what we learned from hurricanes katrina and ritaaug 28 2015as the tenth anniversary of hurricanes katrina (aug 29) and rita (sept 23) approaches memories of the storms vividly remain for texans katrina killed more than 1 800 people and rita forced the largest evacuation in texas history with more than 3 million people leaving the houston-galveston area there are lessons to be learned from both says a texas a&m university severe storms expertr saravanan professor of atmospheric sciences who specializes in studying climate variability says the storms were historic not only for their intensity but also as part of the most active hurricane season ever in 2005 a record 27 named storms occurred and 15 of them became hurricanes 7 of which became major hurricanes of those 7 an unprecedented 4 reached category 5 status katrina was the costliest hurricane ever and one of the 5 most deadly storms ever to hit the us its high winds and storm surge engulfed new orleans completely so much so that 53 breeches occurred in the citys levee system resulting in 80 percent of the city becoming flooded it damaged more than 800 000 housing units causing $81 billion of damage in 2005 dollars and killed more than 1 500 people in louisiana and at least 230 in mississippi the lessons learned from the katrina disaster were immediately visible during the response to rita a month later saravanan explains people took the evacuation warnings seriously however hurricane activity has been relatively weak since then with very few hurricanes making landfall people may be a bit more complacent now but i think katrina is still fairly fresh in their memories both katrina and rita also exposed some of the flawed assumptions in risk management and insurance coverage that hopefully have been fixed to some extent although houston dodged much of the power of rita the storm caused millions to flee their homes the storm killed at least 120 people some of them as a result of evacuation efforts such as 23 people who died in a bus accident near dallas gasoline shortages inadequate evacuation routes immense traffic jams gridlocked roads power failures and other miseries caused many persons who fled the storm to say they would never evacuate again there were problems with evacuation procedures saravanan adds it shows that we still need to educate the public about the nature of hurricane forecasts that can lead to evacuations when looking at it from a risk management prospective it (evacuating) is still worth it texas has managed to dodge other storms in the 10 years since katrina and rita but it is only a matter of time before another major hurricane hits the texas coast saravanan says the hazards of building homes too close to the water have become very evident he notes we have learned a lot from both storms at the national level katrina and rita led to major research initiatives to improve hurricane forecasts computer models have slowly but steadily been improving and we have developed a better ‘cone of uncertainty about hurricane trajectories hopefully these and other improvements have led to more precise storm warning and evacuation directives ### media contact: r saravanan at (979) 845-0175 or sarava@tamueduor keith randall news & information services at (979) 845-4644 or keith-randall@tamuedu orignal story from texas a&m today hurricane rita forced the largest evacuation in texas history (shutterstock photo)