Natural Disasters Vs Earthquakes

On April 18, 1906, in San Francisco, California there was an earthquake that was a major geological disaster that affected people in many ways. According to www.History.com, San Francisco had a population of around 400,000, and 3,000 people. The earthquake destroyed over 28,000 buildings and around 250,000 people became homeless. The damage costs were $500 in 1906. The magnitude of the earthquake was estimated to be a 7.8, but only lasted for 1 minute. The earthquake started many fires that burned for days and destroyed around 500 city blocks. The earthquake could be felt from Los Angeles to southern Oregon, and in central Nevada. This earthquake was caused by the transform plate boundary from the pacific and North American plates. The 2 plates rubbed against each other creating the earthquake. (decodedscience.org).

This disaster changed the country because it damaged 203,000 houses, but only 12,700 were destroyed. The FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has paid a total of 378 million dollars to the 738,000 people who have requested financial help. When the storm was

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.

To begin with, many people lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina. About 1,800 people lost

Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on all of the cities in its path. Killing 2,000 people. Hurricane Katrina had become one of the worst natural disasters to transpire. It was the aftermath of this horrific storm that effected the population of New Orleans’s the most.

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.

On March 27, 1964, Good Friday, an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2 struck Anchorage killing 115 people. The damages were astronomical. The damages totaled to be about $311 million dollars, which today would cost $2.36 billion in damages. At that time, it was the world’s second

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

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

There are many people who, after they have endured the trauma of a hurricane, refuse to return to their old houses, or even the area in general. People have different experiences with these traumatic disasters and all deal with them differently. If there is one thing for certain, it’s that they all deal with some sort of loss. Hurricanes are a gigantic setback financially. According to AcuWeather, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the average cost of damages jumped from $1.8 billion to $9 billion. Hurricane Katrina’s damages cost $145 billion and therefore increased the average cost of damages of a hurricane (www.acuweather.com).

Around late August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States—New Orleans. When the Hurricane hit, the winds gusted 100-140 miles per hour destroying everything along its path. The hurricane had damaged 400 miles across New Orleans of which is traveled in. Hurricane Katrina had damaged the lives of thousands of people throughout Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. Thousands of people fled from their homes. Over $100 billion dollars have been

have destroyed homes when the levees of New Orleans failed(These). During Katrina many people were evacuated but some stayed and they were stranded by the water and some of their lives were lost(During). The flooding from these disaster made people aware that the flooding systems in New Orleans had to be improved. In the aftermath of the flooding an improved system of levees and floodwalls, floodgates, and pumps was constructed at a cost of $14.5 billion (In). Since the first hurricane in the 1960s the population of the metropolitan area has risen at a rate slightly higher than that at which the population of the city has declined (Since).

The effects caused by earthquakes are devastating. They cause loss of human life and have effects on infrastructure and economy. Earthquakes can happen at any time anywhere. In January 12, 2010 an earthquake of a magnitude of 7.0 hit the nation of Haiti. An estimation of 316,000 people were killed, and more than 1.3 million Haitians were left homeless (Earthquake Information for 2010). Haiti was in a terrified chaos. After the earthquake, families were separated because many of the members were killed. Homes, schools, and hospitals were demolished. People lost their most valuable belongings. It will take time for the country to recover from this terrible disaster. The long damages are economic issues, health-state, and environmental

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida destructing thousands upon thousands of homes, killing people, leaving south Florida completely destroyed. The aftermath of Hurricane Andrew took roughly two weeks until people started

In the U.S. alone, the average annual cost to repair damage caused by earthquakes is $4.4 billion USD. The worldwide figure is much larger than this but unquantifiable due to poorer countries unable to accurately determine the amount of damage that occurred. Year after year the cost of damages barely fluctuates from these ridiculously high figures and money must be pumped into repairing the damage done. Although a lot is being learnt about earthquakes and the fact that humans are now normally able to be alerted in time to evacuate the area the earthquake will affect, there have been no breakthroughs into reducing the amount of damage earthquakes cause to buildings and infrastructures.