hurricane katrina

• Geographical context


  - President Bush declared a state of emergency on the 27th August, 2 days before the storm expected to make landfall

  - advance warning by 26th August

  - New Orleans lies in the Gulf coast of the USA so it expected to have severe tropical storms

  - New orleans also at risk of flooding as the flooding control measurements has resulted in the shrinkage of soils so 50% of land was below sea level and this increases the risk of flooding

  - Population is made more vulnerable as there was a lack of leadership in the area and a evacuation route was only made 19 hours before landfall

  - 150000 people chose to remain in New Orleans
• Impacts


  - The levees was broken and 80% of the city was flooded

  - Only a few people died due to the USA healthcare system ensuring people having clean drinking water.

  - 5 million people left without power

  - $200 billion in damages

  - 1 million became refugees and was displaced from their homes

  - Death toll 1836 with 1200 people drowning

  - 110000 houses was flooded and left damaged beyond repair.

  - oil installation of the area was damaged so oil prices increased globally. 7 million US gallons of oil leaked due to oil spills

  - Racial tensions were intensified as many victims was black African American.

  - Many businesses were affected by storm damage but most were insured

  - damages forced the coloureds of 16 national wildlife refuges

  - refugees were registered in all 50 states after a month
• Storm Infomation


  - First developed on 23rd August in the Bahamas

  - Sustained wind speeds of 280km/h

  - Dissipated on 31st August

  - Made landfall on 29th August accompanied by storm surges up to 10m high

  - 5th most intense Atlantic basin hurricane on record

  - Rapidly became a category 5 storm later on 28th August

  - 28th August, Katrina was upgraded to a category 4 storm and was clear it was heading for the coast of Louisianan and Mississippi
• Responses


  - Authorities found it difficult to respond to the sheer scale of the disaster

  - Response was slow

  - rescue and aid programmes was heavily criticised

  - It has been alleged that the authorities would of responded differently if they were white

  - Most people affected were black American urban dwellers. These were the poorest sand most disadvantages of the society

  - US senate authorised a bill assigning $10.5 billion in aid in the first week of september

  - Department if commerce invested $1.3 million to improve the hurricane-related public broadcasting stations

  - Some insurance companies have stopped insuring home owners in the area due to the damaged from Katrina. Some raised homeowners insurance premiums to cover their own risk

  - 7th September another $51.8 billion was allocated from federal funds
• Secondary impacts


  - Reduced tourism

  - 363,000 evacuated, Some struggled to cross the border causing racial problem

  - Major roads blocked off due to major traffic from evacuations

  - damages to oil due to the oil infrastructure being damaged

  - created a highly toxic environment

  - flights cancelled
• Racial divide


  - Many African American was unable to evacuate as they has no family to go to, no transportation, religious beliefs or too high costs

  - Many tried to cross the state border bridge but go stoped by armed police, they killed 2 and shot 4 people

  - Many evacuated to the super dome but it created a toxic environment and crime rates increased and poor living standards. This created more stress which leads to more crime. Feedback loops

  - These racial segregation implemented from the historical laws

  - Created a job divide where African Americans are doing service jobs which are low paying.

  - This pattern seen across USA with Hurricane Andrew.

  - In the past, Long island florida was hit with a powerful storm but government instantly rebuilt the area as it had a high white population
• Short term responses


  - Red cross set up 275 shelters across 9 states. Many people left families to help volunteer

  - Evacuated to the super dome

  - Coastguard rescued 34000 people

  - military people deployed to help reduce crime
• Long term responses


  - $62 billion spent to aid and rehome

  - racial divide

  - economic divide

  - educating the hazard risks to religious groups to help change the attitudes

  - gentrification of the city as the younger white people brought the abandoned homes

  - houses got abandoned
• Blame


  - Mayor blames the federal government but they blame the FEMA for the poor

  construction of levees

  - Army coops of engineering failed to build levees

  - Many government people resigned including the head of FEMA and leader of army coops

  - President was too slow to respond. Many believes it to be due to the racial divide.
• Causes


  - Climate change

  - levees not fully to standard and could not handle the storm surges

  - lack of education leads to the attitudes they have

  - lack of prediction which lead to the underestimation of the intensity of the storm so could not be prepared as well.