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The wetland loss that amplified Katrina's storm surge

New Orleans, built behind levees, faces a storm surge - what does that mean for the city and its defenses?

The wetland loss that amplified Katrina's storm surge

In this episode, we trace how decades of deliberate changes to Louisiana’s coast altered the city’s relation to the Gulf and shaped the risks New Orleans faced when Katrina arrived. What choices and engineering trade-offs left the city vulnerable to an amplified storm surge?

Person: Hurricane Katrina

Date: August 29, 2005

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

Event: Wetland loss and storm surge amplification

Period: 1930s-2005

- Since…

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