Impact Of Hurricane Katrina On The United States

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.

“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

It is inevitable that the coast is sinking due to rising sea levels and sediment erosion caused by storms or nature. With that in mind it is imperative that lessons learned from previous encountered storms and floods should move engineers to redesign entirely a new format of construction of the levees, as well as aid in saving as much of the coast that can be recovered and cut the losses of area now under sea level. After Katrina much effort was focused on quickly recovering the locations that were in dire need of rescue. Sandbags were placed in several locations and in others pumps were used to redirect flooding and allow for immediate repair of the levees. Following Katrina eight years after, at least $14.5 billion was invested in a storm protection system that consisted of high-quality built levees, floodwalls, and efficient pumps for drainage. In 2012, Hurricane Issac would be the test to see if all would stay intact and perform as designed, and it did. Both the State of Louisiana and the United States Army Corps of Engineers recognized that the new system was holding well, however it did not eliminate the risk. Therefore, the State of Louisiana and the United States Corp of Engineers initiated work under way in strategizing for future risk reduction efforts for both the levees and restoration of the coast. As a result of their initiated work, the State of Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master

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

On August 23, 2005 Tropical Storm Katrina began as a tropical depression over the Bahamas. Three short days later she was upgraded to a Category 3 full blown Hurricane headed toward the gulf coast. Kathleen Blanco, governor of Louisiana, declared a state of emergency and requested 4000 National Guard troops. The following morning, President George W. Bush declared a state of emergency and Governor Blanco ordered evacuation out of the coastal areas while Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a voluntary evacuation of New Orleans.

The next day, President George Bush declared a state of emergency at the federal level. It was only after the President declared this state of emergency, that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), would be authorized to organize and gather resources to assist those in the city. The disaster demonstrated that the government was operating inefficiently. FEMA had asked for firefighters and ambulances, amongst other first responders not to make any movements until areas were mobilized by the authorities from the local areas and the state as well. In turn, the response time was drastically slowed down. They were ill prepared despite even running a simulation exercise named, “Hurricane Pam.” This simulation even had similar circumstances as Katrina, including strength, however the government failed to learn from it. The state and Federal government ran into

I am writing to you in regards to the recent disaster that hit New Orleans, Louisiana “Hurricane Katrina.” Besides the death toll, hurricane Katrina left many people homeless as more than 800,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged in the storm. Katrina is the costliest U.S hurricane, with estimated damage over $81 billion and costs over $160 billion (2005 US dollars). I believe that the socioeconomic impact of “Katrina” was not felt equally amongst the different classes. Those who were wealthier typically whites were able to flee, and the poor typically black were unable to flee to safety, and suffered the worst during and after ‘Katrina.” Many of the residents were displaced to different states which included Texas, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina, Oklahoma to name a few. In a study conducted by Kaplan- Meier called the Displaced New Orleans Residents Pilot Study showed the discrepancy amongst blacks and whites and their duration of displacement. One-quarter of white residents had returned to the city within 2 months of Hurricane Katrina, whereas it took an additional month for one-quarter of the black residents to return. The durations at which half of the pre-hurricane population of blacks and whites returned to New Orleans differ greatly. In particular, half of white residents had returned within 3 months of the storm; on the other hand, fewer than half of black residents had returned. (Kaplan- Meier) A poll done by Newsweek magazine showed

Hurricane Katrina was a big impact to so many cities. People had to find different ways to survive.

On a normal August day, Hurricane Katrina inflicted massive damage on 3 of the poorest states in the United States. Mississippi, with a poverty rate of 22 percent; Louisiana, with a poverty rate of 20 percent; and Alabama, with a poverty rate of 22 percent (Rodriguez, H. & Aguirre, B, E.). Katrina was the cause of one of the biggest evacuations of any major American city in history. These cities also housed a major socio-economic gap with over 23 percent of the residents living in some form of poverty (Schneider, 2007). Over 1 million Americans were forced to leave their ruined homes, especially in areas like New Orleans where the majority of the affected citizens were forced to relocate elsewhere. As many as half of a million people have been relocated to other states of refuge, like Texas and many of which have high rates of poverty themselves like the 22 percent of Texans (Schneider, 2007).

Every year, the East Coast of the United States is struck by several hurricanes, which can cause billions of dollars in damage, slow the economy and transportation to a halt, and can sometimes lead to significant death and injury tolls. When Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast in late 2012, residents were warned to prepare for severe flooding, loss of power, and the inability ro restock food and medical supplies. However, despite the warnings, thousands of people in New York and New Jersey failed in their

On October 22th of 2012 Hurricane Sandy started to evolve into a tropical storm inside the Caribbean Sea. On the 23rd it then developed into a Category 1 hurricane, and on the 24th it finally hit land in Kingston Jamaica with winds up to eighty miles per hour. Until the 29th of October this storm continued on and hit Cuba, Haiti, Canada, and the Northeastern part of the United States with winds up to one hundred and fifteen miles per hour. One reason that Hurricane Sandy was so devastating are because of how large the storm was. Some people called it “Super Storm Sandy” because of its size. Another reason was because of the lives it took. It killed nearly two hundred people and affected millions of other people’s lives as well.

The Guardian opens the article with a sentence detailing the impact Katrina is having on America, immediately showing the severity of the storm. The article described the impact of the hurricane on multiple states and Mexico but also went into details about the impact in New Orleans specifically. Not only did the article give statistics such as, “The hurricane also battered large swaths of the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines, leaving two oil rigs adrift in the Gulf of Mexico and causing damage estimated by insurers to be worth up to $26bn”, but it also gave individual accounts from New Orleans (Guardian). One story in the article described people, “climbing into attics to escape rising water” in New Orleans (Guardian). The Guardian did

Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. What started out as a mere Category 1 hurricane heading towards Florida, soon made a sharp turn towards Louisiana and had rapidly developed into a Category 5 hurricane. The only good news about this hurricane was that as it came onshore it had thankfully slowed down to a Category 3 hurricane, but would still wreck major havoc on nearly all of the southern part of Louisiana. No one could have been prepared for the destruction and devastation this massive storm could cause to this “boot-shaped” state.

In today’s world, there has been one disaster or another, and hurricanes are one of those disasters that always happens. But, for one reason or another we are never prepared or understand the danger of any type of hurricane over a category one. Most of us have been through many hurricanes, like this learner who has lived in Miami, Fla. for over 30 years, and experienced her last hurricane which was Hurricane Andrew. Warnings are always given, first responders are trained to all ways be on alert, and FEMA is supposed to be ready to jump in once the storm has done its damage. But we can never be prepared, because hurricanes are unpredictable, and can become deadly for citizens and create millions of dollars in damages. Within this post we will discuss Hurricane Katrina, preparedness and Emergency management before and after the disaster.

On August 29, 2009, Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast. It was a Category 3 Hurricane, according to the Saffir Simpson Scale. Winds gusted to up to 140 miles per hour, and the hurricane was almost 400 miles wide . The storm itself did a tremendous amount of damage, but the storm’s aftermath was cataclysmic. Many claimed that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storm. This paper will examine the four elements of disaster management – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation – as well as an analysis on the data presented.