Negative Effects Of Hurricane Katrina

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.

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).

Statistics show that 75% of the African Americans in New Orleans were affected compared to the 15% of African Americans in the Biloxi-Gulfport metropolitan area (Cutter and Gall, 5). It also states, “The calamitous combination of insured development certainly accounts for much of hurricane katrina’s damage, specifically in New Orleans.” All levels of government failed to do their part, which includes state and local government.

These situations that are coming into play have cause great impact in the Jamestown, NY area. People are being traumatized when they cannot received medical services that they used to receive before. Health insurance are taking another direction in which the vulnerable, poor population are paying a high price. These cause trauma into the daily lives of all these

Often, the government responds to natural disasters with thorough preparation and planning. The federal, state, and local levels of government do this in an effort to help reduce injury and property damage as well as ensure the overall safety of the general population. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season saw the costliest and one of the deadliest storms in United States history. This storm was Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina displaced of an estimated 645,000 Louisiana citizens (Cepeda, Valdez, Kaplan, & Hill, 2010). This paper will examine…

Hurricane Katrina will forever be noted in United States history as one of the worst natural disasters to hit the states. Within its wake, Hurricane Katrina left thousands of Americans dead and many more homeless with no place to call home. A vast majority of the homeless were already living in poverty in New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina hit the hardest. People that already didn’t have what most Americans have were forced out of their homes and their jobs with nowhere to go. Many have criticized the United States government and President Bush for the lack of response to this disaster, as well as ignoring the fact that the levees in the Lower Ninth Ward were not strong enough to withhold this type of force. Still to this day, many are still rebuilding their lives, homes, and businesses.

The calamitous natural phenomenon known as Hurricane Katrina brought terrible side-effects to lower-class African Americans. A catastrophe like Hurricane Katrina changed the lives of the lower-class African Americans forever because of the devastation from several effects. People today are more prepared for a natural disaster because “Hurricane Katrina was one of the strongest storms to hit the United States coast within the last 100 years” in New Orleans (Brianna Frank). Most of these ramifications of Hurricane Katrina came from the phycological, economic and medical effects due to this natural disaster,

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

But the differences in altitude amongst races were not the only evidence of institutional racism brought to light by Hurricane Katrina. Many also point to the slow response of the federal government and President George W. Bush as proof of the continued race problem in America. According to an article by Peter Drier, “The Bush administration’s actions might better be characterized as indifferent rather than incompetent.” (Dreier, Peter) He points to the several actions and inactions taken by the Bush Administration including cutting funding for FEMA long before the storm hit. Additionally he points to the 40,000 meals and 5 water trucks that were arrived prior to Katrina hitting New

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

Probably one of the worst natural disasters to happen on U.S soil during the 2000’s, hurricane Katrina ruined most of what use to be the historical city of New Orleans. Thousands were left stranded on roof tops for days at a time, most people drowned when the levees broke, and some starved to death, and history has shown time and time again the first people to die when any natural disasters occur the elderly and children are the first to die. The events that followed, civil unrest, looting and the social media up roar that followed put blame on the leaders of this country for not acting in a quick manner to send relive to this now desolate and broken city. This savage act of nature has left many family displaced from their home city.

The existing arrangement of the U.S. health care system leaves large numbers of the American population without access to adequate health care. Currently, about 45 million Americans do not have any health insurance, resulting in inability to receive the necessary care required for a healthy and productive life (NCHC). Further, government run programs such as Medicaid and SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, are not sufficient and effective means of providing care for those eligible for them. Poor Families in America’s Health Care Crisis by Ronald J. Angel, Laura Lein, and Jane Henrici illustrates how the safety net for health care through current government programs does not work and how access to health care cannot be

Hurricane Katrina not only tore the city apart and forever changed the lives of the people living in New Orleans, but truly hit home for the rest of America as well. Nothing of this brutal disaster had really hit the nation before August 23th, 2005, so the shock of it all struck the nation at an all time high. The after math of Katrina was catastrophic on the worst levels. Families were torn apart, homes and vehicles swept away or completely ruined by the massive amounts of water, and all that was planned to save lives was partly ironically what drown them. In a situation like this one would expect a hospital to be sophisticated and more equipped to keep it together, but it ultimately the opposite happened entirely. When the lives lost were

Hurricane Katrina was a historical natural disaster that affected millions of people. Televised nationally, as the damage was revealed, seemed surreal and the lives lost along with property damages is heartbreaking. I have family in New Orleans, whom were affected; however, no lives were lost. The power of water should never be underestimated, as many feared damage from the wind, and did not consider the water. After the levees broke, supply was immediately affected. By the oil refining being inoperable for several weeks, gasoline was scarce (Carden, 2010, p. 82). First responders, medical providers, and emergency rescue teams were needed instantly. As people were trapped in their homes, on top of their roofs, and in vehicles, desperation

Hurricane Katrina revealed the difference in preparedness programs that citizens had based on the jurisdictions the lived in. The White House Report Recommendations concluded how inadequate these programs were and recommended to “combine the various disparate citizen preparedness programs into a single national campaign to promote and strengthen citizen and community preparedness” (Menzel, 2006).