U.S.A. Katrina: The “Big One ” Arrived

Katrina, an extremely powerful and catastrophic hurricane, caused a staggering amount of economic and environmental damage and killed an unknown number of people as it marched throughout the southeastern United States. This storm was the costliest and one of the deadliest reported hurricanes to batter North America.1 For the people of southern Louisiana the long anticipated “Big One ” had finally arrived (Baumann 2005). Through the use of a variety of remotely sensed imagery this report first tracks Katrina’s movement and growth between August 23 and August 29, 2005 and then examines the storm’s impact on New Orleans