Hurricane Katrina Case Study

Hurricane Katrina was a category 4 hurricane when it hit New Orleans on the 29th of August 2005. It had formed over the Bahamas and hit southern Florida as a category 1 hurricane. It had strengthened into a category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico before weakening to a category 4. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall.
The hurricane had caused over 81 billion dollars worth of damage for the USA. The Hurricane had hit southern Florida as a category 1 hurricane but still caused many deaths and a lot of damage. The place worst affected was east New Orleans. African Americans were the most affected. Most of the African Americans lived in the lower ninth ward which was the worst affected area in New Orleans. The total fatalities of the hurricane were 1,833 confirmed. The storm surge was over 6 metres and it caused a lot of beach erosion and in some cases, totally destroying the coastal areas. In Dauphin Island, approximately 90 miles to the east of the point where the hurricane made landfall, the sand that comprised the barrier island was transported across the island into the Mississippi Sound, pushing the island towards land. The storm surge and waves from Katrina also obliterated the Chandeleur Islands, which had been affected by Hurricane Ivan the previous year. The lands that were lost were breeding grounds for marine mammals, brown pelicans, turtles, and fish, as well as migratory species such as redhead ducks. Overall, about 20% of the local marshes were permanently overrun by water as a result of the storm. The damage of the storm also force closed 16 natural wildlife refuges. The storm caused oil spills from 44 facilities throughout south eastern Louisiana, which resulted in over 7