Katrina Was Far Weaker than Originally Thought

abcnews.go.com
It's been called the storm of the century and a monster. Hurricane Katrina will almost certainly hold the record for the biggest and costliest natural disaster in the country's history, and its real cost and real toll won't be known for years.

But what is known now is that Hurricane Katrina was not the lion people thought it was, despite the staggering devastation it inflicted across four states. A report released this week by the National Hurricane Center said that when Katrina hit land early on the morning of Aug. 29, it was a Category 3 hurricane.

After examining devices that were dropped into Katrina from hurricane-hunter aircraft and after reviewing readings from weather stations and weather buoys, the center has concluded that Katrina's maximum winds at landfall were 127 mph, not 140 mph, as originally estimated. That means that on the record books Katrina drops from a Category 4 to a Category 3.

Even more sobering, the study confirmed that Katrina was a Category 1 when it hit New Orleans. The city that sits below the sea, protected by its precarious levees, was on the weaker, west side of Katrina. The report said maximum sustained winds were 95 mph, with occasional gusts a little higher.


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.