The Natural Disaster Of 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.

In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount

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.

(Thiede & Brown, 2013). Lastly, the improper constriction levees and floodwalls will be addressed (Thiede & Brown, 2013). By narrowing down the substantial factors, the government and public can learn from the disaster management mistakes of Hurricane Katrina so aftermath effects can be prevented/alleviated in the future. Recommendations for improving disaster management practices can also be provided and would be beneficial in saving many lives.

New Orleans as time has progressed has become more susceptible than most cities when it comes to the detrimental power of hurricane force and storm surges. There are two reasons for this. The first is that New Orleans has a very low elevation relative to the surrounding sea level, the second is the lack of Louisiana’s natural defense against storm surges; that is the coastal wetlands and its barrier islands.

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 was not New Orleans’ first time being hit with devastating effects from a hurricane. New Orleans has been struck by hurricanes six times over the past century. In 1915 was a category 4 hurricane, it killed 275 people and caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage. 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and again in 2005. The Mayor of New Orleans issued a first ever mandatory evacuation. With New Orleans being hit multiple times over the past decade surprised me that serious precautions weren’t taken previously, such as better levees or seawalls. Living in a place below sea level, one would think that the levees and seawalls would be stronger, but the levees collapsed below design height during the Katrina storm .

On August 29th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, also known as Katrina, made landfall along the Gulf Coast. It hit states such as Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. As of today Hurricane Katrina is one the most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States. In total Katrina caused over one hundred billion dollars worth of damage. It left people homeless, starving, and in some cases dead. New Orleans, Louisiana was hit the hardest, “New Orleans will forever exist as two cities; the one that existed before that date, and the one after.” Even over a decade later, the effects of Hurricane Katrina can still be felt as the south continues to rebuild their lives and return to some normalcy.

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

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.

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.

Before we discuss disaster management, it is important to briefly sum up the events of the events that began on August 25, 2005 to fully understand the brevity of the situation. Meteorologists began warning inhabitants of the regions that were hit by Katrina on August 23, 2005. By the 28th, evacuations were under way, that day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.” (Spowart, 2015) New Orleans was particularly vulnerable. More than half of the city was built below sea level, and the levees protecting it were built on porous sand. The poorest parts of the city were completely unprepared for a storm surge. Many of these citizens lacked transportation and could not evacuate, and were left to wait out Katrina in their