Preview

Cause And Effect Essay: Effect Of Hurricane Katrina

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
478 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cause And Effect Essay: Effect Of Hurricane Katrina
Effect of Hurricane Katrina According to dosomething.org, Hurricane Katrina affected over 15 million people in different ways varying from having to evacuate their homes, rising gas prices, and the economy suffering. Citizens in Louisiana and New Orleans suffered the most from this disaster because the levees were designed for Category 3 Hurricanes while Hurricane Katrina was much stronger. Not only the levee system failed in this disaster, but also the US government failed the people of Louisiana and New Orleans because they were gambling with the citizens’ lives, and they didn’t treat all the states equally. First of all, the US government gambled with the lives of Louisiana and New Orleans citizens. Scientific Research had clearly shown …show more content…
When San Francisco experienced a serious earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 during 1989, the US government tried its best to let San Francisco be out of danger. The apparent reason was that California was the strongest economy source in US! The US government did this all for money! If New York and Washington D.C. experienced such a catastrophe, the government will definitely do the same thing. However, the majority living in Louisiana and New Orleans are poor people and African Americans. They were not so important and they did not make innumerable amount of money. That is why the US government chose to gamble on the people there. From this event, we can clearly see how important America valued money and fame and never actually valued equality. America should provide a well-planned disaster plan for its citizens instead of hastily issuing an evacuation order after the disaster occurred. About 80% of the population evacuated, and approximately 100,000 people were still trapped. They were instructed to go to the New Orleans Convention Center and the Superdome, but both places were also partly destroyed. The US government should hold the responsibility for residents living there. Some people would oppose by saying that as long as the US government successfully repaired the levee system, it would not be such a big concern. However, the reconstruction of the levee system is not the ultimate solution to this problem. The US government will keep on being prejudiced to its people because all they want is wealth and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    When the Levees Broke

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Politics played a large role in terms of the slow, emergency response to the tragedy. Many politicians were interviewed and mostly claimed they were unaware of what had happened in New Orleans. What was even more shocking, was how long it took president Bush to become conscious of the issue. This happened on the fifth day after the hurricane. People were starving, searching for shelter and trying to find missing relatives. Some tried to leave the city, but were met by military men with guns, who had just instructed them to go back. These politicians were abusing their power and forgetting about what…

    • 611 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Our lack of preparation and communication took the lives of one thousand four hundred and twenty people, caused seventy million dollars in damages. Communication breakdown is expected in a time of any natural disaster. Katrina crippled the emergency response team set in place by taking down a four hundred foot antenna built to withstand a 150 mile per hour wind. Due to this some of the public safety systems put in place to serve the police and fire department in the gulf coast stopped working. Most emergency response teams were stranded in terms of communicating amongst each other during a time when coordination of rescue efforts was most important. All of these listed catastrophic events were due to the lack of planning. Katrina exposed a lot of weakness in our communication process. Our phone lines were very vulnerable with almost two million phone lines and cell phone service interrupted or being out of service. It took a while to minimally restore communication services.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    When Hurricane Katrina struck the city of New Orleans in August of 2005, the physical damage that the storm caused was easily seen. Mass flooding led to the destruction of many homes and famous landmarks. In an attempt to get out of the way of the storm’s path, many citizens fled the city in the days before the storm. Some, though, for various reasons, did not leave the city and decided to stay and take on the storm in their homes. Those citizens were the ones who were seen in the days, weeks, and months after the storm, struggling to regroup and rebuild from what the storm had done. The physical damage garnered most of the attention from media outlets, but a very critical underlying issue that was not as widely covered still remained. The healthcare infrastructure of New Orleans, which was already very poor, was very negatively affected by Hurricane Katrina. Many members of the media did not cover this, most likely because it was a type of disaster that could not be clearly observed and would not bring in as many viewers as other aspects of the aftermath. To me, though, it is a very important issue that should have gotten more attention at the time. That is why I decided to focus my research on how Hurricane Katrina affected the healthcare infrastructure in New Orleans, how other cities handled similar situations, and what could be done to better prepare the city’s healthcare infrastructure in the event that another storm of this magnitude strikes the city. I believe that the city should have distributed healthcare more evenly amongst citizens to give all a better chance at getting medical attention after the storm, that more federal and state aid should be applied to New Orleans area medical centers, and that city officials, state officials, and citizens alike should collaborate towards coming up with a structured plan…

    • 3599 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    New Orleans Economics

    • 2655 Words
    • 11 Pages

    With a large part of the population gone and not coming back and many believing it will happen again, now is the time to change the layout of the city to make it better prepared. Government should use both fear aversion and social heuristics to rebuild the city in a way that justifies it being done. They should invest to rebuild to a level 5 hurricane based of frequency reports of storms. This would greatly reduce flooding to the entire Mississippi flood plain. They would have this opportunity now since many believe New Orleans will flood again and will not relocate to or move back to the…

    • 2655 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Katrina the Eye Opener

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The government assent was far and scares. For example, Tom Piazza examples how it took the days to even bring buses out there to help move individual from New Orleans to one of the surrounding states. It took brave individual in the community to ban together to help reuse people in danger. In “From Why New Orleans Matters” the author writes, “Sheriff Harry Lee of neighboring…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lives of thousands of Americans were forever altered. They were left without homes and other property, without jobs, and in some cases without hope. Every American needs to be prepared for a natural disaster. They can come without warning, leave very little time to prepare, and leave you in such a devastating financial situation that recovery might seem impossible.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Should We Abandon Louisiana explains the disdain that the people of Louisiana feel towards media coverage, the rest of America, as well as for relief agencies and their lack of contribution towards the rebuilding of the state after natural disasters. The author states multiple times that due to media outlets not covering the flooding of his state, many Americans did not know about the natural disaster. The people of Louisiana feel that because of natural disasters occurring frequently, cable news and other media outlets, do not cover the events because it is seen as a normality to the rest of America. The author states that federal relief from FEMA and the Red Cross can only help to a lesser extent, and with discouragement from American’s who think that the government should stop helping to rebuild their state, it is harder for Louisiana to recreate itself after each natural disaster.…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    9/11 Impact On America

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Approximately 1,800 people died, and millions were left homeless (2). In the Superdome and the New Orleans convention Center, thousands of people sought refuge. Hurricane Katrina caused the largest displacement of a population since the Great Depression with more than a million people being displaces (4). Causing $108 billion in damage, Katrina is the most costly storm in United States history (2). Ten years later, the region was still recovering from Katrina. The New Orleans metro population ended up dropping significantly from 1.386 million in 2005 to 1.04 million in 2006 (6). Government officials have had to learn from the tragedy and implement better environmental, communication and evacuation policies. The Army Corps of Engineers has rebuilt the levee, making the barriers higher and supporting them with steel beams (5). The affects of Hurricane Katrine truly changed the lives of millions of people…

    • 1471 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    As the Gulf States begin the massive task of reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina, the nation is actively engaged in a dialogue concerning the lessons learned from this catastrophe, and the best options moving forward. Many are asking whether the aid package and policies proposed by President Bush are the right approach to rebuilding and restoring the region. While the hurricane shines a much needed spotlight on a number of societal issues, it is crucial that programs initiated in the storm¡¦s aftermath have the desired effect¡Xnot just regionally, but on a national scale. The devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina has raised other, more general public policy issues about emergency management, environmental policy, poverty, and unemployment. The discussion of both the immediate response and of the broader public policy issues may affect elections and legislation enacted at various levels of government.…

    • 1991 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurricane Katrina was one of the most deadliest hurricanes to affect the United States. The hurricane killed at least one thousand people and caused at least one hundred billion dollars in damage. The physical damage and the countless number of lives lost are typically all that is reflected upon when discussing Hurricane Katrina but the mental health effects of this devastating hurricane are also important to consider. In addition to its devastating physical affects, Hurricane Katrina has affected many mentally. Survivors of the natural disaster have been reported to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and depression.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prior to landfall, the doors to the Superdome opened and approximately 16,000 people sought refuge there, but 16,000 would not even make a dent in 70,000 people who sought shelter after the storm. After Katrina took her path through the south (dissipating near the Great Lakes), the damage continued. As the shelters arose, FEMA officials became aware with that fact that their accommodations would not be enough. “More than one million people in the Gulf region were displaced by the storm. At their peak hurricane relief shelters housed 273,000 people. Later, approximately 114,000 households were housed in FEMA trailers” (“Hurricane Katrina”). Even the Governor of Louisiana projected the downfall of the safety camps. “The shelters will end up probably without electricity or with minimum electricity from generators in the end (United States et al.). Consequently, countless numbers of people needed to look for help elsewhere, whether it meant to uproot and settle down within another state, fend for themselves in a harsh and dangerous time or even wait it out and hope for…

    • 896 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    President Bush said that the hurricane might destroy the levees in New Orleans, but the government of New Orleans did not take actions to inform people of how to conduct evacuation and security. White house established rescue headquarters after 36 hours, and decided to start working on the second day. On August 31, 1500 polices received orders to abort searching survivors and start to maintain orders. Technology can foresee the coming disaster, but it should cooperate with people who are responsible for taking actions. New Orleans government did not do their job to protect their people. Technology gave the governor the information of Hurricane Katrina and the damage it would make to the city and all the people. According to this case, we should learn that technology is not the only thing we should rely on, technology is a tool which human should cooperate with to minimum the damage it will…

    • 599 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Katrina Breakdown Essay

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It appeared that Katrina was beyond the capacity of the state and local governments, and it was beyond the capacity of FEMA. Federal authorities were waiting for state authorities who were supposed to combine local decisions to request resources in an emergency. However, when local governments and communications had been wiped out, state authorities did not know what to request. The extent of the crisis meant that state officials were unable to cope. In other words, when the crisis hit, different agencies could not communicate with one another due to different types of systems. When in fact, Katrina was a national problem and could only be solved by a national…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As tropical storm Katrina formed into a category five hurricane, all gulf coast residents were warned. “By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region. That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.” After the evacuation plan was announced, those that were able to leave before the storm did. Poor and less fortunate residents had to stay put for the horrible storm brewing just miles away. There were also the stubborn elderly that insisted on staying just because they survived “Hurricane Betsy” in 1965, but what they would soon come to realize is they would be putting themselves and their families in danger.…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Louisiana and Mississippi activated their emergency plan on 26, August, 2010, trying to evacuate everyone, but unfortunately not everyone could leave due to medical reason or had no access to transportation. In Hurricane Katrina there were more than 1,800 people that died. In Louisiana more than 1,500 lost their lives and in Mississippi 230 people lost their lives. In Florida 14 people lost their lives (University of Rhode Island. 2010-2015). Prior to Hurricane Katrina’s arrival, the state, local and federal were responsible for emergency response to a hurricane striking New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Along with Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hurricanes on average come through there about every three years, so plans were always being implemented in order to keep everyone safe. Information Please Database, (2007) states that, “The Department of Homeland security had come out with a plan in early 2005, which states that vastly improved coordination among federal, state, local, and tribal organizations . . . by increasing the speed, effectiveness, and efficiency of incident management." However Michael Chertoff, the Department's Secretary, waited until two days after the hurricane hit before putting the plan into effect by declaring it an "incident of national significance." (Information Please Database, 2007). FEMA does training sessions but when it came down to it FEMA was not…

    • 1399 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays