This event was a major catastrophe mostly due to its destructive economic damage on the Gulf Coast that exceeded even Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The death toll of approximately 82 people attributable to Harvey is a very small portion compared to Katrina’s, but the cost in damages is unrivaled. Current estimates for Harvey are at $180 billion compared to Katrina’s $108 billion (Amadeo, 2017). This makes Harvey the costliest natural event to ever hit the United States and justifies it as more than just a disaster or a hazard.
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
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By September 16th, the disturbance was steered northwest by a mid-level ridge into a region that was more favorable for development. The 84 ̊ F sea surface temperature, low wind shear, and sufficient moisture allowed the disturbance to strengthen into a hurricane before reaching the Lesser Antilles. On the night of September 17th, Hurricane Maria was upgraded to Category 3 with surface winds up to 120 mph. Maria achieved Category 5 as it approached Dominica on September 18th (Moloney, 2017).
This event was a major disaster as the total fatalities to the hurricane was at least 26 deaths in a country of more than 74,000 people (Pannell, Taguchi & Louszko, 2017). The few number of deaths was unexpected considering that the economic damage to Dominica was more than $1 billion. Compared to Hurricane Katrina, which caused over $100 billion in damages, the destruction from Hurricane Maria was not significant enough to justify the event as a
Have you ever experienced a huge storm that caused the loss of many peoples' lives? Hurricane Camille, a category five storm on the Gulf Coast of the United States, caused damage of $1.42 billion, mass evacuations, and took many peoples’ lives. Camille caused more than 200 deaths and billions of dollars' worth of damage, after this chaotic storm, it was called the greatest catastrophe ever to strike the United States and the most significant economic event in worlds history.
Unfortunately, in many instances this was not enough, seeing as the final death toll from the storm came to an estimated 1800 people (Kenny, 2013). As the G.A.O. stated, “it exacted terrible human costs with the loss of significant number of lives and resulted in billions of dollars in property damage”(GAO 2006). Faster aid and relief to the victims of Katrina was a possibility that did not occur due to the lack of preparation and acceptance of aid by the United States government.
Hurricane Maria has hit Puerto Rico, destroying buildings leaving its approximately 3.4 million residents largely without electricity. Hurricane Maria crashed into Puerto Rico early Wednesday as a “Potentially Catastrophic” Category 4 storm that was set to become the most powerful to strike the US territory in almost 90 years.
There has been deaths from this tragedy about 30 or more(the weather company). People are packing up and leaving to go somewhere safe. There was a chemical plant flooded in Houston(hurricane Harvey ). The chemical plant is at risk of blowing up. Hurricane Harvey has left many people without homes, trucks, cars and family members. It is a terrible tragedy(CNN.com). There was a man who rescued a deer, the deer was in the flooded water and about drowned. The man picked up the deer, he put the deer in a little shopping parking lot, on a patch of grass(CNN.com). The people and the wild life of Houston Texas has been majorly affected (the latest on hurricane Harvey ). There is two more hurricanes heading to Florida . Hurricane Harvey is now over . There still very flooded . Some Texan drove a bus threw the water. So may deaths. So many thing that' cannot b described .So much money down the drain. Many animals are being affected.Many rednecks are playing in the flood with there trucks . Many volunteers and samertan purse are helping Texas
August 25, 2017 Hurricane Harvey hit the coast of Texas with absolute power. It was originally predicted that it would not surpass category 1, the elements combined and made Harvey extremely vicious. It hit the most populated areas on the United States becoming one of the most destructive. People did not have enough time to properly prepare for the unpredicted devastation ahead. However, the government and the people responded with strong efforts. Let’s start with the federal department. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (which is referred to as FEMA), with its government accomplices mobilized a work force and with many assets to help states affected. About 21,000 government assets were sent to help out during the vicious Tropical Storm. A lot of people sought refuge during the storm and the Federal government gave them many places to stay for example many government owned sites were converted refuge sites for the victims. The U.S coast guard played a huge role to aid victims. Thousands of coast guards were deployed in support of the relief efforts. They evacuated victims through government transport such as helicopters and big vehicles that could travel through the flooding. They are also opened various docks and waterways within Brownsville, Kentucky without any restrictions to the public. FEMA provided thousands of meals, medical and household items. Fema also paid rent for the victim’s short-term housing. Other ongoing Federal
During the early hours of the morning on 29 August 2005 5:10am, a hurricane of 205km/h struck New Orleans. She was named Hurricane Katrina. Katrina stretched over 400 miles across and was one of the deadliest hurricanes in the United States, killing 1,836 people and millions of others were left homeless. $16.7 million dollars was spent trying to rebuild infrastructure alone. Hurricane Katrina struck a levee in New Orleans so aside from the damage caused by the hurricane, flooding was also a problem. New Orleans levee walls were designed for category 3 hurricanes, and were not prepared for Katrina's category 5 winds. USA and many other country's pulled together to help in any way.
555). I have noted that regular assessments and monetarization to policies and regulations is crucial for the implementations to work to their full potential. I have explained how the Love Canal is also classified as a top man-made disaster and with regular toxin monitoring and some assessments to policies, the area is no longer harmful to nearby residents or schools. Though Hurricane Katrina was a major disaster and impacted poor African American’s the hardest, the Corps did learn from the disaster and conducted a project that involved fixing more than half the system of levees, canals, and floodwalls. I was very pleased to learn that the Corps is continuing to monitor the waterway system and even published an updated map “showing block-by-block where flooding would likely occur if a 100-year hurricane were to strike” Layzer pg. 555). Hurricane Katrina has been one of the most expensive disasters ever recorded. However, the extent of the damages to the city of New Orleans could have been minimized with regular monetarization and assessment of the waterway system of the Mississippi River, specifically the levee system. A simple check up on policies or regulations could be matter of life or death
Flood control for developed urban areas does not allow the Corps to make money, but leveeing off wetlands for new development increases their profit significantly. Unfortunately, a life saved by levees does not economically benefit the Corps, which may have influenced their projects and funding priorities. This produces projects that conflict with flood control and result in large floods to the New Orleans area. The new development has put thousands of citizens in life threatening situations in the case of a flood. (Can We Save New
Hurricane Maria made its landfall in Puerto Rico islands at the south east Costal town of Yabucoa at 11:15am BST on 09/20/2017 (mm/dd/yyyy) with a wind speed of 155mph as a category 4 hurricane knocking out power in the islands which has a population of 3.5 million. Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico islands just days after this region was hit by hurricane Irma. Hurricane Irma passed through north of Puerto Rico with a wind speed of 185 mph on 09/07/2017 (mm/dd/yyyy). Even though it did not make a landfall on Puerto Rico Hurricane Irma made significant damage by pushing the island in to darkness without power and agricultural loss of over $45 million.
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 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.
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.
According to CNN (2017), FEMA released its cost estimate on the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina which was around 108 billion dollars and a total of 1,833 people have died.
The island of Puerto Rico was met with destruction at the hands of Hurricane Maria. The storm was the strongest within United States territory in close to a century. Maria thrashed major parts of the Dominican Republic before making landfall on September 21st in Puerto Rico at 11:15 BST in the town of Yabucoa. It clocked in with 155mph winds and knocked out power to the entire nation. All 3.4 million residents were left in the dark.
It is with the salient awareness of its susceptibility to hurricanes that the city of Mobile in Alabama initiates the development of hazard mitigation planning. The Mobile County Alabama Hurricanes Hazard mitigation plan is a multi-jurisdictional guide for the county of Mobile. Its communities and other stakeholders who are the vital players in their efforts to successfully prepare a plan that will act as a roadmap in responding to hurricane disasters. The plan addresses the hurricane hazard that is a major threat to the people, property and the infrastructure of Mobile County in Alabama. The plan focuses on hazard mitigation planning and actions necessary to reduce or eliminating long–term effects to people and their property as a result of the occurrence of hurricanes. The purpose of the mitigation plan is to ensure that the repetitive cycle is broken by producing less vulnerable conditions amongst the people, property and topographical features.