Insurance companies were pounded after the storm with many insurance claims due to all the flooding and wind damage. A lot of policies would not cover the flooding that was caused by storm surge. This left a lot of people with no money to fix their homes and an insurance policy that is useless. Not only were the people homeless, but also lost all of their clothes, beds, and valuables. Many of the valuables and memories could not be replaced.
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). [8] It became the largest search-and-rescue operation in U.S. history. [9] It was also resulted in millions leaving the Houston/Galveston area and other parts of Texas. However, Hurricane Rita still holds the designation as the largest U.S. evacuation in history.
(i) Description of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina is said to have been the most costly and deadliest hurricanes in U.S history, resulting in $81.2 billion dollars in damage and 1836 casualties6. The hurricane made landfall in New Orleans in the early morning of August 29th, 2005 as a Category 3 or 4 storm. The heavy rains that were produced as the hurricane moved inland, along with the poorly designed levees, caused all 56 levees in New Orleans to fail, resulting in freshwater flooding of 80% of the city15. Hurricane Katrina devastated an area over 160 km from the storm’s eye, which included parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and most importantly, Louisiana6. It originally formed off the Bahamas, on August 23rd, as a Tropical Depression and strengthened to a Category 1 storm once it made landfall in Florida on August 25th.
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.
Residents were without power for up to six months after the storm rolled through. Andrew also caused a great deal of damage to offshore oil facilities as it approached a second landfall in Louisiana, where it caused another one billion dollars in damage. In total, the damage caused by Andrew in both South Florida and Louisiana totaled twenty six billion dollars, the most costly natural disaster in United States history. The social impacts on South Florida were tremendous. You have to take into consideration that before Hurricane Andrew, there was about a generation of South Florida residents who had not experienced a hurricane.
The communication and rhetorical decisions between Five days at Memorial and “Globalism’s Discontents” When challenges are coming and deadly choices need to be made, people always prove who they really are, which can be an ordeal of the basic humanity. As one of the biggest hurricane in the last 100 years, Hurricane Katrina seriously impacted the coast of United States in August 2005; “Katrina caused widespread devastation along the central Gulf Coast states of the US. Cities such as New Orleans, LA, Mobile, AL, and Gulfport, MS bore the brunt of Katrina's force and will need weeks and months of recovery efforts to restore normality” (Waple, ncdc.noaa.gov). During the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, doctors at Memorial Medical Center used the “triage system” to put patients into different levels for evacuation and some of them were euthanized by medical due to the lack of power, medical conditions, and the limitation of rescue. After two-year researching, Sheri Fink published the article “The deadly choices at Memorial” in the New York Times Magazine in 2009.
FEMA: Learning the Hard Way Student Name ESOL 400 Mary Warden Last Name 1 FEMA: Learning The Hard Way In August 29, 2005, one of the most devastating natural disasters struck the United States. Hurricane Katrina made an enormous damage to the people living in the Gulf Coast. The hurricane left an unimaginable suffering to people physically, psychologically, and financially. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), whose role was to prepare and organize actions necessary to warn and help people in national emergency situations, seemed to be disorganized delaying the help people needed in this particular situation. Hence, FEMA’s lack of preparation and organization led to a greater damage and suffering to people.
Residents of New Orleans have been urged to leave the city, but its evacuation routes were so congested, the authorities acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of residents would not get out in time. Leslie Phillips January 31, 2006 stated from the government’s point of view, “in the days leading up to Katrina’s landfall, 85 percent of the city evacuated successfully the 85 percent that were ambulatory and had, found, or could afford transportation, and had a place to stay. That is the one bright spot in this tale. However, many of the city’s most vulnerable populations – the poor, the sick, and the aged – were left behind. The city opened the Superdome as a refuge of last resort, but the Dome was ill equipped to accommodate the tens of thousands who would flock there in desperation to escape the rising floodwaters.
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).
The Effects of Hurricanes Hurricanes also known as Cyclones are amongst the strongest storms on earth, which have plagued man for centuries. Jay Barnes confirms this timeline, with this passage “They are called hurricanes in the Western Hemisphere, a term probably derived from ‘Hurukan,’ the name of the Mayan storm god, and other similar native Caribbean words translated as ‘evil spirit’ or ‘big wind’.” ( 6). Every year, in the summer season, these forces of nature begin to form themselves sometimes less numerous then the year before and sometimes in greater numbers witnessed in a decade. For future reference hurricanes are often named, not only to keep track of them but also people that have experienced them, tend to remember these storms by their name. They are born from tropic waters that affect quite a few across the world but in the Gulf of Mexico they tend to wreak particular havoc.