August 29 recalls Hurricanes Katrina and Issac

Today marks the ninth anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, which wreaked havoc across the city of New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and created a swath of destruction that stretched all the way into Alabama. Still the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, the date is significant to New Orleanians because of the breaching of the levee structure that kept Lake Pontchartrain water out of the interior of the city and adjacent parishes.

Scientists still argue over the blame for the disaster, which flooded 80% of the city and killed over 1,500 citizens.

The date also recalls the second anniversary of Hurricane Issac, the much smaller, less destructive storm that passed through the city on the exact day as Katrina had seven years earlier. While Issac’s winds and storm surge were much less than its more powerful predecessor,  the storm did create huge electrical outages that made life in the city and its environs quite unpleasant.