Hurricane Katrina, 20 Years Later
Forged In Crisis, Collaboration Rules The Waters
August 29 marked the 20th anniversary of the Louisiana and Mississippi landfalls of Hurricane Katrina. In late August 2005, after crossing the Florida peninsula, Katrina grew into a monster category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. It made a second landfall as a category 3 storm near Buras, La., before finally going ashore on the Mississippi Gulf Coast near Waveland and Bay St. Louis.
Less than a month later, Hurricane Rita, another monster storm, struck the Gulf Coast between Louisiana and Texas.
The final death toll of the two hurricanes stands at 1,833, with more than 1,400 of those in New Orleans. Damage totaled about $125 billion in 2005 dollars, and the destruction—and images from the aftermath—permanently changed the character of New Orleans.
Besides flooding much of the region, Katrina and Rita damaged or displaced an estimated 3,000 to 3,500 commercial vessels, including more than 2,000 barges. Many owners were forced to abandon their vessels or were unable to remove them due to the extensive damage and widespread evacuation.
There were many stories of heroism and sacrifice in the hours, days and weeks after the storm passed, some of which The Waterways Journal covered at the time.
The Coast Guard alone was credited with rescuing about 33,000 people. The agency’s surface search-and-rescue efforts are recounted in “Coast Guard Miracles of New Orleans,” written by Capt. Robert Mueller.
First responders and everyday people rescued thousands more. For many, family members were scattered far afield, and their own homes were destroyed, and yet they worked tirelessly to help others.
The volunteer “Cajun Navy,” including towboat operators as well as shrimp boats and pleasure craft owners, sprang into action, rescuing victims. A tug and barge transported 1,000 displaced New Orleans residents to the Algiers Point ferry terminal for further evacuation.
One of the most lasting legacies of Katrina and Rita is the level of public-private cooperation it inspired. Relationships and partnerships forged under the pressure of emergency have been maintained or developed further. The Gulf Inland Waterways Joint Hurricane Team Response Protocol, maintained and updated annually by the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA), grew out of Hurricane Katrina and has informed the preparation ahead of and recovery from every storm affecting inland waterways along the Gulf ever since.
After Katrina, the Corps of Engineers oversaw construction of a $14.5 billion system of levees, floodwalls and pumping stations to protect the New Orleans area from future Katrina-like storms.
Do issues of recovery, quality of life and infrastructure vulnerability remain today, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina made its final landfall? Sure. But so do the resolve and the we’re-all-in-this-together mindset that helped the Gulf Coast—and the maritime industry in the region—rise above the flood line two decades ago.
