This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans.
One of the deadliest hurricane's ever, Katrina left a trail of destruction in its wake--both literally and figuratively. Beyond the loss of life, the hurricane became the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with damage topping $100 billion. There was also a political price to be paid. Katrina effectively ended George W. Bush's presidency just seven months after he was inaugurated to his second term. A decade later, New Orleans still hasn't fully recovered from the hurricane. The city's population is down nearly 25 percent from before the storm.
Somehow, it's simultaneously hard to believe that it's already been ten years and that it's only been ten years. I haven't given the storm much--if any thought--in recent years. But the coverage of this week's anniversary takes me back.
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall, I was just days away from starting my senior year at the UW-Madison . The storm had already caused damage throughout the Caribbean and in Florida, but the question on everybody's mind that last week of August was whether Katrina would make a direct hit on New Orleans. When it became increasingly clear that it would, the world watched and waited to see how severe the impact would be on a city already situated below sea level.
When Katrina reached the Louisiana Coast, I spent most of the night glued to cable news coverage with my roommate Jay. As the storm drew near, it was amusing to watch reporters kill time or conduct interviews with stubborn, sometimes crazy residents who refused to leave town.
The amusement, of course, wouldn't last long. When the storm finally passed, daylight revealed that the city had suffered massive damage. The levees failed, and 80 percent of the Big Easy was under water. Countless houses were destroyed. Refugees scattered about the country found themselves without homes to which they could return.
And they were the lucky ones. Around 1,500 people who tried to ride out the storm didn't make it--their bodies strewn about the city.
