Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath of a Government Failure
$4.95
5 word format
document in English
ecology & environment
case study
published 28/04/2008
review : Completed
level : Advanced
requested 1 times
Summary
In the late days of August 2005, forecasters and meteorologists closely watched a storm soon to be named Katrina brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. Like many other infamous hurricanes of similar magnitude, the tropical storm began rather quietly and only caused initial high winds and some tangential storms off the Florida coast. But after coming ashore in Florida on August 27, the National Weather Service advised that the Gulf coast along Louisiana and Mississippi should prepare for the worst, fearing that the storm, after returning to the Gulf, would again pick up speed and head for more vulnerable areas (Knabb 2). They were right. Mere days later, a storm surge ravaged the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana unlike any in recent history. New Orleans, protected from the Gulf by doomed-to-fail levees in many lower income parts of the historic city, was violently attacked by gusting winds and heavy rain, and areas near the levees were completely destroyed by the hurricane’s floodwaters when the weak barricades collapsed. Wiping out entire neighborhoods and city boroughs, Katrina’s wrath left New Orleans under several feet of water and made damage incalculable for days and weeks after the terror had begun. Countless city residents were left homeless and without temporary shelter less despite the mandatory and volunteer evacuation efforts that had begun before the storm came ashore. Disease spread through the area as mold and rodents soon took to the damp environment (Cooper 54). Further exploiting the tragedy, scenes of helpless people clinging to trees and living on their rooftops for days became regular B-roll footage for cable news stations, as did disturbing reports and imagery of accumulating dead bodies floating through the flooded city (Roig-Franzia).
Table of Contents
- Named one of the worst natural disasters in United States history.
- Gulf coast was in the midst of hurricane season, in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina's landfall in New Orleans.
- The ability to act fast was primarily based upon the government's understanding of the severity of the situation.
- The problems at FEMA could not have been more basic or avoidable.
- It was not until the fifth day after Katrina's devastation that President Bush finally began to deploy troops to the Gulf Coast.
- During a televised fundraiser for the Gulf Coast, rapper Kanye West publicly made a statement that the President didn't care about Black people
- The overabundance of refugees remaining in the city left organizations in a state of bewildered panic as the storm approached.
- Much of the devastation left in its wake can still be seen in New Orleans today.
- The incredible destruction left in the wake of Katrina was instead exacerbated by government failures to send substantial relief.
Latest in the category ecology & environment From the same author
knowledge network
