FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross reflects on Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans
FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross spoke with FOX Weather Meteorologists Stephen Morgan and Marissa Torres from the Lower Ninth Ward about the historic and catastrophic storm and what has been taking place at the conference so far.
FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross reflects on Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans
FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross is in New Orleans at the National Hurricane Conference and joined FOX Weather on Tuesday morning to discuss Hurricane Katrina and its impact 20 years after the catastrophic and historic storm devastated the region.
NEW ORLEANS - We're less than 50 days out from the official start of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, and first responders and forecasters from across the U.S., including FOX Weather Hurricane Specialist Bryan Norcross, have descended upon New Orleans for the start of the National Hurricane Conference.
Dozens of hurricanes dating back to the 1800s have made landfall in Louisiana, including Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall 20 years ago this August. Norcross spoke with FOX Weather Meteorologists Stephen Morgan and Marissa Torres from the Lower Ninth Ward about the historic and catastrophic storm and what has been taking place at the conference so far.
Hurricane Katrina's storm surge swamped New Orleans then levee and pump failures compounded the flooding.
(Louisiana Treasury / FOX Weather)
When it made landfall in southeastern Louisiana, Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125 mph, but the devastating storm surge and flooding caused most of the death and destruction.
Norcross explained that the massive amounts of water flowing through the numerous canals within the city during Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, were just too much for the flood walls to handle. That led to the failure of the wall in two places and a levee that sent a wall of water rushing into neighborhoods.
"(The flood walls) just weren't built back then like they are now," he said. "That undermined the wall and the wall tipped over. So, if you can imagine, you had water up near the top of the wall from the canal. Then the pressure undermining and scouring out underneath the wall tipped it over and the wall of water literally flooded into the neighborhood."
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A plea for help appears on the roof of a home flooded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, 04 September 2005.
(ROBERT GALBRAITH/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
To this day, there are several empty lots where homes once stood that were never rebuilt.
"Of course, we all remember the incredible pictures that we saw of people on their roofs because the water was up to the roof level here, and they used hatchets and whatnot to get out on the roof if they could," Norcross continued. "And, unfortunately, some people couldn't do that and they died even in the crawl spaces above the houses trying to get away."
Norcross said he received word just before 7:45 a.m. CT that the flood walls had failed and a Flash Flood Warning was in effect.
"And once that started, we just didn't know what was going to happen," he said.
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New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina 2005
(POOL / AFP / Getty Images)
Lessons have been learned since the deadly devastation Katrina and other hurricanes have caused to cities along the Gulf Coast, and that's among the topics being discussed at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans this year.
"There are really two big topics at the conference so far," Norcross said. "One, of course, is Katrina."
Norcross said attendees heard from emergency managers about what they experienced during that hurricane and the response to its aftermath.
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Residents are rescued by helicopter from the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina 01 September 2005 in New Orleans, Louisiana.
(DAVID J. PHILLIP/AFP via Getty Images)
"And then there's another overlay for this conference, as you can imagine, and that's the discussed changes at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)," he said.
Norcross said attendees heard from the acting administrator of FEMA on Monday and he "made it clear that there are going to be changes in FEMA."
"This is a conference of state and local emergency managers, and nobody knows what (the changes) mean, because everybody knows that the state and local people can't handle these massive disasters. We need the federal government to do it. But how that relationship is going to work in the future, of course, is unknown."