Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

In todays society, many people look back to August 29, 2005 and remember one of the most destructive and costliest hurricanes ever recorded. Many wonder how this tragedy happened and think how we could have mitigated or even prevented all the lives that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. Not only was America devastated about Katrina and the lives that were taken, but “over 70 countries” had made donations and helped assist in the search and rescue missions, as well as participating in the rehabilitation process. In this paper I will go into great detail of what started hurricane Karina including its strengths, damage, and the heartache that was done in addition to describing how the death toll could have been mitigated by a large amount. By …show more content…
Within a few hours after the strike, Katrina was considered a tropical storm until it struck the Gulf of Mexico increasing it to a category 5 hurricane with winds up to 170 mph. Fortunately Katrina reduced to a category 3 hurricane before hitting the border between Louisiana and Mississippi. Mississippi was hit hard with winds speeds up to 120 mph as well as 55-foot sea waves destroying and dragging multiple houses, boats, and building structures beneath the water through both Biloxi and Gulfport Mississippi. In New Orleans, hurricane Katrina wasn't the only problem. It was the Levees that were made originally to hold back the water from both Lake Pondchartrain and Lake Borne which were flooded by about “10 inches” and soon finally destroyed by Katrinas upsurge causing not only destruction to the city …show more content…
Of Engineers” had built a wall also known as a levee to keep water from Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borne from flooding New Orleans Louisiana. These levees were able to hold off small tropical storms and smaller hurricanes but were no match for the destruction of hurricane Katrina. In fact, before the levees were even destroyed, they were being flooded by rainfall by about 10 inches. As you can see the engines in charge of building the levees made a huge mistake not only causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage but caused over 1500 deaths in Louisiana alone. With how close the Gulf of Mexico as well as Lake Borne and Lake Pontechartrain are in New Orleans the engineers should've created the levee system to at least be able to withstand a category 4 hurricane just because all the bodies of water that surround that small area. though not only were the levees a huge part of the death toll so was the transportation aspect with Hurricane Katrina flooding most of New Orleans, including low income neighborhoods, transportation buses should have been made prior so that people without transportation would have had a chance to evacuate to the Louisiana dome or anywhere else that would have been considered safer. Natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina can't be stopped, but we can do everything in our power to mitigate or even prevent loss of life by creating evacuation plans for the cities affected by the natural disaster as well as creating levees

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