Hurricane Katrin The Worst Environmental Catastrophe Essay

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.

In the year 2005, New Orleans was famously hit a major natural disaster that took lives and destroyed the homes and civilians. This wrath of Mother Nature became to be known as Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane with gusts peaking at 174/mph according to the Safir- Simpson wind scale (SSHS). With this Hurricane having its path directly on a city only being on average 1-2 feet below sea level, it created conditions for serious havoc (NOAA, 2012). The aftermath left a serious physical imprint on the city, which has the potential to never be removed. This imprint left by Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to 134,000 housing units, destroying multiple bridges along the Gulf Coast, as well as various buildings across the city, which led to harmful chemicals leaking into the water system, such as petroleum and natural gas. Finally, Hurricane Katrina also caused the main power grid to be disoriented for a number of weeks. As a result, the damage costs from the storm added up to be about $108 billion (2005 USD), which according to Eric Blake was the costliest storm ever to hit the United States (Blake et al. 2011). Hurricane Katrina perpetuated all of these tribulations, as it drastically altered the lives of the many inhabitants of New Orleans and they continue to face the repercussions of the storm in their day-to-day lives.

Natural disaster currently has become a large part of US economy, from tornadoes, fire, floods and hurricanes. These natural disasters have lead to death of people but also a billion dollar damage to several cities or states. According to National center of Environmental Information, in 2015 there were at least ten weather disasters that lead to property damages exceeding one billion dollar across United States. The natural disasters are found in many ways, the one most famous is Hurricane Katrina and another Hurricane Sandy. These two hurricanes are Atlantic hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern States and Hurricane Sandy hit near Atlantic City affecting many eastern States. Although the two hurricanes have occurred in separate years, yet they have caused a lot of damage in large cities leaving thousands of people without home. Furthermore due to these natural disasters has questioned the government how to prepare for natural disaster in near future. The hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy are both consider Natural disaster that has lead to heavy damages but one has more devastating effect than the other.

Hurricane Katrina is known for being the most dangerous and murderous hurricane that occurred on August of 2005. It was formed by a tropical wave that moved from the coast of Africa to the Gulf Coast. According to hurricanes they are distinguished by five different categories, the fifth being the strongest. The tropical wave turned into a hurricane under the fifth category that destroyed thousands of homes and killed thousands of people. Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans hardest since it is located below sea level. Also because they had levees designed for a category three hurricanes. Therefore, it flooded quicker allowing places to flood from four feet to about nine feet. People went to their roof tops to find a way of survival. Hurricane Katrina impacted the ethical, social, and economical implications towards the survivors.

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

On the morning of August 29, 2005, New Orleans, Louisiana became the site of one of the worst natural disasters in United States history – Hurricane Katrina. Ranked as the single most costly natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the United States, Hurricane Katrina was certainly not an average storm. The hurricane itself did not appear to be extremely abnormal, as Atlantic hurricanes of similar or greater magnitudes have made landfall in the gulf coast over the last 50 years (Keller, 329). However, none of them caused nearly as much damage and death as Hurricane Katrina. With monetary damages of over $125 billion and 1,833 fatalities, it is clear that the

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.

By looking back at history, it is clear that the economy is an ever changing thing that is unpredictable in many ways. From the stock market crash in the 1920’s to the more recent housing market crash in the 2000’s one thing is for sure; many different factors affect the United States economy every day. In addition to man-made factors there are also other elements that cannot be controlled or even consistently predicted that impact the growth or decline of the economy overall. For example, natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis not only cause immediate damage wherever they strike, but also have long term economic affects for years to come. One of the natural disasters that left the biggest impact on the economy was Hurricane

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes in United States history. Hurricane Katrina was by far the most destructive storm to strike the United States with the actual cost of Hurricane Katrina’s damage between $96-125 billion. An estimated 1,836 people died and millions of others were left homeless along the gulf coast and in New Orleans. With homes virtually destroyed, thousands of people abandoned the area which in turn caused thousands of jobs to disappear. New Orleans lost 190,000 jobs, while the state of Louisiana lost 219,000 jobs and overall 12 percent statewide. More than 70 countries contributed large donations in the relief phase showing overall support and generosity.

Hurricane Katrina has been noted as one of the costliest and deadliest natural disasters in US history. This paper will exam the city of New Orleans and the preparation, response, and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This catastrophic event shaped the US disaster response and recovery system.

Hurricane Katrina known as the fifth largest hurricane ever to hit the United States formed on August 23, 2005 and dissipated August 31, 2005. Katrina was classified as a category five hurricane with wind speeds up to 175 mph. Katrina made headlines because of its destruction region which was Louisiana. Many families especially African-Americans were considered to be vulnerable and left to die from the disaster. In the following I will address whether Katrina was a natural disaster ready to happen or if it could have been prevented by an elaborate plan to evacuate the effected regions.

Hurricane Katrina caused enormous and obvious to the human health and property. It also caused a severe impact to the natural environment of the Gulf Coast. According to Guidry (2007), the result of the storm created transformation to the Unites States in the future. I agree with this statement because this storm caused industrial waste, oil spills, raw sewage and lasting danger to public health department. "The surge exposed engineering mistakes in the levees and floodwalls planned and built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, causing extensive flooding throughout the New Orleans region," said Sandy Rosenthal. The U.S. Coast Guard noted that the state biodiversity and natural health came along way but the devastating region has injured fisheries,

Hurricane Katrina has the distinguishing features of a crisis as defined by Authors Howitt, Leonard & Giles who note that the United States office of Homeland Security relates that an “Incident of National Significance, is defined as an actual or potential high-impact event that requires a coordinated and effective response by [an] appropriate combination of Federal, State local and private sector entities in order to save lives and minimize damage” (Howitt, Leonard & Giles, 2009, p.23). The incident should have set off cascading efforts initialized by the National Response Plan (NRP) team to effectively reduce the impact of an impending catastrophe, but instead fell short of expectations. Hurricane Katrina was a significant disaster and

Hurricane Katrina can be described as the worst tropical storm to touch the United States. This catastrophic disaster occurred August 29, 2005 killing over 1800 people and causing billions of dollars in damages. Most of the damages were to homes, buildings, schools, and city infrastructure. The vulnerable populations in this disaster were the elderly, the disabled, and lower income households. These people were very vulnerable due to the lack of resources like finances and automobiles, which would be needed to escape before the hurricane occurred. Despite the economic decline the city New Orleans was already in, Hurricane Katrina made the economy decline even further. This Hurricane caused thousands of jobs to be lost in the medical and

People have a home but once the home is destroyed, there is no roof to stay under. Everything such as money and belongings will be all gone meaning everyone will have to start over. People would become greedy and criminal like since no one has anything left. If people see things that are valuable, people will fight and argue to win that valuable thing causing war leading to death. Everyone will starve because of hunger. No one will have the utensils and time to cook. If there were things to cook with, there will be no crops or animals left to cook/eat. In conclusion, natural disasters have a huge effect to the environment and people. War will start since everything would be extremely valuable, everyone will fight to get what they need and want.