Case Study: Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

• Formed 23^rd August 2005 and dissipated 30^th August 2005. It struck New Orleans on 29^th August
• Highest wind speeds were 175 mph
• Lowest pressure 902 mbar
• Worst affected area was New Orleans
• Total confirmed deaths were 1,836; only 400 of these were outside New Orleans. This makes it deadliest US hurricane since 1928.
• Total damage $90.9 billion (2011 USD)

Why was hurricane Katrina so destructive?

• The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was abnormally active, possibly as a link to Global Climate Change warming the Atlantic ocean increasing the number and intensity of storms
• Hurricane Katrina entered the Gulf of Mexico; the Gulf of Mexico is very warm water and is effectively like giving red bull to a hurricane. The intensity of the storm increased from a category 1 hurricane (which landed in Florida) to a category 3 hurricane when it landed in New Orleans. Obviously this is going to cause more damage
• The relief effort was poorly managed (more on this later), for an MDC of America’s stature and wealth the relief should have been much more efficiently
• New Orleans is on average between 1 and 2 feet below sea level with parts of it being 7 feet below. On average only 51% of the city is at or above sea level. The problem actually is that the levees constructed to keep the water out keep the water levels above the height of the city (see the diagram to compensate for my awful description…). This means it is very easily (and was very easily) flooded, the city just fills up like a bowl. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_Orleans_Levee_System.svg
• Louisiana is ranked 49^th in the US states for Human Development. The poorer quality of housing and education could have contributed to the large destruction. The lower affluence of the region also means that many were left without transport out of the city when the evacuation order was given.
• The storm surge extended up to 6 miles inland in some areas. By 31^st August 80% of New Orleans was under water with some areas 15 feet under.

How prepared was New Orleans?

• In 2001 FEMA identified the three biggest threats on life in the USA. 1.) A major hurricane hitting New Orleans 2.) A terrorist attack on New York 3.) A large earthquake in San Francisco. Partially as a result of this the engineer corps (responsible for maintaining New Orleans levees) investigated the cost to protect South East Louisiana but decided against it, as the recurrence of a category 5 hurricane in New Orleans was 1 in 500 years. Thus is wouldn’t be economically viable to protect New Orleans.
• A simulation named Hurricane Pam was actually conducted in July 2004, which predicted the damage and destruction that would ensue from a category three hurricane striking New Orleans. The simulation highlighted several key areas that needed to be addressed to minimise casualties if a hurricane were to hit New Orleans. This website is good to read up on the hurricane Pam simulation however bare in mind that since hurricane Katrina, the response to the simulation has come under a lot of criticism so the article may be biased; http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/ops/hurricane-pam.htm
• America has arguably the best emergency response team in the world, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Association). However in this disaster it wasn’t up to scratch, why was that? Probably because George Bush put his lawyer mate Michael Brown in charge when he had no disaster management experience, but who’s pointing fingers?
• Hurricane Cindy probably saved thousands of lives in New Orleans. Residents of city had become complacent about the risk from hurricanes meaning that when Cindy struck on 5^th July 2005 few people evacuated the resulting damage forced the largest blackout in New Orleans since 1965. This scared people meaning that when hurricane Katrina was forecast more people evacuated.

How did the Government Respond?

• On the 28^th August Mayor Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city, however many refused to leave due to a lack of money or the belief that their properties offered decent safety. This illustrates the lack of education about the impacts hurricanes.
• A last resort was set up for those people who didn’t leave the city; the Louisiana Superdome was supplied with ready to eat meals and bottled water but individuals were told to bring as much food and blankets as possible.
• The collapse of communication infrastructure made it difficult to organise relief efforts to relieve the many-trapped citizens who were surviving on rooftops throughout the city. In some cases reporters were asked to assist authorities in providing information about unreachable areas. By September 4^th a temporary communications hub had been erected
• Only two routes remained available open out of the city and one of these was only holding emergency traffic. Fortunately New Orleans airport was relatively unscathed and opened to humanitarian flights on the 30^th August and commercial cargo flights on the 10^th September. Passenger flights were resumed on 13^th September.
• The initial refuge of Louisiana Superdome was deemed unsafe after several roof sections were compromised and the waterproof skin on the dome was ‘peeled’ off. The governor of Louisiana evacuated the remaining people inside the stadium to the Houston Astrodome on The 30th August.
• The police force has had mixed reactions following the hurricane, they clearly played a key role in the search for survivors and also helped to control looting however many officers had ditched the city with their patrol cars before the hurricane. One resident was told to “Go to hell, it’s every man for himself” when he asked a police officer for help. It also emerged that the New Orleans police department covered up the murder of two residents by fabricating a story of being fired upon and planting a gun on the dead after the police had killed them.
• The 31^st August saw the announcement that the police were now focusing on trying to control looting and violence that was hampering relief efforts. Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco also announced that 6,500 National Guard were on their way and that “they have M-16s and are locked and loaded. These troops know how to kill and I expect they will”.
• Bush has also been criticised by foreign by foreign leaders for not accepting aid or taking a long time to respond. Interestingly some nations who you wouldn’t expect offered aid, particularly Cuba. America hates Cuba, so it’s of little surprise that they rejected the aid. Our own John Prescott was brave enough to blame the disaster on the fact that America hadn’t been participating in Kyoto.
• Bush was also criticised as it was him who had appointed Michael Brown as leader of FEMA and it had been them who the majority of blame had fallen due to the slow and poor response.
• Bush was also accused of racism, but be careful how you use this point and how you word it.

So how does this link to SPEED?

• S – It was largely the poorer populations who were worst affected as they had no transport out of the city and were stranded.
• P – Bush went on to lose the congress to the Democrats (his opposition) in the 2006 mid-term elections. The governor of Louisiana also chose not to run for a return term.
• E – The shutdown of oil platforms and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico was enough to increase oil prices.
• E – Many people suffered from mosquito related diseases such as West Nile fever and other waterborne diseases such as cholera. Interestingly it’s been proposed that the best way for New Orleans to recover in the long term is to repair wetland areas that were damaged by the hurricane as this will vastly improve fishing outputs.
• D – New Orleans is known for blues, this is something else for them to sing about. It’s also been suggested that Bush didn’t act as efficiently/quickly due to the high percentage of black population in New Orleans.

Sorry that this was so long but it’s a huge subject and I’ve cut down loads, probably to the extent that it’s missing some vital stuff but else it’d be massive. There are also a lot of other links to SPEED but I just gave a couple for each point as you should be able to figure them out. I’ll put some pictures up later but I’m now off to play a gig. Cheers for reading!