Today is August 29th, and that day is significant since it was three years ago on this date that Hurricane Katrina stormed ashore along the Gulf Coast. The storm made two landfalls as it first came ashore near Buras in the Bayou of Louisiana, and then hit land again near the Louisiana/Mississippi border. The day before making landfall, Katrina had grown to be one of the most powerful storms on record with winds well exceeding Category Five strength on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

The storm made the worst fears for the most vulnerable city in the United States to a landfalling major hurricane realized. For years, the city of New Orleans, the Big Easy, or the Crescent City as it is better known, had dodged bullet after bullet in the forms of Hurricane Camille in 1969, Hurricane Elena in 1985, Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Hurricane Georges in 1998, and Hurricane Lili in 2002. However, with Katrina, luck had run out for New Orleans although the damage from Katrina wasn’t initially that bad. It was actually the lack of a federal, state, and municipal response in the aftermath of the storm that made the situation much worse than it should have been.

Katrina ended up being the costliest natural disaster in United States History with some $80 billion dollars in damage. The previous mark had been held by Hurricane Andrew ($27 billion) when it rampaged through South Florida in August 1992. Initial estimates saw the cost for Katrina could go as high as $200 billion dollars from the damage not only in New Orleans, but also in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which was hit far worse, and even suffered a greater catastrophe than when Camille came ashore in August 1969. The death toll was staggering by modern standards. Katrina ended up being one of the deadliest storms since 1900 with over 1,800 dead along the Central Gulf Coast. The storm generated the highest storm surge on the North American continent with levels rising as high as 28 feet shattering the previous mark held by Camille (24 ft. and 3 inches).

Hurricane Katrina was one of those situations where it could have been much better, and it could have been much worse. At about 2:00 PM EDT on August 28th, the storm reached peak intensity with 180 mile per hour sustained winds, and a minimum central pressure of 902 millibars, or 26.64 inches of Hg (Mercury). Seventeen hours later, at landfall near Buras, Louisiana, the storm had weakened to a strong Category Three on the Saffir-Simpson Scale with 110 knot, or 125 mile per hour winds, and a minimal central pressure of 27.17 inches of Hg. By the time it had made its second landfall along the Louisiana and Mississippi border, the winds had decreased to 120 miles per hour, and the pressure rose to 928 millibars, or 27.40 inches of Hg (Mercury). On top of that, the storm’s eye had passed well to the east of New Orleans putting the city on the western side of the storm, which is not as intense.

Had the response by the federal government in particular been better, the situation would not have spiraled so out of control. Even if the response was just a couple days late rather than a week or more, it would have made an enormous difference. In the wake of the levee breech and the catastrophic floods that resulted, New Orleans has struggled to get back to where it was. A mass diaspora took place in the United States with many former residents of the Big Easy re-locating elsewhere in the country. The demographics of not only the Crescent City, but also the State of Louisiana have dramatically changed to the point where it is much more Republican than it was before Katrina. Crime has gone up throughout the city, and many parts of the city are still in shambles.

Not to say that nothing positive has developed since Katrina. Two of the sports franchises in New Orleans, the Saints and the Hornets, have enjoyed a great deal of success in the past couple of years. The Superdome, a symbol of the mismanagement of the aftermath, was reopened after fears that it may have to be torn down following the roof being torn up. Conferences have been held in the city including the North American Summit between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. However, it has still been somewhat difficult for the city to attract tourists and business three years after the storm’s impact.