Katrina hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, not a Category 4 as first thought, and New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain likely were spared the storm’s strongest winds, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.
New Orleans’ storm levees were generally believed to be able to protect the city from the flooding of a fast-moving Category 3 storm. According to the final report from the hurricane center, Katrina made landfall Aug. 29 with top sustained wind of about 125 mph, not the 140 mph that was calculated at the time.