1. THE 2005 ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON
Dr. Walter Hays,
Global Alliance For Disaster Reduction
More Supercourse lectures on Hurricanes:
JUNE 1, NOVEMBER 30, 2005

2. TROPICAL STORMS-HURRICANES IN 2005
ARLENE
BRET
CINDY
DENNIS
EMILY
FRANKLIN
GERT
HARVEY
IRENE
JOSE
KATRINA
LEE

3. TROPICAL STORMS-HURRICANES IN 2005
TAMMY
VINCE
WILMA
ALPHA
BETA
GAMMA
DELTA
EPSILON
ZETA
MARIA
NATE
OPHELIA
PHILIPPE
RITA
STAN

4. THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON BROKE MANY RECORDS
Forecasters exhausted their list of 21 proper names (Arlene, Bret, Cindy and so on) and had to use the Greek alphabet (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon) to name storms for the first time.

5. TROPICAL STORM EPSILON FORMED IN CENTRAL ATLANTIC ON 29 NOVEMBER

6. THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON BROKE MANY RECORDS
In 154 years of record-keeping, 2005 had the most named storms (26, including Tropical Storm Epsilon, which formed Tuesday, November 29th), the most hurricanes (13), the highest number of major hurricanes hitting the U.S. (4), and the most Category 5 hurricanes (3).

7. 2005’S HURRICANE SEASON RECORDS
Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest U.S. hurricane since 1928 (more than 1,300 dead) and replaced 1992’s Hurricane Andrew as the most expensive hurricane on record ($34.4 billion in insured losses).

8. THE 2005 HURRICANE SEASON BROKE MANY RECORDS
According to the Insurance Services Organization (ISO), total insured losses from hurricanes reached $47.2 billion in 2005, well above the previous record of $22.9 billion set in when four hurricanes also hit the U.S.

9. GULF COAST

10. HURRICANE KATRINA

11. HURRICANE KATRINA HAD WIDE SPREAD IMPACTS
Hurricane Katrina inflicted the worst damage and societal impacts ever.
Thousands of miles of the Gulf Coast from Louisiana to Florida were impacted.
In addition to New Orleans, cities in Mississippi such as Biloxi, Waveland, and Gulfport were adversely impacted.
Thousands were evacuated from Louisiana and dispersed throughout the entire USA.

12. HURRICANE KATRINA DEVASTATED NEW ORLEANS
Eighty percent of New Orleans was under water after its levees failed a day after Katrina made landfall, and again one week later as Rita passed through the Gulf enroute to landfall at the Texas-Louisiana border.

13. HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS WERE SEEN BY THE WORLD
The world saw unprecedented misery in near real time; They saw:
Families stranded in attics, on roofs and bridges,
Hungry and thirsty refugees stranded in the Superdome and Convention Center after wind and rain penetrated the Superdome’s roof.
Lack of power, water, and sewage services exacerbating and slowing emergency operations at local, state, and Federal levels.

14. HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS WERE SEEN BY THE WORLD
Bodies lay on streets for days or floated in the floodwaters.
Eight functioning hospitals were reduced to two.

15. HURRICANE KATRINA’S IMPACTS WERE LONG LASTING
Hundreds of thousands of people in New Orleans had no livable home to return to, and many never returned.
Thousands of businesses were shut down; many never reopened.
Public schools were closed down 3 months---until November 28th.
Many environmental and health care problems remain to be resolved

16. HURRICANE DENNIS

17. HURRICANE RITA

18. HURRICANE WILMA

19. HURRICANE WILMA BROKE RECORDS
Reaching 882 millibars, Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record in terms of minimum central pressure.
When Wilma’s top sustained winds increased 180 km/hr (105 mi/hr) in 24 hours while moving through the Caribbean, it became the fastest-strengthening storm on record.

20. WILMA, DENNIS, AND RITA WERE ALSO DEVASTATING
Although Wilma, Dennis and Rita, the other hurricanes that hit the USA, were not as deadly or destructive as Katrina, each one exposed community weaknesses:
14-hour traffic jams occurred in Houston and Galveston as residents evacuated ahead of Rita.

21. WILMA, DENNIS, AND RITA WERE ALSO DEVASTATING
Wilma devastated Cancun and stranded 30,000 tourists, before flooding Havana, Cuba, and eventually knocking out power for days to more than 6 million people in Florida on Oct. 24.

22. RECOVERY FROM 2005 HURRICANE SEASON
Congress approved $62 billion, mostly for short-term relief aid.
Estimates put the cost of rebuilding at $200 billion, or more, over a ten-year period.
The president ordered the Homeland Security Department to review disaster plans for every major metropolitan area in order to increase the state-of-readiness.