Kansas City Hyatt Collapse : An Investigation Into The Design

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.

In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount

Hurricane Katrina was a storm that hit the south; most of the storm struck New Orleans Louisiana. The twelfth anniversary is coming up on August 29, 2017. During the storm the mass amount of damage to the city included

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast at daybreak, “pummeling a region that included the fabled city of New Orleans and heaping damage on neighboring Mississippi. In all, more than 1,700 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.” (Laforet, New York Times)

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.

The failure of the local government to respond to Hurricane Katrina that the emergencies plan of the government were lacking. The city official responsibility for evacuation of its citizens and the intent was to assist those who needed transportation for the incoming storm but had no actual plan to implement that intent. When the hurricane Katrina made a landfall in New Orleans on 29 August 2005, heavy rain battered the area and the storm surge measuring as high as 30 feet and moving toward inland and breached several levees intended to protect New Orleans from the water of the lake. The water poured through the breaks in the days following the storm, covering approximately 80% of the city with water as deep as three meters. The flooding, wind, and waves it caused the city major damage to building and infrastructure. There is a lot of people stranded on the rooftops of their houses and people wading through the water. The communities suffered from the disaster, particularly the city of New Orleans. Most of their first responders like

During the early hours of the morning on 29 August 2005 5:10am, a hurricane of 205km/h struck New Orleans. She was named Hurricane Katrina. Katrina stretched over 400 miles across and was one of the deadliest hurricanes in the United States, killing 1,836 people and millions of others were left homeless. $16.7 million dollars was spent trying to rebuild infrastructure alone. Hurricane Katrina struck a levee in New Orleans so aside from the damage caused by the hurricane, flooding was also a problem. New Orleans levee walls were designed for category 3 hurricanes, and were not prepared for Katrina's category 5 winds. USA and many other country's pulled together to help in any way.

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, two days later roughly eighty percent of New Orleans was underwater. This hurricane ranked number three in the thirty deadliest US Hurricanes (Weather Underground, 2007). This disaster has had a ripple effect on the economy, the environment, the population of New Orleans, and the habitats of animals in that area. It also put to death over 1,500 people in Louisiana, more than half were senior citizens. In New Orleans, 134,000 housing units —70% of all occupied units — suffered damage from this Hurricane.

Hurricane Katrina occurred in the year 2005; it made landfall on the morning of August 29th. However, the origins of this storm began as early as August 24, 2005. In the course of those six days, Hurricane Katrina varied in location and intensity before making final landfall on the southeast portion of the United States (Ahrens & Sampson, 2011).

Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States on August 28, 2005. The center of Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on the morning of August 29, 2005. The devastating effect of this hurricane resulted in more than 1,800 citizens losing their lives, as well as more than an estimated $81 billion dollars in damages occurred. By August 31, 2005, eighty-percent of the city became submerged under water because the storm surge breached the city's levees at multiple points. If the levees are damaged massive water will flood Louisiana from the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi River, and other surrounding bodies of water. Some areas of New Orleans were 15 feet under water. Winds of Hurricane Katrina reached an astounding category 3 as

The Hyatt Regency walkway disaster occurred in Kansas City during the evening of July 17, 1981 in the atrium building of the hotel. The actual disaster comprised of two of the three walkways in the hotel collapsing onto the main floor. The walkways were designed with the fourth floor walkway directly overhead of and suspending the second floor walkway with the third floor walkway offset several meters next to the second and fourth floor walkways (see Figure 1.1). All three of the walkways were suspended from the roof and from either end of them. During a dance competition the fourth floor walkway collapsed onto the second floor walkway, causing both walkways to collapse onto the lobby floor below. According to Ratay (2010) the load on the walkways was only approximately 53% of the code mandated load capacity of the walkway. The disaster resulted in 114 total deaths and 219 injuries, and the structural

On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a category three storm and brought with it some of the most catastrophic effects that any hurricane has ever left behind. Twenty foot surges of flood water washed into New Orleans after the levees broke, and ended up flooding over 80% of the city. It was now in the hands of the United States government to help the millions of displaced Americans find proper shelter, food, water, and services that were required for their recovery.

Boom! Snap! Crash! On the night of July, 19, 1981, the Hyatt Regency was having a tea party. Party attendees got on the fourth floor skywalk and they started to dance. The skywalk started shaking and it loosened the bolts.To the skywalk and it fell to the ground

Today technology allows us to construct structures that we would never have been able to make in the past. Some of the creations are impressive based on what they accomplish but others are masterpieces in themselves. Man’s capability to build such tall buildings, as the skyscrapers we are familiar with covering our cities today, is a major expression of the advancements we have made as a culture. The power necessary to build such tall structures inspired competition between architects to see who could build the tallest one. One skyscraper that has inspired many and served as a model, for high rise buildings that were created after, is the Chrysler Building. The Chrysler Building serves as an identifying mark to anyone that

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.