Hurricane Katrina

August 29, 2005:  My fourth birthday, but, arguably more importantly, Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans.
The storm had been detected a few days before it hit, but its scale left the Louisiana/New Orleans region vastly unprepared. The levees in the coastal cities were meant to sustain a level three storm, but Katrina, the third largest hurricane recorded in U.S. history, was a level five hurricane.
New Orleans was already susceptible to flooding because of its position below sea-level and in between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Scientists knew that if any major storm hit the area, it would spell a major catastrophe- massive flooding and utter destruction. However, though requests to update and replace levees were demanded, the federal government under Bush ignored them, instead focusing on other,  more "important" issues.
So, when Katrina arrived in New Orleans, with speeds up to 175 mph, the city literally drowned, 80% of it covered in water up to 20 feet deep. Evacuation warnings were issues shortly before the storm's arrival, too late for many people to successfully leave as a result of major traffic conditions and a lack of transportation. The death toll rose to 1,836, with most of its victims from Louisiana, 1,577, but also some from Mississippi (238). Though it claimed the lives of almost 2,000 people, Hurricane Katrina affected nearly 15 million, either from the rising fuel prices, forced evacuation,  and economic damages.  Katrina caused a whopping 81 billion dollars in property damage, but had the rough economic impact of 150 billion in Louisiana and Mississippi.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under Michael Brown (who had little disaster experience), had completed no preparation for the hurricane, though it had heard warnings of it days in advance. The citizens in the Mississippi Gulf Coast, New Orleans, and coastal Louisiana were outraged, along with African Americans across America who believed that the lack of federal help and attention was primarily because the white moderate didn't care about them- only themselves.  The storm quickly turned from a natural disaster to a manmade one, as politics and the economy came into play.  President Bush didn't even visit the affected areas, instead doing a press release in Washington shortly after the storm, further digging himself into a political hole. Overall, Katrina was a storm that changed the course of American disaster planning, and its history.