Hurricane Katrina Struck The Goal Coast In August 2005.

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).

On August 12, the Americans of Louisiana woke up with water in their houses. A week passed, and now thousands evacuated the flooded regions around Baton Rouge. 40,000 homes were ravaged, and several were found deceased. People were stranded on highways and rooftops, trapped in deep waters infested with rodents and snakes, and floating through the destruction onto mattresses. The state has been declared a disaster area. However, national media seems entirely uninterested with this flooding - after all, it was not the first time Lousiana had to endure through a natural disaster. A multitude of critics advocated for the abandonment of Louisiana. Because Louisiana is prone to natural occurrences due to its location, critics believe that it is wholly pointless to rebuild a state that is always sinking. However, the abandonment of Louisiana would result in the movement of all the

“When communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm,” (“Bush”). This is what former president George W. Bush said during his speech in New Orleans concerning the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was a massive natural disaster that consisted of high powered winds and immense amounts of water. The hurricane was initially a category 3, but gradually rose to the classification of a category 5 storm, which is the largest storm there is (“Hurricane Irene”). In fact, there were accounts of winds recorded at about 127 miles per hour in the Gulf areas such as Grand Isle, Louisiana, and near the Mississippi River (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). All of these factors are made

In December of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, tearing through the levee systems, and resulting in massive flooding that eventually covered 80% of New Orleans (1), leading to the most significant number of deaths by the storm. As images of Hurricane Katrina were displayed on front pages and television sets across the counry, Katrina became a strategic research site for sociological theory and research of how identity shapes a natural disaster (1). In this essay, I want to explore the fate of New Orleans. How will climate change affect human populations and which human populations will it affect? To do this, I will need to review both scientific and socially scientific papers to understand what the future of New Orleans and southern Louisiana will look like. Though this concept is technically broad for the limitations of this paper, I will review several pieces of literature to begin to gain an understanding of the social and ecological situations at play.

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

Race and class identity of various groups of people render a great deal of influence on the experience one faces after a natural disaster. Unfortunately, oppression comes along with the quality of life for poor and middle classes. Thus, the experiences of higher and lower social classes are vastly different in terms of physical and psychological effects on the people. Higher social classes have the ability to restore any damages caused from a natural disaster in a timely manner, such as Hurricane Matthew. On the contrary, those people of the lower economic and social classes affected by the hurricane in Haiti, Bahamas, and Jamaica this past weekend will take a number of months or even years to rebuild their prior lifestyles. On pg. 4 in the

Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August of 2005. A once vibrant and cultural community was decimated by harsh winds and extreme flooding. The rescue efforts sent to Louisiana were substantial, consisting of now only FEMA but also donated services from other countries as well. Even so thousands of people were displaced from their homes. There are people who refused to leave even after their homes were flooded and their mementos lost to the dirty polluted water. Ten years after the fact the city is still under construction. There are varying degrees of repair from street to street, the tourist area was one of the first few areas to be repaired, and the neighboring residential areas seem to have become of secondary importance. People were forced into homelessness because they could not afford to repair the house they had worked to attain before the hurricane toppled their economy. Still to this day the homeless line the streets, which should seem scary and dangerous, but it does not feel that way. It has become obvious that people need to learn to look beyond their own beliefs to better understand the world as a whole because not everything is how it seems.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in late August of 2005, it not only destroyed the city, but unraveled the ties that held the society together. Tens of thousands of people were forced out of their homes, bound to find a means of survival on their own. Relationships they had previously formed, social constants they had grown accustomed to were thrown out of the window, and laws became irrelevant. Within a matter of days, everything they had known was destroyed, and it had became the survival of the fittest and the wealthiest. While this broken society brought out the inner hero in some people, it brought out the chaos and lawlessness in others. Some embraced selflessness and saved hundreds of people, while others turned to looting, shooting,

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

Natural disasters can bring communities together, even if they have been torn apart. One morning, residents of New Orleans emerged from various shelters and their homes to examine the remnants of Hurricane Katrina. Several hours later, they realized there was more devastation awaiting them. Hours later, “…a breach in the levees allowed water to continue to rise until whole neighborhoods were flooded.” Hurricane Katrina brought great attention to the lack of local and disaster relief programs. Most programs are not designed or funded to help assist people for more than four or five weeks. When federal assistance money (FEMA) started to run out, the people were expected to find jobs or get help from other government agencies. This only caused

2015) The majority of people’s stress levels increased since the hurricane, which made post-traumatic stress disorder, serious mental illness, and suicide rates increase after the hurricane took place (Rhodes et al., n.d.). The rate of mental health disorders increased within two years after Hurricane Katrina hit (Rhodes et al., n.d.). Due to the lack of transportation and insurance, the rates of treatment of these illnesses decreased (Rhodes et al., n.d.). After Hurricane Katrina, 64% of victims stated their health issues occurred due to stress, anxiety, depression, asthma, arthritis, and chest infections (Ahern et al., 2005). Even children who are moving to a new place have a high risk of emotional health problems (Ahern et al., 2005). Even though the United States and United Kingdom are the two wealthiest countries in the world, flooding has really made a big health issue in both countries (Ahern et al., 2005). Due to a flooding,occurring in St. Augustine, the residents will have to evacuate to surrounding cities. While travel through the water, everyone needs to be cautious of waterborne diseases. Homeowners should have a flooding plan, just in case they may experience a flood. The owners will need to know where they may go if they

Population dynamics played a role in Hurricane Katrina, as city officials understood that vulnerable levees, canals and bridges with homes that had built on land susceptible to flooding surrounded New Orleans dense population (Friis, 2012, p.13). The physical hazards of the environment were well known, but the area was only prepared for a Category 3 storm and Katrina was labeled a category 5 (Howitt, et al., 2009, p.15). The parishes located in New Orleans were geographically situated in a “bowl” that was surrounded by water and a contained a poorly maintained infrastructure that could not withstand a natural disaster. Author Friss sees population increase without infrastructure upkeep as a risk for social disaster that can impact those least likely to be able to withstand a tragedy, namely the poor and disabled (Friss, 2012, para. 2, p.11). In New Orleans “47 percent” of the adult population lived below the poverty line and many lacked access to transportation (Howitt, et al.,2009,

Hurricanes are one of the hardest natural disasters to recover from. Hurricane Maria that happened in Puerto Rico is a prime example of how much of a struggle it is to get through a hurricane. The reason behind the hurricane is global warming. Since the event happened there have been many people who are being pushed out of their homes because of the economic crisis. Jobs were hard to come by even before the hurricane but became worse because of it. Another problem that is arising is that since people are leaving in large numbers the debt that Puerto Rico has will now become harder to repay. Not only are natural disasters the main reason why people are migrating but climate change in general. Migration is starting to become a customary thing

In New Orleans, “nearly 60 percent of low average workers earn less than what is needed to cover household costs, while roughly half are forced to commute out-of-parish for low-wage jobs. As a result, one in three children live in poverty despite having at least one parent in the workforce,” according to Richard Webster. Furthermore, most people view New Orleans as the center of parties, celebrations, and being bombarded with tourists. While, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations, this city ranks second in income inequality among three hundred of the largest cities in the United States. New Orleans has added more than thousands of jobs in current years, but most of the positions offer wages below the range of a minimum wage worker. Low-income workers like Yet Walker, struggled to make a living in New Orleans. He was working two jobs at two hotels in Central Business District. Still, he couldn’t afford the rent, and sadly he became homeless. At some point, he didn’t have any choice but to sleep in the hotel room break or sometimes he even spent the night at the bus station. Walker is only one out of all the low average workers in New Orleans who suffer from low paying jobs. Since Hurricane Katrina hit the city, many of the job opportunities available to people living in poor communities were in low paying fields, which reduced families’ earnings and pushed the area’s average household incomes down. “New

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in Louisiana. Most of the city’s population suffered some sort of loss whether it was a fatality, loss of property, or a lack of resources or money to rebuild. However, each social class and race did not suffer the same losses; the underprivileged and racial minorities suffered much greater losses than those who had the resources or money to evacuate (Bates 5). The evacuation system set in place by the Louisiana government was almost nonexistent. The plan was for the population of New Orleans to try evacuating the city before Katrina hit. The upper class had the money and means of transportation to leave the city and enter neighboring