Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Katrina attained Category 5 status on the morning of August 28 and reached its peak strength at 1800 UTC that day, with maximum sustained winds of 280 km/h and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar (26.6 inHg). The pressure measurement made Katrina the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time. However, this record was later broken by Hurricane Rita. Read more
The first imagery showing the damage to the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, is available on the Internet and aired during todays NASA TV (16:00 GMT) videofile.
The facility received some damage to its buildings during Hurricane Katrina. First reports suggest none of the External Tanks were significantly damaged by the storm. The images are on the Web, HERE:
Both NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Lockheed Martin's Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans felt the effects of Hurricane Katrina. No injuries are reported at either location. The facilities themselves appear to have weathered the storm fairly well, but the surrounding areas have been hit very hard. The focus is now on supporting the work force and their families at both locations.
Initial reports from Michoud (see previous posts) say that there is some water inside the facility - but not from flooding. The External Tanks and their associated manufacturing hardware seems to be OK.
Katrina was designated yesterday a rare Category 5 Hurricane, the strongest designation for a storm on Earth, with sustained winds greater than 250 kilometres per hour. However, the strength has subsided as it made landfall in the southern USA .
This image is a digitally processed image from the orbiting GOES-12 weather satellite that shows the massive storm system yesterday in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricane Katrina, made landfall on Florida on Friday 26 August. Katrina raged for hours over the Miami area before heading out early Friday to the Gulf of Mexico.
At 1300 GMT 26th, it was located 70 kilometres north-northwest of Key West, with winds of 120 kilometres per hour. Katrina is the sixth hurricane this year to hit the state, and was expected to make landfall again in north-western Florida early next week