Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was an extremely powerful and catastrophic tropical cyclone that killed 1,392 people and caused damage estimated at $125 billion, particularly in and around the city of New Orleans, in late August 2005. It is tied with Hurricane Harvey as being the costliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin. Katrina was the twelfth tropical cyclone, the fifth hurricane, the third major hurricane, and the second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was also the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the contiguous United States, as measured by barometric pressure.

Katrina formed on August 23, 2005, with the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of a tropical depression. After briefly strengthening to a tropical storm over south Florida, Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane before weakening to a Category 3 at its landfall on August 29 near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.