Hurricane Katrina Research Paper
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricanes are powerful and dangerous storms that involve great rain and win. When a tropical storm has a wind speed greater than 75 miles per hour, it is considered a hurricane. The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a substantial amount of damage. However there is one hurricane that occurred in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive of the Atlantic Hurricanes during the hurricane season. Hurricane Katrina had a great economic and environmental impact on the United States which will take time to completely recover from. Despite predicting Hurricane Katrina, it was still a tragedy. Ivor Van Heerden, who is a hurricane expert at Louisiana State University, predicted that a great storm would occur. “A slow moving storm category 3 Hurricane will flood the city. There will be between 17 and 20 feet of standing water, and New Orleans as we know it will no longer exist” (www.pbs.org). In order to find out how the hurricane could affect New Orleans, Heerden generated different types of computer models that depicted how hard the state of Louisiana would be hit. The impact of the storm was mind blowing. Heerden was haunted by the knowledge that such a major hurricane would devastate New Orleans. Unfortunately, extreme casualties were predicted. Many people would die from flying debris, and drown in 17 to 20 feet of water. However, unlike a river flood, the water would not come up and go down, it would stay for months. It would be difficult to rescue 200,000 predicted survivors (www.pbs.org). In order to further prepare for this storm, Heerden used an exercise called the Hurricane Pam Exercise. All the federal agencies got together with state agencies and they stimulated what a category three storm would do. The exercise showed that the storm surge would cause more than 20 feet of standing water. As a result, Louisiana State University
Hurricanes are powerful and dangerous storms that involve great rain and win. When a tropical storm has a wind speed greater than 75 miles per hour, it is considered a hurricane. The United States of America has dealt with many hurricanes that have cost a substantial amount of damage. However there is one hurricane that occurred in 2005 that stands out among the others, Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive of the Atlantic Hurricanes during the hurricane season. Hurricane Katrina had a great economic and environmental impact on the United States which will take time to completely recover from. Despite predicting Hurricane Katrina, it was still a tragedy. Ivor Van Heerden, who is a hurricane expert at Louisiana State University, predicted that a great storm would occur. “A slow moving storm category 3 Hurricane will flood the city. There will be between 17 and 20 feet of standing water, and New Orleans as we know it will no longer exist” (www.pbs.org). In order to find out how the hurricane could affect New Orleans, Heerden generated different types of computer models that depicted how hard the state of Louisiana would be hit. The impact of the storm was mind blowing. Heerden was haunted by the knowledge that such a major hurricane would devastate New Orleans. Unfortunately, extreme casualties were predicted. Many people would die from flying debris, and drown in 17 to 20 feet of water. However, unlike a river flood, the water would not come up and go down, it would stay for months. It would be difficult to rescue 200,000 predicted survivors (www.pbs.org). In order to further prepare for this storm, Heerden used an exercise called the Hurricane Pam Exercise. All the federal agencies got together with state agencies and they stimulated what a category three storm would do. The exercise showed that the storm surge would cause more than 20 feet of standing water. As a result, Louisiana State University