Graphic Novels : The View Of The Victims Of Hurricane Katrina

The Washington Times opens with a statement describing the path of Hurricane Katrina and also shares the known death toll. This article gives the audience more of a general overview of the first known effects of the hurricane, without having too many newly revealed facts. The article has quotes from the governors of Mississippi, which gives the reader a feeling that

This case summarizes events preceding the Hurricane Katrina, which was one of the worst natural catastrophes in the modern history of the USA. It raises questions about the lack of reasonable prevention and preparation actions due to flimsy structure and management of the responsible organizations and persons, invalidity and inconsistence of their actions and incapability of making the decisions in a timely manner. As a result of the unstructured and incoherent activities, we could observe several ineffective and costly attempts to mitigate floods and hurricanes. In the beginning the local officials, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and “White Houses past and present always seem penny-wise and pound-foolish” because of the chain of the wrong

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.

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans. The communication broke down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were broken down, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” (Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS).

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans as well as the surrounding areas. It had a stunning “death toll of 1300 people and damage over $100 billion ”( Davlasheridze 94 ). The communication were taken down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were battered, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” ( Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS ).

August 29, 2005 may be just another date to most of the American population but for New Orleans it is a date that weighs heavy on the hearts of the residents. Every year when this date comes around, residents are reminded of the lost ones they didn’t get to say goodbye too, the pets that were lost, homes that were damaged and lost, families that were shattered and broken apart due to this tragic event. Thousands of lives were taken during this time, not including the hundreds of thousands of homes that were lost. Many people sat on the roofs of their homes trapped inside of unbearable hot attics, or canoeing through disease waters trying to stay alive until emergency response teams could reach them.

It is pretty poignant, yet honest to say that the hurricane Katrina has long derived an almost obsessional attention from Natasha writer. In “Beyond Katrina: A meditation of the Mississippi Gulf Coast”, Tretheway has purposely pictured the devastation scenario from witnesses’ narratives; hence her story could speak for many stories of people who are less visible, whom we cannot see struggling against the aftermath - the stories we may not know about how tenacious the return of Gulf Coast communities was from those tremendous sufferings they miserably faced up to.

After reading a portion of Markets of Sorrow, Labors of Faith by Vincanne Adams, it is difficult to wrap my head around the horrible effects of Hurricane Katrina. At the time of Katrina, I was about 8 years old. I remember seeing the news and hearing people talk about it, and I thought it was frightening. However, I do not think that it registered properly in my mind. Even as I got older, and there was still mention of it, I never fully understood what really happened until I read this book. It is very easy to throw something off to the side and think “Oh, it’s not that bad” because the media only shows people getting help and they tell us that conditions are improving. No one spoke of the tragedies and lasting effects written by Adams. In this essay, I would like to discuss the issues presented throughout chapters four and five surrounding the environment, the people, and the government in New Orleans.

Disastrous. Unstoppable. Saddening. These are some of the words that come to mind when describing the the eleventh named storm that hit The Big Easy on August 23, 2015. This named storm is better known as Hurricane Katrina. The damages that Hurricane Katrina still sit very well with the people that experienced the storm first hand. Personally I have never been to New Orleans, I have no family members or friends at all down south and although I am not very familiar with the south region of the UNited States at all that does not mean that exploring the effects that the hurricane caused can’t be underlined through climate change, but that is a topic for another time that will come later on in this paper.

Hurricane Katrina resulted in massive loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. There are many lessons worth learning from this event. Finger pointing started before the event was over. Most of the focus on Hurricane Katrina was on its impact on New Orleans; however, the storm ravaged a much wider area than that. This paper will briefly summarize the event, the impact on the city of New Orleans and the lessons learned to ensure preparedness today.

Hurricane Katrina turned from a natural disaster into a social disaster as pictures started to be exposed. As, few days after Katrina went by the Gulf Coast where “Hinders of thousands” of different race people crowded into the “New Orleans Superdome” and as in the “city’s convention center”, as they beached on the “rooftops”. Or even secluded on reinforcements of “dry highway” deprived of “any food” or other things to find a liberation of the hot sun”. Then flood came and a lot of bodies started to be seen floating everywhere. (172-173)

Just a couple days before August 29th, 2005, Susan was heading to work in her Toyota Tacoma. She was listening to the news station on the radio, all of the talk was about this hurricane outside the coast of New Orleans. Meteorologist Tom Moore was live on the radio, his big statement was “New Orleans is now in the cone.” (Erdman, Jon) This is the statement that made people like Susan realize that this was inevitable. Many people like Susan, here news like this and do not take it too seriously but this was different, people felt uneasy about this one. No one knew what was really coming though, they did not know this would be the most devastating hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast of America.

Hurricane Katarina was a category 5 hurricane that made landfall on the United States Gulf Coast in the early A.M of August 29, 2005. Bringing with it 100-140 mile an hour winds and covering a diameter of 400 miles it roared ashore destroying flood levees and destroying everything in its path, and causing in excess of $100 Billion worth of destruction. It was at that time the worst disaster in United States history. There has been a lot of debate during and after the disaster about the government’s handling of the crisis. A lot of people believe that the government dropped the ball and did not really attempt to help the citizens of New Orleans and the surrounding area. This paper will not attempt to sway the reader to any particular side but will present the reader with facts and let the reader made their own informed decision.

The common consensus that most people form about natural disasters are usually derived from the physical aspects related to destruction. The most appropriate synopsis of a natural disaster accounts for the cultural, economic, and structural damage inflicted upon the affected areas. A prime example of how a massive natural disaster affects multiple facets of a person’s life was shown explicitly throughout the course of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and most costly hurricanes to date. The effects from the natural disaster have caused insurmountable damage to the affected families that range from one’s mental health to their economic standings. Furthermore, the preventative actions and recovery efforts that were implemented for Hurricane Katrina also exposed many deficiencies within the current natural disaster awareness programs. Due to the extreme impact that Hurricane Katrina had on the Gulf of Mexico, the public attention that was dedicated to reporting the catastrophic result ultimately shed light on the other aspects that a natural disaster can affect. Hurricane Katrina ruined the economic profitability of the coastal businesses, relocated families, decreased the racial divide, and caused an ongoing recovery process.

August 23rd, 2005; Hurricane Katrina, formed over the Bahamas, hitting landfall in Florida. By the 29th, on its third landfall it hit and devastated the city of New Orleans, becoming the deadliest hurricane of the 2005 season and, one of the five worst hurricanes to hit land in the history of the United States. Taking a look at the years leading to Katrina, preventative actions, racial and class inequalities and government, all of this could have been prevented. As presented in the newspaper article, An Autopsy of Katrina: Four Storms, Not Just One , we must ask ourselves, are “natural” disasters really natural or, are they a product of the people, who failed to take the necessary actions that needed to be taken?