For those who lived through it the topic can be a hard one to digest. Many people can not only tell you what they were doing that day, but for the entire month after. It was sheer destruction and in The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane Katrina-- the Inside Story from one Louisiana Scientist Dr van Heerden dives into a highly controversial topic. While the book is filled with hard hitting truths and honesty, it is at times difficult to process at times.…
The breakdown in New Orleans’ social structure, loss of cultural heritage, and dramatically altered…
On August 29, 2005, the third strongest storm ever documented in America, Hurricane Katrina, hit the coast of Louisiana at 125 miles per hour. However, the real horror came when the levees breached, causing New Orleans to fill up like a bathtub. Gary Rivlin discusses the racial, political, and geographical change of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in Katrina: After the Flood. Gary Rivlin is a journalist and author of five books. His works have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, GQ, and Wired.…
However, people in New Orleans are always living in the fear of a second “Katrina” mostly because of its unique geography condition. Considering the geographic characteristics of New Orleans, it is a vulnerable city especially when it comes to storm surges. Because the city is lower than the water level of Mississippi River and lake Pontchartrain. What’s more, there is always a higher crime rate in New Orleans for decades. But after Katrina, many experts with great ambition came to New Orleans, trying to redevelopment it to an attractive city.…
On any given evening, music could be heard drifting through the streets as it seeped through windows and doorways of bars and lounges. The true nature of the tunes could be felt then, out in the dimly lit streets as it permeated the thick, humid southern air. The wild energy carried out into the night like a ghostly memory, bittersweet in its distant warmth. Music was the lifeblood of the city, the birthplace of jazz. New Orleans, 1953, nurturing the unique blend of rhythm and blues as it poured throughout the city.…
Katrina hit New Orleans the hardest, mainly because it is below sea level and easily flooded, but it also did damage in other states. It caused flooding in Southern Florida and damage and extensive power outages in Miami. From the Gulf coast to the Ohio Valley, flood watches and warnings were issued. Parts of Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi were under water. Some rain bands from Katrina also produced tornadoes creating more damage.…
In the reflections of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the unsteady response associated with dealing with the historic disaster that his New Orleans gives way to thorough discussion the levels of responsibilities and role of the federal, state, and local authorities in times of disaster and emergency response to such disasters like Katrina. Under the systems or practice where more power is pushed to the federal government to spearhead and to always play the lead role is not a good idea and Katrina exposed the truth in that. In as much as federalism exist, Homeland security and the disaster management organization should operate or response to national disasters and not just act on federal missions. Before, Hurricane Katrina made a land…
The horrendous and catastrophic Hurricane Katrina changed Americans view about how the government is able to respond to emergency situations. With the help of many emergency crew and organizations, New Orleans was able to slowly rebuild. New Orleans was an exceptionally prosperous and unique town before Hurricane Katrina had plummeted through the area. One gentleman named Wynton Marsalis described New Orleans as "a true American melting pot:…
The town most affected by this natural disaster was New Orleans. New Orleans is a town located under sea level and is protected from flooding by levees. When the levees broke it caused thousands to lose their lives and even more to be trapped inside their town they called home, people went days with little to no materials needed. Hurricane Katrina was such a catastrophe because…
Structural racism refers to a pattern in societal structure that provides different opportunities and resources to people of different races in a way that systematically disadvantages members of certain races. Structural racism is perpetuated neither through explicitly discriminatory laws nor conscious racial prejudice; instead, it is subtly self-perpetuating. Structural racism is pervasive and entrenched in American society, despite a supposed ‘color-blindness’. As structural racism is necessarily obscured and hidden, it helps to look at specific cases when considering how structural racism continues to harm minorities in the United States. For example, Hurricane Katrina has made structural racism more obvious in New Orleans.…
On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast with the force of a nuclear explosion. Less than 12 hours later, more than 80% of New Orleans was submerged in water. The resulting damage is predicted to have cost $300 billion and to have taken at least 1,400 lives. The progress in which cities along the Gulf Coast has amazed much of America, especially in New Orleans. As The New York Times stated, “It is a wonder that any of it is there at all.”…
After Katrina took her path through the south (dissipating near the Great Lakes), the damage continued on. “More than one million people in the Gulf region were displaced by the storm. At their peak hurricane relief shelters housed 273,000 people. Later, approximately 114,000 households were housed in FEMA trailers” (“Hurricane Katrina”). Countless numbers of people were forced to look for help elsewhere, whether it meant to uproot and settle down within another state, settling in with a family or simply just fending for themselves in this harsh and dangerous…
The first major issue, which most areas in the city sit below sea level. The problem here is as the city is sinking sea levels are rising. With the rise in sea levels, this causes the city to be prone to a great deal of flooding. To bring this into perspective, if you think of JMU’s campus (New Orleans) like a giant bowl (elevation of different areas) with the center of the bowl being the tunnel under Interstate 81, when JMU receives large amounts of rain all the water drains toward the tunnel (the center of the bowl) and eventually flood it out. This is how New Orleans is, some areas sit as low as six feet below sea level and some areas sit as high as twenty feet above sea level.…
New Orleans has always held a special place in my heart. I was born in the Crescent City, moving to Seattle only a year before Katrina, and I have returned to visit for two weeks every summer since. When I think of the New Orleans of my childhood, I remember food packed with flavor, music full of heart, and people teeming with generosity. I always devoured my aunt’s red beans and rice and my uncle’s duck and andouille gumbo. Playing in City Park, walking through the Audubon Zoo, and celebrating Mardi Gras all contributed to a dynamic image of New Orleans that I carried with me when I moved to Seattle.…
Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst hurricanes in the history of the United States. The hurricane is stilled ranked the third of all hurricanes. Katrina killed at least 1,245 people. Katrina has been the deadliest hurricane since 1928, Okeechobee hurricane. Katrina done about 108 billion damage, 4* more damage than hurricane Andrew, in 1992 in the United States.…