Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans - Case Study Example

 Hurricane Katrina-New Orleans Formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean occurs every year during a certain time period; this is usually referred to as the Atlantic hurricane season. The cyclones that occur during this period are usually tropical and are referred to as depressions and hurricanes. The time period usually starts from June and ends in November. According to the seasons the starting of the hurricanes and cyclones usually takes place in the end of summer, because this is the time period when there is the largest difference between the temperature of the sea and the land. Hurricanes basically originate due to the temperature difference between the land and the sea. The peak time of these tropical cyclones is during the September season. The month of May is usually inactive with regard to the tropical cyclones because the temperature difference is the least. The cyclones formed in the Atlantic Ocean in the end of the summer season are referred to as tropical cyclones because they usually originate from tropical locations and one more fact that makes them different from normal cyclones is that their cores or center of the large spiral is warmer as compared to any other part of the spiral at any point of height. The spiral of the cyclone comprises of thunderstorm clouds that are ready to burst out and hence when they move they produce high and strong winds and heavy rainfalls. A special characteristic of tropical cyclones is that they have extremely low atmospheric pressures. Some of the pressures of tropical cyclones are the least that have been recorded above the seas. Several factors have been found out as the reason for the origination of tropical cyclones but still not all the responsible factors have been discovered and tropical cyclones are a common topic of research and study (Reider, & Connecticut, 1999). The year 2005 was a devastating year with respect to the hurricanes and tropical cyclones that it brought with itself. Each year almost around 10 tropical cyclones originate and around half of them turn into hurricanes and a half of that lie in the severe category but the Atlantic hurricane season of the year 2005 was an extremely active season in which almost 27 tropical cyclones originated and around 17 of them turned into hurricanes and there were 7 hurricanes that fell into the severe category that is of category 3 or above. Among these severe hurricanes one was named Katrina and this was the deadliest hurricane as compared to other hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina has been placed in the category five if the hurricanes which is the highest severity of hurricane. Hurricane Katrina was 30 ft. long and came to the coast with an extremely harsh and severe thunderstorm, strong winds and heavy rainfall. The hurricane brought a huge amount of damage and almost wiped every infrastructure in areas on New Orleans, Mississippi, Louisiana. Never in the history such a deadly and devastating hurricane struck the united states of America and therefore they had failed to make the required necessary preparations in order to combat with this deadly storm and never has it happened that the tropical cyclones break the record of severity of the typhoon season but in the year 2005 the tropical cyclone season was so active that it broke the record of the typhoon season of the year (Nelson, 2006). Hurricane Katrina is considered among the six deadliest hurricanes that have hit the United States of America. It is also considered as one of the priciest of the disasters as it brought a loss of almost $81 million which is certainly a huge amount and is almost triple the amount that had been lost in the 1992 disaster which was till then considered as the most costly and deadly hurricane. Hurricane Katrina also took the life of almost 2000 people but the correct figure could not be calculated and rough estimates were made for the death toll. Many of the people went missing and could not be found and so they have been also counted among the dead. Thousands of people were made homeless, many children were made orphans, many parents got their children snatched away from them, and many women were made widows (Austin, 2005). Hurricane Katrina started over the Bahamas due to the pressure difference and the conditions were very favorable due to the low pressure and slow winds so the hurricane developed and moved forward to reach the southern parts of Florida, when the hurricane reached Florida it was a category 1 storm and it did not cause much disaster as it was not much severe; it took only a few lives and caused a few damage to the infrastructure only. But when the storm reached the gulf coast of Mexico as this area was quite warm. The storm at this point reached to a severely deadly hurricane of category 5 and brought huge amounts of damage in the area and almost destroyed the gulf coast. But as it moved towards parts of Louisiana its strength weakend and reached a category 3 hurricane. The hurricane’s category changed from category 3 hurricane to a category 5 hurricane due to the unusual warm waters over which the hurricane was moving (Nelson, 2006). The greatest amount of damage was seen in New Orleans. The main reason behind the damage of New Orleans was the failure of the banking system that had been designed to protect the city from the rushing water. A wall had been developed for the purpose of protection of the city and to stop the water from entering the city but the hurricane that struck the city was severe and strong enough to break the protection and enter into the city as a result the city got flooded many kilometers inside the city destroying everything that came on its way. Boats, cars, remains of building also came along with the running water and caused further destruction and death. The failure of the protection is considered as the worst manufacturing and engineering disaster and a case was filed against the engineer’s association. The government had completely relied on the protection system that had been designed and so had taken no other measures for the relief and protection of the people. The destruction of the protection wall resulted in much more damage because no other precautions had been taken by the government. No evacuations could take place as the government were satisfied with their precautionary measures and due to this the people of New Orleans got stuck in the city without food, water, rescue, proper health conditions and a proper place to live. The people were completely paralyzed from the outside world and it was very difficult for the relief teams to reach the people to help and save them. The water that had entered the city remained stagnant in the city for a number of days. New Orleans got much affected because the city in actual is below sea level and although the city is protected by means of protection walls but the height and strength of the wall were not strong enough to stop the 30ft. high hurricane and it resulted in massive damage and destruction. Wind speeds in New Orleans could not be measured accurately as the power system also failed and there was no electricity in the city for a number of days. A large number of people could not evacuate the city and had to suffer a lot. It had been reported that the rescue workers could see dead bodies lying around the streets of New Orleans or floating on the water (Reider, Connecticut, 1999). In order to restore the conditions back to normal and again start the routine life large amounts of money had to be spent in order to rebuild the destroyed structures. Many of the power stations supplying electricity had declared that it would take weeks for them to be able to supply electricity. The main supply of drinking water to the New Orleans also got broken and the people were left with no drinking water. In some parts of New Orleans water up to 20 and 30ft. were stagnant for several days. The highways were completely destroyed and there was no possibility that anyone could cross the highway. Several bridges and roads were also destroyed or covered under water for several days. The airport of New Orleans was also flooded and was closed for all incoming and outgoing flights; later on it was opened in order to provide refuge to the victims of the hurricane but it remained closed for flights. All sorts of communications were blocked, mobile services were stopped and people trapped in their homes and other places were unable to contact and call people to rescue them and as a result many trapped people lost their lives due to the lack of communication. Many of the buildings were destroyed and particularly taller buildings got their windows shattered and their interiors got destroyed. Large parts of forest reserves were also destroyed due to the floods and the gushing forceful water destroying much of the vegetation and crops and as a result the exports and the products that were obtained from forests earlier could not be obtained and hence a loss economically (Austin, 2005). The port was also damaged to a great extent and many of the export items that were placed on the port were also destroyed thus resulting in great loss. The ships, ports and all the goods got destroyed and were rendered as useless. This lead to a great fall in the economy of the country. A number of oil refineries had to be closed and were almost destroyed by the strong flow of water and the strong winds, this resulted in a complete stop in the production of oil from the gulf of Mexico. Halt in the production of oil resulted in a great deal of economic loss to the country as a major part of the economy had a contribution from the oil production in the oil refineries. A number of oil platforms also had to be shut down due to the destruction caused by hurricane Katrina. Many offices were destroyed; factories and industries closed and as a result of which thousands of people were left unemployed. This eventually resulted in further loss in the economy (Virginia, 2006). The hurricane also had a large environmental impact on the city and the country. The entire coastal area had got eroded. Aquatic life was badly destroyed and the ecosystem was badly damaged. Besides aquatic life many insects and animals on land were also badly affected. Many animals were deprived of their habitat as large parts of forests also got destroyed. The healths of the people were also badly affected and many bacterial and viral diseases became common among the people. Due to the presence of the stagnant water in large parts of the city and corpses which could not get rescued by the rescue team lying around on the streets and floating on the water surface also lead to the spread of a number of diseases (Detroit, 2008). Many efforts have been made by the government and international rescue teams to restore life back to the affected areas and revive the economics and the activities of the city. The government has spent huge amounts of money for relief purposes and to reestablish and reconstruct the destroyed city. Huge amounts of funds have been raised by the government to help the suffering people and to provide them with food, shelter, water and other basic necessities. Offices, factories and industries have been rebuilt to provide jobs to the people so that they can again start over their life. Roads, bridges and other means of communication have been restored to ease the life of people living over there. Houses have been provided to the people who have had their homes gotten destroyed during the hurricane. The relief projects continue until life in the city has been completely restored. Although the rehabilitation process has costed a lot but the government is ready to bring back life at all costs (Virginia, 2006). References Reider, G. M., & Connecticut. (1999). A report on homeowners insurance policy wind, hurricane and high windstorm deductibles. Hartford: State of Connecticut, Insurance Dept. Nelson, S. A. (2006). Hurricane Katrina: What happened? : a field trip. New Orleans: Tulane University. Alive in truth: The New Orleans disaster oral history & memory project. (2005). Austin, TX: Alive in Truth. Virginia. (2006). State emergency operations plan. Richmond, Va: Virginia Dept. of Emergency Management. Hurricane Katrina. (2008). Detroit, Mich: Gale. Read More