This August is the 20th anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, the deadliest storm (1,300+ deaths) to strike the U.S. since the Okeechobee hurricane of 1928 and still the costliest weather event in American history (nearly $190B in losses). Katrina’s landfall caused devastating and long-lasting damage to New Orleans and its people, many of whom were permanently displaced by the extensive flooding resulting from the city's levee breach. Katrina also caused severe damage to the coastal environment of southern Louisiana and surrounding Gulf states. Many impacts are still acutely felt today even as recovery continues.
UCAR President Antonio Busalacchi, a part-time New Orleans resident, will moderate this special AMS Presidential Session panel taking a retrospective look at Katrina as an event and the 20 years post-Katrina. An interdisciplinary panel of local experts, leaders, and analysts will explore Katrina from multiple perspectives (i.e., meteorological, sociocultural, economic, environmental, and historical) including its ramifications on the people, economy, and environment of southern Louisiana. The class disparity in how communities in southern Louisiana were affected and the toll on the Black population in New Orleans and the ensuing diaspora to nearby regions and states, in particular, will be among the topics discussed. The panel will also examine and evaluate national and regional policy responses and ongoing recovery efforts, including the ongoing coastal/wetland restoration led by the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Louisiana.
This AMS Presidential Session panel will take account of the lessons learned from Katrina over the last two decades and ask whether we, as a nation and as an AMS community, are prepared for the next Katrina, wherever and whenever it may strike.
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