Hurricane Katrina: The Most Destructive and Costly Disaster in the History of the USA

Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana on the morning of August 29, 2005. The storm produced sustained winds of up 125 mph when it hit that morning. On that same day Katrina caused 53 different levee breaches in greater New Orleans, spilling the waters of Lake Pontchartrain into the city and flooding an overwhelming majority of New Orleans. The floodwaters destroyed countless homes and lives along the way. Some estimates of the cost of Katrina were up in the 200 billions but according to Kimberly Amadeo, “The actual cost of Hurricane Katrina's damage was between $96-$125 billion, with $40-$66 billion in insured losses.” This

Numerous different aspects were altered due to the ruckus of Hurricane Katrina. The first major aspect was housing and location. Katrina nearly demolished 300,000 homes. The ascending sea level along the coast resulting from onshore winds is a storm surge. With a twenty-two foot storm surge in New Orleans and a twenty-seven foot storm surge in Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina averaged a shocking twelve foot storm surge. As a storm surge’s footage increases, the surge will continue to move inland farther and farther. Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge is documented as moving inland a total of twelve miles into the state of Mississippi (FAQS, 2013). Hurricane Katrina impacted a total of seven states. Five of these states were Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Kentucky and Ohio were two more states affected but in a different way. Because of the tremendous amount of water, Kentucky and Ohio were victims of the Mississippi River flooding. Some states experienced more extreme destruction than others. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana experienced Hurricane Katrina’s wrath firsthand. These three southern states were affected the worst by the massive storm (FAQS, 2013). Mississippi’s forest industry experienced a great amount of destruction losing 1.3 million acres of valuable forest land. The main cause of destruction in New Orleans was blamed on the failure of the levee system to stand its ground

The story of hurricane Katrina told in a graphic novel book is amazing, from the powerful words to the awesome illustrations. The author does such a wonderful job portraying the desperation, horror, and hopelessness that was felt by the people of New Orleans. During Hurricane Katrina powerful wind and surging water overwhelmed the levees. The levees that was built to protect the city. Eighty percent of the city flooded, some places were under twenty feet of water. Property was damaged and more than one thousand four hundred lives were lost. In his book Brown bring the story to life, he doesn’t spare the reader from the truth. His artwork capture shocking scenes which includes, images of death bodies, starving people, broken levees, flooded

Over the past few centuries, the natural disaster of hurricanes has had a huge impact on the land around us. It could cost millions, or even billions of dollars in repairing the damages done by hurricanes. These natural disasters can not only result in property damage but also many lives lost and injured victims. Hurricanes usually leave many without homes, forcing victims to find shelters or relocate to a different city or state for safety. A hurricane is a violent, tropical, cyclonic storm with sustained winds of at least 64 knots (74 miles per hour: 119 kilometers per hour) that are extremely large, powerful, and destructive. Hurricanes usually start to occur over large areas of warm water, such as the Atlantic Ocean. They generally form during the hotter months due to the fact that it gets energy from the heat off the water.

On August 29th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage and flooding in Mississippi, Louisiana, New Orleans and areas in between. It destructed the lives and homes of thousands of people, with a total of 1,883 fatalities (Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts, 2015). Hurricane Katrina left many homeless and hospitals unprepared for the challenges posed to the healthcare system as a whole. Some of these challenges included gaining access to healthcare facilities, providing expedited care to those most in need, and preventing spread of disease that commonly occurs during natural disasters. Many facilities did not evacuate in time and many were left stranded in flooded waters as patients conditions worsened and access to essential medications and treatments became limited.

In the history of the United States of America, Hurricane Katrina was known as one of the worst hurricanes in the world. The hurricane was a combination of tropical waters and gushing winds. It was the vicious hurricane that caused severe damage to the citizens of the United States of America. The amazing city known for its southern style, Cajun cuisines, jazz music and its celebration of Mardi Gras will never be the same. New Orleans, Louisiana was changed forever in August 2005 when this category five hurricane left the city devastated. The catastrophic storm tore through the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas destroying everything in its path and killing hundreds of people.

Beginning in the 1950s, the United States have witnessed two Category Five Storms and seven Category Four Storms naming Hurricane Katrina as one of the most deadly Category Four hurricanes to hit the Gulf Coast. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina dismantled several sections of the levee which caused it to collapse. The storm then breeched the New Orleans’ levee system allowing Lake Ponchartrain and the Mississippi River to flow in the heart of the city. Furthermore, a tremendous amount of damages occurred throughout the coast of Mississippi and Alabama. The state of Louisiana sustained most of the damages not just from Hurricane

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.

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

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.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States, causing damage across the entire Southeast, with the harshest conditions falling on the city of New Orleans. This hurricane began as the consequence of a tropical wave encountering the traces of an earlier tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico. Once the wave and depression interacted, a new depression formed, located right near the Bahamas. This depression intensified exponentially, developing into a complete hurricane. Katrina wreaked havoc for slightly less than a week before subsiding over the eastern Great Lakes. This hurricane had catastrophic social and economic effects on the Southeast requiring a lengthy reconstruction period.

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans sparked a national conversation about who, or what, to blame for the disaster. There were inherent problems in how the chain of command was structured for the response to the disaster, and issues with how the plan was implemented. Furthermore, since the hurricane disproportionately devastated low income and predominately African American neighborhoods, many questioned the equity of the implementation plans. Additionally, historical causes for the disaster could not be overlooked. The history of racial housing segregation and the embrace of levee policies that endangered the city were also reasons why many blamed the federal and state governments for not anticipating the disaster

The tragedies caused from the failure of people to listen to others views can be represented in the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina had struck the Gulf Coast of the United States and directly hit the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. However, it mostly targeted the poverty stricken city of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the United States. The death toll was almost 2,000 people. However, the immense death rate was caused from the failure of people to listen to authorities and evacuate. Many lower class citizens didn’t evacuate because they didn’t own cars, which in turn would cause an expensive evacuation

As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans, federal and local officials underestimated the severity of the storm. Once the storm hit, they believed that it was not horrible and that it would be easy to recover from the storm. They were not expecting the levee system to fail and that 80% of the city would be under water hours after the storm passed. Once the levees failed, it took days before residents of New Orleans to get the help that they needed and many people lost their lives waiting for help. Since many New Orleans police officers lived in the city, they were the first to respond to the crisis. Due to the lack of electricity, it was hard for officials to communicate with each other, making crisis response difficult. People reported acts of violence without actually having proof. The media publicized the inaccurate information without getting evidence.

Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with tremendous force at daybreak, August 29, 2005, severely punishing regions that included the city of New Orleans and its neighboring state Mississippi. Resulting in a total of just over 1700 people killed, and hundreds of thousands missing. When we think of Hurricane Katrina stories, we think of stories that were published by the media such as, “Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane's storm surge a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast was the highest ever measured in the United States.