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They guarded the office where Thornton and his team huddled, but that was about it. In addition, according to the journalSocial Science & Medicine, there were also long-term mental health consequences of Hurricane Katrina. [6] By this time, the population of the dome had nearly doubled within two days to approximately 30,000, as helicopters and vehicles capable of cutting through the deep flood waters picked up stranded citizens from hard-hit areas and brought them to the dome. Mouton was there, walking quickly toward him. knock out power for about 1 million and cause $630 million of damage, Cities of the Underworld: Hurricane Katrina, about 100,000 people were trapped in the city when the storm hit, fourth highest of any hurricane in U.S. history, according to a report published in 2008 by the American Medical Association. This was it. Sign up for the For The Win newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning. National Geographic writes that the storm hit the coast of Louisiana on August 29 and ended up affecting up to 90,000 square miles of land and over 15 million people. According to ABC News, it was claimed that "the levee breaches could not have been foreseen" and that the government had little warning before the hurricane. Hurricane Katrina, tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. About850 patients with serious medical conditions some in hospice care would arrive to ride out the storm there; most of them from parts of the city not protected by the levee system. However, National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasts had correctly predicted the strengthening, and hurricane watches and warnings . He escaped the chaotic shelter a few days . There were no designated medical staff at work in the evacuation center, no established sick bay within the Superdome, and very few cots available that hadn't been brought in by evacuees. Early the next morning Thorntonwoke from a fitful sleep, then went out into the hallway outside his office. In April 2000, according to the Data Center, the population of New Orleans was 484,674; by July 2006, not quite a year after Katrina, it had dropped by more than 250,000, to some 230,172. A violent, free-for-all riot seemed sure to break out with the next bit of bad news. Thornton, whod been cooped up in the Superdome for going on five days, looked down on her city, at the soft waves lapping against the houses in the moonlight. It continued on a course to the northeast, crossing the Mississippi Sound and making a second landfall later that morning near the mouth of the Pearl River. Supplies were dangerously low, with one mother saying officials told her to reuse diapers by scraping them out when they got dirty. At its height as a category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, Katrinas wind speeds exceeded 170 miles per hour. - The total damage from Katrina is estimated to be $125 billion (or $190 billion in 2022 dollars), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Within an hour, nearly every building in lower Plaquemines Parish would be destroyed. Over the next several days the Domewould sink into chaos. After Hurricane Katrina struck, numerous federal officials, including President George W. Bush, claimed that there was little that could have been done to prevent the disaster. According to NBC News, the average age of victims was 69, and "just under half of all victims were 75 or older." The New Orleans Saints played four of their scheduled home games at LSU's Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, three at the Alamodome in San Antonio, and one at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Michael Appleton/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images. [49][50] Grambling State University beat Southern University, 5035.[51]. She knew the destruction was bad, that water was everywhere. Twenty-five thousand miserable people - many of whom lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina - hunkered down with little food and little water, overflowing toilets, stifling heat and the. There were two reports of rape, one involving a child. As a result, according to ESRI, most minority communities ended up living in neighborhoods that were cheaply built and in areas more susceptible to flooding. The water was still rising. Before Hurricane Katrina, B.W. She came up with the list, talked to the dozens of people there, her husbands employees, people she knew a little bit before the storm and now knew like family. Despite the planned use of the Superdome as an evacuation center, government officials at the local, state and federal level were criticized for poor preparation and response, especially Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin, President George W. Bush, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael D. Finally. The arrival of 13,000 U.S. National Guard troops and 7,000 U.S. military troops deployed by President George W. Bush helped with evacuations and resupplying food and water to those stranded at the Superdome and convention center, all of whom were finally evacuated on September 3. The National Guard had pulled back from many parts of the building. Photo taken from the I-10-US 90 junction showing most of the white rubber protective membrane over the roof of the Superdome torn away by strong winds during Katrina. New homes stand along the rebuilt Industrial Canal levee on May 16, 2015. Thornton felt the seconds ticking, each one more dangerous than the last. Katrinas death toll is the fourth highest of any hurricane in U.S. history, after the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed between 8,000 and 12,000 people; Hurricane Maria, which killed more than 4,600 people in Puerto Rico in 2017; and the Okeechobee Hurricane, which hit Florida in 1928 and killed as many as 3,000. The day . Thorntons staff opened up the concourses, allowing people to walk around the arena, stretch their legs, find neighbors and friends who were there as well. We pee on the floor. On Wednesday morning, Mouton and Thornton checked the water first thing. But it worked. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to strike the US Gulf Coast since 1928. Hurricane Katrina made landfall off the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005. Back in 2005, Nagin went on the Today Show and said, "it wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000" deaths from Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of displaced residents take cover from Hurricane Katrina at the Superdome in New . Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin had stated that as a "refuge of last resort," only limited food, water, and supplies would be provided. 24 With scant food and water sources, . "Hurricane Katrina survivors in the Superdome." . [citation needed] Residents who evacuated to the Superdome were warned to bring their own supplies with them. You better move back. [21] The Astrodome started to fill up, so authorities began to transfer people to the nearby Reliant Arena, Reliant Center, and George R. Brown Convention Center in Downtown Houston in the following days. Daylight could be seen from inside the dome, and rain was pouring in. Denise Thornton was tasked with deciding the order of evacuation. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. New homes stand in the Lower Ninth Ward on May 15, 2015. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. This is a nuthouse, said April Thomas, 42, there with her 11 children. They would back the fuel resupply truck up to the door, smash a hole in the wall, and run a line directly from the truck to the generator. The moonlight was shining on the water., She paused. With top winds of around 80 mph, the storm was relatively weak, but enough to knock out power for about 1 million and cause $630 million of damage. Nearly half the fatalities in Louisiana were people over the age of 74. Nearly 56% of the losses occurred in Louisiana and nearly 30% occurred in Mississippi. According to National Geographic, "some argue that indirect hurricane deaths, like being unable to access medical care, should be counted in official numbers.". A man had been caught sexually assaulting a young girl. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. People search for their belongings among debris washed up on the beach in Biloxi on August 30, 2005. By some estimates, between 80 and 90 percent of New Orleans population was able to evacuate the city prior to Katrina. People try to get to higher ground as water rises on August 30, 2005, in New Orleans. New Orleans went from having a public school system to having a school system composed almost entirely of charter schools, most of them run by charter management organizations. And as the media portrayed New Orleans as a lawless place filled with violence with overblown and unverified reports, police and rescue efforts were redirected against the imaginary violence. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Emergency lights worked intermittently as engineers struggled to keep backup generators running as the area around the dome flooded. All of our employees had left town with the mandatory evacuation, he said. There wasnt much more he could do. [13], When the serious flooding of the city began on August 30 after the levees had broken, the Superdome began to fill slowly with water, though it remained confined only to the field level. These are some messed up things that happened during Hurricane Katrina. But over the Gulf of Mexico, some 165 miles west of Key West, the storm gathered strength above the warmer waters of the gulf. Authors . We've received your submission. 2023 Cable News Network. Experts don't know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina, but 1,800 is one of the low estimates, and over 1 million people lost their homes and were displaced. Security checks were conducted, and people with medical illnesses or disabilities were moved to one side of the dome with supplies and medical personnel. Hurricane Katrina had intruded on the last safe place. It is 250 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm that would later become Hurricane Katrina surfaced on August 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the Bahamas, approximately 350 miles (560 km) east of Miami. They were acquitted in 2007. [5] Maj. Gen. Bennett C. Landreneau of the Louisiana National Guard, said that the number of people taking shelter in the Superdome rose to around 15,00020,000 as search and rescue teams brought more people from areas hit hard by the flooding.[6]. Out of the at least 1,800 deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina, nearly half were elderly people. The dome's emergency generator was able to power the internal lighting but little else; the building's air conditioning system would no longer operate, nor would the refrigeration system which was keeping food from spoiling. This is a national disgrace, he said. A woman cries after returning to her house and business, destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, on August 30, 2005, in Biloxi, Mississippi. A few blocks away, the strobes inside Charity Hospital flashed. The smell of the air became humid, tropical. By 7 p.m. everyone was inside and had been checked. As a result, thousands of people became stranded at the Superdome, while thousands more ended up on the roofs of their homes as floodwaters reached heights of 20 feet. The final official death toll in the Superdome came to six people inside (4 of natural causes, one overdose, and an apparent suicide) and a few more in the general area outside the stadium. The backup generator for the lights was barely able to be kept afloat, and after the water supply gave out, the toilets "became inoperable and began to overflow." The Superdome was, as far as Thornton was concerned, completely destroyed. However, there was no water purification equipment on site, nor any chemical toilets, antibiotics, or anti-diarrheals stored for a crisis. The National Weather Service writes that Hurricane Katrina is "one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States.". Hurricane Katrina, the tropical cyclone that struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, was the third-strongest hurricane to hit the United States in its history at the time. The majority of all federal aid, approximately $75 billion of $120.5 billion, funded emergency relief operations. The men sat in stunned silence. In response, guardsmanput up barbed wire at various areas around the building, protecting themselves from the general population. Most of the tragedies associated with Hurricane Katrina could have been avoided, but due to a variety of reasons, the hurricane quickly became one of the worst disasters to ever occur in the United States. All Rights Reserved. A few of these groups wandered the concourse, stealing food and attacking anyone who stood up to them. [16], At midnight that same day, a private helicopter arrived to evacuate some members of the National Guard and their families. 4:23 PM EST, Mon January 16, 2023. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, the public school system of New Orleans was one of the lowest-performing districts in the state of Louisiana. When Hurricane Katrina first made landfall in Florida between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, it was a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 miles per hour. No one had a better plan, so they agreed to go with Moutons recommendation. Residents of Saucier, Mississippi, line up to get gas on August 31, 2005. Thornton and Mouton climbed into a Humvee and drove toward the New Orleans Convention Center, dodging debris and navigating through a little standing water down Poydras Street. Wind and water damage to the roof created unsafe conditions, leading authorities to conduct emergency evacuations of the Superdome. We cant spare 6 feet.. Doug Thornton knew he had to get his people out. This also disproportionately affected people of color. [1], Hurricane Katrina was the third time the dome had been used as a public shelter. They drove four hours from Bossier City where Doug, an executive with SMG, managed a facility back to New Orleans, a lone car on the inbound side of the highway as thousands upon thousands of cars sat in traffic on the outbound lanes. Those without cars were in theory going to be picked up by city buses at stops throughout the city and taken two hours north of New Orleans. Duette Sims stands in the heavily damaged Christian Community Baptist Church in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward on August 28, 2007. It looks like we cant stop the levee breaches and were being told there could be as much as six to eight feet more of water, Thornton recalls Compass saying. 2008 Dec;2(4):215-23. doi: 10.1097/DMP.0b013e31818aaf55. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary. But its the only shot we got.. An aerial view of the catastrophic flooding in Downtown New Orleans on August 31, 2005. Katrina caused over 1,800 deaths and $100 billion in . In addition, many of the underlying systemic inequalities and problems that resulted in the severity of the disaster still have not been addressed. This was it. They had no good options. Inside the Dome, though, a small group of women and men fought to retain whatever order they could. The job was far from over; it took two days to get everyone out and onto buses. Reports of other rapes were widespread. They worked furiously. Inside the Superdome, things were descending further into hell.