These Are The Deadliest Natural Disasters In Modern History

Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit southeast Louisiana causing severe destruction along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. In New Orleans, the levees designed to prevent floods were only engineered to withstand Category 3 hurricanes, but Katrina reached to a Category 5 with winds up to 175 mph.

The hurricane affected 15 million people over 90,000 square miles and left 80 percent of New Orleans under 20 feet of water. The final death toll was 1,836 with thousands missing. The storm left hundreds of thousands of people unemployed and is the costliest hurricane on record causing $108 billion in property damages. Mitch Handrich is a registered nurse who treated patients from the Katrina aftermath saying, “It’s like being in a Third World country. We’re trying to work without power. Everyone knows we’re all in this together. We’re just trying to stay alive.”