Ablah, Elizabeth Furthermore, the findings in this report are subject to at least three limitations. YASUDA, Goro The major causes of death include: drowning (40%), injury and trauma (25%), and heart conditions (11%). Johnson, Carolyn C. and Fewer than 10% of victims were younger than 45 years old. /NO. Total loading time: 0.36 Older adults were clearly the most affected population cohort during Hurricane Katrina, particularly people 75 years old and older, who made up 49% of victims in Louisiana, whereas their age cohort represents fewer than 6% of both the greater New Orleans and the overall Louisiana population. 2009. Burkle, Frederick M. Clum, Gretchen A. Garcia, Andrea M. Berman, Amy "lang": "en" Displaced residents. Merz, Mirjam We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. The primary classification of Katrina-related deaths assigned by parish (county) coroners on death certificates was International Classification of Diseases-10 code X37, victim of cataclysmic storm. When Katrina made landfall on August 29 near New Orleans on the U.S. Gulf Coast, it brought widespread destruction and flooding with it. With no relief in sight and in the absence of any organized effort to restore order, some neighbourhoods experienced substantial amounts of looting, and helicopters were used to rescue many people from rooftops in the flooded Ninth Ward. It is also unknown whether the storm exacerbated preexisting medical conditions enough to lead to death. Instituting an electronic reporting system for recording death certificates would aid with timely use of data for both government and community preparedness and disaster response efforts.Reference Stephens, Grew and Chin8 Alternately, if existing technological infrastructure is unavailable, active mortality surveillance efforts should be initiated immediately to document deaths in the early stages of rescue and recovery responses, not only to aid with accurate mortality reporting and victim identification but also to mobilize needed resources (eg, body bags, mobile laboratories, morgues) in a timely manner. and Our objectives were to verify, document, and characterize Katrina-related mortality in Louisiana and help identify strategies to reduce mortality in future disasters. Hurricane Katrina Project- Casualties (4a) Period 4 Gatfield. "subject": true, Improving mortality reporting timeliness will enable response teams to provide appropriate interventions to these populations and to prepare and implement preventive measures before the next disaster. Sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (115 km per hour) lashed the Florida peninsula, and rainfall totals of 5 inches (13 cm) were reported in some areas. Tran, Tri Hurricane Katrina Deaths, Louisiana, 2005 - Volume 2 Issue 4. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings. Hurricane Katrina surfaced around the Bahamas on August 23, 2005. Satellite image of Hurricane Katrina overlaying a thermal display of sea surface temperatures for the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, August 27, 2005. Lanier, William L. Areas east of the Industrial Canal were the first to flood; by the afternoon of August 29, some 20 percent of the city was underwater. Approximately 50% of the people who died as a result of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana were 75 years old and older. The final case definition for Katrina-related deaths in this analysis included all of the deaths in the DMORT database that were determined to be Katrina related, all Louisiana death certificates with victim of cataclysmic storm listed as the primary or a contributing cause of death, and out-of-state death certificates for Louisiana residents that were classified as related to Hurricane Katrina. Render date: 2021-01-06T17:49:31.682Z AONO, Masashi The authors thank D. Bensyl, W.R. Daley, and D. Koo for useful comments on the manuscript. We calculated age-, race-, and sex-specific mortality rates for Orleans, St Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes, where 95% of Katrina victims resided and conducted stratified analyses by parish of residence to compare differences between observed proportions of victim demographic characteristics and expected values based on 2000 US Census data, using Pearson chi square and Fisher exact tests. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hirsch, Glenn A. Kategorie » Primary study. Polivka-West, LuMarie and A stand of trees killed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 2010. She was a homemaker and a native of Blount County, Alaska. Another 20,000 people gathered at the Convention Center for assistance, an evacuation site the federal government was unaware of until three days after the storm. The most dramatic difference occurred among people 75 years old and older (Pearson chi square [χ2] 2400; degrees of freedom (df) = 1; P < .0001; Table 3). The mean age of Katrina victims was 69.0 years (95% confidence interval [CI], 67.8–70.2), and their age range was 0 to 102 years. Among the largest age cohort of victims (people 75 years old and older), we further stratified by both race and sex in Orleans and St Bernard Parishes and found that black men 75 years old and older were significantly overrepresented in Orleans Parish (P < .001; Table 2). The state coroner was forwarded 446 out-of-state death certificates for Louisiana residents. OBJECTIVE Hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, causing unprecedented damage to numerous communities in Louisiana and Mississippi. We limited our comparative analyses to Orleans, St Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes. In Orleans Parish, the mortality … George W. Bush surveying the damage to New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina as he heads to Washington, D.C., aboard Air Force One, August 31, 2005. Hiete, Michael This infographic details Katrina's path and devastating impact. The overall proportions of deaths among non-Hispanic blacks and whites in the most affected parishes—Orleans, St Bernard, and Jefferson—were remarkably consistent with their pre-Katrina race/ethnicity distributions from the 2000 US Census (Table 2). 2010. It quickly intensified when it reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. and Anderson, Evan D. 2011. Brown, Lisa M. By the time the storm strengthened to a category 3 hurricane, winds exceeded 115 miles per hour. Hyer, Kathryn Hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005 as a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, causing unprecedented damage to numerous Louisiana and Mississippi communities.Reference Knabb, Rhome and Brown1 During the hours and days after Hurricane Katrina, breaches in the levee infrastructure resulted in flooding throughout approximately 80% of New Orleans. Of these, 15 were clearly related to Hurricane Katrina, and 431 were classified as indeterminate because no indication of hurricane association was listed on the death certificate. On September 6, local police estimated that there were fewer than 10,000 residents left in New Orleans. and Xiong, Xu "clr": false, Feature Flags last update: Wed Jan 06 2021 17:23:48 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) Lavie, Carl J. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city the previous day, and an estimated 1.2 million people left ahead of the storm. Mor, Vincent As the already strained levee system continued to give way, the remaining residents of New Orleans were faced with a city that by August 30 was 80 percent underwater. Beim Wiederaufbau gewannen Unternehmensgründer und Touristen. Excluding the 15 out-of-state deaths, we found that of the 971 people who died in Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Katrina, data on cause of death were available for 800 people. 2009. Konda, Kurt In Orleans Parish, where the majority of victims lived and died, all age categories of victims (except those 45–54 years old) were divergent from the overall parish age distribution of the population. "relatedCommentaries": true, "languageSwitch": true Omissions? Madkour, Aubrey S. As the recovery began, dozens of countries contributed funds and supplies, and Canada and Mexico deployed troops to the Gulf Coast to assist with the cleanup and rebuilding. "Pet Preparedness." Forty-nine percent of victims were people 75 years old and older. The study protocol was reviewed by the human subjects coordinator at the Office of Workforce and Career Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and determined to be a public health response that did not require further human subjects review. The majority of Hurricane Katrina--related deaths occurred in Louisiana and Mississippi . Dosa, David The majority of these people (n = 82, 64%) were recovered during the second and third weeks after the storm (September 5–19, 2005). Graphic by Lindsey Cook and Ethan Rosenberg for USN&WR/Source: Hurricane Katrina Deaths, Louisiana While the death toll in the study is 986, … The date the body was found was available for 129 of 171 people that appear only in the DMORT database. According to the National Hurricane Center, 1,836 people lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Nearly half of all victims were over the age of 74. and Conclusions: Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest hurricane to strike the US Gulf Coast since 1928. and Year » 2008. The levee system that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne had been completely overwhelmed by 10 inches (25 cm) of rain and Katrina’s storm surge. Areas east of the Industrial Canal were the first to flood; by August 30, 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater. "hasAccess": "1", Marsh, Elizabeth Dinn Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2008, Hostname: page-component-546c57c664-r9c2h From August 29 to September 3, 2005, at least 71 people died in nursing facilities in Orleans, St Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes, and an additional 7 bodies were recovered from nursing facilities in these parishes during the weeks after Hurricane Katrina. United States Geological Survey. In Orleans Parish, the mortality rate among blacks was 1.7 to 4 times higher than that among whites for all people 18 years old and older. 2009. U.S. Army engineers pumped the last of the floodwaters out of the city on October 11, 2005, some 43 days after Katrina made landfall. Data on race/ethnicity were missing for 42 victims (4%), age was missing for 22 victims (2%), and sex was missing for 4 victims (<1%). The majority of out-of-state deaths occurred in Texas (221, 50%), followed by Alabama (47, 11%) and Mississippi (43, 10%). Acosta, Bertha I. Mrs. Bertha I. Acosta, age 85, of St. Bernard, died during Hurricane Katrina. At its height as a category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, Katrina’s wind speeds exceeded 170 miles per hour. TABLE 1 Cause of Death: Katrina-Related Mortality in Louisiana, 2005. Of note, only 4 storm victims were Asian, although Asians make up 2% of the Orleans Parish population and 1% of the overall Louisiana population.7 Although Hispanic/Latino and Asian race/ethnic groups appear to have been less affected by storm mortality relative to their proportional population size, victim numbers in these groups are small, limiting statistical interpretation. Accessed Jan. 28, 2020. Seventeen out-of-state deaths (4%) occurred among Calcasieu Parish residents, likely Hurricane Rita evacuees. Before Hurricane Katrina, the deadliest hurricane to make landfall in the United States during the previous 50 years was Hurricane Audrey (1957), with an estimated 416 deaths.2 Hurricane Andrew (1995), the last category 5 hurricane to strike the United States, caused 26 deaths.2 Although several preliminary estimates exist of the deaths attributable to Hurricane Katrina, 1,3,4 no prior report has systematically reviewed all of the available death databases to accurately document Hurricane Katrina mortality in Louisiana. and President Bush was otherwise occupied during this time. "Hurricane Katrina Deaths, Louisiana, 2005." Drowning (40%), injury and trauma (25%), and heart conditions (11%) were the major causes of death among Louisiana victims. for this article. An absence of basic sanitation combined with the omnipresent bacteria-rich floodwaters to create a public health emergency. Accessed Jan. 28, 2020. Although unlikely to be a large number, it is possible that some people who died during the storm were never found or documented. The 15 deaths with victim of cataclysmic storm or other Katrina-related indications on their death certificates almost certainly represent a lower bound estimate of out-of-state deaths among Louisiana Katrina evacuees. 2009. Drowning and injury-related deaths occurred predominantly near levee infrastructure breaches. The primary strength of this study is the use of multiple death databases to systematically verify each death as related to Hurricane Katrina using consistent and specific criteria. Hodge, James G. Hyer, Kathy "openAccess": "0", Out-of-state death certificates of Louisiana residents during the period of August 27 to October 1, 2005, and others that state coroners deemed worth consideration for potential association with Hurricane Katrina were forwarded to the Louisiana coroner's office from coroners' offices in 26 states and the District of Columbia. Hayashi, Jennifer Thomas, Kali Data from Louisiana vital statistics were collected at the local levels through parish coroners' offices and then sent to the state level. Most buildings held up well structurally. Fifty-three percent of victims were men; 51% were black; and 42% were white. Salloum, Alison Johnson, Jennifer In Orleans Parish, the mortality rate among blacks was 1.7 to 4 times higher than among whites for people 18 years old and older, indicating that the effect of age on mortality confounded the effect of race. Data on race/ethnicity were missing for 42 victims (4%), age was missing for 22 victims (2%), and sex was missing for 4 victims ( 1%). Czajkowski, Jeffrey Rather, the hurricane was named in accordance with the World Meteorological Organization’s lists of hurricane names, which rotate every six years. One of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States, Laura was blamed for 14 deaths as it barreled across Louisiana and parts of Texas. Hurricane Katrina formed on August 23, 2005, and in less than a week grew from a tropical depression into a category 4 hurricane. Burch, Berre Aerial view of flooding in the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina, August 2005. OCHI, Shigeo The findings in this report will aid public health and emergency preparedness efforts and may help reduce the mortality burden in future natural disasters. Jacobs, Rennie Second, classifying people who were evacuated and later died out of state from Katrina-related causes is inherently difficult, especially as regards older people who had serious preexisting medical conditions. Hurricane Katrina death data from Louisiana vital statistics first became available approximately 2 years after the storm. Excess mortality in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: A preliminary report, Atlantic hurricanes and natural variability in 2005, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL122005_Katrina.pdf, http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/E12.html, http://www.dhh.louisiana.gov/offices/page.asp?ID=192&Detail=5248, http://www.katrinalist.columbia.edu/stats.php, http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/outlooks/hurricane.shtml. Three hundred eighty-seven victims drowned, and 246 people sustained trauma or injuries severe enough to cause their deaths. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Victims died primarily in Orleans Parish (70%), St Bernard Parish (14%), Jefferson Parish (4%), and East Baton Rouge Parish (3%). Lawry, Lynn Seven deaths occurred in the 2 days preceding the storm and 4 deaths occurred after October 31, 2005 (Fig. However, tens of thousands of residents could not or would not leave. There were many decisions in the series of events leading to the storm that contributed to the high death toll. Objective: Hurricane Katrina struck the US Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, causing unprecedented damage to numerous communities in Louisiana and Mississippi. Following the historical damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, the name “Katrina” was retired from the lists of names. Chi square and Fisher exact tests assessing differences in proportions of black and white victims within age groups found that blacks were significantly more likely to be storm victims than whites in all age group categories 30 years old and older in Orleans Parish (P < .05). For the deaths recorded in the DMORT database only that did not have date of death available, it is unclear whether the person died at the location or the body was brought to the location after death. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Learn about how hurricanes and typhoons are given their names according to rules created by the World Meteorological Organization. After Hurricane Katrina, which damaged more than 100 school buildings, the state seized control of almost all urban schools and turned them over to independent charter groups. 2 and 3). Race-specific mortality rates were also higher among blacks 55 to 64 years old in St Bernard Parish and 75 years old and older in Jefferson Parish, but results from race- and age-specific stratified analyses in these 2 parishes are limited by small number of observations (n ≤ 5). It continued on a course to the northeast, crossing the Mississippi Sound and making a second landfall later that morning near the mouth of the Pearl River. It is likely that both factors contributed to the disproportionate representation of people 75 years old and older among Katrina victims. The majority of deaths had multiple hierarchical cause-of-death classifications; however, if trauma, injury, or drowning was listed as a contributing cause of death, these victims were categorized as drowning or injury victims in our database. Determining death counts after Hurricane Katrina, in 2005, was a similarly convoluted process.A study published in 2014, almost a … Despite the above limitations, this report provides the most complete picture of Katrina-related mortality in Louisiana to date. Full text views reflects PDF downloads, PDFs sent to Google Drive, Dropbox and Kindle and HTML full text views. Data related to place of death or where victims were found were available for 877 people (Table 3). A massive rescue and recovery effort was launched by local, state, and federal governments and nongovernmental organizations. "peerReview": true, Forty-nine percent of victims were people 75 years old and older. (A hurricane … Inside eyewall of Hurricane Katrina shortly before the storm struck Louisiana, August 2005. It was a very traumatizing storm and it killed many people. If all the debris from Hurricane Katrina were stacked on a football field, the pile would reach over ten miles high. Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. 2011. Of the 446 Louisiana residents who died out of state, 53% were female; 59% were white; and their mean age was 67.3 years (95% CI 65.3%–69.3%). Achour, Nebil There are at least 2 possible explanations for these findings. Prior to Hurricane Katrina the public school system of New Orleans was one of the lowest-performing districts in the state of Louisiana. ☠ Other victim races included Asian (n = 4), American Indian (n = 4), and other (n = 1). 2008;2:215–223). and Harville, Emily W. Deaths Directly Caused by Hurricane Katrina Poppy Markwell (MPH) and Raoult Ratard (MD, MPH) Abstract Objective: Previous studies have used multiple death databases to estimate the death toll of Louisiana residents from Hurricane Katrina; however, these studies did not incorporate autopsy reports as a data source. 2011. Schultmann, Frank Data on both parish of residence and death were available for 844 storm victims; more than 80% of these victims died in their parish of residence. 2011. Buekens, Pierre It was not until September 2 that an effective military presence was established in the city and National Guard troops mobilized to distribute food and water. The intense eyewall winds of Category 5 Hurricane Andrew destroyed over 25,000 homes and damaged 101,000 more in Homestead and the south Miami suburbs in August 1992. Hurricane Katrina Deaths, Louisiana, 2005 2 Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness VOL. 109th Congress, 2nd Session. Shortages of food and potable water quickly became an issue, and daily temperatures reached 90 °F (32 °C). New Orleans went from having a public school system to having a school system composed almost entirely of charter schools, most of them run by charter management organizations. FIGURE 1 Timeline of Hurricane Katrina-related deaths in Louisiana, vital statistics (N = 799). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Hurricane Katrina deaths, Louisiana, 2005. Methods: We assessed Hurricane Katrina mortality data sources received in 2007, including Louisiana and out-of-state death certificates for deaths occurring from August 27 to October 31, 2005, and the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team's confirmed victims' database. TABLE 3 Place of Death or Where Body Was Found (N = 877). Three hundred eighty-seven victims drowned, and 246 people sustained trauma or injuries severe enough to cause their deaths. Query parameters: { Among the 971 Hurricane Katrina victims who died in Louisiana, 512 (53%) were men; 498 (51%) were black (non-Hispanic/Latino); 403 (42%) were white (non-Hispanic/Latino), and 18 (2%) were Hispanic/Latino (Table 2). Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States.It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest landfalling U.S. hurricane on record. Katrina hit many places in its path, leaving people with absolutely nothing. Future disaster preparedness efforts must focus on evacuating and caring for vulnerable populations, including those in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and personal residences. 2009. Drowning (40%), injury and trauma (25%), and heart conditions (11%) were the major causes of death among Louisiana victims. Data from all 3 sources (DMORT, vital statistics, and out-of-state death certificates) were entered into an Access (Microsoft Corporation, Seattle, WA) database. The power outages and dire conditions reported in certain New Orleans hospitals after the storm underscore the importance of disaster preparedness. They either remained in their homes or sought shelter at locations such as the New Orleans Convention Center or the Louisiana Superdome. - Hurricane Facts, LiveScience - Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Damage and Aftermath, Hurricane Katrina - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The city seemed to have escaped most of the catastrophic wind damage and heavy rain that had been predicted. Aerial views of downtown New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Superdome in the foreground, (left) on August 30, 2005, a day after Hurricane Katrina struck the city, and (right) again some 10 years later on July 29, 2015. This study is subject to a number of limitations. For the 171 victims who were listed only in DMORT and for whom a date of death was not specified, date when victims were found was available for 129 people. View all Google Scholar citations More than 70 people died in nursing facilities in Orleans, St Bernard, and Jefferson Parishes on August 29, 2005 and in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina, indicating that more targeted emergency and disaster preparedness planning, especially with respect to evacuation capability, is needed for these types of institutions. Christmas, Colleen Older black people in Orleans Parish, particularly men, were disproportionately represented relative to their underlying population distribution. By the following afternoon Katrina had become one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds in excess of 170 miles per hour (275 km per hour). A number of quality-assurance cross-checks were conducted, including ensuring no duplication of records across data sources and date of death occurring within a plausible timeline (August 27–October 31, 2005) and within the geographic location for Katrina-related deaths (ie, death occurring in or victim evacuated from the affected southeastern Louisiana parishes). "crossMark": true, Drowning was the major cause of death and people 75 years old and older were the most affected population cohort. Children and younger adults were underrepresented among storm victims relative to their proportional population size. We identified 971 Katrina-related deaths that occurred in Louisiana and at least 15 deaths that occurred among Louisiana Katrina evacuees in other states, for a conservative storm-related death total of 986 victims. Allen, Priscilla D. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite image of Hurricane Katrina, taken on August 28, 2005.