[1] On August 29, 2005, the storm surge from the hurricane caused massive failure in the levees along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal, inundating St. Bernard Parish with 4 to 14 feet (1.2 to 4.3 m) of water.

The spoiled water impacted approximately 1,700 homes in adjacent residential neighborhoods of Chalmette, over an area of about 1 square mile (2.6 km2).

Major industries in St. Bernard Parish, including the two oil refineries, had disaster mitigation plans that were filed with the local government.

[citation needed] However, typical pre-Katrina industry standards on the Gulf Coast were based on a heavy rain event and did not anticipate a full inundation of water around the storage tanks.

Another refinery employee commented that these large oil storage tanks are sometimes purposely floated in order to move them.