Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, with its major landfall near Buras in southeastern Louisiana in the early morning hours.

Here are the key “when” moments people usually mean:

  • It first made landfall in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on August 25, 2005.
  • After crossing Florida and strengthening over the Gulf of Mexico, it made major landfall on the Gulf Coast near Buras, Louisiana, around 6:10 a.m. on August 29, 2005.
  • It then made a final landfall later that morning near the mouth of the Pearl River on the Louisiana–Mississippi border.

So if someone asks “when did Hurricane Katrina hit,” they almost always mean August 29, 2005, when it struck Louisiana and the surrounding Gulf Coast.