Hurricane Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

Trivia quiz with answers about Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Trivia Quiz Questions With Answers

What was Hurricane Katrina?
A: Hurricane Katrina was an extremely destructive and deadly Category 5 hurricane that made landfall on Florida and Louisiana, particularly the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas, in August 2005.

Where did the storm originate?
A: Over the Bahamas.

When?
A: On August 23, 2005, from the merger of a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten.

Early on the following day, the tropical depression then did what?
A: It intensified into a tropical storm as it headed generally westward toward Florida, strengthening into a hurricane only two hours before making landfall at Hallandale Beach and Aventura on August 25.

After very briefly weakening again to a tropical storm, Katrina emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on what date?
A: August 26 and began to rapidly intensify.

The storm strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane over the warm waters of the Gulf, but weakened before making its what?
A: It’s second landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on August 29, over southeast Louisiana and Mississippi.

As Katrina made landfall, its front right quadrant, which held the strongest winds, slammed into what?
A: Gulfport, Mississippi, devastating it.

Overall how many people died in the hurricane and subsequent floods?
A: At least 1,836, making Katrina the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.

Severe property damage occurred in numerous coastal areas, such as where?
A: Mississippi beachfront towns where boats and casino barges rammed buildings, pushing cars and houses inland.

Total property damage was estimated at how much?
A: $125 billion USD, tying Katrina with Hurricane Harvey of 2017 as the costliest Atlantic tropical cyclone on record.

Over fifty breaches in surge protection levees surrounding the city of New Orleans, Louisiana were the cause of what?
A: The majority of the death and destruction during Katrina.

Eventually 80% of the city, as well as large tracts of neighboring parishes, became what?
A: Flooded, and the floodwaters lingered for weeks.

Multiple investigations in the aftermath of the storm concluded that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which had designed and built the region's levees decades earlier, was responsible for what?
A: The failure of the flood-control systems, though federal courts later ruled that the Corps could not be held financially liable because of sovereign immunity in the Flood Control Act of 1928.

There were also widespread criticisms and investigations of the emergency responses from whom?
A: Federal, state and local governments, which resulted in the resignations of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Michael D. Brown and New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Superintendent Eddie Compass.

Many other government officials were criticized for their responses, especially whom?
A: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and President George W. Bush.

Several agencies including the United States Coast Guard (USCG), National Hurricane Center (NHC) and National Weather Service (NWS) were what?
A: Commended for their actions.

The NHC was found to have provided what?
A: Accurate hurricane forecasts with sufficient lead time.

Hurricane Katrina formed as Tropical Depression Twelve over the southeastern Bahamas on August 23, 2005, as the result of an interaction between what?
A: A tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten.

On August 27, the storm reached what intensity on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale?
A: Category 3, becoming the third major hurricane of the season.

An eyewall replacement cycle disrupted the intensification, but caused the storm to do what?
A: Nearly double in size.

The storm rapidly intensified after entering the Gulf, growing from a Category 3 hurricane to a what in just nine hours?
A: Category 5 hurricane.

This rapid growth was due to the storm's movement over what?
A: The "unusually warm" waters of the Loop Current.

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 what?
A: 175 mph (280 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 902 mbar (26.6 inHg).

The pressure measurement made Katrina what?
A: The fifth 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 where at the time?
A: In the Gulf of Mexico.

However, this record was later broken by what hurricane?
A: Hurricane Rita.

The hurricane subsequently weakened due to what?
A: Another eyewall replacement cycle.

Katrina made its second landfall at 1110 UTC on August 29, as a what?
A: A Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h), near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.

At landfall, hurricane-force winds extended outward how far?
A: 120 miles (190 km) from the center.

After moving over southeastern Louisiana and Breton Sound, it made its third landfall where?
A: Near the Louisiana–Mississippi border with 120 mph (190 km/h) sustained winds, still at Category 3 intensity.

Katrina maintained strength well into where?
A: Mississippi, finally losing hurricane strength more than 150 miles (240 km) inland near Meridian, Mississippi.

The United States Coast Guard began pre-positioning resources in a ring around the expected impact zone and activated how many reservists?
A: More than 400.

On August 27 what did the Coast Guard do?
A: It moved its personnel out of the New Orleans region prior to the mandatory evacuation.

Where did aircrews from the Aviation Training Center, in Mobile, stage rescue aircraft?
A: From Texas to Florida.

All aircraft were returning towards the Gulf of Mexico by when?
A: The afternoon of August 29.

Air crews, many of whom lost their homes during the hurricane, began a what?
A: A round-the-clock rescue effort in New Orleans, and along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines.

President of the United States George W. Bush declared a state of emergency in selected regions of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi on what date?
A: August 27.

"On Sunday, August 28, President Bush spoke with Governor Blanco to encourage her to do what?
A: To order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans."

Voluntary and mandatory evacuations were issued for large areas of what?
A: Southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama.

How many residents of the Gulf Coast were covered under a voluntary or mandatory evacuation order?
A: About 1.2 million.

On the afternoon of August 26, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) realized that Katrina had yet to make the turn toward the Florida Panhandle and ended up revising the predicted track of the storm from the panhandle to where?
A: The Mississippi coast.

The National Weather Service's New Orleans/Baton Rouge office issued a vividly worded bulletin on August 28 predicting what?
A: That the area would be "uninhabitable for weeks" after "devastating damage" caused by Katrina, which at that time rivaled the intensity of Hurricane Camille.

During video conferences involving the president later that day and on August 29, NHC director Max Mayfield expressed concern that Katrina might do what?
A: Push its storm surge over the city's levees and flood walls.

In Florida, what did Governor Jeb Bush declared on August 24 in advance of Hurricane Katrina's landfall?
A: A state of emergency.

By the following day what was activated in Tallahassee to monitor the progress of the hurricane?
A: Florida's Emergency Operations Center.

Before Katrina moved ashore what were closed in the Miami area?
A: Schools and businesses.

Cruise ships altered their paths due to what?
A: Seaports in southeastern Florida closing.

To the north in Broward County, residents east of the Intracoastal Waterway or in mobile homes were advised to do what?
A: To leave their homes.

Evacuation orders were issued for offshore islands in Palm Beach County, and for whom else?
A: Residents in mobile homes south of Lantana Road.

Additionally, a mandatory evacuation was ordered for vulnerable housing where?
A: In Martin County.

In Monroe and Collier counties, schools were closed, and a shelter was opened where?
A: In Immokalee.

On August 28 what did Alabama Governor Bob Riley do?
A: He declared a state of emergency for the approaching Hurricane Katrina.

When did the state of Mississippi activate its National Guard?
A: On August 26 in preparation for the storm's landfall.

By 6:00 pm CDT on August 28, 11 counties and cities issued what?
A: Evacuation orders, a number which increased to 41 counties and 61 cities by the following morning.

How many emergency shelters were established on coastal communities?
A: 57, with 31 additional shelters available to open if needed.

By Sunday, August 28, most infrastructure along the Gulf Coast had been shut down, including all what?
A: Freight and Amtrak rail traffic into the evacuation areas as well as the Waterford Nuclear Generating Station.