According to the National Hurricane Center Hurricane Katrina which struck in Aug

According to the National Hurricane Center Hurricane Katrina which struck in August 2005 was ?oone of the most devastating natural disasters?? in history. With maximum winds extending across a thirty-mile radius and spawning forty-three tornadoes the storm swept across Florida and the Gulf Coast states causing $81 billion in damage and more than 1800 deaths including 1577 in Louisiana. A storm surge of up to twenty-eight feet in a twenty-mile-wide swath flooded parts of Mississippi and Alabama and it burst through levees surrounding the city of New Orleans. More than 1 million people were evacuated from the afflicted area.