In the spring season of 1719, New Orleans floods and the building of levees begins and continues for three centuries, which is an example of the several times history has repeated itself.
Although there are many positive attributes of the city, New Orleans has persevered through some of the most devastating natural disasters in the past century. The city of New Orleans was originally founded by Jean- Baptiste Le Moyne in 1717. His chief engineers informed him that the location was not an ideal place for a city because it was located along the Mississippi River, which was known to be prone to flooding. In 1722, construction of an earthen levee began, but still by 1726 the building of the barrier was not complete. Flooding in New Orleans started to become a bigger issue in 1731, so the local
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Following the tragic event, the Water and Sewage Board in New Orleans ordered taller levees to be constructed. Hurricane Betsy in 1965 caused leaders to redesign the levee system and the responsibility of levee construction was placed under the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Once again citizens of New Orleans started to reconstruct their city after another natural disaster. Only forty years later Hurricane Katrina, the unfortunate event that was due to the failure of levees to withhold water, left many homeless, dead and looting for survival. Not only did the levees fail the people of New Orleans, but their government also fell short of supplying the desperate citizens of the city with aid and support. The reaction to Hurricane Katrina to me is shockingly similar to events that have happened both in the past and today in New Orleans. In the weeks after Katrina, the people of New Orleans were devastated by the death of family members, and the loss of their businesses, but eventually they began to rebuild the city just like they did after Hurricane Betsy. Since the construction of the levees
In the book A.D New Orleans After The Deluge, By Josh Neufeld is about Hurricane Katrina and how it affected the people of New Orleans. This book was about real people that escaped and lived through the storm. Most people lost everything including their houses, all personal belongings, and jobs. As I was reading the book was shocked that in the beginning most of the characters were not worried about the storm they just wanted to wait it out. No one was expecting such a big storm and thought it would turn east like they normally did.
In the Wake of Hurricane Katrina Dave Eggers in his non-fiction book Zeitoun tells the story of Hurricane Katrina from the eyes of a Syrian-American family, the Zeitoun, who were living in New Orleans during the storm. Zeitoun, who is a father of four and a contractor, devoted his life for his hard work by serving the community of New Orleans. Zeitoun showed tremendous bravery during the Hurricane Katrina. He rescued many lives, including abandoned dogs at the time of the hurricane. The government response to the storm was very slow at that time and there was a lack of preparedness at all levels.
Hurricane Katrina shift the position of the Department of Homeland Security from making natural disasters an equally as important as terrorism. This even showed that disaster planning requires a great deal of collaboration. The Department of Homeland Security who swallowed up FEMA where not quick to react to Hurricane Katrina because all their focus was spend on planning for a prevent terrorist attacks. The failure of the disaster response system resulted in over 1,200 lives lost in Louisiana and Mississippi. FEMA failed to work closely with its State and local counterparts and communications between these partners and the public were strained at best.
The Battle of New Orleans was a monumentous moment in the evolution of New Orleans. The importance of the Battle of New Orleans was to make sure Britain was not able to conquer New Orleans because they would take control of the Mississippi River and essentially control sea commerce. The events that occurred from 1763-1829 resulted in New Orleans being governed under different regimes to ensure safety from Britain. There are two primary sources that will be discussed in order to help define the time period I have chosen. The first primary source is the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
Although Hurricane Katrina wasn’t expected to ever hit land, it is one of the biggest storms to hit the United States. The storm devastated the city and the country more than anyone would have every thought. Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers, displays many of the disastrous events that take place during and after Hurricane Katrina. The book follows Zeitoun and his wife Kathy, a Muslim couple, with four kids and their own painting business, through the storm. After the storm, while Kathy and the kids are staying with friends and family, Zeitoun rides around in his canoe rescuing survivors and watching his properties which has a phone he uses to keep in touch with Kathy.
It was 6:10 in the morning August 28 2005 and New Orleans had just been struck. Homes were being demolished, people were screaming, innocent people were getting killed from the result of the storm surge. . To this day there are 705 people still missing. While people are living there normal lives, they have not yet to know that in the middle of the Atlantic warm air is rising and it is getting replaced by the cooler air. the Not to forget, the hurricane affected their economy because of $81 billion dollars of property damage.
New Orleans was founded on geologically young river deposits near the terminus of the North American continent’s largest delta. It is surrounded by water bodies on the three sides, with the highest point located about 25 feet above sea level. The Mississippi River is largely contributes to the most of the New Orleans’ landform. The rich soil which New Orleans is built on is made up of silt which is constantly covered with water every time the river floods or storm comes in from the water. This creates unique wetland landscape of swamps, salt-water marshes and bayous.
Yes reports mentioned that the US Army did know that the levy system was not able to handle the storm surges experience from this storm. The government appeared to know that something of this magnitude was going to happen, yet they did nothing about it. They didn’t exercise the use of diversity by making sure the local and state authorities had a clear plan in place to help face the hazards from the potential of a storm like this. They didn’t use the knowledge the locals knew and could have put in to use in response with the knowledge the government already had about the structures in New Orleans
“The Atchafalaya” is an article by John McPhee, concerning the flow of the Mississippi River into the Atchafalaya region. McPhee interviews several people who have jobs related to the river and the maintenance of the Atchafalaya’s water flow. The location of the Mississippi River is crucial because if it moves, it could potentially destroy all of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and, subsequently, their status as major shipping channels. Reading this article, I gained more insight on the importance of the river for the state of Louisiana and New Orleans. A quote in the article summarizes the reoccurring theme of society versus Mother Nature: “Man against nature.
Since 80% of the city was flooded, tens of thousands of people went to the Convention Center and Louisiana Superdome for shelter. But help arrived extremely slowly and soon conditions became unsanitary and endangered the people. People suffered from hunger, the heat, and the lack of medical attention. The city was in shreds and there was nowhere to go for most people as the majority of New Orleans was just above the poverty line before the hurricane
The Johnstown Flood , by David McCullough. 1968 in New York. 302 pages. The main theme of the Johnstown Flood is how risky and dangerous it is to expect from individuals that are in positions of responsibility are acting responsibly.
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was of the most powerful natural disasters of the 1900’s in 11 states along the Mississippi River from Illinois to Louisiana. The flood lasted from the beginning of April, through May, June and July and finally ended in August. During the flood, the river got to be as wide as 80 miles in some places and submerged residential areas in as much as 30 feet of water. The flood affected multiple states and the country in countless ways. Some of the ways it changed the country was in a social and political way.
Then from 2005 to 2019 a string of hurricanes, each one stronger than the last, leaves New Orleans destroyed. The entire gulf coast gets quarantined
When The Levees Broke Rhetorical Analysis Essay On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the coasts of southeastern Louisiana. Shortly after, New Orleans’ flood protection system failed, causing floodwalls and levees to topple and break. Covering major points in the film, as they broke, the lives, spirits, and thoughts of many Americans were also broken as well. In a documentary released on August 16, 2006, director Spike Lee utilizes rhetorical strategies to produce a profound vision into the city and it’s citizen’s internal devastation, grievance, and recovery of spirit, and our nation’s failure to assist; when the levees broke. The numerous incorporations of the emotional appeal strengthen Spike’s opinion in a unique way.
The Hurricane Betsy struck at New Orleans in 1965. The police statistics showed that burglaries reported to the police fell from 617 to 425 comparing to the same month in the previous year. There was a decline of major crime 26%. Thefts of over $50 dropped around 13% and these of under $50 also dropped 30%.