On August 29, 2005, at 6:10am, Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a strong Category 4 storm, south of Buras, LA (about 60-miles from New Orleans) along the Mississippi delta. The eye crossed the coastline a second time along the Mississippi- Louisiana border.
On August 29, Katrina's storm surge caused 53 different levee breaches in greater New Orleans submerging eighty percent of the city. A June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers indicated that two-thirds of the flooding were caused by the multiple failures of the city's floodwalls. Not mentioned were the flood gates that were not closed. The storm surge also devastated the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, making Katrina the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, and the deadliest hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane. The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $81.2 billion (2005 U.S. dollars), nearly double the cost of the previously most expensive storm, Hurricane Andrew, when adjusted for inflation.
As of May 19, 2006, the confirmed death toll (total of direct and indirect deaths) stood at 1,836, mainly from Louisiana (1,577) and Mississippi (238). However, 705 people remain categorized as missing in Louisiana, and many of the deaths are indirect, but it is almost impossible to determine the exact cause of some of the fatalities. Katrina destroyed 200,000 Gulf Coast homes and displaced about 1 million people, we being among them.
Yes, 4-years ago, our lives were turned upside down. We are New Orleans based, grew up here, lived here all our lives, it is our home. Our office sits on the top floor of a downtown high-rise, we could see it on TV, but not get to it for 2-months. Many of us, our families and friends lost their homes, memories and possessions. The world watched, many in disbelief, as the whole event unfolded on the National News. It seemed liked it would never end, never be the same. But today, is a new day.
What have we done since Katrina? We picked ourselves up, rebuilt what we could, started new where we had no other options and fought with insurance companies (State Farm is NOT like a Good Neighbor). We hired new people, to replace the ones that didn't return and restarted our business. We started working on Multifamily Housing projects and are proud to have units under construction, right now, in this economy. We also started MultifamilyBiz.com to add to our growing multifamily technology mission, create jobs and give everybody a voice in the industry with free blogs, press releases and tools. Finally, we showed that hell or high water will not stop us. Katrina brought us both.
MultifamilyBiz.com – New Orleans Based – Proud to Call it Home.