MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) - Hurricane Katrina was a large and extremely destructive hurricane that struck the southern United States coastline. The system reached category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale while out in the Gulf, and made landfall as a category 3 hurricane.

Aug. 29 marks 20 years since this historic storm’s landfall, devastating much of the Gulf Coast that is still recovering from Katrina’s impacts to this day.

Katrina set multiple records for wind speeds and central pressure, and was given the title of the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

How it started

The storm originally developed over the Bahamas on August 23 as a tropical depression and tracked toward the southeastern U.S. coast. Katrina m

See Full Page