On August 29^th, 2005, southeastern Louisiana was hit with one of most damaging and costly hurricanes in the history of the United States. One of the most disappointing issues of the catastrophe is that the devastation was due in part to human engineering failures.  Some would also argue, based on the numerous studies done and warnings issued prior to Katrina, that the magnitude of hurricane damage occurring had been long expected for the area.  Because of the increasing number of hurricanes predicted to make landfall in the area, it is imperative that the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina be examined carefully and used to prevent future catastrophic results of natural disasters.  In this section, we plan to evaluate the chain of events surrounding the disaster.