Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Hornets return to New Orleans on October 31, 2007, when they defeated the Sacramento Kings 109-90 to open the 2007–08 season. In the following two seasons, the Hornets averaged an attendance of 15,574. During the 2008 All-Star Game, the NBA donated $5 million towards relief work, and staged an NBA Cares program throughout the city to help rebuilding efforts. Effect of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans Hornets Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, Louisiana on August 29, 2005 and caused extensive damage to the New Orleans Arena. As a result, the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s New Orleans Hornets
1915 New Orleans hurricane seas produced by the hurricane along the Louisiana coast arrived shortly before the storm made landfall. Evacuees departing the coast as late as September 28 reported no abnormal tides along the shore. However, sea levels began to rise at abnormally rapid rates on the morning of September 29 as the hurricane neared. By the afternoon hours, low-lying lands south of New Orleans and east towards Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, as well as areas adjacent to Lake Pontchartrain, were inundated by the quickly rising storm surge. Levee overtopping along Lake Pontchartrain resulted in the flooding of much of western New Orleans.