17. Hurricane Katrina in 2005
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans in August of 2005, it was the beginning of a series of disasters which befell the city and its environs. Politicized in its aftermath, the storm led to the failure of levees, an event which caused the majority of the deaths during the disaster, and which led to finger pointing over the responsibility for the failure to maintain the levees adequately. Over 80% of the city of New Orleans was flooded to some extent, and the floodwaters did not recede for weeks. Gulfport, Mississippi took the heaviest of Katrina’s winds, which led to extensive devastation of that community as well.
In total 1,833 dead were attributed to the storm and its aftermath, a total which did not include some of the deaths which occurred as a result of looting and store and business owners protecting their property in New Orleans. Although Katrina is inextricably linked with that city, where the majority of the deaths occurred, its path of destruction was huge. The hurricane also produced a record number of tornadoes for a single day in Georgia, while deaths attributed to the hurricane occurred as far north as Ohio, where flooding from heavy rains claimed at least two victims.