How the devastation of Hurricane Harvey compares with Hurricane Katrina
Some insurance experts speculate that Harvey could match Katrina's costs in water damage. Harvey could serve as a warning about overbuilding in flood-prone areas and the consequences of climate change, two factors that can make storms more devastating.
New Orleans still has not fully recovered from the 2005 storm. Its population today hovers around 391,000 (64,000 less than in 2005). New schools, homes, and businesses have been built, but the city still struggles with economic inequality, made worse by Katrina.
Source: The Times-Picayune and The New York Times
Katrina affected over 15 million people, mostly near the Gulf Coast, in varying ways —including rising gas prices, home destruction, and harm to the regional economy.
Trump will visit Harvey-ravaged parts of Texas Tuesday. On Monday, he promised that affected areas would swiftly receive federal aid, but hasn't provided many details yet.
Source: Business Insider
Officials estimate that federal spending on Katrina totals over $120 billion. Katrina survivors and a number of political analysts have criticized former President George W. Bush for his slow response to the disaster.
Source: The Times-Picayune and The Hive
Over 9,000 people in Houston have either evacuated the city or found refuge at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Inside the dome, the evacuee count is at twice the building's capacity.
Source: ABC News
In Houston and its surrounding counties, Harvey has also demolished and flooded homes and businesses. Rescue workers were so inundated with calls over the weekend that they could initially only responded to life-and-death situations. Others waited hours for assistance.
Source: The AP
Katrina displaced over a million people and damaged or destroyed 275,000 homes.
Texas officials have reported at least 10 deaths since Harvey made landfall. That number is expected to rise. So far, there are 300,000 people without power in Texas.
Responsible for at least 1,833 deaths (mostly in Louisiana), Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to hit the US since 1928. Days went by before some bodies were found. The elderly and disabled were the most impacted.
Source: Five Thirty Eight
Harvey is expected to cause up to 50 inches of rain in coming days — more than Houston receives in a typical year.
Though Katrina caused flooding in New Orleans, winds and fires brought the most destruction. The storm produced an average of 5 to 10 inches of rainfall in a 48-hour period.
Houston has 800 miles of bayous that help drain water during storm surges. Overwhelmed by Harvey's category 4 rainfall, one of the city's two dams broke for the first time in history.
Source: Business Insider and The Washington Post
At the time Katrina hit, New Orleans had a system of dams and waterways to protect against flooding. As seen below, the city's levees broke from the pressure of Katrina, a Category 3 hurricane that measured 350 miles across.
Source: CNN
In Houston, winds topped 130 mph on Friday. Forecasts predict flooding as high as 50 inches in and around the city.
Source: Business Insider
Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane ever in the US. Winds topped 175 mph, and an estimated 80% of New Orleans was plunged underwater — up to 20 feet deep in some areas.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall on sprawling Houston, Texas on August 25, 2017. The racially diverse city has more than two million residents.
Source: US Population
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina began to rip through New Orleans, a city of about 455,000 people (at the time) who come from a mix of Creole-Acadian-French-Haitian-Vietnamese heritages.
Source: The Data Center
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