Ultimately, the storm caused more than $160 billion in damage, and it reduced the population of New Orleans by 29 percent between the fall of 2005 and 2011. The tropical depression that became Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and meteorologists were soon able to warn people in the Gulf Coast states that a major storm was on its way. By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region.
That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.”New …

Hurricane Katrina, tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in August 2005, breaching levees and causing widespread damage and deaths.