The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale

Numerous different aspects were altered due to the ruckus of Hurricane Katrina. The first major aspect was housing and location. Katrina nearly demolished 300,000 homes. The ascending sea level along the coast resulting from onshore winds is a storm surge. With a twenty-two foot storm surge in New Orleans and a twenty-seven foot storm surge in Mississippi, Hurricane Katrina averaged a shocking twelve foot storm surge. As a storm surge’s footage increases, the surge will continue to move inland farther and farther. Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge is documented as moving inland a total of twelve miles into the state of Mississippi (FAQS, 2013). Hurricane Katrina impacted a total of seven states. Five of these states were Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Kentucky and Ohio were two more states affected but in a different way. Because of the tremendous amount of water, Kentucky and Ohio were victims of the Mississippi River flooding. Some states experienced more extreme destruction than others. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana experienced Hurricane Katrina’s wrath firsthand. These three southern states were affected the worst by the massive storm (FAQS, 2013). Mississippi’s forest industry experienced a great amount of destruction losing 1.3 million acres of valuable forest land. The main cause of destruction in New Orleans was blamed on the failure of the levee system to stand its ground

First, Bush had created the Gulf Opportunity Zone- a government enterprise that he said would provide help on taxes, housing, education, and training for the victims of the hurricane. Secondly, Bush noted the he would ask Congress to pass the Urban Homesteading act to provide building sites on federal land through a lottery to low-income citizens, free of charge ( pg, 250). Lastly, a $10.5 billion given to FEMA for recovery efforts including shelter, food, and medical care. However, reconstruction and resettlement would cost around two to three times. (pg, 250). If Bush had executed a better plan for Hurricane Katrina, billions of government dollars would not have been spent

On the morning of August Twenty-ninth, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and the Gulf Coast region. The storm brought the water to about twenty feet high, swallowing eighty percent of the New Orleans city immediately. The flood and torrential rainstorm wreaked havoc and forced millions of people evacuate from the city. According to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Katrina caused approximately one hundred and eight billion dollars in damage. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive disasters have ever occurred in the United States, but it also revealed a catastrophic government at all levels’ failure in responding to the contingency.

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.

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

Winds from the storm tore down businesses, houses, and levees. “…It brought sustained winds of 100-140 miles per hour and stretched some 400 miles across.” (Slams gulf coast). The storm covered half of Louisiana, all of Mississippi, and half of Alabama. The Eye of the storm entered near the bottom of the state, and started to move north as the storm progressed. “ I had a tree fall through the middle of my house.” (Shields) luckily his house took a very short time to fix and he stayed with a relative until it was ready. Because Hurricane Katrina reached so far and was so strong many other homeowners were left without homes and without much

In the year 2005, New Orleans was hit by a major natural disaster that took lives and destroyed the homes of many civilians. This wrath of Mother Nature came to be known as Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane with gusts peaking at 174/mph according to the Safir- Simpson wind scale (SSHS). The mix of both poor geographical characteristics and scientific accuracy resulted in damage costs accumulating up to $108 billion (2005 USD). The high damage costs made this natural disaster to be ranked as the costliest storm ever to hit the United States of America (Blake et al. 2011). The entirety of the damage is exemplified by the plethora of housing units dismembered, the annihilation of several bridges and buildings, which led to petroleum and

Katrina hit many southern cities. Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi were all hit but the most damage occurred in New Orleans. With the city mostly under sea level this presented much of the problem. The majority of the city was flooded. More than $200 billion dollars in damages were estimated. The loss of life, property, and business were devastating on New Orleans. This was the most costly of all natural disasters in the United States of America in my lifetime. This natural disaster disturbed the economic system of New Orleans, the labor markets around the U.S., and the individual businesses in New Orleans. The trending effect was a loss of 100,000 jobs in ten months and almost 2.9 billion in wages were lost (Effects of Hurricane Katrina, 2012). The storm helped to crush New Orleans and put a devastating effect on the economy of the U.S. Gas prices rose, product prices rose, and the tourism rate in New Orleans went to zero. The port was unable to open, the colleges were closed due to the devastation, and as I stated earlier tourism became null and void.

The levees are giant concrete walls covered by a layer of topsoil to ensure flood waters to not enter the general populous of a large establishment or city, the storm that tested this system was called Katrina. This was the storm that killed 1,836, and was able to harm anyone do to the failure of the levee system and the lack of preparation to the levee system and the sudden change of the storm’s category. The United states Geological survey scientists have walked on levee ruins in the aftermath of the hurricane. What they saw shocked all of New Orleans; There was a flaw towards the design and the Army Corps of engineers were discovered to be way behind schedule in the completion of the levee system in New Orleans. The flooding caused major damage to 80% of the great city. It is believed that The failure was expected, regardless. Not everyone believed the levees would break, thus there was controversy upon the topic. New Orleans’ sea level was considerably low and next to the Gulf of Mexico. To fix this they inserted them in every major canal and river, but this project was not completed before

There were other disaster that happen in New Orleans it wasn’t the first hurricane. “During the past century, hurricanes have flooded New Orleans six times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and 2005.”(“Hurricane Katrina.") Like Hurricane Betsy, it strike Louisianan in 1965, half of the state was flooded. FEMA performed well after 9/11, they set up a destructor field office and communication. Allbaugh said “The FEMA you seen in 9/11 is not the same you see today” What we had learn during 9/11 was not apply during the Hurricane.

While the city did not take a direct hit, New Orleans also felt the impact of Katrina as she came ashore. The wind and rain from the storm put enormous stress on the levees protecting the city. Unfortunately, the levees could not withstand the forces applied to them and they eventually gave way flooding large portions of the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas. Large public places began to become places of refuge for those still in the

Hurricanes are, highly dangerous and large swirling storms that begin over water and they sometimes end up on land. On October, 4th 2016 Hurricane Matthew hit the coasts of Haiti with 130 to 150 mph wind speeds which means it was a Category 4 hurricane. Hurricanes such as Matthew are tracked by forecasters whose job is to give people watching or listening an idea of strong the winds are. The forecasters use a scale called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale it is used to track the winds and categorize the hurricane. The scale has 5 Categories beginning at 74 miles per hour and ending 157 mph and it can go even higher. Lastly, a hurricane has three parts, first the rainbands, the rain bands have rain, thunderstorms and sometimes tornadoes, next

Hurricane Katrina affected millions of people and its aftermath has continued to affect Louisiana’s economy and environment to this day. In addition to the estimated 1,833 people that died due to the storm, millions of others were displaced from their homes in the surrounding areas (Zimmermann, 2015). According to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Hurricane Katrina caused an estimated $108 billion in damages (National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, 2015). The storm caused extensive damage to the coast due to intense waves, and an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans and the surrounded area were flooded for an extended period of time.

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is used to categorize hurricanes on a 1 to 5 scale based on their sustained wind speed (National Hurricane Center, n.d.). A category 1 is a hurricane with very dangerous winds that will result with some damage due to the maximum sustained wind speeds of 74- 95 miles per hour (National Hurricane Center, n.d.). A category 2 hurricane will cause excessive damage

Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with tremendous force at daybreak, August 29, 2005, severely punishing regions that included the city of New Orleans and its neighboring state Mississippi. Resulting in a total of just over 1700 people killed, and hundreds of thousands missing. When we think of Hurricane Katrina stories, we think of stories that were published by the media such as, “Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane's storm surge a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast was the highest ever measured in the United States.