Hurricane Katrina

Question 1

Where did hurricane Katrina form?

Answer 1

Hurricane Katrina formed south-east of the Bahamas in 2005. It hit the east coast of Florida and then continued moving slowly westwards into the Gulf of Mexico where it became a Category 5 hurricane. It then struck the Louisiana coastline and travelled through Mississippi as a category 3 hurricane - very widespread impacts

Question 2

How prepared were Louisiana and Florida before the hurricane struck?

Answer 2

• NHC organisation in Florida use satellites to spot the early storms off the coast of Africa and then monitor their progress as they move westwards. - They continuously make predictions about the path and possible landfall sites, which is then fed to the media and to the emergency services, who have to make decisions about whether to evacuate areas or not.

Question 3

How prepared were Florida when the hurricane struck?

Answer 3

• hurricane warnings being issued on all radio and TV channels and schools closed down
• shelters with feeding facilities were
  opened
• compulsory evacuation orders were issued for people living in low-lying coastal areas
• all the police and emergency services were on standby to help people.
• The storm was predicted by the National Hurricane centre and they gave a very accurate plot of the Hurricanes track

Question 4

How prepared were New Orleans when the hurricane struck?

Answer 4

• Early warnings, as the National Weather Service predicted ‘devastating damage’ and the Mayor of New Orleans ordered the compulsory evacuation of the city a day before the hurricane.
• However all train services into and out of the city were suspended and 25% residents did not own private cars
• The city has one of the highest poverty rates in the USA (38% of the people). Of those who were unable or unwilling to leave, a disproportionate number were elderly, disabled or sick making evacuation almost impossible for 20-30% of the population

Question 5

Why was the population of New Orleans particularly vulnerable?

Answer 5

• train services suspended and many unable to evacuate
• very high rates of poverty
• large proportion of the population elderly or sick
• 80% of the area is below sea level and is only protected by a series of levees or flood embankments, experts had warned that if a large hurricane hit New Orleans, the levees might break which led to flooding
• the city quickly flooded leaving people trapped and unable to escape

Question 6

What were the immediate responses?

Answer 6

• authorities made the Superdome available, which had enough food and water for three days for around 15,000 people, however in the event, at least twice as many people tried to find shelter there
• the electricity, air conditioning and running water all failed, and conditions quickly became unsanitary and uncomfortable
• Louisiana’s National Guard asked for more than 700 buses to evacuate people, however, only 100 buses were sent.

Question 7

What were the immediate impacts?

Answer 7

• When the hurricane struck, it killed 1833 people and caused a huge amount of damage (over $81 billion)
• a million people without electricity and water sources were contaminated
• when the levees broke, huge areas of the city were flooded, with the water up to 8 metres deep in places. The remaining people were now trapped in the city. With shops and businesses closed, people’s homes underwater, roads closed and no electricity, the situation quickly became very serious
• It took several days for the police and army to regain control of crime, food and water shortages and for the remaining 120,000 people to be safely evacuated to other cities.

Question 8

What were the long-term impacts?

Answer 8

• It took a very long time for the water trapped in the city streets to be pumped out.
• Bodies of victims were left lying in the streets and the search for missing people was very poorly organised
• Months later, thousands of people remained homeless and unemployed. Most were still staying in cities hundreds of miles away
• many believed that the government and emergency services had hugely mismanaged the disaster

Question 9

What were the long-term responses?

Answer 9

• The US federal and state governments have spent $20 billion rebuilding New Orleans’ flood defence systems, with levees, gates, pumps and floodwalls.
• The US government allocated $62 billion to be spent in aid helping feed and re-house the victims of Hurricane Katrina.