Socio-Economic Effects Of Hurricane Katrina

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Introduction
Hurricane Katrina was the 11th tropical storm of the 2005 storm season in the Atlantic basin (Knabb et al. 2011). Katrina first developed on August 23rd, 2005 and affected the Bahamas, Cuba and the Southern United States before dissipating on August 30th, 2005 and becoming the costliest hurricane to impact the United States and one of the top five deadliest hurricanes in US history (Knabb et al. 2011). During the week Katrina reached peak intensity as a category 5 hurricane and at one point the tropical storm force winds extended 200 nautical miles from the center of the cyclone (Knabb et al. 2011).
The damage from Katrina resulted in more than 1300 dead and 1.5 million displaced people as well as costing $200 billion in disaster assistance and rebuilding costs along with lost profits from the damaged oil refineries and production operations of the Port of New Orleans (Comfort 2006). While the entire Mississippi Delta was affected by hurricane Katrina, the majority of damages occurred in New Orleans where the levees and floodwalls were breached and floodwaters entered the city. The effects of Katrina were not only socio-economic but
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2006). The plain formed over the past 6,000 years now covers 25,000 km2 (Boesch et al. 2006). The Mississippi delta plain was built up through sediment deposits at the mouth of the river and during floods each spring; the sediment would then be compacted and sink until it was replenished the next year (Fischetti 2001). To stay above sea level, the surface of the coastal wetlands on the delta need to continue growing vertically at the same pace as the relative sea-level rise which in the Mississippi delta is about 1 cm every year (Day et al.