Hurricane Katrina Research Paper

Words: 603
Pages: 3

Imagine having a beautiful family, lovely home, and then one day, everything is ruined because of a massive hurricane. That is what happened to many people living in the United States, and more specifically, New Orleans. This was not just a regular hurricane, it was one of the strongest ever caught on record, and the damage was horrifying to thousands and thousands of people. There was severe damage when the hurricane took place, and we have still not been able to replace everything that this horrible hurricane ruined. To this day, we are trying to rebuild what was lost and damaged, but we cannot bring back the people who died during this horrifying disaster. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst natural disasters that …show more content…
This storm was initially not supposed to be as bad as it turned out. It was suggested that it would be a Category 3 at most, but they were not that lucky. Katrina initially started as a tropical depression, which is a lesser version of a tropical storm. The tropical depression started weakening, but a band of low pressure moved through and caused it to become stronger and eventually turned into a hurricane. It hit land at a Category 3 hurricane, but in very short time moved its way up to a Category 5. Katrina is the largest hurricane to ever strike the United States, and it is the third strongest based on wind speed and damage. Based on the hurricane's intensity, Katrina falls behind The Great Galveston Hurricane which occurred in Texas in 1900 and killed over 12,000 people, and the Okeechobee Hurricane of 1928 which hit Florida and killed 3,000 people. During hurricane Katrina, almost 2,000 people died, but 705 people are still yet to be found. Erik D Olson of the Natural Resources Defense Council refers to hurricane Katrina as “... the single worst environmental catastrophe ever to befall the United States as a result of a natural disaster.” Although this quote describes partially how bad this hurricane was, no words can describe how much this disaster changed these people's lives