Businesses were flooded along the Texas coast and lost all of their vital technology such as computers, telephones, and other office equipment. This caused a huge burden on many businesses and some businesses were totally destroyed, which left many workers unemployed. Many homes were flooded from the storm surge that got as high as twenty feet. In one city alone, 3,382 out of 3,400 homes were totally destroyed due to flooding. This causes thousands of people to become homeless and displaced.
Hurricane Katrina became known as one of the most disastrous and expensive natural disasters in US history. Four months after the storm hit, the death toll was over 1,300 with hundreds still missing and the estimated property damage exceeded $75 billion. It also became one of embarrassment for our country due to our government’s failure to properly respond and poor communications. There are many lessons we can learn from their poor response, including how to properly assess risk, plan in a timely manner, and communicate effectively. Since New Orleans primarily lies below sea level, the protective barriers or levee systems should have been assessed to determine the winds it was capable of withstanding.
This left the remaining buildings gutted to the third and fourth story. Gambling barges became effective torpedoes, destroying buildings as they were washed up to 500feet inland by the waves and storm surges. New Orleans On Monday, 29 August, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans knocked out all power and submerged the low lying city in um to 6 feet (2 meters) of rising water. Katrina tore part of the roof of the roof of a stadium, where many sought refuge. At this point in it's journey Katrina was a category 2 hurricane and brought winds of of 105 miles per hour or 170 kilometres hour.
The casualties are what make this hurricane the 3rd most deadly hurricane in history. By the end of this hurricane approximately 8,000 out of 36,000 people died from the destruction it left. To put these numbers into perspective that’s around 1 out every 5 people dead. To imagine the pain of the survivors think of 5 people you care about and imagine if one at random where to die due to such a tragedy. As if the hurricane hasn’t taken enough already there was several million dollars worth of property damage, that comes out of everyone’s pocket to rebuild.
“Sandy became a hurricane, made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica, a few hours later, re-emerged into the Caribbean Sea and strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane...” (“Hurricane Sandy” 1). On her passing hurricane Sandy took the lives of people, electricity was limited and schools had to be put on hold. Sandy started around the equator, making her way up to Jamaica taking toll mostly on the eastern parts of Jamaica, where she injured two hundred and thirty seven (237) people and “one man was killed by a boulder that crushed his house due to strong winds...” (Cristina Constantini 1). In like manner, Sandy affected the entire east coast of the United States of America, and according to reports hundreds of people were injured,
The destruction suffered along the Gulf Coast indeed profound. “More than 1000 lives were lost; property and homes in pieces” (Voosun & Miller, 2006, p. 1). The debris left by Hurricane Katrina trailed jobs, businesses, and properties destroyed, leaving behind families, and lives that seemed shattered. “The destruction wrought by the Hurricane Katrina was multilayered and profound. The lives breached resulted in flooding up to 80% of the city with water rising 25 feet in some places” (Voosun & Miller, 2006, p. 1).
Over 1,800 people died and more than $81 billion dollars in damage was done to the cities. Life in New Orleans would never be the same after that day. The people of the United States just watched as Mother Nature destroyed years of hard work and labor in a matter of minutes and days. “The storm surge breached the city's levees at multiple points, leaving 80 percent of the city submerged, tens of thousands of victims clinging to rooftops, and hundreds of thousands scattered to shelters around the country”(Ted Jackson). “The American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Common Ground Collective, Emergency Communities and many other charitable organizations provided housing, food, and water to victims of the storm.
Natural disasters are devastating occurances that not only have the ability to rip apart buildings and homes, but also the lives of the citizens who happen to be in their destructive paths. Hurricanes, specifically, are the most tragic natural disasters of them all. With wind speeds between seventy-five to two-hundred miles per hour, and torrential downpour, hurricanes hold the unfortunate title of "worst case scenario". In 2005, the second worst hurricane in recorded United States history called Hurricane Katrina, struck the south eastern portion of the U.S. Most of it's damage was centered in New Orleans, but it also caused significant catastrophe to those who were living in southern Florida and Mississippi.
The way the media portrayed this horrible event was that the minorities in the town were the ones that were most affected. However, according to the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals. Nearly 51 percent of the people who died in the 2005 storm were white . About 46 percent of the 825 deaths attributed directly to that Category 3 hurricane were black. Hispanics, Asians and American Indians made up the remaining deaths.
Of these, 74 were in Haiti, which was already trying to recover from the impact of three storms earlier that year:Fay, Gustav, and Hanna. In the United States, 112 people were killed, and 23 are still missing. Due to its immense size, Ike caused devastation from the Louisiana coastline all the way to the Kenedy County, Texas region near Corpus Christi, Texas. [6] In addition, Ike caused flooding and significant damage along the Mississippi coastline and the Florida PanhandleHYPERLINK \l "cite_note-6"[7] Damages from Ike in U.S. coastal and inland areas are estimated at $29.6 billion (2008 USD),[2] with additional damage of $7.3 billion in Cuba (the costliest storm ever in that country), $200 million in the Bahamas, and $500 million in the Turks and Caicos, amounting to a total of at least $37.6 billion in damage. Ike was the second costliest Atlantic hurricane of all time, only surpassed by Hurricane Katrina of 2005 (not adjusted for inflation; if adjusted, Ike would be the third costliest storm).