H OUSING N EWS R EPORT
May 2016
Service report.
Millions were left homeless along the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. More than 1 million homes in the Gulf Coast region were flooded, destroyed or made unlivable — ten times the number that had been similarly affected by Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to the Claims Journal , an insurance industry trade publication. The storm caused $81 billion in insured losses on homes, businesses and cars. The vast emptying and diaspora of New Orleans was unprecedented in modern American history. The population of the New Orleans region was decimated, shrinking from over 1 million to 581,000, according to the U.S. Census. Multi-billion-dollar natural disasters like Katrina are becoming more common. Every year, the United States foots a multi- billion dollar bill for economic and insured losses incurred from natural disasters. In 2015, the costs reached $25 billion with certain regions of the country more prone to calamity than others, especially coastal communities, according to the German reinsurer Munich RE. A New Era of Catastrophe
The levees that protect New Orleans, which is below sea level, were designed for a Category 3 hurricane, but Katrina was a monster Category 5 hurricane, packing unimaginable sustained winds of 175 mph. The levees along the Mississippi River were strong, but the levees built to hold back Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and the swamps and marshes to the city’s east and west were less reliable. Initially, two levees were breached — the Industrial Canal and the 7th Street Canal — tossing homes off their foundations and submerging much of the lower Ninth Ward and areas nearby, including St. Bernard Parish, Metairie and the Lakefront, trapping thousands of people on rooftops and in attics. Later, the 17th Street Canal levee ruptured, resulting in a slow-rising flood over the Lakeview area, including Metairie and Mid City, according to the National Weather Service. Other levees would soon fail too. Ultimately, 80 percent of New Orleans and the nearby parishes became flooded, with water levels reaching 20 feet in some areas — and the flood waters did not recede for four weeks.
Five of the 10 costliest in terms of money were in the past
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SOURCE: nola.com
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