restraining order against the ban. The next day the government backed down and reversed the ban. In September 2022, the Associated Press issued a style guide change to Katrina stating that reporters when writing about the storm in New Orleans should note that "...levee failures played a major role in the devastation in New Orleans. In some stories, that can be as simple as including a phrase about Hurricane Katrina's catastrophic levee failures and flooding...."
Studies concerning post-Katrina victims An article published in the
Community Mental Health Journal from January 2016 revealed information about a recent study on the psychosocial needs of Hurricane Katrina evacuees that temporarily resided in Dallas, Texas. More than one-fourth of the sample met the criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD). About one-third of the individuals received a referral to mental health services for meeting symptom criteria for incident MDD and PTSD. In a study published in
Maternal and Child Health Journal, five to seven years after the disaster, 308 New Orleans pregnant women were interviewed about their exposure to Katrina. Researchers found that there were associations between experiencing damage during Katrina and birthweight, leading researchers to conclude that natural disasters may have long-term effects on pregnancy outcomes. Furthermore, it was concluded that women who are most vulnerable to disaster may be more vulnerable to poor pregnancy outcome. From a September 2015 journal of
Current Psychology, a study examined the attitudes of older, long-term residents of Baton Rouge, Louisiana toward displaced newcomers to their community. After using multiple tests, analyses, and descriptive statistics, the study suggested residents grew to become more patient, tolerant, and friendly towards newcomers. The study also suggests, however, that residents felt more fearful and suspicious of the evacuees, as well as the fact that they were being taken advantage of more.
Retirement Because of the high death toll and widespread property destruction along the U.S. Gulf Coast, the name
Katrina was retired from the
Atlantic hurricane naming lists in April 2006 by the
World Meteorological Organization. The name will never again be used for another tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin. It was replaced with
Katia for the
2011 Atlantic hurricane season. == Reconstruction ==