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The Causes And Effects Of Hurricane Katrina

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Hurricane Katrina In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed land, property and lives. There were over 250,000 buildings damaged or destroyed, over 1,800 deaths, and cost billions of dollars in damage. The exact cost of the storm is hard to determine, but easily rose over $110 billion, which was what the U.S. federal government promised to spend to get people and businesses back on track. In addition to the damaged property and people, Hurricane Katrina caused psychological problems with people, who blamed all levels of government for not properly handling the emergency (Campbell 421).
A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that forms when it is joined with a thunderstorm and circulates counterclockwise near the earth’s surface. Other types of tropical cyclones are a tropical depression and tropical storm. Wind speeds for a tropical depression are up to 38 miles per hour (mph), for a tropical storm are 39-73 mph and hurricanes can have winds that swirl inward and upward with speeds 74-200 mph. The term hurricane is used for areas in the North Atlantic Ocean, the northeastern Pacific Ocean (east of the international date line), and the South Pacific Ocean. Other areas of the world label these types of powerful storms as typhoons or severe cyclonic storms. Hurricanes are categorized from 1-5, depending on the severity of the sustained wind speeds (“Hurricane” 1).
Hurricane Katrina formed in the Atlantic Ocean from the interaction of a tropical wave and the remnants of a

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