320 Million Trees

In Katrina's Wake - short film about Hurricane Katrina by NASA

I've been reading the U.S. Global Climate Change Research Program's report Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States recently, and I came across this rather startling statistic referenced in the video above

Hurricane Katrina killed or severely damaged over 320 million large trees. As these trees decompose over the next few years, they will release an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to that taken up by all U.S. forests in a year.

The report also notes that powerful hurricanes (those of category 4 and 5) like Katrina have increased in intensity over the last 30 years. One can only imagine what that will mean in the future, but it doesn't look good.