DES MOINES, Iowa — Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 125 mph on Aug. 29, 2005. It's a storm that will never be forgotten, particularly for Louisiana and New Orleans residents.
It knocked out power for months for some, and left hundreds of thousands without running water available.
All told, nearly 2,000 people lost their lives, and it is tied for the costliest tropical cyclone on record (Harvey, 2017).
16 years later to the day, a Category 4 storm, Ida, came bearing down on Louisiana in what some were calling a scary sequel to Katrina.
However, there were vast difference between the two storms.
Although Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm, east of downtown, the impacts were catastrophic. As it made landfall, the storm was in the process of weakening from a Category 5 storm, which in turn massively increased the hurricane wind field.
University of Miami Senior Hurricane Research Associate Brian McNoldy told Local 5 the hurricane force wind field of Katrina was seven times larger than what Ida's was at the time of landfall.
McNoldy added that Katrina set the all-time record storm surge of 28 feet, partially because of its incredibly expansive wind field.
While Ida's wind field is not in yet, McNoldy estimates it will be roughly half of Katrina's.
Combine the lower storm surge with a much smaller wind field, and a big upgrade to New Orleans' Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System—mainly the levees that surround the city—and it's very fortunate Ida was not even more devastating than it already ended up being.
WATCH: Hurricane Ida traps Louisianans, shatters the power grid