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Vocabulary > Earth > Weather > Hurricanes

In this Aug. 31, 2005 picture,

Rhonda Braden walks through the destruction in her childhood neighborhood

in Long Beach, Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the area.

AP Photo/Rob Carr

The Boston Globe > The Big Picture > Remembering Katrina, five years ago August 27, 2010
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/remembering_katrina_five_years.html

A single home is left standing among debris from Hurricane Ike in Gilchrist, Texas.

In its brief, but eventful life,

Ike wreaked enough havoc to be blamed for over $31.5 billion in damage

and nearly 150 deaths across the Caribbean and Gulf Coast.

September 14, 2008

David J. Phillip-Pool/Getty Images

Boston Globe > Big Picture > 2008 in photographs
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_in_photographs_part_2_of.html

View of the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina taken on Aug. 28, 2005,

as seen from a NOAA WP-3D Orion hurricane hunter aircraft

before the storm made landfall on the United States Gulf Coast.

2005-08-28

NOAA
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/images/katrina-noaa-p3-view-08-28-2005.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hurricane_Katrina_Eye_viewed_from_Hurricane_Hunter.jpg

Hurricane Katrina (12L) approaching the Gulf Coast.

2005-08-29

Sensor: Terra/MODIS

NASA > Visible Earth
http://veimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/7938/Katrina.A2005240.1700.250m.jpg
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=7938

New Orleans, Louisiana

In New Orleans flood waters covered large portions of the city.

Commander Mark Moran,

of the NOAA Aviation Weather Center,

and Lt. Phil Eastman and Lt. Dave Demers,

of the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center,

all commissioned officers of the NOAA Corps,

flew more than 100 hours surveying Katrina’s devastation.

Eastman piloted NOAA’s Bell 212 Twin Huey Helicopter from August 31 to September 19 2005.

All three men took dozens of aerial photos from an altitude of several feet to 500 feet.

NOAA
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/helicopter/images/katrina-new-orleans-flooding3-2005.jpg
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/helicopter/helicopter-2.html

Rescuers

A U.S. Coast Guard airboat returns to a local staging area in New Orleans, La.,

with survivors of Hurricane Katrina, Sept. 8, 2005.

The evacuees will be taken to a shelter after undergoing a medical exam.

Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Michael E. Best

9/10/2005

U.S. Department of Defense > Home Page Photos
http://www.defenselink.mil/dodcmsshare/homepagephoto/2006-06/hires_050908-F-5276B-162.jpg
http://www.defenselink.mil/homepagephotos/homepagephotos.aspx?month=200509

Map > August 29,2005

Hurricane Katrina Slams Into Gulf Coast; Dozens Are Dead

NYT August 30, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 29 - Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast

with devastating force at daybreak on Monday,

sparing New Orleans the catastrophic hit that had been feared

but inundating parts of the city and heaping damage on neighboring Mississippi,

where it killed dozens, ripped away roofs and left coastal roads impassable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/30storm.html

People fleeing New Orleans waited outside their cars for traffic to pick up.

The city was under an evacuation order as Hurricane Katrina approached.

After Pounding New Orleans, Storm Slows but Stays Dangerous

NYT August 29, 2005

Tourists, some caught by surprise, joined thousands seeking shelter at the Superdome.

When you are on a holiday you don't really follow these kind of things, a British visitor said.

After Pounding New Orleans, Storm Slows but Stays Dangerous

NYT

August 29, 2005

John Volkmann and his wife Kathy of Pass Christian, Miss., run for shelter in Gulfport, La.

Frank Polich/Reuters

After Pounding New Orleans, Storm Slows but Stays Dangerous

NYT

August 29, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 29 - Hurricane Katrina pounded parts of Louisiana and Mississippi

when it came ashore today

as one of the more powerful storms ever to hit the United States,

propelling extremely dangerous winds and sheets of rain

into the Gulf Coast region's cities and towns before weakening as it moved inland.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/national/30stormcnd.html

Arnold James fled towards the Superdome in New Orleans after the roof of his home blew off.

Dave Martin/Associated Press

After Pounding New Orleans, Storm Slows but Stays Dangerous

NYT

August 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/29/national/30stormcnd.html

Parts of New Orleans were under as much as 20 feet of water

Dave Martin/Associated Press

Floodwaters Rise in New Orleans as Rescuers Search for Survivors

NYT

August 30, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 - With parts of this city under 20 feet of water

and a death toll in the region that is reported at 55 and certain to climb,

the Gulf Coast began today to confront the aftermath

of one of the most devastating storms ever to hit the United States.

The waters of Lake Ponchartrain continued to rise and spill over into already flooded areas of New Orleans

when two levees collapsed after Katrina tore through the area on Monday.

Mayor C. Ray Nagin said in a television interview

that the city was 80 percent under water, in some places 20 feet deep.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/national/30cnd-storm.html

Looters made their way into and out of a grocery store in New Orleans.

Dave Martin/Associated Press

Floodwaters Rise in New Orleans as Rescuers Search for Survivors

NYT

August 30, 2005

A member of the Coast Guard hoisted two children

from their rooftop into a rescue helicopter.

U.S. Coast Guard, via European Pressphoto Agency

Floodwaters Rise in New Orleans as Rescuers Search for Survivors

NYT

August 30, 2005

31.8.2005

Peut-être des centaines de victimes

Reuters

mercredi 31 août 2005 - 11:28 - Libération

Un immeuble complètement détruit après le passage du cyclone,

à Pascagoula, dans l'Etat du Mississippi, mardi.

Selon le porte-parole de la mairie de cette petite ville voisine de Biloxi, Vincent Creel,

«des centaines de personnes ont peut-être péri sur les seules côtes de l'Etat du Mississippi,

de Pascagoula à GulfPort en passant par Biloxi».

Dans l'immédiat, les autorités municipales se refusent à donner un bilan provisoire.

Liberation.fr 31.8.2005
http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=313053&Template=GALERIE&Objet=44435

With hospitals closing down, no running water or electricity in most parts of the city,

health risks intensifying and looters running rampant in places,

Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana said

officials had no choice but to try to clear everyone out of New Orleans.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Higher Death Toll Seen; Police Ordered to Stop Looters

NYT

September 1, 2005

Burning debris in Long Beach, Miss.,

added to the devastation Wednesday

at the site of an apartment complex destroyed by Hurricane Katrina

David. J. Phillip Associated Press

Higher Death Toll Seen; Police Ordered to Stop Looters

NYT

September 1, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 31 - Chaos gripped New Orleans on Wednesday
as looters ran wild, food and water supplies dwindled,
bodies floated in the floodwaters, the evacuation of the Superdome began and officials said
there was no choice but to abandon the city devastated by Hurricane Katrina, perhaps for months.

President Bush pledged vast assistance but acknowledged, "This recovery will take years."

For the first time, a New Orleans official suggested the scope of the death toll.
Mayor C. Ray Nagin said the hurricane might have killed thousands in his city alone,
an estimate that, if correct, would make it the nation's deadliest natural disaster
since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, which killed up to 6,000 people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01storm.html

From March 9, left, to Aug. 31, New Orleans went from dry to inundated.

Digital Globe via Reuters

Higher Death Toll Seen; Police Ordered to Stop Looters

NYT September 1, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 1 - Evacuees escaping the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

trickled in to Texas today from New Orleans,
a city gripped by chaos as looters ran wild, food and water supplies dwindled,

and bodies floated in the floodwaters.

The evacuation of the Superdome began and officials said

there was no choice but to abandon the city devastated by the hurricane, perhaps for months.

President Bush pledged vast assistance but acknowledged, "This recovery will take years."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01cnd-storm.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1759235,00.html

Hurricane city to be abandoned

New Orleans mayor fears thousands may have perished

NEW ORLEANS is to be abandoned

as flood waters pour in through huge breaches in the city’s defences.

The Governor of Louisiana gave the order as the mayor said that thousands may have died.

The Times 1.9.2005
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1759348,00.html

1.9.2005

When the Levee Broke

After hurricane Katrina, a levee along the Inner Harbor Navigational Canal broke,

allowing water to flow toward New Orleans.

The water level in New Orleans continues to rise, forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents,

many of whom took refuge in the Superdome

VINCENT LAFORET / EPA Photo non datée, copiée le 3.9.2005

Time Photoessay Katrina's toll
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/katrinas_toll/1.html

Chris Britt

The State Journal-Register

Springfield, IL

Cagle

31.8.2005
http://cagle.msnbc.com/politicalcartoons/PCcartoons/britt.asp

hurricane

Atlantic hurricane season 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2008/sep/09/hurricanes

The Guardian > interactive > hurricanes > how they happen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,773980,00.html

Boston Globe > Big Picture > Hurricane Irene August 29, 2011
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/08/hurricane_irene.html

Hurricane Ike 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/us/21galveston.html

The Economist > Graphic > Summer sea-surface temperatures 1972-2003
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4400847

The Guardian > interactive > Hurricane Katrina 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1559249,00.html

The Times Picayune > Frontpages > Hurricane Katrina 2005
http://www.nola.com/katrina/pages/

Hurricane Katrina > The Times Picayune > Pdf Images / Frontpages 2005
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf.ssf

Hurricane Katrina > The Guardian > Special Report 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/0,16441,1560620,00.html

Hurricane Katrina > NYT Complete Coverage 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/national/nationalspecial/index.html

Hurricane Katrina > Time > Photoessay 2005
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/katrinas_toll/

Hurricane Katrina > Time > Photoessay > An American Tragedy 2005
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/hurricane_katrina_tragedy/index.html

Hurricane Katrina > Time > Photoessay > Helping hand across the country 2005
http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/hurricane_katrina_recovery/

Hurricane Katrina > NOAA
HURRICANE KATRINA — MOST DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE EVER TO STRIKE THE U.S. 2005
http://www.katrina.noaa.gov/index.html

Hurricane Katrina > Wikipedia 2005
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

National Hurricane Center
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA
http://www.noaa.gov/index.html

Remembering Katrina, five years ago 2010

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/hurricane_katrina/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/us/politics/30obama.html
http://www.arte.tv/fr/3396608.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/29/hurricane-katrina-five-years-on
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/us/28katrina.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/us/28religion.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/27/us/lower9th-5year-anniversary.html
http://www.arte.tv/fr/Comprendre-le-monde/katrina--et-apres-/3363632.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/us/27racial.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/aug/26/hurricanekatrina-neworleans
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082606858.html

Hurricane Katrina 2005

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/hurricane_katrina/index.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/29/hurricane-katrina-five-years-on
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/us/28katrina.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/us/28religion.html
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/27/us/lower9th-5year-anniversary.html
http://www.arte.tv/fr/Comprendre-le-monde/katrina--et-apres-/3363632.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/us/27racial.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/aug/26/hurricanekatrina-neworleans
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/26/AR2010082606858.html

Hurricane Rita

the Atlantic hurricane season

one very nasty, mean hurricane

wind

strafe

the coastline of Florida

tropical depression
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news/2006-09-04-tropical-depression_x.htm

tropical storm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-01-gustav-monday_N.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-21-mexico-storm_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-08-01-tropical-storm-chris_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-08-01-tropical-storm-chris_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-07-21-storm-beryl_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-06-10-tropical-storm_x.htm

downgrade / scale down

be downgraded to a depression

Hurricane Gustav > be downgraded to a tropical storm September 2008
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-09-01-gustav-monday_N.htm

develop into a hurricane
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-07-18-tropical-depression_x.htm

approaching storm

Category 3 hurricane
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-08-30-john-mexico_x.htm

weaken to a tropical storm

be downgraded to tropical storm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-10-23-paul-mexico_x.htm

strengthen
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-21-mexico-storm_x.htm

strengthen into a hurricane
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-09-09-florence_x.htm

strengthen into a Category 5 storm

storm path

size, strength and path
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/us/13ike.html

threaten
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-21-mexico-storm_x.htm

churn toward...

churn across...
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/tornadoes/2008-02-05-south-storms_N.htm

roar in from the Gulf of Mexico

roar through

rip across
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/national/25wilma.html

head

bear down

bear down on the Gulf Coast

make landfall
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-09-01-john_x.htm

hit
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/us/11tornado.html
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-07-21-storm-beryl_x.htm

hit the Texas-Louisiana coast

be hit

be struck

devastate

the damage (n pl)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-weather-storms-idUSTRE73G1PG20110418

lash
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-09-16-lane_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-08-30-john-mexico_x.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1558660,00.html

smash
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2555646,00.html

batter
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1558660,00.html

whip

slam
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2007-02-14-winter-snow_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-12-15-northwest-power_x.htm

wallop

slam into the Louisiana coast

rip into the U.S. Gulf Coast

crash into

barrel toward Texas
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2008-09-12-hurricane-ike-texas_N.htm

barrel toward the Texas coastline

pummel
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/2008-01-06-west-storm_N.htm

pound
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2007-02-13-snowstorm_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2006-10-26-colorado-blizzard_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-10-16-texas-flooding_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-09-23-midwest-storms_x.htm

strike

plow into...

snap

peel off

blow off

flood

clear

pass over...

weaken
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2006-09-16-lane_x.htm

weaken a notch

gust

squall

blinding rain

pelting rain
http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2008-01-05-607356887_x.htm

floodwaters

the eye of the storm

The hurricane's eye

the hurricane's outer fringes

swamp

batter

devastation
http://www.reuters.com/article/slideshow/idUSTRE73P2PK20110428#a=1

destroy
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2007-03-24-nm-tornadoes_N.htm

kill
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/2007-01-04-louisiana-rain_x.htm

death
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/us/19carolina.html

death toll
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-weather-storms-idUSTRE73G1PG20110418
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0523051420080207

casualties
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-weather-storms-idUSTRE73G1PG20110418

survivor
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/us/29pleasant.html

be alive
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-weather-storms-idUSTRE73G1PG20110418

strike

rip through
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/28/deadly-tornadoes-hit-southern-us
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/28/us-weather-idUSTRE73P2PK20110428
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-12-25-florida-storms_x.htm

wipe out / obliterate

touch off tornadoes

rampage

leave a trail of destruction

wreak havoc

lift off / rip off roofs

lift children into the air

blow out shop fronts

blow in

debris
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2007-03-25-nm-twisters_N.htm

property losses
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/18/us-weather-storms-idUSTRE73G1PG20110418

fly around

hurricane's center / eye

ring of thunderstorms / eyewall

typhoon

wind

100mph winds

winds of at least 110 mph
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurricane/2008-09-12-hurricane-ike-texas_N.htm

160-mile-an-hour winds

ferocious surf

pounding surf

pick up

high winds
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-09-23-midwest-storms_x.htm

towering waves

a 52-foot wave

a 15ft-high surge of seawater
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1283669,00.html

major disaster area

evacuate

evacuation
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/27/nyregion/new-york-city-begins-evacuations-before-hurricane.html

flee

be stranded
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2006-12-21-colorado-blizzard_x.htm

loot

looter

looting

victim

displaced

the displaced

hold-out

dead

body bag

significant loss of life

makeshift tomb

makeshift shelter

morticians
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1283669,00.html

refrigerated trucks
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1283669,00.html

emergency services

hurricane-recovery mission

relief

relief worker
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/us/01flood.html

relief effort

search and rescue effort

search-and-rescue worker

toll

Homeland Security Secretary (USA)

New Orleans / The Big Easy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1566856,00.html

brace for heavy rain

Hurricane Wilma > the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record (R, 19.10.2005)

The season's record-tying 21st storm

be fueled by the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean Sea

strengthen alarmingly into a Category 5 hurricane,
the top rank on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity

U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane

measure maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, with higher gusts

record a minimum pressure of 882 millibars,
the lowest value ever observed in the Atlantic basin

climatologist

period of heightened storm activity

storm warnings

be issued

be in force

move west-northwest at 8 mph (13 km/h)

a turn toward the northwest

be expected

A National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration satellite image shows...

The Guardian

14.8.2004

Rumor to Fact in Tales of Post-Katrina Violence

August 26, 2010
The New York Times
By TRYMAINE LEE

NEW ORLEANS — In the days after Hurricane Katrina left much of New Orleans in flooded ruins, the city was awash in tales of violence and bloodshed.

The narrative of those early, chaotic days — built largely on rumors and half-baked anecdotes — quickly hardened into a kind of ugly consensus: poor blacks and looters were murdering innocents and terrorizing whoever crossed their path in the dark, unprotected city.

“As you look back on it, at the time it was being reported, it looked like the city was under siege,” said Russel L. Honoré, the retired Army lieutenant general who led military relief efforts after the storm.

Today, a clearer picture is emerging, and it is an equally ugly one, including white vigilante violence, police killings, official cover-ups and a suffering population far more brutalized than many were willing to believe. Several police officers and a white civilian accused of racially motivated violence have recently been indicted in various cases, and more incidents are coming to light as the Justice Department has started several investigations into civil rights violations after the storm.

“The environment that was produced by the storm brought out what was dormant in people here — the anger and the contempt they felt against African-Americans in the community,” said John Penny, a criminologist at Southern University of New Orleans. “We might not ever know how many people were shot, killed, or whose bodies will never be found.”

Broken levees left 80 percent of New Orleans submerged, but in unflooded Algiers Point, for instance, a mostly white enclave in a predominantly black neighborhood on the west bank of the Mississippi River, armed white militias cordoned off many of the streets.

They posted signs that boasted, “We shoot looters.” And the sound of gunfire peppered the hot days and nights like thunderclaps of a second storm.

Reginald Bell, a black resident, said in a recent interview that he was threatened at gunpoint by two white men there a few days after the storm. The men, on a balcony a few blocks from his home, yelled at him, “We don’t want your kind around here!”

Then one of the men racked his pump-action shotgun, aimed it at Mr. Bell and dared him to be seen again on the streets of Algiers Point, Mr. Bell said. The next day, he said, the men confronted him on his porch while he sat with his girlfriend. They shoved guns — a shotgun and a long-nose .357 Magnum — in the couple’s faces and reiterated their demand.

“There was no electricity, no police, no nothing,” said Mr. Bell, 41, sitting on his porch on a recent afternoon. “We were like sitting ducks. I slept with a butcher knife and a hatchet under my pillow.”

The West Bank area of the city was spared any flooding, but in the days and weeks after the storm, it was littered with fallen trees and, according to witnesses, with the bodies of several black men — none of whom appeared to have drowned.

“I done seen bodies lay in the streets for weeks,” said Malik Rahim, who lives around the corner from Mr. Bell and came to his aid. “I’m not talking about the flooded Ninth Ward, I’m talking about dry Algiers. I watched them become bloated and torn apart by dogs. And they all had bullet wounds.

“We’ve been screaming it from the top of our lungs since those first days, but nobody wanted to listen.”

Mr. Bell said that he went to the police not long after the confrontation with the two gun-wielding white men but no report or action was taken. It was not until last year when he was interviewed by a federal grand jury looking into civil rights violations in post-Katrina New Orleans that people seemed to pay attention, he said.

Some of the most serious accusations surfaced after investigations by The Times-Picayune and the nonprofit news organization ProPublica, which spotlighted much of the police violence and racially motivated violence around Algiers Point.

One case is that of a former Algiers resident, Roland J. Bourgeois Jr., who is white and was accused of being part of one of the vigilante groups. He was recently indicted by the federal government on civil rights charges in the shooting of three black men who were trying to leave the city. According to the indictment, Mr. Bourgeois, who now lives in Mississippi, warned one neighbor that “anything coming up this street darker than a brown paper bag is getting shot.”

The highest-profile case involving the police is the Danziger Bridge shooting in eastern New Orleans, where six days after Katrina, a group of police officers wielding assault rifles and automatic weapons fired on a group of unarmed civilians, wounding a family of four and killing two, including a teenager and a mentally disabled man. The man, Ronald Madison, 40, was shot in the back with a shotgun and then stomped and kicked as he lay dying, according to court papers.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu in May invited the Justice Department to conduct a full review of the city’s Police Department. The Justice Department has also begun several civil and criminal investigations into post-Katrina violence involving the police and civilians.

Thomas Perez, an assistant attorney general, said the federal government was investigating eight criminal cases involving accusations of police misconduct. Many people in the city — including activists, victims and witnesses — had long contended that racial violence was being ignored by local law enforcement.

“We were dismissed as kooks for the last four years,” said Jacques Morial, a co-director of the Louisiana Justice Institute, a nonprofit advocacy organization, and the son of New Orleans’ first black mayor. “I think what we are seeing now recalibrates the reality of Katrina, and I think it vindicates lots of folks.”

The city’s police superintendent, Ronal Serpas, who took over the department in May, said he was troubled by what has come to light since the storm.

“We have to confront this and look at it head on,” Mr. Serpas said. “There have been far too many examples of men who have worn this badge and admitted in court to behavior that is an absolute insult to this city and to the men and women of this department who wear this badge with dignity and pride.”

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Rahim, 62, walked through the streets of Algiers and pointed out where, block by block, the militias had set up barricades and stood guard. He walked along the levee where the charred remains of Henry Glover were found in the trunk of a burned-out car, precipitating the indictment of three current and two former police officers.

“How can you remove the scars from the eyes of all the children who witnessed these atrocities?” Mr. Rahim asked.

General Honoré said that he had been asking himself questions, too.

“I think, every year there is more time for people to reflect on it,” he said. “I came out of Katrina with one perspective on it. And there isn’t a month that goes by that I don’t talk to someone who survived it who gives me a different perspective than I had before.”

Rumor to Fact in Tales of Post-Katrina Violence, NYT, 26.8.2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/us/27racial.html

CHRONOLOGY-Some deadly hurricanes to hit southern U.S

Wed Oct 19, 2005
7:52 AM ET
Reuters

(Reuters) - Hurricane Wilma has strengthened to a catastrophic Category 5 storm as it approaches western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

The season's record-tying 21st storm, fueled by the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean Sea, strengthened alarmingly as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico on a path expected to lead across storm-weary southern Florida by Saturday.

Here are some of the deadliest hurricanes to strike the southern United States since 1900 by number of casualties:

1900 - An unnamed hurricane, since known as the Galveston Hurricane, slams into Texas, killing at least 8,000 people.

1928 - About 2,500 people are killed in Florida by a hurricane that caused an enormous storm surge in Lake Okeechobee.

2005 - Hurricane Katrina slams into Louisiana and Mississippi with 140 mile-per-hour winds (224 kph) and a 30 foot (nine meter) storm surge. Katrina killed about 1,230 people and caused more than $30 billion in insured damage. Katrina was followed in September by Hurricane Rita.

1935 - An unnamed Category 5 hurricane, since referred to as the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and the most intense storm to hit the United States since records began, sweeps over the Florida Keys, leaving 408 dead.

1957 - Hurricane Audrey hits southwest Louisiana and Texas, killing 390.

1919 - An unnamed hurricane hits Florida and Texas, killing 287 people.

1915 - New Orleans, the largest city in Louisiana, suffers a direct hit from a storm which left 275 dead.

1969 - Hurricane Camille, the second most intense storm to strike the U.S., kills 256 people in Mississippi, Virginia and Louisiana.

1972 - Hurricane Agnes, while only a Category 1, kills 122 people when it hits Florida and moves to the northeast United States.

1954 - Hurricane Hazel slams into North Carolina and South Carolina, killing 95 people.

1965 - New Orleans takes a direct hit from Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3, that flooded the city and killed about 75 people.

1961 - Hurricane Carla hits Texas, killing 46.

1989 - Hurricane Hugo swamps South Carolina, killing 32.

1992 - Category 5 Hurricane Andrew tears into Florida and Louisiana, leaving 29 dead and causing over $25 billion in damage. It was the third most intense storm in U.S. history.

2004 - Category 3 Hurricane Ivan hits northwest Florida and Alabama, killing 25 and Category 4 Hurricane Charley slams into Florida, killing 23.

Sources: Reuters; U.S. National Hurricane Center ( www.nhc.noaa.gov ), 19.10.2005,
http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-19T115154Z_01_DIT942667_RTRUKOT_0_TEXT0.xml&related=true

Anglonautes > History > 2005 > USA > Natural disasters > Katrina

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