I didn’t really know what was happening to me,” Wagner, now 48, recalls. “I didn’t think it was the storm at first. It was later, after the storm waters had receded and Wagner went back to New Orleans to rebuild her home and her life that she fell apart. She hung tough while the storm’s 125-mph winds pummeled her home, and powered through two months of sleeping in a sweltering camper outside the city with her boyfriend’s mother. In the Florida Everglades, where Katrina first hit shore before turning northwest, scientists surveying the environmental damage say the storm washed away sea turtle eggs and drowned alligators nests, but both species will likely rebound.NEW ORLEANS - Brandi Wagner thought she had survived Hurricane Katrina. And ironically, the species that rely on those islands and marshes might rebound more quickly than the cities along the shore. Those marshes and islands act as nurseries to many species of animals, as well as help slow storms as they approach New Orleans.Ĭomputer models suggest that further loss of those buffer zones will boost the height of future storm surges and waves by several feet. Louisiana is slowly sinking into the encroaching Gulf of Mexico, losing about 24 square miles of coastal marshland and barrier islands every year. But the levees also prevent the river from naturally spreading sediment around its delta.
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The vast series of levees in southern Louisiana harnessed the Mississippi River and helped make the city one of the world's busiest ports and a key center of the U.S.
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The levees that helped protect New Orleans from the full fury of Hurricane Katrina may have also contributed to the destruction. Robert Hartwig, chief economist with the Insurance Information Institute in New York, said "what we're looking at is one of the top two or three most expensive storms in U.S. "We have to wait for civil authorities to open areas so we can get in and assess damages," State Farm Spokesman Phil Supple said. State Farm and Allstate, the two largest property and casualty insurance companies covering the South, said they have teams ready to move into the devastated region. The most devastating, Hurricane Charley, racked up insured losses of $7.5 billion last August. Last year, the four separate hurricanes that slammed Florida and other East Coast states cost insurers nearly $23 billion. The cost of Hurricane Katrina to insurance companies could run anywhere from $9 billion to $26 billion, according to early estimates from companies who specialize in analyzing catastrophic damage.Īt the high end, that would make Katrina more expensive than the previous record-setting storm, Hurricane Andrew, which caused some $21 billion in insured losses in 1992 to property in Florida and along the Gulf Coast. Bodman said, "Over the next few days, we will continue to gain more information on the specific needs and then be able to make a better determination on how we can help."
refining capacity, or about 1 million barrels a day.Įnergy Secretary Samuel W. Katrina shut down oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, representing about 8 percent of U.S. The reserves would be used to provide refineries a temporary supply of crude oil to replace interrupted shipments from tankers or offshore oil platforms affected by the storm. Administration officials said the president is expected to authorize a loan of at least some oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. emergency petroleum stockpiles to ease the storm's impact on affected refineries. President Bush is considering tapping U.S. Oil prices rose more than $3 a barrel Tuesday morning to climb above $70 a barrel. The shutdown of oil platforms, refineries and pipelines along the Gulf Coast drove energy prices sharply higher Tuesday, all but guaranteeing a surge in pump prices in the days ahead.
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