NEW ORLEANS - Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore along the northern Gulf Coast, becoming one of the deadliest and most destructive natural disasters in U.S. history.

The Category 3 hurricane devastated Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, leading to more than 1,000 deaths and more than $100 billion in damage.

The cyclone first developed on Aug. 23, 2005, as a tropical depression over the southeastern Bahamas and, within a day, strengthened into Tropical Storm Katrina before moving toward Florida .

Due to the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, Katrina quickly organized and made landfall near the Miami-Dade and Broward County line as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph.

The storm did not lose much organization over the Florida Peninsula and, once

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