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| Wind and rain damage from the hurricane |
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| Water flows through a damaged levee |
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| Flooded housing and fires in downtown New Orleans after the hurricane has passed |
Hurricane Katrina
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What
The hurricane started as an interaction between a tropical wave (an elongated area of relatively low air pressure, oriented north to south, which moves from east to west across the tropics causing areas of cloudiness and thunderstorms) that emerged from West Africa on the 8th of August and the remnants of a tropical depression (a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain). (Source)
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| Source Tropical storms are known by different names in different regions around the world. |
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Where
It originated in the Bahamas and headed in a westerly direction towards Florida and strengthened as it crossed the water, weakened as it hit land at Aventura on the 25th of August and then headed back to the Gulf of Mexico to gain strength and hit the land at southeast Louisiana on the 29th of August 2005. (Source)
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When
29/08/2005
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For a great interactive timeline of the damage caused by the failing levees and the storm surges, have a look at:
The animated, interactive graphic reboot of Katrina's flooding, 10 years later.
The National Geographic also does a timeline starting from the 23rd of August,
Why
- A thunderstorm occurs over a warm sea.
- The warm surface of the sea, found in the tropics between, approximately, twenty-three and a half degrees latitude north and south of the equator, ensures that warm air rises.
- This rising warm air combines with the warm air of the developing hurricane.
- This creates an area of low pressure at the base of the storm on the sea surface.
- Also known as a tropical depression.
- Trade winds blowing in opposite directions cause the storm to start spinning.
- Rising warm air causes air pressure to decrease at higher altitudes.
- Air rises faster and faster to fill this low pressure, in turn drawing more warm off the sea and sucking cooler air downwards.
- As the storm moves over the ocean, it picks up more warm moist air,
- Wind speeds start to increase as more air is sucked into the low pressure centre of the storm.
- It can take from hours to days for a depression to form into a full blown hurricane.
- Hurricanes are comprised of a central eye of calm winds and low pressure.
- This is surrounded by a spinning vortex of high winds and heavy rainstorms.
- When it hits land, the effects can be catastrophic.
The BBC has created an animation of hurricane formation and the effects of the varying effects of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Click here.
Who
Between 1,245 - 1,836 people died in the hurricane and the subsequent floods
| Alabama | 2 |
| Florida | 14 |
| Georgia | 2 |
| Kentucky | 1 |
| Louisiana | 986–1,577* |
| Mississippi | 238 |
| Ohio | 2 |
| Total | 1,245–1,836 |
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| Missing | 10–66 |
| *Includes out-of-state evacuees counted by Louisiana | |
6 deaths confirmed in the Superdome, 4 were natural causes, 1 drug overdose & 1 suicide
Convention Centre had four bodies recovered - 1 was a homicide.
Before 9th of September, locations of bodies recorded, but not retrieved.
(Source)
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Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director - Michael D. Brown - resigns
New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Superintendent - Eddie Compass - resigns
Many others came in for criticism including the New Orleans Mayor (Ray Nagin), the Louisiana Governor (Kathleen Blanco) and the President of the United States (George W. Bush).
(Source)
How
- Category 3 Hurricane made 2nd and 3rd landfalls in the Gulf Coast region (29th of August 2005)
- Local television station reports widespread flooding and several instances of catastrophic in residential and businesses areas.
- Extensive flooding stranded many residents, some trapped in attics and some stuck on their roofs.
- Clean water unavailable.
- Power outages were expected to last for weeks
- Reports of bodies floating on the water throughout the city.
- Many land lines, cell phones, and Internet access not working due to line breaks, destruction of base stations or power failure.
- All local television stations were disrupted.
- Most of the city's major roads were damaged.
- 473 bridges and spans separated from their supports.
- 64 spans or bridges dropped into the lake.
- 7.30am August 29th 2005 - most of the north side windows of the Hyatt Regency New Orleans had been blown out.
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport closed before the storm, no flooding reported.
- Superdome sustained damage and waterproof membrane peeled off by wind.
- Storm surges breached the levees of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal in 20 places.
- Failures of canals led to 80% of New Orleans flooded.
- Murder rate in New Orleans before Katrina was 10 times higher than U.S, average
- Aftermath of Katrina was marred by looting, violence, shooting against rescuers, murder and rape.
- Dehydration and food poisoning added to Hepatitis A, Cholera, Tuberculosis, Typhoid fever due to food and water supply contamination as well as heat and stifling humidity.
- Survivors also face potential long-term health risks due to petrochemical tainted flood water and stagnant water added breeding ground for mosquitos carrying Yellow Fever, Malaria and West Nile Virus.
- Many reports were exaggerated, inflated or simply fabricated.
- On 31st of August, New Orleans' 1,500 police force had to abandon search and rescue operations to control widespread looting,
- September 1st, 6,500 National Guard arrived in New Orleans.
- Murder rate after Katrina in New Orleans had dropped significantly.
- 4th of September, the Superdome had been completely evacuated of 25,000 people using 475 buses over 2 days.
- Amateur radio provided tactical and emergency communications and handled health and welfare enquiries.
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport reopened to humanitarian and rescue operations on August 30th.
- From September 4th, a temporary communications hub was set up at the Hyatt Hotel in New Orleans.
- Before Katrina, New Orleans relied upon the usefulness of a port city, although faster movement of good transportation had led to a steady decline of New Orleans' economy, so it has had to rely upon transportation, entertainment and public services.
- July 2005, 9,592 applied for unemployment
- After Katrina, labour force reduced faster than demand and unemployment increased.
- Natural Capital (or TEEB - The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity) could help New Orleans' growth, restoring the wetlands could produce the USA with one of the largest fisheries and avian ecosystem. The wetlands would also create a natural barrier for future storms.
- If New Orleans restored the 4,400 square km wetlands, the natural capital is worth an estimated $6 billion/year or $200 billion (2010 values).
A report after 10 years concluded that the flooding "could have been prevented had the corps (U.S, Army Corps) retained an external review board to double check it's flood-wall designs." The failure of the levees was "mainly due to a decision to use shorter steel sheet pilings in an effort to save money." (Source)
Click on the (Source) for a better and clearer
view of the infographic
6 D's of Natural Disasters
Death, Destruction, Disease, Disorder, Depression and Debt
Natural Disaster
A natural disaster is a natural process of a system on this dynamic planet that includes a one or more human lives lost or injured.
