Katrina. It’s a name that some people would rather forget, or even completely ignore. But, on this second anniversary of the storm’s landfall, that name has been far from ignored. It will forever be in the record books as the costliest natural disaster to hit the U.S. mainland causing an estimated $81.2 billion in damage and displacing hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents. It was in the early morning hours of August 29, 2005 that the powerful Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 mph unleashed its power along the Missississippi, Louisiana and Alabama Gulf Coast where things would never be the same. The storm would change the face and landscape of an entire region with no regard for age, race or social status. From a meteorological perpective, it was a super-storm that produced awe-inspiring images that were captured by the satellites in space that sent chills up the spines of every meteorologist and weather fanatic. In reality, it was a monster that would alter life as we know it along the Gulf Coast region. Researchers were able to gather immense amounts of information from data buoys, weather reconnaissance dropsondes and other weather stations located on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of links on the internet that will educate one on every facet of the storm from birth to death, so I will not bore this writing with those details. I was the meteorologist on duty at WAAY that morning and watched in horror as Katrina made landfall. I can also remember in the previous days looking at the satellite image and thinking just what a survivor this storm wanted to be. Katrina was nothing less than a raging monster using every available piece of energy in the surrounding ocean and atmospheric environment to survive. In the world of meteorology we call that “modifying its own environment” and Katrina had mastered this art. I also recall the numerous eye-wall replacement cycles that Katrina displayed…it was as if the storm was saying, “Nothing is going to stop me!”, and nothing did. Most weather enthusiasts were amazed to learn that, dispite landfalling as a Category 3 storm, Katrina produced 12-15 foot storm surges with 15-20 foot waves on top of that. I’m almost convinced that Newton’s First Law of Motion, which states that an object in motion will stay in motion, completely applies to the reason that Katrina’s storm surge was so massive and catastrophic. Katrina was only about 200 miles off of Louisiana’s Gulf Coast when it reached Category 5 status, and with winds of 175 mph the storm surge would have already been set in motion. It would be like trying to stop a freight train headed downhill with no brakes.
