In Hurricane Katrina, the storm came ashore heading almost due north and the eye passed between the towns of Slidell, Louisiana and Waveland, Mississippi. Slidell, LA suffered heavy flooding and moderate wind damage while Waveland, MS was totally destroyed without a single building standing within 200m of the coastline. Both cities experienced the eyewall of the storm where the winds are strongest, so why was the destruction so different?

Question

Social Studies

Patricia Villarreal

18 February, 14:19

In Hurricane Katrina, the storm came ashore heading almost due north and the eye passed between the towns of Slidell, Louisiana and Waveland, Mississippi. Slidell, LA suffered heavy flooding and moderate wind damage while Waveland, MS was totally destroyed without a single building standing within 200m of the coastline. Both cities experienced the eyewall of the storm where the winds are strongest, so why was the destruction so different?

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Marely Riggs · Answer 1

Answer: The destruction was so different because It was downgraded hours before arriving in LA and touched the ground in MS beeing category 3 but at the same time resulted in eleven tornadoes more.

Explanation:

On August 29, Hurricane Katrina arrived near Buras with winds of 205 km / h and as a Category 3 hurricane. However, although it was degraded to this category two hours before it touched down in LA.

It also discharged heavy rainfall, so that 200-250 mm were collected. In certain areas, up to 380 mm were collected. As a result of these rainfalls, the level of Lake Pontchartrain rose, which caused significant flooding along its northern shore that affected several locations.

After briefly landing in Louisiana, the Katrina finally made landfall near the interstate border and the eye of the hurricane passed over the cities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland as a category 3 hurricane with 195 km / h winds.

The Katrina resulted in eleven tornadoes in Mississippi which caused a devastating effect.