Politics, Scams, and Information Flow During Hurricane Katrina
by Paul Piper | Librarian, Western Washington University and
Miguel Ramos| Library and Archive Paraprofessional, Western Washington University
Hurricane Katrina initially made landfall north of Miami, Florida, on Aug. 25, 2005, as a Category 1 hurricane, then swelled out over the Gulf into a massive force 5. It hit the Louisiana coast near New Orleans at 6:10 a.m. (CDT) on Aug. 29, diminished somewhat to a Category 3 storm. At around 11:00 a.m. (CDT) that same date, several of the levees holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain, a brackish lake of 630 square miles, breached. Within minutes, considerable flooding had occurred, forcing many remaining residents to flee to their rooftops, where many remained for days. Many more didn’t make it.
The official death toll now stands at 1,420, with damage projected from between $70 billion to $130 billion, but both of these figures could rise by time of publication. Hurricane Katrina has topped Hurricane Andrew as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history. Over a million people were displaced — the largest humanitarian crisis in the U.S. since the Great Depression."
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