While most college students on spring break are busy sunning up and partying down in exotic locales such as Cancun, there are others who are content to sacrifice their spring break to help those less fortunate. The deadly hurricane Katrina caused irreparable damage to New Orleans and its surrounding areas, and many sympathetic college students stepped up to the plate to help those in need. Several different charities helped to organize the event which featured the students assisting in a multitude of ways, from cleaning up flooded elementary schools to helping rebuild roofs. At some estimates, ten thousand college students showed up to lend their time.



Students came from across America, showing their dedication to charity work and helping those in need. The students often paid out-of-pocket the costs associated with traveling to the broken city, and many groups stayed in sleeping bags in gymnasiums that offered little comfort or privacy. The selflessness of the individuals associated with this cause truly has to be commended. At an estimated $20 per hour salary, these students donated more than $20,000,000, and while there's much more work to be done, it represents definite hope for the future generation.

It's no surprise that the Gulf coast needed these student's help, either; the damage done by hurricane Katrina has caused the largest relocation of people in America since the civil war. It was consequently the most costly hurricane ever faced by America, as well as one of the deadliest. Preliminary damage reports put the losses faced by the hurricane's damage at around a whopping seventy five billion dollars. A lack of planning for the disaster and slow government response accentuated the damage done. At least 1,836 people were killed by this storm; that marks the most deadly storm since 1928, when the Okeechobee hurricane killed at least 4,075 people. The scope of the damage left in the storm's wake was huge; 90,000 square miles of land were declared federal disaster areas, which is roughly the size of England. So many people were displaced by the storm that less than half of all New Orleans citizens have returned to the city to resume residence there. The name 'Katrina' has been taken off of the list of hurricane names that is commonly used due to the high amount of destruction and death that the storm caused. The next time a tropical storm is to be named with a 'K', it will be given the name Katia.