Katrina

• New Orleans

  • Humid climate
  • culturally diverse
  • former slave state
  • French colony
  • fertile soil
  • trade hub
  • lowlands - drained for farming under French rule, 80% is 4ft under sea level
• Katrina hit Florida as a Category 1 at 7mph, causing 14 deaths and over $1 billion in damages.
• Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi as a category 5, after it gained speed and power from the Gulf of Mexico.
• There was unorganised evacuation and congestion
• Primary impacts

  • 50 Levees broke
  • 80% Flooded
  • 1,833 deaths
  • 8.2 meter storm surges
  • 1.3 million acres of forest destroyed
  • Total cost of $150 billion
  • 16 national wildlife centres destroyed
  • increased beach erosion
• Responses

  • Coastal guard rescued 33,500 out of 60,000 stranded people
  • 58,000 national guard troops deployed from all 50 states
  • Congress authorised $62.3 billion in aid for victims
  • FEMA provided housing assistance for over 300,000
  • Kuwait pledged $500million
• Federal Problems

  • FEMA downgraded following 9/11
  • 40% of US troops in Iraq
  • Bush was on holiday
  • communication issues between state of Louisiana and the federal government
  • Didn't fix the already damaged levees around African-American neighbourhoods.
• Socio-economic issues

  • 25% on Welfare
  • racial tensions
  • 100,000 people had no forms of transportation
  • 23% lived below the poverty line
• tourism decreased by 63%
• 250mm of rainfall