Preventing Hurricane Katrina

This case summarizes events preceding the Hurricane Katrina, which was one of the worst natural catastrophes in the modern history of the USA. It raises questions about the lack of reasonable prevention and preparation actions due to flimsy structure and management of the responsible organizations and persons, invalidity and inconsistence of their actions and incapability of making the decisions in a timely manner. As a result of the unstructured and incoherent activities, we could observe several ineffective and costly attempts to mitigate floods and hurricanes. In the beginning the local officials, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and “White Houses past and present always seem penny-wise and pound-foolish” because of the chain of the wrong

Hurricane Katrina began as tropical Depression twelve, which formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005. On August 24, the storm strengthened and became known as Tropical Storm Katrina, the 11th named storm of the 2005 hurricane season. A few hours before making landfall in Florida on August 25, Tropical storm Katrina was upgraded to Hurricane Katrina (Category1, 74mph winds). An analysis by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) climate prediction center

The devastating and deeply rooted traumatic effects of Hurricane Katrina will live in the psyches of the people of New Orleans and beyond for generations to come. Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States barreling in as a Category 5 with up to 175 mile-per-hour winds and a 20-ft storm surge that would create a humanitarian emergency with the likes never before seen in the United States. This hurricane caused unimaginable death, destruction, and displacement, leaving a known death toll of 1,836 and an unknown number thought to be washed out to sea. The real truth is we will never know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina.

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)

Hurricane Katrina, one of the most destructive hurricanes to whirl through the southern states of America in 2005, is probably one of the worst natural disasters of the United States in the 21st century. Damages from the storm were estimated at more than $100 billion . People living in the southern states fled north to reach safety from the storm after hearing about it being a category five hurricane on the news a few mornings before Katrina hit the shore. Authorities were doing what they were supposed to be doing, telling everyone to seek shelter, board up windows, head north and prepare for the storm. Everything in the beginning appeared to be just another

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…

Undoubtedly, the impact of a major disaster such as Hurricane Katrina can be devastating to the community it occurs in; whereas, major terror event the size of 9/11 has impacted the entire world. As a result, the financial losses have continued to bloom far beyond the economic and clean-up costs in the immediate after math of the attacks. Emphatically, the financial and personal costs of Katrina cannot be argued; in terms of mitigation planning and hazard impact methodology I postulate that the attacks of September 11th dwarf the costs of Katrina today.

The response to most issues that arise in the United states are evaluated based on the response that the parties and/or federal entities give in relativity to the problem at hand. More specifically, natural disasters amplify the public awareness and in turn put a larger importance on the responses to the destruction left behind. Hurricane Katrina was a major natural disaster in which the immediate efforts were highly criticized for the lack thereof. Particularly, the federal government was looked upon heavily to provide assistance and aid immediately after the disaster, but waited for an unprecedented amount of time to effectively help the people who were affected. This ultimately caused for precautionary measures to be taken to implement systems to efficiently provide the necessary support. Throughout the entirety of Hurricane

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to hit the United States in decades. The economic losses were extraordinary; however, it was the human losses that stuck Americans at their core. The media brought into our homes graphic images of the destruction of New Orleans. Its mayor had ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city and yet 150,000 citizens are said to have stayed. Like most of the nation I asked myself, “Well why did they stay? If a mandatory evacuation is issued, it stands to reason that state officials considered the situation to be precarious.” It is only recently, when I’ve seen reports of New Orleans slow rebuilding, that I have really given thought to the undisclosed factors that lead to such

Hurricane Katrina resulted in massive loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. There are many lessons worth learning from this event. Finger pointing started before the event was over. Most of the focus on Hurricane Katrina was on its impact on New Orleans; however, the storm ravaged a much wider area than that. This paper will briefly summarize the event, the impact on the city of New Orleans and the lessons learned to ensure preparedness today.

Population dynamics played a role in Hurricane Katrina, as city officials understood that vulnerable levees, canals and bridges with homes that had built on land susceptible to flooding surrounded New Orleans dense population (Friis, 2012, p.13). The physical hazards of the environment were well known, but the area was only prepared for a Category 3 storm and Katrina was labeled a category 5 (Howitt, et al., 2009, p.15). The parishes located in New Orleans were geographically situated in a “bowl” that was surrounded by water and a contained a poorly maintained infrastructure that could not withstand a natural disaster. Author Friss sees population increase without infrastructure upkeep as a risk for social disaster that can impact those least likely to be able to withstand a tragedy, namely the poor and disabled (Friss, 2012, para. 2, p.11). In New Orleans “47 percent” of the adult population lived below the poverty line and many lacked access to transportation (Howitt, et al.,2009,

In the year 2015 the United States was hit by a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone, also known as Hurricane Katrina. This deadly storm was known to destroy many homes and took away about 61 thousand lives. The storm hit many cities although specifically in this case I would like to focus more on the effects it had on New orleans. To being with one thing we need to look back to see how scientist and city officials discussed preparation and planning prior to the Katrina disaster and what may have been the close calls we avoided. Along with Hurricane Katrina; it’s also argued that the New Orleans Police Department, during this time of crisis, took advantage of their power and the people's vulnerability. Lastly we must look back to examine and learn from this catastrophe; to see how we can be prepared for when another hurricane strikes.

On August 29, 2005, early in the morning the Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States, with category 4 and winds of 240 kilometers per hour. Most of its 600,000 residents evacuated the city by the authorities 48 hours before the disaster and about 20,000 people mostly without resources were sheltered in the Superdome sports arena.

Hurricanes are among the costliest and the most destructive of natural disasters. Since 1995, the United States has witnessed more intense activities by hurricanes with Mobile County in Alabama experiencing hurricane Ivan and hurricane Dennis in 2004 and 2005 (Link, 2010). In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes to have hit the United States and was rated category three in Mobile County (Marchi, 2007). The response to the disaster was poor owing to the lack of proper disaster preparedness as

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.