NOAA Marks Hurricane Katrina Anniversary by Tracking Its Journey to New Orleans

NOAA released satellite footage on August 26 showing Hurricane Katrina’s journey from August 22 to September 1, 2005. Katrina’s initial landfall came on August 25 when it came ashore in Florida. After crossing the peninsula, Katrina strengthened to a Category 5 storm on its way across the Gulf of Mexico, but weakened to Category 3 by its second landfall, in southeastern Louisiana on August 29.

More than 1,200 people died as the storm devastated the coastal area and New Orleans, much of the damage caused by storm surge. More than 80 percent of New Orleans flooded when the Mississippi River’s levee system catastrophically failed and flood waters lingered for weeks after the storm passed. Credit: YouTube/NOAA