CS34A - Concurrent Session 34A: 20 Years Later: Reflecting on the Impact of Hurricane Katrina

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a storm that devastated southern Louisiana and parts of Mississippi, Texas and Florida, resulting in 1,392 deaths (official death toll, National Hurricane Center 2023). The storm surge overwhelmed multiple sections of levees surrounding New Orleans, flooding the city and leaving a path of death and destruction. The fatalities placed Katrina as the second most deadly dam / levee disaster in the U.S., and the financial losses ($100 to $200 billion) made it the nation’s most expensive natural disaster up to 2005.

Following Katrina, the U.S. government undertook its largest post-disaster relief effort, including a rebuild of the levee system. In the years since, New Orleans and surrounding areas have mostly recovered. The professional engineering community undertook numerous studies, advancing our understanding of levee design, storm surge dynamics, and flood risks and consequences. Regulatory agencies reshaped their governing requirements and guidelines based, in part, on those studies. Katrina had the biggest impact on dam and levee safety of any event since President Carter’s dam safety initiatives of the 1980s.

The presentation highlights Katrina event stories and lessons that are most relevant to the dam and levee safety community.