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Issue 12
Hurricane Katrina
Natural disturbance brings human tragedy
From a natural resource perspective, Hurricane Katrina was a large-scale disturbance event. But from the human perspective, the massive storm was catastrophic, killing more than 1,800 people and displacing almost half a million.
On August 29, 2005, Katrina made landfall at Buras, LA, as a category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds clocked at 126 miles per hour, sending pounding waves and a mammoth storm surge onto the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The largest storm surge recorded was 28 feet along the Mississippi coast, with surges reaching as high as 20 feet in New Orleans. The surge pushed 12 miles inland along Mississippi waterways and 6 miles along the coast.
As it roared northward, the hurricane brought 10 inches of rain to many areas and cut a wide swath of destruction that spanned southeastern Louisiana across southcentral Mississippi and western Alabama. Katrina weakened to a tropical storm as it moved inland, but not before inflicting an enormous amount of damage. Compounding the effects of Katrina were the more than 40 tornadoes the storm spawned.
Americans across the country watched as images of human tragedy and devastation flashed across their television screens. Thousands of homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. The National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center initially estimated total damages at around $81 billion, which would make Katrina the costliest hurricane to hit the United States. More than 3 years after the storm pummeled the Gulf Coast, many residents are still trying to rebuild their lives.
According to research from the SRS Forest Inventory and Analysis unit, Hurricane Katrina damaged an estimated 4.9 million acres of coastal and inland forests. SRS economists Jeffrey Prestemon and David Wear estimated financial losses from wind damage to timber between $1.4 and $2.4 billion. About 90 percent of the damage was within 62 miles of the coast. More than 65 percent occurred in Mississippi alone. The majority of losses were in pine forests. Loblolly and longleaf pines, as well as hardwoods such as oaks, pecans, and other species were blown over, twisted, snapped, and damaged by salt infusion and other factors. —SW
