Marine Environmental Impacts of Hurricane Katrina

NOAA Environmental impacts of hurricane katrina

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Assess impacts on coastal wetlands

In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, NOAA is analyzing both the losses to and the benefits provided by existing coastal wetlands and past wetlands restoration projects.

Through the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection & Restoration Act (CWPPRA) program, NOAA Fisheries Service, other federal agencies and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources develop and construct large-scale, multi-million dollar habitat restoration projects in the Louisiana coastal zone. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, NOAA and its partners are assessing the damage to and precise benefits of CWPPRA's barrier island and wetland restoration projects. There is a growing inventory of imagery from various sources – NOAA, USGS, USF&WS, DNR, etc. – that is helping with this assessment along with reports from staff who have visited project sites. http://www.lacoast.gov/

NOAA's Community-based Restoration Program has funded nearly 40 on-the-ground habitat restoration projects in Louisiana and Mississippi. This grass roots program supports a variety of habitat restoration projects including natural shoreline protection projects such as oyster reefs and wetland plantings. These projects help reduce damage from storms and build community stewardship by including volunteers.

The NOAA Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP) is currently assessing coastal impacts due to Hurricane Katrina. By comparing post-storm Landsat satellite imagery to baseline coastal land cover and change data from 2001, C-CAP has rapidly quantified the location and amount of each C-CAP land cover category that has been changed or inundated since this period.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) is a federal leader in preparedness, response, damage assessment, and restoration for oil and chemical spills, and hazardous waste sites. As a natural resource trustee, OR&R’s mission is to minimize harm to the environment during an incident response, and protect and restore coastal ecosystems from past or current damage. OR&R works with federal, state, local and tribal agencies to develop best practices and decision-making tools for cleanup and assessment of oil spills and hazardous waste sites.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, OR&R has provided invaluable scientific support to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in their hazardous materials response efforts as well as initial efforts to assess the environmental impacts.

NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration Responds to Hurricane Katrina

NOAA's Damage Assessment and Restoration Program (DARP) is responsible for assessing and restoring coastal and marine resources injured by oil spills, hazardous substance releases, and vessel groundings.

OR&R Website for Hurricane Response Efforts NOAA/NOS Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) launched a website to share information generated by NOAA during the Hurricane Katrina response.