Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina hit southeastern Louisiana and coastal Mississippi and Alabama on Aug. 29 very hard, causing historic flooding in the New Orleans area and wind and flood destruction along the three coastal states. The number of victims is estimated in hundreds and possibly thousands.

Following the orders of the civil protection, most residents of the New Orleans area left before the hurricane hit, but tens of thousands of citizens who had not joined the exodus were trapped. Situated below sea level and surrounded by the sea, a lake and the Mississippi River, New Orleans is highly vulnerable to flooding. In the days after the storm hit, almost the whole city was submerged. Buildings and roads have been swept away, power and water cut off, and hospitals isolated.

This site provides some links to other web-sites that provide satellite and airborne information of the extent of the flooding.

		DLR Digital Terrain Analysis DLR analysed high resolution elevation data of the city of New Orleans provided by USGS. The data were acquired with a LIDAR sensor with 5 m pixel spacing. Areas in blue are below sea level and are likely to be flooded. -> Full Resolution Image (0.8 Mb) -> Animation (8.0 Mb)

External Information:
		Sertit: satellite images of the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters" Sertit produced in the framework of charter call #104 several maps of the regions affected by the hurricane Katrina. There are reference maps based on archived Landsat data as well as crisis maps based on Spot data.-> -> Satellite maps at Sertit -> International Charter for Space and Major Disasters, Call #104
		NOAA: aerial images der of affected regions The imagery posted on this site shows the Gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama after Hurricane Katrina made landfall. This imagery was acquired by the NOAA Remote Sensing Division to support NOAA national security and emergency response requirements. In addition, it will be used for ongoing research efforts for testing and developing standards for airborne digital imagery. Please note that these images are uncorrected and not rotated. The approximate ground sample distance (GSD) for each pixel is 37 cm. The images have 60% forward overlap, and sidelap unknown. Image file size is between 2 MB and 3 MB. -> Aerial images
		Dartmouth Flood Observatory: Landsat TM and MODIS The Dartmouth Flood Observatory has produced several maps showing the extent of the flooding at medium resolution, based on comparison of pre and post flood Landsat TM and MODIS images. -> Analysis results -> Satellite images
		USGS: Landsat TM overview maps The USGS has produced two maps showing overviews of New Orleans and Biloxi based on Landsat imagery. -> Overview maps
		High resolution satellite imagery There are also commercial companies providing very high resolution imagery of the Ikonos, Quickbird and OrbView sattelites: -> Ikonos (Space Imaging) -> Quickbird (Digital Globe) -> Orbview (Orbimage)