Hurricane Katrina is one of the most critical and exclusive sultry cyclones ever to hit the United States. The hurricane's storm surge caused more than a few breaches in the levees protecting New Orleans, a city with a population of around 500,000, from inundation by Lake Pontchartrain. Hurricane Katrina slammed into the US Gulf coast early on Monday and left a trail of desolation stretching east from New Orleans in Louisiana to Mobile in Alabama. The hurricane, which could be among the most expensive in US history, practically shut down crude production in the Gulf of Mexico, at one point sending oil prices surging to record highs. Packing winds of 240 kilometers (150 miles) per hour, the storm made landfall over Louisiana early Monday, and gradually lost strength after it hit the mainland east of New Orleans. At the same time as the flood-prone city of 1.4 million took a severe pounding, it was spared the even more punishing direct hit many had feared. However Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said it crashed through his state "like a ton of bricks," and expressed fears the death toll could rise as rescue teams reach areas cut off by floodwaters. New Orleans, much of which sits below sea level, is surrounded by the Mississippi River to the south, Lake Pontchartrain to the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Construction of the levees between New Orleans, the River, and the Lake began in 1879. The earthen barriers were originally erected to prevent damage caused by seasonal flooding and to consent to the city to expand beyond the natural levees on which it had been originally constructed. (Kathy Bergen)
Interrupting a procedure that created the land of the Mississippi Delta over the course of thousands of years caused the land to dry out..........
