Dear Tom,
This hurricane season might be another fierce one. Is it safe to say Katrina is about as bad a hurricane disaster as this country is likely to experience?
J. Thayer
Dear J.,
Sadly, no. Despite the horror wrought by Katrina, it wasn’t even close to nature’s worst possible hurricane punch.
Although Katrina was a Category 5 hurricane (sustained winds above 155 m.p.h.) as it churned across the Gulf of Mexico, it had weakened to Cat. 3 intensity (111-130 m.p.h.) at landfall, and it wasn’t even a direct hit on New Orleans.
New Orleans’ levees, designed to withstand a Cat. 3 storm, nevertheless failed to protect the city, and that same levee system is still in place today.
Consider, also, that metropolitan areas far more populous than New Orleans sit highly vulnerable to storm surge, chief among them Tampa and New York City.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or asktomwhy@wgntv.com (Mail volume precludes personal response.)
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
