Cause And Effects Of Hurricane Katrina

One of the major hurricanes that made headline news was Hurricane Katrina. It was said that Hurricane Katrina was one of the most deadliest hurricanes to ever hit the United States. The damages done by Katrina was absolutely devastating. Costing at about an estimated $75 million dollars in repairs, Hurricane Katrina is one of the most costliest hurricanes in the history of U.S. hurricanes. The disaster lasted about eight days, starting on August 23rd and ending on August 31st of 2005. On August 28th, 2005, the tropical storm turned into a category five hurricane with winds of 175 miles per hour. The storm took away the lives of approximately 2,000

Hurricane Katrina began as tropical Depression twelve, which formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005. On August 24, the storm strengthened and became known as Tropical Storm Katrina, the 11th named storm of the 2005 hurricane season. A few hours before making landfall in Florida on August 25, Tropical storm Katrina was upgraded to Hurricane Katrina (Category1, 74mph winds). An analysis by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) climate prediction center

The devastating and deeply rooted traumatic effects of Hurricane Katrina will live in the psyches of the people of New Orleans and beyond for generations to come. Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States barreling in as a Category 5 with up to 175 mile-per-hour winds and a 20-ft storm surge that would create a humanitarian emergency with the likes never before seen in the United States. This hurricane caused unimaginable death, destruction, and displacement, leaving a known death toll of 1,836 and an unknown number thought to be washed out to sea. The real truth is we will never know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina.

On the morning of August Twenty-ninth, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region. The storm brought the water to about twenty feet high, swallowing eighty percent of the New Orleans city immediately. The flood and torrential rainstorm wreaked havoc and forced millions of people evacuate from the city. According to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Katrina caused approximately one hundred and eight billion dollars in damage. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive disasters have ever occurred in the United States, but it also revealed a catastrophic government at all levels’ failure in responding to the contingency.

During the early hours of the morning on 29 August 2005 5:10am, a hurricane of 205km/h struck New Orleans. She was named Hurricane Katrina. Katrina stretched over 400 miles across and was one of the deadliest hurricanes in the United States, killing 1,836 people and millions of others were left homeless. $16.7 million dollars was spent trying to rebuild infrastructure alone. Hurricane Katrina struck a levee in New Orleans so aside from the damage caused by the hurricane, flooding was also a problem. New Orleans levee walls were designed for category 3 hurricanes, and were not prepared for Katrina's category 5 winds. USA and many other country's pulled together to help in any way.

Winds from the storm tore down businesses, houses, and levees. “…It brought sustained winds of 100-140 miles per hour and stretched some 400 miles across.” (Slams gulf coast). The storm covered half of Louisiana, all of Mississippi, and half of Alabama. The Eye of the storm entered near the bottom of the state, and started to move north as the storm progressed. “ I had a tree fall through the middle of my house.” (Shields) luckily his house took a very short time to fix and he stayed with a relative until it was ready. Because Hurricane Katrina reached so far and was so strong many other homeowners were left without homes and without much

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States, causing damage across the entire Southeast, with the harshest conditions falling on the city of New Orleans. This hurricane began as the consequence of a tropical wave encountering the traces of an earlier tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico. Once the wave and depression interacted, a new depression formed, located right near the Bahamas. This depression intensified exponentially, developing into a complete hurricane. Katrina wreaked havoc for slightly less than a week before subsiding over the eastern Great Lakes. This hurricane had catastrophic social and economic effects on the Southeast requiring a lengthy reconstruction period.

The devastating and deeply rooted traumatic effects of Hurricane Katrina will live in the psyches of the people of New Orleans and beyond for generations to come. Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States barreling in as a Category 5 with up to 175 mile-per-hour winds and a 20-ft storm surge that would create a humanitarian emergency with the likes never before seen in the United States. This hurricane caused unimaginable death, destruction, and displacement, leaving a death toll of 1,836 and an unknown number thought to be washed out to sea. The real truth is we will never know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina.

During the time of Hurricane Katrina, there were numerous failures from the government to provide aid to those who resided within the boundaries of New Orleans. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina became one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike North America. With over 1,500 people killed and over $100 billion in property damage, all levels of government were not prepared for and did not cooperate efficiently with one another to react to this type of natural disaster. The many government officials near the New Orleans area, all failed to provide proper assistance while the hurricane cycled through and wreaked havoc about the state.

Katrina hit many southern cities. Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi were all hit but the most damage occurred in New Orleans. With the city mostly under sea level this presented much of the problem. The majority of the city was flooded. More than $200 billion dollars in damages were estimated. The loss of life, property, and business were devastating on New Orleans. This was the most costly of all natural disasters in the United States of America in my lifetime. This natural disaster disturbed the economic system of New Orleans, the labor markets around the U.S., and the individual businesses in New Orleans. The trending effect was a loss of 100,000 jobs in ten months and almost 2.9 billion in wages were lost (Effects of Hurricane Katrina, 2012). The storm helped to crush New Orleans and put a devastating effect on the economy of the U.S. Gas prices rose, product prices rose, and the tourism rate in New Orleans went to zero. The port was unable to open, the colleges were closed due to the devastation, and as I stated earlier tourism became null and void.

Total property damage was estimated at one hundred and twenty five billion dollars (2005 USD), equalling with Hurricane Harvey twelve years later, while being more than 4 times the amount of damage done by Hurricane Andrew. Katrina caused severe destruction along the Gulf coast, from central Florida, to Texas, most of it due to Storm surges. Before the storm nearly thirty percent of the people that were living in New Orleans were in poverty. Katrina made these statistics and conditions even worse, and left many of New Orleans’s poorest citizens even more vulnerable than they ever were before the storm. Hurricane Katrina also caused major repairs to be done to the places that were hit by the storm. Eighty percent of the cities and parishes were flooded in New Orleans, and the beach towns in Mississippi being almost completely destroyed due to it being ninety percent flooded. There was also the fact that the levee walls had to be completely remade due to them being mostly torn down by the flood water. This caused a lot of time and resources to not only both the States and cities, but also the United States government themselves, due to the fact that the military were the ones that had to come in to rebuild the levee

Hurricane Katrina is considered, to this day, one of the costliest and most catastrophic disasters that has hit the United States (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). The total amount of damage was estimated to cost more than $123 billion dollars (“Comparing Hurricanes”). This huge amount of money accounts for damage from flooding, destruction of buildings, and helping the needy. Many people needed to flee the areas around the Gulf of Mexico in order to stay safe. Almost 70% of housing in New Orleans was damaged or destroyed because of the hurricane, which forced many people out of the city (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). People were likewise forced out of the city and into new areas due to flooding, which in New Orleans, was exceptionally deleterious. In New Orleans, 80% of the entire city was covered in water (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). This was a result of the failed levees. Levees are embankments used to keep overflowed water from rivers or streams out of cities (Levee). The levees in New Orleans were obviously not strong enough to hold back the tremendous amounts of water from the hurricane. The levees that were built in New Orleans were only designed for hurricanes going up to a category 3 (“11 Facts”). The city was not protected by these levees because of how intense the storm was. Compared to other hurricanes such as Hurricane Irene that affected the Caribbean region, Hurricane Katrina was much more intense and caused more damage (“Hurricane Irene”). These levees and excessive amounts of water throughout the city resulted in many deaths and hardships for the New Orleanian people. Nearly 40% of the total deaths that occurred in Louisiana were due to drowning (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). There was an overall total of nearly 15 million people affected by the hurricane (“11 Facts”). Many people were either: stranded in their homes, had to evacuate, or were missing relatives

While the city did not take a direct hit, New Orleans also felt the impact of Katrina as she came ashore. The wind and rain from the storm put enormous stress on the levees protecting the city. Unfortunately, the levees could not withstand the forces applied to them and they eventually gave way flooding large portions of the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas. Large public places began to become places of refuge for those still in the

The storm caused massive flooding because levees were breached. Also, hundreds of thousands of people from Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi were displaced from homes. Experts on the matter say that the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina amounted to around $108 billion dollars. The effect of the storm was catastrophic and the victims felt that the government was not fast enough in delivering the aid and relief supplies that they needed.

Hurricane Katrina struck the United States on August 29, 2005; it was the costliest and deadliest hurricane to ever hit the nation. It was one of the strongest to hit the coast in the last 100 years. Katrina caused as widespread of devastation along the Gulf Coast states and cities such as Mobile, AL, Gulfport, MS and the worst being New Orleans, LA. Although many people were prepared for the hurricane, no one would imagine the damage it would cause and the many lives it would take.