Twenty Years Later: What Lessons Have We Learned From Hurricane Katrina?

"John Mutter remembers seeing the roofs of single-story homes poking above the water level in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. Houses in poorer, lower-lying parts of town, he said, were cleared off their foundations and plopped across the street. Mutter, a professor of Earth and environmental sciences at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, visited the Gulf Coast after the storm and spoke with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials responsible for determining the death toll."

"Although the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) built a network of levees and flood walls to shield New Orleans from inundation, over 50 structural failures along the system-last updated after 1965's Hurricane Betsy-triggered widespread flooding and left 80 percent of the city submerged. Katrina remains the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with 1,392 fatalities (a figure determined by the National Hurricane Center in 2023)."

"Through the eyes of Columbia University faculty-some who traveled to assist survivors while others analyzed the catastrophic damage from New York-the warning is clear. Weakened federal agencies, willful political negligence and persistent socioeconomic inequities, they say, will continue to leave the most vulnerable at risk when the next Katrina inevitably comes."

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005, with 125 mph winds and 30-foot storm surges that devastated the Gulf Coast. Flood defenses built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed in more than 50 locations, leaving 80 percent of New Orleans submerged. The official death toll is 1,392. Many homes in lower-income neighborhoods were swept from their foundations and displaced across streets. Determining detailed causes of death proved difficult amid chaotic conditions. Ongoing concerns include weakened federal agencies, political negligence, and persistent socioeconomic inequities that could leave vulnerable populations at risk in future major hurricanes.

Read at State of the Planet