Impacts and human responses as evidenced by two recent tropical storms in contrasting areas of the world

Question 1

what are the 2 contrasting case studies?

Answer 1

• MEDC= Hurricane Katrina, SE USA

- LEDC= Cyclone Nargis, Myanmar

Question 2

Hurricane Katrina occurred in one of the ________ countries in the world

Answer 2

wealthiest

Question 3

Cyclone Nargis occurred in one of the least _______ countries in the world

Answer 3

developed

Question 4

Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi when?

Answer 4

August 2005

Question 5

when did Cyclone Nargis occur?

Answer 5

May 2008

Question 6

how much rainfall did Hurricane Katrina produce?

Answer 6

250mm of rain with wind speeds over 250 km/hr

Question 7

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

Answer 7

80

Question 8

where did Cyclone Nargis form?

Answer 8

in the Bay of Bengal

Question 9

what category of storm was Katrina and Nargis?

Answer 9

• Katrina= category 5 storm

- Nargis= category 4 storm

Question 10

Cyclone Nargis created a storm surge of up to

Answer 10

5m ( a large proportion of the Irrawaddy Delta, worst affected area, is only just above sea level)

Question 11

give a few social impacts of Hurricane Katrina

Answer 11

• almost 2000 killed
• over 50,000 homeless
• water supplies polluted with sewage and chemicals

Question 12

huge social impacts arose from

Answer 12

Cyclone Nargis

Question 13

give a few social impacts of Cyclone Nargis

Answer 13

• 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

Question 14

huge economic impacts arose from

Answer 14

Hurricane Katrina

Question 15

give a few economic impacts of Hurricane Katrina

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

give a few economic impacts of Cyclone Nargis

Answer 16

• 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

Question 17

give a few environmental impacts of Hurricane Katrina

Answer 17

• coastal habitats damaged e.g turtle breeding grounds

- oil spills from flooded oil refineries in Louisiana

Question 18

give a few environmental impacts of Cyclone Nargis

Answer 18

• 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

Question 19

give some human responses to Hurricane Katrina

Answer 19

• 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

Question 20

give some human responses to Cyclone Nargis

Answer 20

• 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

Question 21

why was some aid seized or turned away in initially in Myanmar?

Answer 21

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.