Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina charged through Florida’s densely populated southeastern coast, Thursday the 25th, with sustained winds of 80 mph and pouring rain. The storm strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane just before it made landfall along the Miami-Dade and Broward county line between Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach. An analysis by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said flooding was the main concern as the storm dropped a foot of rain or more in some spots. Katrina generated over 5 inches of rainfall across a large area of southeastern Florida. Late Thursday, Katrina was centered in northwest Miami-Dade County, heading west at 6 mph. An estimated 5.9 million Florida residents were in Katrina’s expected path. The hurricane briefly weakened on Friday morning before regaining strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. There Katrina grew into a powerful giant, almost 500 miles wide, and turned north toward Louisiana. On Sunday, sustained winds peaked at 175 mph making it a Category 5 storm, the highest on the scale. Hurricane Katrina eased up just a little before hitting the Louisiana coast of the US on Monday morning. But the hurricane picked a soft target; New Orleans has long been considered the US city at most risk from hurricanes. As the storm moved inland and weakened to a tropical storm on the 29th, rainfall became the primary impact. Flood watches and warnings were common across these regions. Rain bands from Katrina also produced tornadoes causing further damage in areas such as Georgia. The storm surge reached roughly 28-29 feet of water at Gulfport Beach. From the words of Mike Theiss, Ultimate Chase photographer, that filmed Katrina's violent and deadly storm surge. "I started documenting Hurricane Katrina from her first landfall in the South Florida area. Hurricane Katrina came into the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area as a strengthening Cat-1 Hurricane and produced winds up to 100mph. I was shocked by how many people/tourists were out in the