The Lessons of Hurricane Katrina

Levees were implemented as the primary form of protection from the bodies of water surrounding the city. Moreover, officials recognized these structures were critical to protecting the city’s inhabitants given the city’s topography. However, a confluence of factors led to projects that were more immediately profitable being a top priority while simultaneously allowing the infrastructure critical to protecting the city deteriorate. Because of decisions to postpone upgrades and maintenance, the city’s chances of withstanding a hurricane of Katrina’s magnitude were decreased. Ultimately, the levee breaches caused the city’s destruction.

The depression began heading toward the southern coast of Florida, where, on August 24, it evolved into a tropical storm and officially given its name, Katrina. After moving northward, Tropical Storm Katrina began creeping westward, and grew even larger. By the time Katrina had reached Miami on August 25, the tropical storm had been upgraded to a category-1 hurricane. Hurricane Katrina grew rapidly from that point, growing into a category-5 hurricane just two days later. Six days after being categorized as a hurricane, Katrina finally dissipated, leaving a trail of destruction in its

New Orleans was originally founded on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River, above sea level. Also surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes that would come up the coast into the Gulf. Originally New Orleans was naturally protected by “coastal swamps that helped absorb the energy of storm surges before they reached dry land.” (Stillman 228) At this point Americans were more concerned with the floods that happened annually from the Mississippi River. In the early days, settlers built a mile long levee to block overflows from the mighty Mississippi while landowners constructed their own levees.

On August 29th of 2005, a category 3 hurricane, dubbed Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast of the United States. It brought winds of 100 to 140 miles per hour, and stretched more than 400 miles across. New Orleans had its first mandatory evacuation ordered the day before, while listing the Superdome as a shelter for those who couldn’t leave town. More than 70 percent evacuated, while the rest stayed at their homes, or took to shelters, to wait out the storm. The aftermath of Katrina was felt in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, but New Orleans was affected the most by far. In the end, more than 2000 were either seriously injured or killed, while those who survived were very short on food, water, first aid, and had very few areas for shelter. A large reason the storm was so devastating was the fact that the storm was able to cover almost 80 percent of the entire city under a large amount of water. Before the storm hit, the city used levee systems and flood walls to protect itself from being flooded. During the storm, however, many failures in the levee system caused close to 80 percent of the flooding covering the city and the nearby parish. Many know that the levee system failed but few in the public know that the major reason it had failed was because of the incomplete design. The disaster

After Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, it turns the city into a hopeless place to be. Eighty percent of the city was flooded and some parts of the city were fifteen under water. During the aftermath of the hurricane, there were tons of looting, shootings, murders, and rapes. Some of those events took place in the Superdome where people live before and after the hurricane hit the city since they were not able to leave the city beforehand. A lot of people lost their homes. Also, local business was destroyed. There were people sitting on their rooftops since their homes were under water and they were

Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States on August 28, 2005. The center of Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on the morning of August 29, 2005. The devastating effect of this hurricane resulted in more than 1,800 citizens losing their lives, as well as more than an estimated $81 billion dollars in damages occurred. By August 31, 2005, eighty-percent of the city became submerged under water because the storm surge breached the city's levees at multiple points. If the levees are damaged massive water will flood Louisiana from the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi River, and other surrounding bodies of water. Some areas of New Orleans were 15 feet under water. Winds of Hurricane Katrina reached an astounding category 3 as

The physical impacts left by this storm, is the central premise to understanding what really happened to this city. The time frame from when the storm hit till now, has caused a significant limitation to really comprehending this historic event. Furthermore, the mass amount of destruction was primarily due to New Orleans being on average 1-2 feet below sea level (NOAA, 2012). Also a lack of scientific accuracy sealed in troubling fate for this city. The duality of being geographically vulnerable as well as the shortcomings of scientific knowledge led to extensive damage to 134,000 housing units, the destruction of multiple bridges along the Gulf Coast, various buildings across the city, which caused harmful chemicals to be leaked into the water system and the disorientation of the main power

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

One of the most significant natural disaster that hit the region was the Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina 11th named tropical storm by scientists, fourth hurricane, third major hurricane and first category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. On the day of August 5, 2005 hurricane Katrina made a land fall as a category 1 hurricane north of Miami, Florida, as a category 3 storm on August 29 along the central gulf coast near Buras-triumph then Louisiana. The Katrina eventually destroyed the levee system that acted as a protection to New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain as well as the Mississippi river (Stewart& Stacy, 2005). There was massive flooding experienced especially resulting from the water from the lake being swept into the cities. The coast of Mississippi and Alabama were heavily damaged resulting to Katrina being the most destructive and costly disaster in the history of the USA, the damage estimated at $100 billion.

Hurricane Katrina had caused many people to lose their homes and costing billions. “People were displaced from their homes; some lost everything they had. Many left the area and did not return. With more than 1,800 deaths in five states and $81 billion in property damage.” Hurricane Katrina, although only starting at a category one, eventually did reach a category five causing extreme damage. Oil refineries, cargo facilities and fisheries, and New Orleans’s tourist industry were severely impacted by the storm. Homes were not the only thing damaged, New Orleans’s economy was also plummeting and affected the United

On August 23, 2005 through August 31, 2005 a tragic moment occurred in New Orleans. People 's lives changed by losing everything they had due to this storm. It damaged a majority of the coast leading to massive flooded houses, everything underwater, and families not able to find their loved ones. A band of storm clouds wrapped around the north side circulation center early the morning of August 24th. The wind was blowing about 40 mph. The storm was originally called Tropical Katrina. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans early morning on Monday August 29, 2005. Over eighty percent of the city was under some quantity of water. This storm caused more than one hundred billion dollars in damage. Half of the city rose above sea level. August 29, 2005 was the day the Hurricane struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. The people charged the federal government to meet the needs of the people who was affected by the storm. There were many questions lingering as part of the aftermath. What caused the flooding in New Orleans to be so severe? What was the impact on the government’s response? How was the city/region changed since then?

New Orleans suffered a large number of casualties, a lack of drinkable water, severe property damage, electrical outages and many more difficulties as a result of hurricane Katrina. After the disaster, thousands of people who had lost their homes were forced to seek shelter at the New Orleans Superdome. Many others broke in to the Convention Center to find safety there. These structures were large enough to hold huge numbers of people, but did not have the proper facilities, supplies or law enforcement that was needed to sustain the amount of individuals who were forced to temporarily move in. People stayed there for several days until they were able to make other living arrangements, often in far away cities and even other states. Both of the buildings may be condemned due to the extremely

New Orleans was one of the hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. The impact of Hurricane Katrina was so vast because of the powerful winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surge that it brought. The wind and rain cause heavy damage to the trees and agriculture but the storm surge amplified the effects of Hurricane Katrina. The storm surge damaged New Orleans’ levees and canals. The peak of the storm surge was at Clermont Harbor, Mississippi and had a height of 10 meters. The storm surge was caused by the rush of water towards the shore that was associated with the hurricane because of the hurricanes’ large area and powerful winds.  According to a study by McCallum and Heming in 2006, the unusually high storm surge was because of “the long, gently sloping shelves and shallow water of the Gulf coast” (McCallum & Heming, 2006 p. 2014). The storm surge brought massive flooding and residents who were in low-lying areas had to go to their rooftops and attics to stay dry. Hurricane Katrina flooded almost 80% of New

On August 29, 2005, hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a category three storm and brought with it some of the most catastrophic effects that any hurricane has ever left behind. Twenty foot surges of flood water washed into New Orleans after the levees broke, and ended up flooding over 80% of the city. It was now in the hands of the United States government to help the millions of displaced Americans find proper shelter, food, water, and services that were required for their recovery.

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