Hurricane Katrina: The record storm 15 years later
Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Buras, LA on the morning of August 29th, 2005.
NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - It was 15 years ago this morning that Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Southeast Louisiana in the town of Buras located in Plaquemines Parish. This was the first of two landfalls that morning as the storm officially made its final landfall along the Louisiana/Mississippi border.
Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 at landfall with winds of 125 mph. Even though Katrina was weakening at the time of landfall, it was still pushing a Category 5 storm surge which inundated both the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines.
Katrina’s circulation started as a depression in the Bahamas just days before it’s final major landfall. Katrina rapidly strengthened over the Bahamas and made landfall in South Florida as a strengthening hurricane. Once the storm emerged over the Gulf, the warm waters fueled the storm into a catastrophic 175 mph Category 5.
Katrina still sets the bar for many hurricane records although some of those records have fallen in recent years. Katrina remains the costliest disaster in United States history. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 did tie Katrina for that record. Katrina caused more than 1,200 deaths making it one of the most deadliest hurricanes in the nation’s history.
Just this past week, Hurricane Laura made landfall along the Southwest Louisiana coast as a 150 mph Category Four storm which is the strongest hurricane to impact Louisiana in over 150 years.
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