Hurricane Katrina 2005

Katrina's path from the Bahamas to the Gulf Coast

Katrina began as a tropical depression over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23. Forecasters named it Tropical Storm Katrina the next day. As it approached Florida, the storm turned west and strengthened into a hurricane less than two hours before landfall.

On August 25, Katrina crossed the coast near the Miami-Dade–Broward county border with sustained winds of 70 knots, about 80 mph. Its strongest winds and heaviest rain fell south and east of the center, across Miami-Dade County. After about six hours over land, much of it across the Everglades, Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico north of Cape Sable on August 26.

Over the Gulf, Katrina regained hurricane strength and grew into a much larger storm. It reached Category 3 on August 27, then Category 5 on August 28. At 18:00 UTC that day, the best-track record places its peak winds at 150 knots and its minimum central pressure at 902 millibars. The archived IBTrACS observations preserve that peak.

Where did Hurricane Katrina make landfall?

Katrina made three U.S. landfalls: southeastern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, followed on August 29 by Buras, Louisiana, and the Louisiana–Mississippi border near the mouth of the Pearl River, both at Category 3 strength.

Katrina reached Buras at about 6:10 a.m. Central Daylight Time. It then crossed southeastern Louisiana and continued toward the Mississippi coast. Changes within its eyewall had reduced its maximum winds, but its broad wind field remained.

Storm surge and the flooding of New Orleans

Along a roughly 20-mile stretch of the Mississippi coast around St. Louis Bay, survey teams found evidence of storm surge about 24 to 28 feet high. They recorded the highest surge mark, 27.8 feet, at Pass Christian. Water reached at least six miles inland in parts of coastal Mississippi and crossed Interstate 10 in several places.

In New Orleans, rising water overtopped or breached sections of the levees and floodwalls. Floodwater entered through failures along the Industrial, London Avenue and 17th Street canals, among other locations. Within about a day of landfall, water covered roughly 80% of the city, reaching depths of about 20 feet in some areas.

Katrina's enormous size helps explain the surge. Its winds pushed water toward the coast across a broad area, while waves generated during its stronger phase added to water levels. The drop from Category 5 to Category 3 measured a decline in maximum wind speed; residents along the coast still faced deep, destructive flooding.

Death toll, damage and inland impacts

In its January 2023 revision, the NHC reported 1,392 Katrina-related fatalities: 520 direct deaths, 565 indirect deaths and 307 deaths with an indeterminate cause. Its damage estimate of $125 billion covers the United States and uses 2005 dollars.

Along the Mississippi coast, residents lost thousands of homes and businesses to the surge. Away from the flooded shoreline, falling trees damaged houses and power lines. In northern Alabama, emergency managers reported hours of tropical-storm-force gusts, downed trees and thousands of people without power.

Across the affected region, about three million people lost electricity, some for weeks. Floods blocked major roads into New Orleans, and Katrina destroyed bridges along the northern Gulf Coast, including the Interstate 10 Twin Span crossing between New Orleans and Slidell. As the storm moved inland, it weakened to a tropical storm over Mississippi, then to a tropical depression over the Tennessee Valley on August 30.