10th form Reading / Grammar "Hurricane Katrina"

1. ____ Monday, August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the American coast near New Orleans.

2. The storm _____ over the Caribbean Sea almost a week earlier.

3. As it moved on towards the American coastline it grew ____ powerful.

4. It became a Category 5 hurricane and the fourth _____ storm that has ever been recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.

5. Winds reached speeds 340 kn an hour. Although the centre of hurricane did not pass directly over New Orleans most of the city _____ by the storm.

6. New Orleans is located in a really dangerous area. It lies ____ the Gulf of Mexico where many storms and hurricanes pass through.

7. The Mississippi River also runs through the middle of the city. Because most of New Orleans lies below sea level, high banks of earth, called levees, _____ around the city to protect it from flooding.

8. Thousands of pumps have been installed ____ the water away.

9. Katrina brought along heavy rainfall and parts of the levee broke. About 80% of the city _____.

10. Shortly before the storm hit New Orleans about 20,000 people ____ to escape to the Superdome, one of the town's largest stadiums.

11. Most of the city's population was evacuated, but about one hundred thousand had to stay behind, ____ poor people and blacks who had no cars and couldn't get out.

12. They _____ in the floods for days without power and water.