On This Date in History: New Oreans, Louisiana was under water
on this date in 2005. It had been affected by Hurricane Katrina,
but there are some things to remember from Katrina. Katrina was
only a category three hurricane when it made landfall on Monday
morning August 29, 2005. Its winds had diminished just prior to
landfall. I have not read the official post-mortem on the storm
but I suspect it says that it was going through an eyewall
replacement cycle at landfall. That is a natural process for a
hurricane when new eye forms as the old one collapses. The
maximum winds decrease typically and the energy gets dispersed
somewhat. So the result was that 100 mph winds went beyond
Mobile but the top winds were down to 120-130 mph. But,
remember, the storm previously had winds of 175 mph and just
because you reduce the winds does not mean the sea will react
immediately so the storm surge remained what would be associated
with a category 5 storm. The surge in Mississippi was well over
30 feet in places. That is be