New Orleans

====Hurricane Katrina====
[[File:Katrina 2nd landfall.jpg|thumb|right|[[Hurricane Katrina]] at its New Orleans landfall]]
{{See also|Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans|Drainage in New Orleans}}

New Orleans was catastrophically affected by what Raymond B. Seed called "the worst engineering disaster in the world since [[Chernobyl disaster|Chernobyl]]", when [[2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans|the federal levee system failed]] during [[Hurricane Katrina]] on August 29, 2005.<ref name="Baker">[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_23.shtml Kevin Baker] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005062625/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_23.shtml |date=October 5, 2009 }} "The Future of New Orleans", ''American Heritage'', April/May 2006.</ref> By the time the hurricane approached the city on August 29, 2005, most residents had evacuated. As the hurricane passed through the [[Gulf Coast of the United States|Gulf Coast region]], the city's [[Flood Control Act of 1965|federal flood protection]] system failed, resulting in the worst [[civil engineering]] disaster in American history at the time.<ref>{{cite news |first=Bob |last=Marshall |url=http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1133336859287360.xml |title=17th Street Canal levee was doomed |work=The Times-Picayune |date=November 30, 2005 |access-date=March 12, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060907073947/http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?%2Fbase%2Fnews-4%2F1133336859287360.xml |archive-date=September 7, 2006}}</ref> Floodwalls and [[levee]]s constructed by the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] failed below design specifications and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of residents who had remained were rescued or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at the [[Mercedes-Benz Superdome|Louisiana Superdome]] or the [[New Orleans Morial Convention Center]]. More than 1,500 people were recorded as having died in Louisiana, most in New Orleans, while others remain unaccounted for.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1148020620117480.xml&coll=1 |title=Deaths of evacuees push toll to 1,577 |publisher=nola.com |access-date=March 22, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184520/http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?%2Fbase%2Fnews-5%2F1148020620117480.xml&coll=1 |archive-date=September 30, 2007}}</ref><ref name=184_Katrina1>{{cite web |title=After Katrina: 184 Infantry Soldiers to the Rescue |url=http://spectrummagazine.net/pdfs/2005_10_SpectrumArchive.pdf |publisher=The Spectrum, October 2005 |access-date=December 19, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131226042813/http://spectrummagazine.net/pdfs/2005_10_SpectrumArchive.pdf |archive-date=December 26, 2013 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all}}</ref> Before Hurricane Katrina, the city called for the first mandatory evacuation in its history, to be followed by another mandatory evacuation three years later with [[Hurricane Gustav]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/nagin-orders-mandatory-evacuation-of-new-orleans-as-gustav-approaches |title=Nagin Orders Mandatory Evacuation of New Orleans as Gustav Approaches |work=Fox news |date=August 30, 2008|access-date=February 20, 2024}}</ref>