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Homes Destroyed by Katrina
Photograph by Tyrone Turner, National Geographic
Hurricane Katrina's 175-mile-per-hour (280-kilometer-per-hour) winds and accompanying storm surge damaged some seaside homes and erased others on Alabama's Dauphin Island. The island is about 68 miles (110 kilometers) east of where the hurricane's eye made landfall.
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Hurricane Allen
Photograph by Annie Griffiths Belt, National Geographic
A Corpus Christi resident surveys storm damage as Hurricane Allen pelts the Texas coast in 1980. Tropical storms need warm water, moist air, and converging equatorial winds to become hurricanes.
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Hurricane Andrew, Florida
Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic
Parts of Homestead, Florida, lie in ruins after Hurricane Andrew tore through the area with Category 5 winds in August 1992. Now second to Katrina, Andrew was the most destructive U.S. hurricane on record, inflicting $26.5 billion in damage. Its winds topped 164 miles per hour (264 kilometers per hour), easily passing the Category 5 threshold of sustained winds greater than 155 miles per hour (249 kilometers per hour).
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Flying Through Hurricane's Eye
Photograph courtesy NOAA
After slicing through violent wind, rain, hail, and updrafts, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration P-3 plane flies in the calm eye of Hurricane Caroline. P-3s fly into hurricanes at low altitudes to measure storm structure and intensity. Other specially equipped NOAA aircraft collect meteorological data from the upper atmosphere surrounding hurricanes for forecasting purposes.
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Hurricane Surf
Photograph by James P. Blair, National Geographic
Two daring beachgoers brave hurricane-driven surf in North Palm Beach, Florida. Hurricanes that hit the U.S. East Coast typically form over the tropics between June and November.
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Broken Levee
Photograph by Vincent Laforet, New York Times/AP
Water flows past a broken levee along the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal in New Orleans after heavy rains and a storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused it to fail. Katrina holds the U.S. storm surge record, measured at 27.8 feet (8 meters) above mean sea level near Pass Christian, Mississippi.
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Two Weeks Post-Katrina
Photograph by Michael Lewis, National Geographic
Blocked roads foiled evacuation and rescue efforts in New Orleans, Louisiana, adding to the mayhem following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. The flooded city lost more than 1,800 people in the storm and suffered more than $81 billion in damage.
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After Katrina
Photograph by Michael Lewis, National Geographic
Two men wade through floodwaters on Canal Street two weeks after Hurricane Katrina tore open New Orleans' levees, flooding about 80 percent of the city and neighboring parishes.
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La Santa Muerte
Photograph by Eliu Peredo, My Shot
A makeshift shrine sits near a destroyed souvenir stand in Mahahual, Mexico, after Hurricane Dean passed through in 2007. The statue is of "La Santa Muerte," a Mexican saint-like figure associated with death. Hurricanes killed two people in the United States in 2009, according to the National Weather Service.
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Three Storms
Photograph courtesy NOAA
A satellite photo taken on August 28, 2008, shows three storms in the Atlantic at the same time: Fay, Gustav, and Hannah. Tropical Storm Fay is dissipating over the United States. Tropical Storm Gustav, which would develop into a hurricane, is between Cuba and Haiti. Tropical Storm Hanna, which would also become a hurricane, is still in the Atlantic. Storms progress from tropical depressions to tropical storms and then to hurricanes, distinctions based on wind speed.
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Hurricane Ivan, Florida
Photograph by Tyrone Turner, National Geographic
A storm surge from Hurricane Ivan cut a channel through this barrier island near Pensacola, Florida. The Category 5 storm was the strongest of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season.
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