Two of the United States worst natural disasters in money lost and life lost has been form hurricanes. The to hurricanes that steps up from the rest have been hurricane Sandy in 2012 that hit the northern east coast and hurricane Katrina that hit the southern east coast in 2005. A hurricane is a tropical cyclone that is rotating low pressure system that has organized thunder storms with no front boundary separating two air masses of different densities. Tropical cyclones with sustained surface winds of less than 39 miles per hour are called tropical depressions. Those with maximum sustained winds of 39 miles per hour are called tropical storms. When the storms maximum sustained winds reach 74 miles per hour, it is called a hurricane. The
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After crossing Florida’s pan handle it made it was in to the Gulf of Mexico. As it was in the Gulf of Mexico it picked up strength and became a category 5 hurricane that made land fall with a direct shot to Louisiana and New Orleans. New Orleans. New Orleans was where the majority of the destruction and death happened. It was only a matter of time before New Orleans was going to have an event such as hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was originally marsh land that had been deposited out into sea from the Mississippi river. This marsh land acted as a natural barrier from hurricanes allowing natural vegetation to act as a wind break to protect people and property inland and the marsh also acted like a giant sponge. This would compensate for all the water that would blow onto land during the hurricanes. The area that New Orleans is sitting on today was unbuildable until the early 1900 hundreds when there was means to pump that water out of the marsh land. This caused the marsh land to dry up and then New Orleans starting to build up. New Orleans sits 12 feet under sea level and is protected by a series of walls, levees and pumps. During the Hurricane Katrina some of the leaves broke this allowed for the ocean water to rush into the sunken city and cause wide scale flooding of the city. (Townsend,
After crossing Florida’s pan handle it made it was in to the Gulf of Mexico. As it was in the Gulf of Mexico it picked up strength and became a category 5 hurricane that made land fall with a direct shot to Louisiana and New Orleans. New Orleans. New Orleans was where the majority of the destruction and death happened. It was only a matter of time before New Orleans was going to have an event such as hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was originally marsh land that had been deposited out into sea from the Mississippi river. This marsh land acted as a natural barrier from hurricanes allowing natural vegetation to act as a wind break to protect people and property inland and the marsh also acted like a giant sponge. This would compensate for all the water that would blow onto land during the hurricanes. The area that New Orleans is sitting on today was unbuildable until the early 1900 hundreds when there was means to pump that water out of the marsh land. This caused the marsh land to dry up and then New Orleans starting to build up. New Orleans sits 12 feet under sea level and is protected by a series of walls, levees and pumps. During the Hurricane Katrina some of the leaves broke this allowed for the ocean water to rush into the sunken city and cause wide scale flooding of the city. (Townsend,