New Orleans Hurricane Katrina Essay

September, 1938 off the coast of Africa a storm was brewing and was heading towards the coast of Florida.

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

Hurricane Katrina left many of the residents of New Orleans homeless and without hope. Many of the residents were displaced and had nowhere to go, as low economic status played a definitely role in this matter. Many of these same residents have resided in New Orleans their entire life, and did not know anything outside of New Orleans. As a result of FEMA assisting with placement of the displaced residents of New Orleans, many people were sent to live in other parts of Louisiana and Texas. Others made their way to other parts of the country with hopes of one day returning home to Louisiana.

Being somewhat curious, I asked Cousin John how he survived Katriana. With a big smile on his face, he said, “If I have survived Mardi Gras festivities for all these years, then Katrina was a cakewalk” (Personal Interview). According to the mayor of New Orleans, it is estimated that about 100,000 people had returned, of the 485,000 who lived in New Orleans before the storm. Forty percent of the homes were still without electricity and — again, according to the mayor — half the small businesses, 57,000, may have been lost for good (New Orleans Jazz Funeral).

To began, Hurricane Katrina became a Category 5 storm on August 28, 2005 as the winds struck at 175 mph. The major impact of Hurricane Katrina's flooding was due to the fact that the levees had broken and New Orleans was below sea level. According to the article called ‘’Facts for Features: Katrina Impact’’, ‘’The levees protecting New Orleans failed in August 2005, approximately 80 percent of the city was flooded’’ (Pyler). All of the levees had breached before 10a.m on the morning of August 29, 2005. There are many causes of Hurricane Katrina from the weather to how the state was established.

The city of New Orleans knew that the storm was coming. Memorial Hospital chose not to evacuate its patients prior to the storm, in hopes that conditions would not get bad enough that evacuation was required, avoiding it all together. Of course, the levees failed and evacuation became a necessity. Most parts of the city were covered in several feet of water. The bottom floor of Memorial began filling with

It was August 29, 2005. A massive hurricane hit the gulf coast of the United States. There were 1,836 people killed. At least 70,000 people were rescued. The people of Louisiana needed hope that their lives would be rebuilt, so as governor, Kathleen Blanco gave an inspirational speech called the “Address to a Joint Session of the Louisiana State Legislature. This speech was presented to the Legislation to demand that New Orleans would be rebuilt and to prove that the people affected by the tragedy would fight through the challenge. Blanco thanked the assistance of everyone during the horrific event, such as, law enforcement and first responders. The speech was very powerful because of Blanco’s use of rhetorical devices, ethos, pathos, and logos.

Additionally, scientists had been warning New Orleans and the government that climate change would lead to increased storm activity and that the city’s defenses weren’t strong enough for such a storm. However, these warnings were ignored by the government and no preventative measures were taken which has influenced the effects of the storm. The reason for the poor response of the government and their negligence of the warnings is arguable. However, it is positive that the reason for this is that the majority of the people affected were the poor, and mostly colored, citizen of New Orleans. The city is racially and economically segregated and these citizen lived in the lower parts of the city, which go down to 11 feet below sea level. (Hurricane Katrina: A Man-Made Crisis?). Additionally, as their economical situation is inferior, it was harder for them to flee the flooding. Therefore, it was mainly this class which was affected and the government was not rushing to help. The slow reaction and the negligence of the government had a major influence on the effects of the storm. If their response was quicker or their preventative measures stronger, the effects could have been reduced as more people could have been evacuated, lives would have been saved and the damage would have been reduced due to extra protection. (Obama: Katrina A 'Man-Made ' Disaster Caused By Government Failure). Therefore, it is to say that hurricane Katrina was definitely partially a man-made

No sign of any catastrophe that was going to happen in 2017, until August 17, 2017 - September 2, 2017. (“Historic Hurricane Harvey 's Recap”, 2017) This is a date that will not be forgotten by millions of people. Uncertainty is what is left because it’s a long process of rebuilding, not only that but to see what used to be home now is gone and have to start from zero. After, the impact there is many rescues done as well as evacuations, the flooding caused massive destructions (“Federal report shows punch of last year 's Hurricane Harvey”, 2018).

The city had so much rainfall that the flood dams over filled and they had to release it no matter what, the citizens couldn 't do anything about it. “Both reservoir outlet gates are open and releasing stormwater into Buffalo Bayou. House flooding is occurring in adjacent neighborhoods, and roadways that run through the reservoirs are underwater. Some 3,000 homes near Addicks reservoir and 1,000 homes near Barker are inundated due to water release.” Many houses were severely damaged due to these releases. The city had no way of stopping it because this has never happened before so they flooded areas that had been flooded to try to protect other places. During this point there wasn 't much to do except to get your most valuable items and get out.

Hurricanes can be powerful storms that form over ocean water in the tropics. Hurricane Sandy occurred in 2012 along the east coast along the United States. Hurricanes cause wide havoc to many coastal cities and inland cities and are very dangerous.

In recent years, Hurricane Katrina and Matthew have been very catastrophic. Katrina is considered to be the most destructive hurricane of all time. This hurricane deeply affected the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Katrina formed from remnants of a previous storm that hit the Bahamas in 2005. As conditions became favorable, it started barrelling toward the Gulf Coast. It made landfall at Buras-Triumph, Louisiana as a category 3 hurricane. The winds of Katrina were 200 kilometers per hour and its storm surge reached 8 meters above sea level. This damaging storm killed 2,000 people and caused 108 billion dollars in damage. After Katrina, many conclusions regarding hurricane intensity were evaluated. The storm surge of Katrina emphasized the ineffectiveness of the hurricane category system to adequately convey hazards and suggested that floods cause more damage than winds (Sumner). Although Hurricane Matthew was nothing like Katrina, the storm still caused many deaths and millions of dollars in damage. Hurricane Matthew formed from a tropical wave in the Lesser Antilles in 2016 and cut through the southeastern region of the United States. Matthew rapidly intensified and reached a category 5 hurricane status. The rapid intensification is considered to be the third fastest of all time in the Atlantic Basin. The main catastrophic qualities

When the Levees Broke by Spike Lee is a documentary based on the remembrance of hurricane Katrina that sabotaged the victims mainly in New Orleans, Gulf State of Louisiana; and other US states including Mississippi; Alabama and Florida. This documentary briefly summarizes on a fight or flight struggle of many citizens in New Orleans had to challenge in their lives.

With winds reaching more than 175 miles per hour this was the strongest winds the city of New Orleans had ever seen. With the winds came lots of water, some areas of New Orleans seen more than 20 feet of water. My home was in an area that was greatly impacted by the water. I remember watching the news and seeing all the damage caused by the hurricane. The system that was in place to protect the city had failed. It broke my heart because I couldn’t believe the city I was born in and had memories was just washed away. At this point, I knew there was no returning home for my family and me. This life-altering event made me see how blessed I was and at any moment I could I have been stranded on the rooftop, or just trying to make it to higher ground because of the rising waters. There were many casualties as a result of Hurricane Katrina and still hundreds of people haven’t been found. It took a few weeks for the water to recede and then people were allowed to return home to inspect the

The tropical depression that became Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and meteorologists were soon able to warn people in the Gulf Coast states that a major storm was on its way. By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region. That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the Gulf Coast area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.” New Orleans was at particular risk. Though about half the city actually lies above sea level, its average elevation is about six feet below sea level and it is completely surrounded by water. Over the course of the 20th