Public health response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita--Louisiana, 2005.

On August 24, 2005, Tropical Depression 12 became Tropical Storm Katrina, the 11th named storm of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Late on August 25, Katrina made initial landfall in south Florida as a category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Katrina strengthened rapidly upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico, attaining category 5 intensity. On August 29, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast near the Louisiana-Mississippi border as a category 3 hurricane. The effect of earlier category 5 wind speeds on Gulf waters and the massive size of the storm combined to create devastating storm-surge conditions for coastal Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama and damage as far east as the Florida panhandle. Storm-induced breeches in the New Orleans levee system resulted in the catastrophic flooding of approximately 80% of that city. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to strike the United States since 1928. Preliminary mortality reports indicate approximately 1,000 Katrina-related deaths in Louisiana, 200 in Mississippi, and 20 in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia.