FEATURE
To Hell and Back: 20 Years After Hurricane Katrina
by Anthony Aycock
Here’s something I’ve heard my father say in jest many times: “Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” The line is often attributed to Mark Twain, who did say it on occasion. But he didn’t originate it. In fact, Twain was adapting the words of his friend, Massachusetts-born writer Charles Dudley Warner, who was quoted in an 1889 magazine profile as saying, “The weather in New England is a matter about which a great deal is said and very little done” (The Book Buyer, vol. 6, 1889).
It’s a memorable line, and it’s a funny one. Weather itself, however, can be a grim business. After two hurricanes, Helene and Milton, slammed the southeast U.S. in 2024, Donald Trump, who was running for president, began questioning the utility of federal weather responses. Since his re-election, he has discussed eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), insisting that states can handle their own disaster recovery. He has upended the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service with aggressive staff cuts. At his direction, the National Science Foundation has ended more than 1,000 grants that would have awarded nearly $800 million to researchers.
Twenty years ago, another hurricane overwhelmed part of the U.S. In late August 2005, Hurricane Katrina leveled New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast region, becoming what was, at the time, the costliest storm in U.S. history. And now, as weather research is being dismantled by the Trump administration, this article will discuss resources related to that tragedy and its aftereffects.
HURRICANE KATRINA
Hurricane Katrina—August 2005
Katrina is “one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States,” according to the Hurricane Katrina page on the National Weather Service’s site. It was “responsible for 1,833 fatalities and approximately $108 billion in damage” (nearly $174 billion in 2025 money). Other sites tell the narrative of those harrowing days; this one traffics in stats: storm surge (up to 11.5 feet), wind speed (up to 140 mph), rainfall (more than 12 inches in places). Also available are satellite and radar images, all of which show a hurricane big enough to blot out whole states. There is also a photo collection showing the otherworldly damage sustained by local communities in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana.
Hurricane Katrina Topic Guide
Besides 9/11, Katrina was arguably the most notable event of George W. Bush’s presidency (2001–2009). He has not shied away from that event, addressing it whenever he can and admitting that his administration made mistakes in both preparation and recovery. The Hurricane Katrina topic guide page from the George W. Bush Presidential Library links to press releases, photo essays, and other Katrina-related resources. There is also a research guide for records available for public inspection at the library’s Dallas facility. (More records can be found at President Bush’s archived White House website.)
The Times-Picayune, New Orleans
In 2006, New Orleans’ paper of record, The Times-Picayune, won the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service for its coverage of Katrina and its aftermath. The Pulitzer Prizes website’s section The Times-Picayune, New Orleans links to many of the paper’s articles, starting with the morning of Monday, Aug. 29, when the “slightly weakened” storm crossed the Mississippi River en route to New Orleans. (If Katrina was “weakened” when it hit the city, I’d hate to imagine it at full strength.)
‘Hurricane Katrina Aftermath: In the Shadow’
“Hurricane Katrina Aftermath: In the Shadow,” an 11-minute YouTube video produced by The New York Times in 2013 as a Retro Report, tells the story of Louisiana after Katrina—not the levee failures, FEMA trailers, or insurance battles, but the efforts of Road Home, a program meant to rebuild people’s homes. The program was designed by the state, run by private contractors, and financed with federal grants. The idea was a good one, but the execution was poor. This video explains what went wrong.
‘Hurricane Katrina DVD Documentary, From Miami to New Orleans and Biloxi’
A much longer YouTube video (1-hour plus) called “Hurricane Katrina DVD Documentary, From Miami to New Orleans and Biloxi” shows footage of the storm and its victims, with the description stating that it’s “[t]he only independent video production that documents Hurricane Katrina from both sides of the eye as the storm devastated the United States Gulf Coast.” This is raw footage, not a professionally produced documentary. As such, it has a plaintive, stream-of-consciousness tone that stays with you a while.
WEATHER SCIENCE
National Hurricane Center
The official site of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center offers everything you ever wanted to know about these forces of nature but were afraid to ask—forecasts, podcasts, radar/satellite information, aerial reconnaissance data, “experimental products,” and more. The site has a late-1990s feel, as though it was made using Geocities, but that doesn’t detract from the hoard of information.
NOAA
NOAA’s main site is one of the best and most comprehensive resources out there on ocean science. You can view climate data, see real-time imagery from NOAA’s satellites, and read all about sustainable seafood and the seafood industry. Also check out the NOAA Library website, which has excellent subject guides, free webinars, and more.
Climate Change Resources
Climate change, of course, doesn’t affect just ambient temperature; it is also altering the world’s waters, which scientists say is leading to bigger, stronger, and more frequent hurricanes. The University of California–San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography site Climate Change Resources has an abundance of information about research and education and features other details on the subject.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Founded in 1930 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is, according to its website, “the world’s leading, independent non-profit organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration, and education.” It studies a range of topics, including ocean life, ocean exploration, and climate change. Search for “hurricane,” and you’ll see a bevy of resources, including hurricane histories, profiles of “hurricane hunters,” and fascinating diagrams, such as Hurricane Cross Section.
‘Oh, Look. Another Doomsday Scenario to Worry About.’
Ever heard of the Gulf Stream? It’s a warm, swift Atlantic current that flows from the Gulf of Mexico up the East Coast, and it plays a crucial role in regulating global climate. Wonder what would happen to this planet if the Gulf Stream got screwed up? Find out in typical dark-humor fashion from science educator and all-around nerd Joe Scott in his Answers With Joe YouTube series entry, “Oh, Look. Another Doomsday Scenario to Worry About.”
SOCIAL ISSUES
Facts for Features: Katrina Impact
Facts for Features: Katrina Impact is courtesy of The Data Center, a nonprofit organization that calls itself “the most trusted resource for data about Southeast Louisiana.” Published in 2016, the page summarizes the deaths, damage, and upheaval caused by Katrina, as well as the recovery funding. Some of the numbers are shocking. For instance, the storm basically cut the population of New Orleans in half, from 484,674 in April 2000 to an estimated 230,172 in July 2006—a decrease of 254,502 people. There are also links to deeper dives, such as The New Orleans Index at Ten Collection of reports on wages, education, city planning, criminal justice, and more.
‘The Effects of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Economy’
An 18-page report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “The Effects of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Economy,” takes a close look at the city’s pre-Katrina and post-Katrina economic activity. The difference is stark. For instance, by November 2005, there were 105,300 fewer jobs than the year before. By June 2006, lost wages had totaled nearly $3 billion.
‘Hurricane Katrina: Crash Course Black American History #49’
From the acclaimed Crash Course YouTube series, “Hurricane Katrina: Crash Course Black American History #49” details the experience of Clint Smith, who was a teenager in New Orleans when Katrina made landfall. Black residents of the city were hit the hardest, and Smith takes a closer look at the “structural racism that made this disaster so catastrophic.” Beneath the video are links to other resources, such as the 2020 New Yorker article “Why Hurricane Katrina Was Not a Natural Disaster.”
Timeline: Rebirth in New Orleans
As Katrina was lashing New Orleans, unleashing deadly floods that put 80% of the city underwater, many residents took refuge in the Superdome, home of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints team. The Saints had to play the 2005 season outside the city as the stadium was rebuilt. A few years later, when the Saints won Super Bowl XLIV, it felt like the city’s redemption was complete. The NFL’s Timeline: Rebirth in New Orleans page offers a pictorial chronology of that redemption.
‘How Hurricane Katrina Changed Disaster Preparedness and Community Response’
A crucial part of the story of Hurricane Katrina is how the storm exposed the inadequacy of America’s preparation for, and response to, emergencies, especially in poor, mostly minority neighborhoods. “How Hurricane Katrina Changed Disaster Preparedness and Community Response” from Scalawag , a Southern politics-focused magazine, digs deep into that topic, bypassing an overarching narrative to tell the stories of individual survivors.
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