Impacts and human responses as evidenced by two recent tropical storms in contrasting areas of the world Flashcards
what are the 2 contrasting case studies?
- MEDC= Hurricane Katrina, SE USA
- LEDC= Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar
Hurricane Katrina occurred in one of the ________ countries in the world
wealthiest
Cyclone Nargis occurred in one of the least _______ countries in the world
developed
Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi when?
August 2005
when did Cyclone Nargis occur?
May 2008
how much rainfall did Hurricane Katrina produce?
250mm of rain with wind speeds over 250 km/hr
Hurricane Katrina created a storm surge of up to 8.5m in Mississippi. This overwhelmed levees around New Orleans causing __% of the city to be flooded
80
where did Cyclone Nargis form?
in the Bay of Bengal
what category of storm was Katrina and Nargis?
- Katrina= category 5 storm
- Nargis= category 4 storm
Cyclone Nargis created a storm surge of up to
5m ( a large proportion of the Irrawaddy Delta, worst affected area, is only just above sea level)
give a few social impacts of Hurricane Katrina
- almost 2000 killed
- over 50,000 homeless
- water supplies polluted with sewage and chemicals
huge social impacts arose from
Cyclone Nargis
give a few social impacts of Cyclone Nargis
- almost 150,00 deaths
- over 3 million homeless!
- 75% of health facilities destroyed and diseases spread due to contaminated water and poor sanitary conditions
- thousands of schools destroyed
huge economic impacts arose from
Hurricane Katrina
give a few economic impacts of Hurricane Katrina
- over 200,000 jobs lost from damaged businesses
- vast forest destroyed in Mississippi= 5 billion dollar loss to logging industry
- total cost over 100 billion dollars
give a few economic impacts of Cyclone Nargis
- vast agricultural land damaged including commercial rice paddies
- millions of people lost their livelihoods e.g. fishing boats destroyed
- total cost of damage estimated at 10 billion dollars
give a few environmental impacts of Hurricane Katrina
- coastal habitats damaged e.g turtle breeding grounds
- oil spills from flooded oil refineries in Louisiana
give a few environmental impacts of Cyclone Nargis
- vast mangrove forest destroyed- mangrove forests are salt tolerant, grow along the coastline and make excellent natural protection from flooding
- flooding caused erosion and salinization of low-lying farm land
give some human responses to Hurricane Katrina
- National Hurricane Centre (NHC) identified and tracked the hurricane using sophisticated monitoring systems so the NHC updated the gov with where and when it was likely to hit= PREPARED and can ADAPT
- mass evacuation orders made and 80% of people in New Orleans were evacuated before landfall
- Internal aid payment of billions of dollars s was received from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) a branch of the US government. FEMA also oganised aid teams to support on the ground
give some human responses to Cyclone Nargis
- Myanmar doesn’t have a hurricane monitoring centre
- Indian weather agencies tracked the cyclone and advised Mayanmar 48 hours before the storm. This was communicated to people via TV and Radio. Despite this the cyclone hammered the coastline; people were unaware of the storm intensity or how to best prepare and respond
- No emergency preparation plans or evacuation plan. No early warning system.
- After the cyclone the Government initially refused to accept foreign aid. A week after Nargis struck they decided to accept help. Organisations such as the UN refugee agency sent shelters, first aid kits, blankets, food and water purification kits
why was some aid seized or turned away in initially in Myanmar?
The country at the time was ruled by a military government- some aid was seized or turned away. Aid workers weren’t allowed in the country until more than 2 weeks after the event; this decision hugely affected the death toll.
