Natural Disasters In New Orleans

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.

“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

Graphic novels have the ability to portray multiple perspectives and can cleverly represent as many groups an author believes is needed. What becomes the decision of the author is which perspective deems more important or more fascinating. Depending on which the author decides to portray, there tends to be different effects on the readers. Neufeld uses Scott’s Mccloud’s ideas from Understanding Comics, such as adding detail to a character to differentiate them from the reader in order to induce certain emotions. The perspective taken from the primary source may receive more empathy or distaste depending on who the author chooses to represent. Through detailing certain character, this focus is made clear to be on the victims. However, graphic novels are sometimes subject to biases and misinterpretations, which can belittle the authenticity of the accounts being given. Different accounts of the events hold different biases. They could either represent those who have undergone the specific event or that of someone who has speculated from the outside. In A.D. New Orleans after the Deluge, Josh Neufeld represents a perspective not commonly exemplified, as he assigns different perspectives to his character and juxtaposes them using the dialogue from their interactions. A different view of the story is told, and reasons to the questionable, or unethical actions of the victims are brought into focus and analyzed through a perspective that sides with the victims.

Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic natural disaster in American history. The aftermath had substantial negative impact on New Orleans and it could have been avoided if proper disaster management practices were put in place. Therefore, it is important to determine the factors that caused the hurricane to be catastrophic. One factor that was responsible for the disaster was failure of the three levels of the government working cohesively (Thiede & Brown, 2013). The incoherent interaction between the three levels of government will be assessed. Another factor that will be examined is social and psychological refusal of Hurricane Katrina

In 2005 alone 88,117 people were killed in Natural Disasters. A massive 1836 of those people died during Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans. Natural disasters are sometimes unpredictable and can not be avoided. It is important that communities are educated and authorities are prepared for anything.

One Weather Service meteorologist even voiced a very prophetic Katrina announcement, stating that: "Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks."

The seriousness of Katrina's loss made it clear that local and state resources were overcome, leaving only federal services as capable responders (DW, 2009). There were problems with evacuation and housing. The quantity of individuals in need of shelter was overpowering. Due to the flooding, thousands of Louisiana citizens were made homeless (DW, 2009). There were concerns of mismanagement. There are ongoing fears over the mismanagement and lack of leadership in the assistance hard work in response to the storm and its outcome, and the hindered response to the flooding of New Orleans, and the following state of disorder (DW, 2009). The government was blamed for the death and disorder due to their slow response. There were a communication breakdown

History will affirm that from the beginning of the settlement of New Orleans in 1717, it was then and continues to be a location destined to periodic flooding caused by the Mississippi river and rising storms. Throughout time, New Orleans would challenge nature by primarily fortifying the river’s natural levees to periodically engineering levees to combat issues of flooding, only to return to reinforcing or rebuilding according to damages inflicted as time progressed. Each attempt to fight nature from overwhelming New Orleans kept setting engineers back. Refusal to abandon the coastal areas became more costly over time; the intent to preserve the coast became more valuable than the value of life and property.

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

Hurricane Katrina is infamous: the storm that buried the vibrant city of New Orleans under up to sixteen feet of water. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster, but the crimes committed against the storm’s survivors in the months prior, setting them up for devastation, were the true tragedies. Not only were the citizens of the Big Easy neglected pre-Katrina, but they remained on the back burner of the federal government for days after the storm hit. Citizens of New Orleans - who had just been put through one of the worst natural disasters the United States had ever seen - were treated like animals, or foreign refugees seeking sovereignty in the US. They were not treated with the common decency an American citizen deserves, but why did this happen? The answer is simple, because the politicians on all levels, before, during, and after the storm, neglected the citizens that trusted them. City, State, and Federal government officials incorrectly used funds that had been allocated for disaster relief, and to the repair of the levees for many years leading up to the disaster. Because of this corrupt behavior, the people of New Orleans were caught in a very unnatural disaster to accompany the storm. The low class citizens of New Orleans were hit with unparalleled injustices. The atrocities committed against these innocent people was no less than a war waged against them, but the

Nine years ago the massive storm known as Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana. That hurricane in turn affected a multitude of aspects, those being; economy, tourism, employment, housing etc. Out of all those aspects I’m going to further dive into the initial impact of hurricane Katrina on education and schools in New Orleans, and how students and teachers were affected by this natural disaster. Initially after Katrina, 110 out of the 126 public school were completely destroyed. Previously all the schools were run by a board that was corrupt and didn’t manage the schools efficiently and used them incorrectly which led to corruption. It was bad enough that even the FBI had to intervene by placing a satellite system

The physical impacts left by this storm, is the central premise to understanding what really happened to this city. The time frame from when the storm hit till now, has caused a significant limitation to really comprehending this historic event. Furthermore, the mass amount of destruction was primarily due to New Orleans being on average 1-2 feet below sea level (NOAA, 2012). Also a lack of scientific accuracy sealed in troubling fate for this city. The duality of being geographically vulnerable as well as the shortcomings of scientific knowledge led to extensive damage to 134,000 housing units, the destruction of multiple bridges along the Gulf Coast, various buildings across the city, which caused harmful chemicals to be leaked into the water system and the disorientation of the main power

Marti Grah was another big part of this city, hundreds would flock to New Orleans before Ash Wednesday to take part of the festivities. Rowdy, drunk frat boys would clog the streets at night. But when the levees broke most of these grounds would be flooded. After Katrina hit no one was in the street, instead people were stranded on roof tops seemingly abandoned by the ones they thought would protect them. How could this happen in modern day United States of America? The people of New Orleans were failed by their local, state and federal government. Before Katrina hit about 484,000 people lived in the city, after Katrina hit about 360,400 people remained (AP).

After much debate, France offers to sell the U.S. not only New Orleans, but the entire Louisiana Territory for a price of only $15 million dollars! Stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, what will our nation do with all of this extra land?

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,