The United States this week marks the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that killed more than 1,800 people, inundated about 80 percent of New Orleans and inflicted an estimated $125 billion in damage—roughly $201 billion in today’s dollars. Commemorations, new documentaries and media retrospectives are revisiting the human toll, from the displacement of more than a million Gulf Coast residents to the enduring population loss of some 120,000 Black New Orleanians. Scientists note that two decades of investment in forecasting technology have sharply improved preparedness. The Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project, launched in 2007, has halved average track-prediction errors and is credited with cutting subsequent storm losses by about 19 percent, or $2 billion per hurricane. Advanced satellites, expanded Hurricane Hunter flights and faster computer models have lengthened warning times and sharpened intensity forecasts. Yet experts interviewed by Science News, the Boston Globe and others warn that hard-won gains are at risk. The Trump administration’s proposed budget trims would further shrink the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s workforce, curb satellite funding and threaten the Hurricane Hunter program, while deep staff reductions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency have prompted 191 current and former employees to sign a public “Katrina Declaration” urging Congress to intervene. The concerns come as climate change raises stakes along the Gulf Coast. Warmer waters are fostering faster-growing storms, and Louisiana continues to lose wetlands at a rate of roughly a football field each hour, eroding a natural buffer against storm surge. Disaster researchers say a Katrina-scale hurricane striking today could easily top the storm’s already record U.S. price tag, underscoring calls for sustained federal investment in forecasting, mitigation and equitable recovery planning.