Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

Introduction

The definition of natural disasters is any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth. The severity of a disaster is measured in lives lost, economic loss, and the ability of the population to rebuild. All natural disasters cause loss in some way. Fields saturated in salt water after tsunamis take years to grow crops again. Homes destroyed by floods, hurricanes, cyclones, landslides and avalanches, a volcanic eruption, or an earthquake are often beyond repair or take a lot of time to become livable again.

The natural disasters that really affect people worldwide tend to become more intense as the years go on. Frequency of earthquakes, mega storms, and heat waves has gone up considerably in

An estimated 1,836 people died in the hurricane and the flooding that followed in late August 2005, and millions of others were left homeless along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans, which experienced the highest death toll. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have said Katrina was the most destructive storm to strike the United States. It ranks sixth overall in strength of recorded Atlantic hurricanes. It was also a very large storm; at its peak, maximum winds stretched 25 to 30 nautical miles and its extremely wide swath of hurricane force winds extended at least 75 nautical miles to the east from the centre. Also, it was very powerful and went from a category 1 to category 5 storm in 4 days. Some scientists claim that global warming is partially to blame for the power and endurance of Hurricane Katrina due to the fact that it’s warming the oceans (“Causes and effects…” from For the People). They also need continued heat to exist and if the oceans are being heated up the endurance of hurricanes should be longer. So due to wind speed, and partially due to global warming, Hurricane Katrina had a strong impact on the U.S.

Natural disasters can cause many problems and for that it is very important to existing measures in the current infrastructure. For example, in a case of a flood or a tsunami must be: thorough testing of all flood protection and maintenance, in order to ensure their proper functioning, design and execution of works retaining soils in forest areas the natural vegetation has been recently destroyed by fire, control and preventive cleaning of the streambeds to restore the natural flow, within urban removal of all trash, debris, trees, foliage, which are in the streets and public areas and can cause blockages in adjacent rainwater drainage wells and of course must informed the public on preventive measures and self-protection against the dangers arising from