Ninth Ward Levee Analysis

It was the failure of the levees on the Industrial channel that caused devastating flooding to the surrounding Ninth Ward neighbourhood leading to many social implications within the community. The levee failure caused a torrent of water to pour into the neighbourhood with buoyancy forces that caused 125 structures to float onto the roads (Green et al. 2007), with more structures requiring demolition due to damage. It was the Ninth Ward district that also experienced the greatest loss of life due to the failures of the levees.
Before Katrina, the Ninth Ward in New Orleans was a low to moderate-income African-American residential neighbourhood. Therefore, the neighbourhood was disproportionately impacted by Katrina as it had a large population of poor, elderly and disabled groups who were unable to evacuate without assistance. Thus, many were in their homes when the water came through unable to escape. At least 700 citizens would not have died if the levee system had done its job properly (Brinkley 2015).
The failures of the levees had many severe indirect effects on society. The breakdown in New Orleans’ social structure, loss of cultural heritage, and dramatically altered …show more content…
While much of the other areas in New Orleans recovered quickly and people returned, the Ninth Ward was neglected as they were deemed not worth rebuilding. Much of the media discussion and recovery plans regarding the Ninth Ward presupposed a uniformly devastated, un-repairable neighbourhood populated by people unable to rebuild due to their low-income status (Green et al. 2007). Because of this, it took many years for people to return the Ninth Ward as they had no access to basic services such as electricity and running water. This had many social implications as the community was forced into worse poverty than before as they were left with less than they had before the disaster