Fifteen years later, the memories of Hurricane Katrina remain fresh, not just in New Orleans, but across the country and the insurance industry. In the early morning of August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Louisiana delta region and the Mississippi coast as a Category 3 storm, causing unprecedented storm surge that devastated communities in and around New Orleans. Katrina claimed 1,800 lives, mainly impacting the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and caused $125 billion in economic losses. Insured losses from Katrina totaled $41.1 billion, accounting for two-thirds of total U.S. insured losses for the year in 2005. Storm surge in the region caused 53 breaches to various flood protection structures, submerging 80% of the city of New Orleans, NOAA data indicates. In a 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, researchers conclude that two-thirds of the flooding was caused by the multiple failures of the city's floodwalls. The impact of Katrina's storm surge was not limited to New Orleans. The coasts of Mississippi and Alabama also fell victim to the historic storm, adding to Katrina's devastating impact to make it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history at the time, and the deadliest hurricane since 1928. Hurricane Harvey would later tie with Katrina's damage cost of $125 billion (in 2005), again devastating the Gulf Coast in 2017. In the slideshow above, rediscover the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and costliest weather events in U.S. history, on the 15th anniversary of the historic storm. Related: |

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