Hurricane Katrina
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| Above is a top view of Hurricane Katrina. |
Above is a map of New Orleans, LA, courtesy of Google Maps. |
With a damage cost between $80-90 billion and numbers like 1,836 confirmed fatalities and 705 missing people, Hurricane Katrina earned the name as one of the costliest and deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history. The hurricane is to blame, but it also has to be recognized that there was failure on the engineering, social, and political levels.
First of all, there was the engineering failure in the levees. They were unable to keep the storm surge at bay, so the water had to go somewhere. The streets and homes were flooded and people were forced to evacuate. Those who evacuated found that their states had inadequate plans for evacuation, their homes were left open for criminals to loot and take advantage of the situation, and the residents who did return home found that promised federal aid was very slow in coming.
If you are interested in information on levee designs, information on organizations responsible for coordinating emergency evacuations, or information on organizations at the federal level who are directly related to either the engineering or humanitarian effects of Hurricane Katrina, please follow the links listed below.
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Links on Levees
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Links on Emergency Evacuation Organizations
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Links on Federal Level Organizations
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