Scientists warned years before that New Orleans was highly vulnerable to catastrophic hurricane flooding if a storm followed certain Gulf paths. Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005, became one of the deadliest U.S. storms, causing 1,392 fatalities and inundating much of New Orleans after levee and floodwall failures. Most of the city went underwater and nearly all residents were displaced, some permanently. The catastrophic aftermath resulted from multiple systemic failures in infrastructure, city maintenance, and emergency management. Researchers and science communicators had attempted to warn about the inevitability of disaster under a particular hurricane track. Preparedness and infrastructure have evolved over the following two decades, though questions about past failures remain.
Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina became one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the U.S. After sweeping along the Gulf Coast, wreaking havoc in Louisiana and Mississippi, the massive storm ultimately led to 1,392 fatalities, according to the National Hurricane Center. Katrina's destruction centered on the city of New Orleans, where failing levees and floodwalls left most of the city underwater and displaced nearly all of its residents, some of them permanently.
The catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was the result of numerous failures: failures in infrastructure, city maintenance, emergency management and more. But the worst thing about this disaster might be that scientists saw it coming several years ahead of timeand one of Scientific American's own had even tried to help spread the word. Mark Fischetti, now a senior editor at Scientific American, wrote about research on the inevitability of disaster in New Orleans for the magazine back in 2001.
#hurricane-katrina #new-orleans #infrastructure-failure #disaster-preparedness #science-communication
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