Storm Chasing - Assignment Example

Prior to the beginning of a tornado, forecasters are concerned about the potential of a tornado outbreak. These are called the ingredients of a tornado outbreak or the classical elements of a tornado production. Among of which includes a very warm and humid air near the surface with colder air aloft, strong variations of winds with height (vertical wind shear), an upper-level storm system plowing into the Southeast, and a cold front (Henson, 2011, n.p.). Tornadoes developed in a condition that spawns atmospheric setting for severe thunderstorm.

The warm, humid air is overlain by a cooler, drier air aloft that leads to atmospheric instability and when a low level jet and polar jet stream provide strong vertical wind shear, the surface air is forced upward and large super cells thunderstorms spawning tornadoes may form. Most tornado outbreaks occur in Tornado Alley (from West Texas northeast through the western and central portions of Oklahoma and Kansas and across most of Nebraska) and during the spring and summer due to the presence of warm surface air ground (Rafferty, 2011, 170).

Mortalities and case fatalities from tornado outbreaks are extremely high. . Please make a list of your recommendations and provide justification for each. After the disaster brought by the typhoon Katrina, a number of structural defects and personnel failures were noted. These have made the city of New Orleans at risk for the aftermath of another Katrina-like disaster. The structural defect being pointed out is the design, foundation, and composition of the New Orleans and Gulf Coast communities’ protection against raging storms (Fischetti, 2005, n.p.) while personnel failures include neglect of duties, insufficient actions or poor decisions, systems failure, and lack of effective leadership (Collins et al., 2006, 2).

Instead of redesigning a single levee which can compromise the safety of New Orleans residents, the author recommends the construction of floodwalls which require less land than a levee and can stand on earthen foundations. In addition, constructing flood walls are much better because levees starved the wetlands south and east of the city of the sediment, nutrients and freshwater they need to thrive, cut off sediment flow that builds barrier islands ringing the delta, and impact economy because of rebuilding costs and food price hike due to food shortage.

Meanwhile, recommendations to address personnel failures include: development of an effective response emergency/disaster preparedness headed by the chief executive to centralize and coordinate emergency actions; initiating a planning exercise or drill from federal, state, local officials, media, and citizens featuring a storm-like scenario to determine and address faults in the system and inform the public of things to do in case of a disaster; devotion of sufficient