Date: August-September 2005
Significance: With an estimated $81 billion in damages, Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history; more than 1,800 died; 15 million people were impacted, economically or otherwise
Holmes says: Eighty percent of New Orleans was underwater and they are still feeling the impact today. The population of New Orleans has not rebounded. This hurricane, and the subsequent flooding, forever changed the city.