How To Evaluate New Orleans And Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Hurricane Katrina started out as any other hurricane, as the result of warm moisture and air from the oceans surface that built into storm clouds and pushed around by strong forceful winds until it became a powerful storm. Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005 and crossed southern Florida as a moderate Category 1 hurricane, causing some deaths and flooding there before strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the warm Gulf water, but weakened before making its second landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the morning of Monday, August 29 in southeast

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.

New Orleans as time has progressed has become more susceptible than most cities when it comes to the detrimental power of hurricane force and storm surges. There are two reasons for this. The first is that New Orleans has a very low elevation relative to the surrounding sea level, the second is the lack of Louisiana’s natural defense against storm surges; that is the coastal wetlands and its barrier islands.

Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern coast of the United States in August of 2005. The eye of the storm went through the city of New Orleans and caused thousands of casualties and more than eighty billion dollars in damage (Schwartz). However, poor engineering and design allowed the immense flooding to breach the levee system and flood most of the metropolitan area. Despite the Delta Service Corps admitting that they knew of the possible failures for over twenty years, they claimed that insufficient budgets set by Congress and local governments prohibited them from restructuring and preserving the levees (Can We Save New Orleans?). Katrina was the third most intense land falling tropical storm in United States history. The combination of

Hurricane Katrina was not New Orleans’ first time being hit with devastating effects from a hurricane. New Orleans has been struck by hurricanes six times over the past century. In 1915 was a category 4 hurricane, it killed 275 people and caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage. 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and again in 2005. The Mayor of New Orleans issued a first ever mandatory evacuation. With New Orleans being hit multiple times over the past decade surprised me that serious precautions weren’t taken previously, such as better levees or seawalls. Living in a place below sea level, one would think that the levees and seawalls would be stronger, but the levees collapsed below design height during the Katrina storm .

On August 29th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, also known as Katrina, made landfall along the Gulf Coast. It hit states such as Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. As of today Hurricane Katrina is one the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States. In total Katrina caused over one hundred billion dollars worth of damage. It left people homeless, starving, and in some cases dead. New Orleans, Louisiana was hit the hardest, “New Orleans will forever exist as two cities; the one that existed before that date, and the one after.” Even over a decade later, the effects of Hurricane Katrina can still be felt as the south continues to rebuild their lives and return to some normalcy.

10 Years ago on the last week in August, one of the most brutal storms the United States has ever had hit Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On August 28th and 29th, Fifty-five-foot waves crashed down the Mississippi coast leaving total destruction behind. In New Orleans a levee was built to protect the city but failed in 50 different places due to it being poorly designed. FEMA brought many survivors to their camps, but some weren’t that lucky. In New Orleans about 20,000 residents were trapped in the Louisiana Superdome without clean water, medical care, or working toilets. After the floodwaters receded, over 100,000 residents left the city of New Orleans to never return. 10 years later after the hurricane, most of the affected

Hurricane Katrina was a colossal storm with incredibly fierce winds resulting in the death of almost 2000 people. Because of the environmental conditions of the Gulf Coast, Katrina was able to build up wind speed and mass over the water at an exceptional rate. At its strongest, Katrina had hurricane force winds stretching out 104 miles, and tropical storm force winds reaching 230 miles from its eye. After breaching the coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, the

Hurricanes are powerful and dangerous storms that involve great rain and win. When a tropical storm has a wind speed greater than 75 miles per hour, it is considered a hurricane. The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a substantial amount of damage. However there is one hurricane that occurred in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive of the Atlantic Hurricanes during the hurricane season. Hurricane Katrina had a great economic and environmental impact on the United States which will take time to completely recover from.

In the year 2005, New Orleans was hit by a major natural disaster that took lives and destroyed the homes of many civilians. This wrath of Mother Nature came to be known as Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane with gusts peaking at 174/mph according to the Safir- Simpson wind scale (SSHS). The mix of both poor geographical characteristics and scientific accuracy resulted in damage costs accumulating up to $108 billion (2005 USD). The high damage costs made this natural disaster to be ranked as the costliest storm ever to hit the United States of America (Blake et al. 2011). The entirety of the damage is exemplified by the plethora of housing units dismembered, the annihilation of several bridges and buildings, which led to petroleum and

Unfortunately, there was a failure of managing the risk factors associated with an actual hurricane affecting New Orleans. The current emergency plan in place at the time of Hurricane Katrina only prepared the area for a Category 3 hurricane. No one anticipated a higher category hurricane could or would hit the area. They took for granted that the probability of a stronger hurricane occurring was low, thus overlooking major risk management identifiers. When Hurricane Katrina actually hit, emergency planners were now being reactive instead of

Hurricanes are among one of the most damaging forces of nature that exist in regards to a natural disaster occurring. Also, these tropical storms have potential wind speeds of over eighty miles per hour, and large amounts of rain. Hurricanes have the potential to demolish large amounts of territory. A number of safeguards have been taken long-ago, and also looking forward to the present time, even though you never really know what to expect from Mother Nature. While, some well-being measures have been taken into consideration not all precautions are reliable in regards to mother nature. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina swept into New Orleans, which is a city in the state of Louisiana, on the US Gulf Coast. New Orleans is a city known largely for its culture involving such things as Mardi Gras, Jazz, Art, and even the culinary dishes of exotic foods prepared just to name a few things. It is no secret that the city of New Orleans has faced adversity before when it comes to natural disasters. Furthermore it has been documented that during the past century hurricanes have flooded New Orleans at least five times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, and 1965. Consequently New Orleans has always been at risk, though due to its geographical location being that it is utterly bounded by mass amounts of water. Engineers created a system of levees and barricades with the hopes of trying to keep the city from flooding as they stretched levees and barricades along the Mississippi river, and

The catastrophic Hurricane Katrina began on the morning of August 23, 2005. The deadly tropical storm began at approximately 5:00 PM as a Category 1 hurricane in the Bahamas, but by the morning of August 29, it grew from the south and up north into the states of Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Jersey, Arkansas, New York, and Pennsylvania in the United States, as well as the provinces of Ontario, and Quebec in Canada. The worst of the damages seemed to be from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, with a total of 1,836 casualties overall. It is estimated that this hurricane caused over $108 billion in damages, left 15 million homeless, and at least 135 people still missing to this day.

“Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Maximum sustained winds for Katrina reached 170 mph before making landfall, categorizing Katrina as a Category 5 hurricane. The storm surge for Hurricane Katrina was between 20 to 30 feet, according to NOAA. Hurricane Katrina is ranked the most expensive hurricane to impact the U.S., costing $45.1 billion” (AccuWeather).

In all Hurricane Katrina did major damage to the cities and homes around it. Warnings were not put out quick enough in order for people to be able to leave soon enough. In total about 2,000 people were killed. Hurricane Katrina was a tragic disaster because many people lost their lives due to the government not being prepared and warning everyone about the hurricane. If everyone had been warned more in advance, it wouldn't have been as bad. The one risk was the man made levees that were put into place to protect the city's below sea