Hurricane Katrina Damage Survey

Hurricane Katrina will go down in the record books as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history to date. The hurricane caused widespread devastation from Louisiana to Florida making a total of three landfalls in the U.S. before dissipating over the Ohio River Valley. At one point, Katrina reached Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, making it one of the most powerful hurricanes this century. The storm went on to destroyed much of the Mississippi coast and levee breaches caused the inundation of a large potion of New Orleans.

Within days after the storm, the author conducted detailed ground and aerial surveys of the Louisiana and Mississippi coast. The purpose of the survey was to document the extent of damage to buildings, determine the height of the water level from the storm surge by utilizing a surveyor's level and rod, and to acquire wind data from various sources. A wind speed-damage correlation study was conducted. A section of the paper will be devoted to delineating wind and surge damage to buildings, which has insurance implications.