Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina In New Orleans

Submitted By
Words 1004
Pages 5
On August 29th 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States of America. Hurricane Katrina had been forming over the Bahamas as early as August 23rd 2005. It had a category 3 rating when it hit land and stretched for about 400 miles. Experts estimate that $100 billion in damages was caused by Katrina. New Orleans was at particular risk since the city is approximately six feet below sea level. The Army Corps of Engineers had built a system of levees and seawalls to prevent flooding but was lacking in maintainence, leading to levees in the city’s east and west to be less reliable.

On August 28th 2005, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued the city’s first ever mandatory evacuation order and declared the Superdome stadium would be used as a shelter for those who could not leave the city. A few hours after Katrina had hit, many low-lying places were under so much water that people had to climb on to the rooftops for safety. Eventually, approximately 80% of the city was under water. According to History.com (2009), Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people and hit an estimated 90,000 square miles of the United States. …show more content…
Bush. While Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc in New Orleans, Bush was reportedly having a vacation in his ranch in Texas and only returned to the White House on the 31st of August, two days after disaster had struck. En route to the White House, Bush had his Air Force One fly over part of the affected area so he could see the wreckage from the plane. White House officials allowed news photographers to take photos of Bush looking solemnly out the window. As said by Walsh (2015), the PR gambit backfired and many Americans saw the photos as evidence that Bush was too distant from the misery below. He should have instead made an effort to go to one of the disaster sites to show he was connected to the victims and would be personally ensuring their

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

New Orleans Hurricane Katrina

...Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans in 2005 Most of the population in the United States is known for living in coastal cities such as: Houston, New York, and Miami. Although these cities have significant landscaping, behind the landscaping is a hidden body of water. That body of water is mostly an ocean rather than a river. Since coastal cities are closer to a body of water – known as an ocean – the chances of floods increase through seasons. While living in the coastal planes, there is a higher chance of undergoing a hurricane or tornado due to the land being located by a big body of water. Unfortunately, in 2005, a hurricane known as Hurricane Katrina hit the most vulnerable city in the United States, New Orleans. New Orleans is located...

Words: 1150 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans

...head: HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans Carlos F. Campos Introduction to Public Safety Administration 302 Professor Wertman February 7, 2016 1 HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 2 Abstract Hurricane Katrina hit the southern states of Louisiana and Missouri in late August of 2015 almost as a Category 3 hurricane leaving behind death, devastation, and displaced people. The Washington Times (2005) reported that “Louisiana officials have said there were more than 1 million evacuees from that state alone, and Mississippi officials have said the total number of people displaced there could be several hundred thousand.” This essay provides a brief history of the devastation left by Katrina: one the costliest and deadliest natural disasters ever to strike the United States in the last 10 years, and what the city of New Orleans learned from such disaster. HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 3 Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans Introduction According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2015), “Hurricane Katrina was responsible for 1,833 fatalities and caused $108 billion in damage.” making Hurricane Katrina one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States. On August 25, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the southern counties of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale...

Words: 2978 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina In New Orleans Research Paper

...Trey Grimes English 1010 Professor Magrans Date Post-Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans During that calm, quiet time before any storm hits, the people of New Orleans and it’s surrouding areas prepared for a beating. Most citizens left the city in heed of the warnings sent out. As landfall came closer and closer, researchers began changing their predictions on how much rain they would get as well as the cripplng flood levels. Getting everyone evacuated from danger zones wasn’t as simple as it sounded. Many people wouldn’t leave due to sentimental reasons or they just simply didn’t want to let their home go. Following Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans as a whole had to recover from; loss of property, death, record flood levels, and their stunned economy. The flooding that occured in New Orleans wasn’t anything meteorologists predicted. First, the levees that stood against the banks of swollen rivers, were built back in the 1960s. These decade old...

Words: 1535 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

...Yesterday, on August 29,2005, Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. This hurricane mostly hit the Gulf of Mexico and the southern part of the United States. Hurricane Katrina started in the Bahamas as a tropical storm on August 23, 2005. There were many strong winds that got up to 140 miles per hour in Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina costed up to over 80,000 dollars in total. There was about 1,500 deaths from this hurricane. After the hurricane hit, the population of Louisiana went down by a quarter of a million. This hurricane mostly hit the Gulf of Mexico and the southern part of the United States. The states that were most affected by Hurricane Katrina were Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. The worst state that was hit was Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina also hit Florida, but it wasn't as bad as the rest, when it went over Florida, it was more like a storm....

Words: 629 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

New Orleans Post-Katrina

...Concept Paper: New Orleans Post-Katrina December 8, 2013 New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina, which hit the southeast United States in late August of 2005 was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes in United States history. The city of New Orleans was arguably hit the hardest by the hurricane. The objective of this paper is to analyze the link between economic, political, and social conditions in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina and the conditions in New Orleans post-Katrina. Although natural disasters are an inevitability, the human suffering that citizens faced in New Orleans immediately following Katrina were largely avoidable, the result of a lack of adequate evacuation planning and massive governmental negligence. Furthermore, it was no accident which people suffered the most in the aftermath of Katrina. Financial, political, racial, and social disparities in New Orleans long before Katrina dictated who would be most affected after Katrina, both immediately and years after the hurricane. Rebuilding efforts, just like the evacuation, have tended to favor the rich and White and neglect the poor and Black. Pre-Katrina New Orleans was disproportionately Black and poor relative to the rest of the United States. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, Blacks made up 12.3% of the nation’s population while Whites made up 75.1% of the nation’s population (U.S. Census, 2000b). In contrast, the city of New Orleans was 28.1% White and 67.3% Black...

Words: 4933 - Pages: 20

Premium Essay

Hurricankatrina

...Governmental Fumble: Hurricane Katrina Things that occur naturally such as tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes are unpreventable and are considered to be natural disasters. However, when man knowingly aids in the destructive power of naturally occurring events to inflect more damage, it is unquestionably a manmade disaster. For many years, both in the past and present, the United States has experienced some of the most devastating natural and artificial catastrophes such as The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s and the September 11 terror attack by the Al-Qaida terror network among others. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the human factor contributed to both the deadliest and costliest hurricane to impact the city of New Orleans. A city that is known to be the birth place of Jazz and the yearly celebration of Mardi Gras has unfortunately inherited a new chain of thought as the city that went underwater. Hurricane Katrina was the third strongest land hurricane and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. The hurricane is approximated to have affected more than 1.5 million individuals in the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, which contributed to the loss of billions of dollars in damages and job losses caused by the hurricane. The city of New Orleans was the most affected because it stood directly in Katrina’s path and although it is impossible to stop a naturally occurring event from occurring, it is not impossible to limit the damage that it inflicts...

Words: 2870 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina Failures

...9 RUNNING HEAD: LEADERSHIP FAILURES DURING KATRINA ​​​ Leadership Failures of Hurricane Katrina ​​​​ Mark L. Perkins ​​​ Webster University ​​​​​ MNGT 6000 ​​​​ Professor Lee Trovas ​​​​ February27th2014 ​​​​​​Abstract Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history, not only because of the severity of the storm, which couldn’t be prevented, but due to poor planning and the years it took to rebuild and allow the people of New Orleans to move on with their lives.Hurricane Katrina happened four (4) years after the September 11th terrorist attacks and three (3) years after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and one (1) year after the DHS had created a National Response Plan. With the world watching the Federal Government failed the people of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The government failed to show initiative and the ability to provide for the basic needs for the people of New Orleans on many levels, including planning, logistics and communication during the natural disaster and the aftermath of the storm. . Introduction I’m going to discuss several failures of leadership and not just on the federal government but on the city and state as well. There are too many to fault that are identified later in this disaster ranging from pre-planning,...

Words: 3104 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Katrina

...seven years ago, one of the deadliest hurricanes struck the United States on the early morning of August 29, 2005. Hurricane Katrina was an extraordinary powerful hurricane that took the lives of several people, and it is considered the third deadliest hurricane to ever strike the country on top of being the costliest. Devastation spread throughout the central Gulf Coast as people from the affected areas evacuated their cities in hopes that they would have a home and a place to work when they returned. Katrina made landfall at three different locations, but its impact was seen all throughout the world as people came together to restore the destruction created by the storm. For the past 30 years, inland flooding has been the primary cause of hurricane-related fatalities with fatalities due to strong winds not far behind. Most hurricanes can produce a rainfall of least 6-12 inches, or 15-30 centimeters. Inland residents have to be cautious of slow-moving storms (NG). From its center, Katrina spread over 100 miles, or 160 kilometers, and is the largest hurricane of its strength to have ever struck the United States. It is recorded as the third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States and named sixth as the strongest hurricane ever recorded. Out of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Katrina was the 11th named storm as well as the 5th hurricane and second Category 5 hurricane (DISCOVERY). The Saffir-Simpson scale measures hurricane intensity by placing them in categories...

Words: 2432 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

...Overview of Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was one of the largest disasters in the United States, affecting over 90,000 square miles (230,000 km2) this size is almost same as the UK, and damaged many cities. About 1850 people died, and many survivors lost their houses. Katrina revealed many problems, especially an insufficient preparation and bad management. These factors might make the damage more serious. Many factors characterised Katrina as an example of a new type of complex disaster. Such a complex disaster was estimated before Katrina, and it had been named as “the New Orleans scenario”. Before Katrina, FEMA evaluated the New Orleans scenario as one of the most serious potential natural disasters. The first observation of Katrina...

Words: 916 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina

...market in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina Table of contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………3 2. Pre-Katrina situation ………………………..…………………………………..4 3. After-Katrina situation…………………………………………………………..6 4. Current situation New Orleans….………………………………………………8 5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...…9 6. References…………………………………………………………………….….10 Introduction It is August 29th of 2005 when the United States of America is badly affected by one of history’s most catastrophic nature disasters. Hurricane Katrina hits the south of New Orleans and causes severe damage to this city. This second biggest hurricane in the entire history of America left 80 percent of New Orleans flooded, approximately 80 billion dollars of damage and more than 1800 killed civilians. Due to this disaster, New Orleans was almost completely destroyed including the residences of thousands of families. Not only were there economic enormous problems but also political questions rose by that time. The president by then, president Bush, came in discredit because of cutting in the federal funding which was protecting New Orleans. Since then a lot of things have actually changed but unfortunately, too late. Complete neighborhoods were removed from the map, people became homeless and moved to different places. The effects on the housing market in New Orleans were immense. Because of the effect hurricane Katrina had on the housing market in New Orleans, the question...

Words: 2121 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina and Racism

...Racism and Hurricane Katrina Matt DePalma Geography 1000 Assignment 1 October 4, 2013 Under the presidency of George W. Bush, Hurricane Katrina was deemed as a national, political, and racial disaster. From preparations of the hurricane, rescue efforts provided, and money funded for the storm, Hurricane Katrina represented a nationwide failure and the casualties and emotional scars it left on the people of New Orleans is evidence. Monday, August 29, 2005 will forever live on as a day of infamy in New Orleans, a day where not only poor planning was obvious but racial inequalities also became even more apparent to the people. In the aftermath of its destruction, Katrina showed the world just how racist New Orleans was, and how corrupt and slowly the government acted towards saving lives. Unfortunately, New Orleans the the United States government left the black, poverty stricken population for dead, exposing a city still full of racism for had they not been, more lives could have been rescued. For starters, Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans during the storm had issued a mandatory evacuation of the city in preparation of the storm (Trouble the Water). This is a seemingly righteous and smart political move on Nagin’s part except that he also provided no transportation for those without cars or money. As a mayor, Nagin had to know that not every single person in his city could afford the luxury of travel for evacuation of Katrina. Nagin left 100,000 people, most of...

Words: 1045 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Bwileypaper

...Resilience Planning during Hurricane Sandy: Hurricane Sandy Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina University of Maryland University College Homeland Security Management: Resilience Planning and Preparedness for Disaster Response and Recovery (2152), Spring 2015 Written By: Brittany Wiley Introduction: Major Hurricane disasters along the coastlines have affected many cities and communities which have forced them to take into action and adopt the conception of emergency management, such as resilience planning, disaster preparedness, response and recovery planning. Mitigation preparedness plays an effective part in the emergency management plan. Many cities and communities must explore strategies to reduce the major impact these disasters have and implement resilience planning that will allow communities to rebuild. According to the National Disaster Recovery Framework (2011), “a successful recovery process promotes practices that minimize the community’s risk to all hazards and strengthens it’s ability to withstand and recover from future disasters, which constitute a community’s resiliency” (p. 11). Furthermore, Hurricane disaster’s not only expose community’s vulnerabilities but it gives them the opportunity to rebuild with more resiliency. When comparing two devastating Hurricane disasters that have impacted many cities, communities and lives; it’s important to consider Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey and New York. Both disasters distinguish...

Words: 2725 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

The Big Uneasy Film Review

...is a documentary about the disastrous flooding of New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina in a different viewpoint. While mass media describes the flood as well as the hurricane as a natural disaster, Shearer claims that the flooding was actually a man-made disaster, not a natural one; and the film contains comprehensive investigations with scientific data to support the claim. “The Big Uneasy” emphasize on the ineffective design and maintenance of the flood-protection system as well as the engineering structure of Mississippi River’s waterway in the city. Severe environmental damages due to poor infrastructural planning also ruin the natural flood barrier of the region. Furthermore, these problems are supported...

Words: 1039 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

The Case for, or Against New Orleans

...Jason Coleman 06-11-12 New Orleans Recommendation Paper The Case For, or Against, New Orleans Management Decision Models B6025 Dr. Usha Dasari We will look at many factors in our case for rebuilding or not rebuilding New Orleans. This recommendation will be reviewed by state and local governments for their decision. We will perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis which will represent the residents of New Orleans, the residents of the surrounding floods plains, the Mayor of New Orleans, and the federal government represented by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the taxpayers. We will look at scenario models, risk management, and decision trees to support our decisions and analysis. This natural disaster took an enormous toll on the residents of New Orleans. Over 1200 lives were lost and countless injuries were suffered. The loss of revenue from the shutdown of businesses, loss of homes and possessions of residents caused much pain and human suffering. We will conclude with an executive summary which will summarize our decision for or against rebuilding of New Orleans. Prior to the hurricane New Orleans was a tourism magnet. The city offered many restaurants, festivals, and great weather. These positives made tourism a thriving market. Other boons for the economy of New Orleans were the mining, transportation, and warehousing along its waterways. More products came through this port than any other port in the world. There are many colleges in the area than add...

Words: 2509 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

...Dwayne Ryder Jr. Environmental Science Mr. Washington Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States land falling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969 (Shah, 2005). In this paper I will tell you about some majors things hurricane Katrina effected such as communication failures and levee failures. It also caused major border lost to certain states all the way up to Mississippi (Tihansky, 2005) . Last but not least hurricane Katrina also caused...

Words: 730 - Pages: 3