At that time, the National Hurricane Center said the winds were at a top continuing speed of more than one hundred thirty kilometers

per hour. Experts identified the storm as a hurricane. They named it Katrina, and rated it as the least severe type of hurricane. Still, it caused flooding and killed people in Florida.

BARBARA KLEIN: Hurricane Katrina weakened again after striking Florida. Later it moved to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf’s warm waters helped it gain strength. At one point, the storm’s winds were blowing at more than two hundred

sixty-eight kilometers per hour. Experts increased its rating to the most severe hurricane.

Time passed, and the winds again weakened. Then Hurricane Katrina reached land in Louisiana. Its speed had fallen to about two hundred kilometers per hour when it struck near New Orleans.

But the wind was strong enough to pick up trees, vehicles and buildings. It threw them into the air like toys. Walls of water flooded over the land. Intense rain fell. Then Hurricane Katrina struck land again, this time at the border of Mississippi and Louisiana. Again, there was loss of life and terrible destruction.

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BOB DOUGHTY: Severe ocean storms in the northern part of the world usually develop in late summer or early autumn near the equator. Scientists call them cyclones when they develop over the Indian Ocean. When they happen over the northwestern Pacific Ocean, the storms are typhoons. And in the eastern Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean they are called hurricanes.