The Destruction Of Hurricane Harvey In Houston, Texas

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.

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.

On August 26th, 2017, Hurricane Harvey crashed into Texas and devastated Houston and the surrounding area. Harvey battered cities along the Gulf of Mexico, hitting primarily low income communities, and leaving 52 inches of rainfall, destroying about 22,000 homes, and displacing thousands in its wake. The image discussed in this essay depicts a Red Cross relief center in Houston providing shelter for residents unable to evacuate. The aforementioned image is of a domestic event, but the people, objects, and context demonstrate the complex social processes of globalization. Details in this image of Hurricane Harvey illustrate the harmful effect of the globalizing market in leading developed nations to be more focused on short term economic gain rather than long term environmental protection.

“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

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

The New York Times writers explains all the events happening during Harvey’s next landfall in “Harvey Live Updates: Trump Heads to a Flooded Texas”. In case you’ve been living underneath a construction site for your whole life, Harvey made hard landfalls in Corpus Christi and Houston, TX along with other cities in Texas. With hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders, shelters in Houston filled to bursting with people who craved some news about the safety of their loved ones and the state of their homes. Parts of the Houston area set a record for rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the continental United States, with a top reading on Tuesday afternoon, since the storm began, of 51.88 inches. Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said 25 to 30 percent of Harris County's 1,800 square miles of land was flooded.

In the year 2005, New Orleans was famously hit a major natural disaster that took lives and destroyed the homes and civilians. This wrath of Mother Nature became to be known as Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane with gusts peaking at 174/mph according to the Safir- Simpson wind scale (SSHS). With this Hurricane having its path directly on a city only being on average 1-2 feet below sea level, it created conditions for serious havoc (NOAA, 2012). The aftermath left a serious physical imprint on the city, which has the potential to never be removed. This imprint left by Hurricane Katrina caused extensive damage to 134,000 housing units, destroying multiple bridges along the Gulf Coast, as well as various buildings across the city, which led to harmful chemicals leaking into the water system, such as petroleum and natural gas. Finally, Hurricane Katrina also caused the main power grid to be disoriented for a number of weeks. As a result, the damage costs from the storm added up to be about $108 billion (2005 USD), which according to Eric Blake was the costliest storm ever to hit the United States (Blake et al. 2011). Hurricane Katrina perpetuated all of these tribulations, as it drastically altered the lives of the many inhabitants of New Orleans and they continue to face the repercussions of the storm in their day-to-day lives.

Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern coast of the United States in August of 2005. The eye of the storm went through the city of New Orleans and caused thousands of casualties and more than eighty billion dollars in damage (Schwartz). However, poor engineering and design allowed the immense flooding to breach the levee system and flood most of the metropolitan area. Despite the Delta Service Corps admitting that they knew of the possible failures for over twenty years, they claimed that insufficient budgets set by Congress and local governments prohibited them from restructuring and preserving the levees (Can We Save New Orleans?). Katrina was the third most intense land falling tropical storm in United States history. The combination of

After Hurricane Harvey ravaged the coast of Texas, a countless number of families found themselves with nothing; their homes, which once housed cherished memories and treasured possessions, were left in ruins. Though my family and I were fortunate to have remained unaffected by the hurricane, many others in our city could not say the same. By the third day, the rapidly-intensifying storm had already devastated several neighborhoods.

I believe people to be naturally good to others, because there is more kind-hearted people more than cold-hearted people in this world. In this world you will see a handful of people helping and giving to others no matter the situation. The percentage of evil and cruel people is a very low percentage. After everything people all over Texas is coming together, and it shows the good in people that we thought did not have a good heart.

While Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Katrina had different impacts on people lives. Katrina's devastations were a result of a failure of government flood protection systems, violent storm surges, a chaotic evacuation plan and an ill- prepared city government. Harvey, on the other hand, has caused massive flooding at a slower pace, unlike Katrina's deadly surge. People had suffered from traumatic event that will seek help finding different ways to cope with their trauma.

As a Houston based law firm with deep ties to the community, we have been devastated to witness the destruction caused by Hurricane Harvey. While the stories of heroic rescues and the kindness of strangers make us beam with pride at the magnanimity of our great City, we grieve over the unimaginable toll this hurricane has already taken on our friends, clients, neighbors, and colleagues.

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 resiliency of the impacted community can be improved by creating more areas for flood waters to be contained. Urban planners can assess the areas of Houston that were hit by Harvey or that are most vulnerable to flood damage and designate these areas as parks for diverting flood waters rather than rebuilding them. City officials can also limit new infrastructure development in high-risk

destructive Hurricane Harvey was to the people and towns present. Prior to reading, I was aware