Hurricane Katrin The Second Largest Hurricane

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

Statistics show that 75% of the African Americans in New Orleans were affected compared to the 15% of African Americans in the Biloxi-Gulfport metropolitan area (Cutter and Gall, 5). It also states, “The calamitous combination of insured development certainly accounts for much of hurricane katrina’s damage, specifically in New Orleans.” All levels of government failed to do their part, which includes state and local government.

Over the years of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA faced many criticisms. Not only FEMA, but “every level of government was roundly criticized”( Howellq ). Back in 9/11, They acted fast and accordingly to the disaster. During hurricane Katrina, they were slow and had false promises that the locals of New Orleans believed ( Maestri, “The Storm”, PBS ). Many people asked FEMA for resources and help, but that turned down because they did not “ask the right way” ( Hale “The Storm”, PBS). During an interview with one of FEMA’s secretaries, “Michael Brown”, had claimed that FEMA could not help Louisiana because they didn’t tell them what they

It is not surprising that much of the world has been shocked by the destruction in New Orleans and the ongoing failures exposed at almost every level of government. While it is almost impossible not to be appalled by this series of events, veterans of the environmental-justice movement are not surprised by what happened. In fact, they say that this disaster has confirmed what they have thought all along. They believed that blacks in New Orleans were much more vulnerable and less protected by environmental problems than white folks in areas close to the city. They maintain that the people in power – who included Mayor Ray Nagin, an African-American himself – viewed the city's poor, black residents as expendable. Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, has been leading a research project of official responses to environmental disasters. He believes that "blacks and other people of color are all too often overlooked in such crises," he told Liza

Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive hurricanes to whirl through the southern states of America in 2005, is probably one of the worst natural disasters of the United States in the 21st century. Damages from the storm were estimated at more than $100 billion . People living in the southern states fled north to reach safety from the storm after hearing about it being a category five hurricane on the news a few mornings before Katrina hit the shore. Authorities were doing what they were supposed to be doing, telling everyone to seek shelter, board up windows, head north and prepare for the storm. Everything in the beginning appeared to be just another

The calamitous natural phenomenon known as Hurricane Katrina brought terrible side-effects to lower-class African Americans. A catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina changed the lives of the lower-class African Americans forever because of the devastation from several effects. People today are more prepared for a natural disaster because “Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to hit the United States coast within the last 100 years” in New Orleans (Brianna Frank). Most of these ramifications of Hurricane Katrina came from the phycological, economic and medical effects due to this natural disaster,

In the wake of natural disasters, the minorities of America are down the pecking order in the government’s list of priorities. Specifically seen in the African-American people, the government fails to provide speedy response time, supplies and other aid, as well as providing substantial compensation for the families devastated by disasters, which could have been preventable or deterred from causing more havoc. In many cases, the African-American people were exposed to poor living conditions, living in undesirable areas, and a lack of wealth, education, and preventative warnings of oncoming disasters. This can be seen in the cases of the 1900 great hurricane of Galveston, Texas and the 1995 Chicago Heat Wave, but the greatest example of

Polls conducted regarding the public opinion on both Mayor Nagin’s and governor Blanco’s responses both indicate over 50% of citizens believe the response was fair or below with approx. 35% of those indicating the response on both accounts was poor as shown in table 2. The first major failure was the delayed implementation of emergency plans in the New Orleans area. There was enough warning prior to the landfall of Katrina that states made declarations of emergency days in advance however Mayor Nagin failed to execute his evacuation order until the day prior to landfall. The evacuation plan in place was a total failure even once implemented and resulted in a large portion of the population being trapped in the area. Due to this failure FEMA has recognized the need to include local community members and officials in training as part of its preparedness planning and has allocated 11 Million dollars in grants for training (FEMA, 2015). Once trapped citizens where again failed by the local and state government when Nagin’s order to move residents to the Superdome without proper supplies resulted horror stories and images regarding living conditions immediately following the disaster. Many states have learned from that

But the differences in altitude amongst races were not the only evidence of institutional racism brought to light by Hurricane Katrina. Many also point to the slow response of the federal government and President George W. Bush as proof of the continued race problem in America. According to an article by Peter Drier, “The Bush administration’s actions might better be characterized as indifferent rather than incompetent.” (Dreier, Peter) He points to the several actions and inactions taken by the Bush Administration including cutting funding for FEMA long before the storm hit. Additionally he points to the 40,000 meals and 5 water trucks that were arrived prior to Katrina hitting New

The part of the city where poor African Americans resided was hit the hardest (Fussell, Pg.95). Unfortunately, this neighborhood was the last on the list to be cleaned up and rebuilt. The African American residents were sent to the New Orleans Superdome, where many were taken for shelter (Pg.110). Some New Orleans citizens might say that Hurricane Katrina had a positive impact on their lives, teaching them how to live and survive during such a terrible time as well as the situation making them stronger however, this was not the case for African Americans (Pg.109). Despite all of the horrific situations, the community of New Orleans learned how to be prepared if there happens to be a next

When Katrina was in the Gulf of Mexico, quickly approaching the coast most people who wanted to get out of the city could not, the reason for that is because most people in New Orleans did not have the means of transportation to leave the city, a large percentage of these people were black and living in poverty. New Orleans ranks fourth in the nation out of 297 metropolitan areas in the country in the proportion of households lacking access to cars. Most people could not leave even if they wanted to, most people stayed and were stranded

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

Hurricane Katrina is another storm that impacted the black community most. Hurricane Katrina racks up 1,833 deaths, fifty-one percent being African Americans. The citizens’ cries for help do not match their expectations of help they are receiving. Many of the deaths are due to the poor evacuation process before Katrina touches down, and insufficient amount of food and zero water supply after the storm. The storm striking in a part of Louisiana that is mostly in poverty did not help at all. Sixty eight percent of the survivors believe the rescue efforts would be more effective if they have been white and wealthier.

Most neighborhoods in New Orleans have returned to their original population with some neighborhoods actually growing in size. The U.S. Census Bureau states that New Orleans has grown by 12 percent between 2010 and 2014. Unfortunately, not all of the cities have grown equally, cities along the Mississippi have grown on average 300% where cities near the French Quarter have only grown about 0.1% since Katrina. Since the storm, the increase in population is not the only thing that has changed. The majority race of New Orleans is making a shift before African American’s were the clear majority but post-Katrina that's not the case. Whites now represent a larger part of New Orleans than before Katrina. The population of both African Americans and Whites decreased after Katrina but more Whites returned

Katrina exposed the nation’s poor emergency management system and its ability to respond to a deadly disaster such as Hurricane Katrina.