Hurricane Katrina Research Paper
Hurricane Katrina: A Colossal Yet Preventable Disaster
Abstract
This paper examines the costliest natural disaster in United States history that is Hurricane Katrina. This paper explains how Hurricane Katrina classifies as a scientific, business, and engineering disaster. More importantly, this paper investigates the engineering component of Katrina and describes what could have been done within this field to prevent the majority of the economic damage done.
Introduction
A disaster is “a natural or man-made hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment.” (“Disaster”, 2012) According to this definition, Hurricane Katrina is …show more content…
As it made its way westward over the Gulf of Mexico, the storm strengthened from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5. Although it caused much destruction along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, the majority of the damage was done to Southeast Louisiana. By the time the hurricane made its landfall in Louisiana, the storm had calmed to a Category 3 (“Hurricane Katrina”, 2012). However, due to inadequate design of the levees and floodwalls protecting Louisiana, the hurricane caused over fifty failures in the levees. Tens of billions of gallons of water emerged from these breaches, flooding eighty percent of New Orleans and one hundred percent of Saint Bernard Parish (“2005 Levee Failures”, 2012). Over eighteen hundred people, with the large majority of them from Louisiana, were killed because of this disaster, making Katrina the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane (“Hurricane Katrina”, …show more content…
Hurricane Katrina caused an interruption in the oil supply, destroying thirty oil platforms and closing nine refineries. The foresting industry also took a major hit, considering 1.3 million acres of forest were destroyed. Due to the extensive flooding and property damage, hundreds of thousands of local residents were left unemployed and had no choice but to relocate from the Gulf Coast (“Hurricane Katrina”, 2012). Although the greatest damage inflicted by Katrina was economic, the environment took a hit as well. Hurricane Katrina caused significant beach erosion and land transformation, devastating coastal ecosystems. Not only this, but the hurricane caused oil spills from forty-four different facilities in Southeastern Louisiana (“Hurricane Katrina”,
Abstract
This paper examines the costliest natural disaster in United States history that is Hurricane Katrina. This paper explains how Hurricane Katrina classifies as a scientific, business, and engineering disaster. More importantly, this paper investigates the engineering component of Katrina and describes what could have been done within this field to prevent the majority of the economic damage done.
Introduction
A disaster is “a natural or man-made hazard resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment.” (“Disaster”, 2012) According to this definition, Hurricane Katrina is …show more content…
As it made its way westward over the Gulf of Mexico, the storm strengthened from a Category 1 hurricane to a Category 5. Although it caused much destruction along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas, the majority of the damage was done to Southeast Louisiana. By the time the hurricane made its landfall in Louisiana, the storm had calmed to a Category 3 (“Hurricane Katrina”, 2012). However, due to inadequate design of the levees and floodwalls protecting Louisiana, the hurricane caused over fifty failures in the levees. Tens of billions of gallons of water emerged from these breaches, flooding eighty percent of New Orleans and one hundred percent of Saint Bernard Parish (“2005 Levee Failures”, 2012). Over eighteen hundred people, with the large majority of them from Louisiana, were killed because of this disaster, making Katrina the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane (“Hurricane Katrina”, …show more content…
Hurricane Katrina caused an interruption in the oil supply, destroying thirty oil platforms and closing nine refineries. The foresting industry also took a major hit, considering 1.3 million acres of forest were destroyed. Due to the extensive flooding and property damage, hundreds of thousands of local residents were left unemployed and had no choice but to relocate from the Gulf Coast (“Hurricane Katrina”, 2012). Although the greatest damage inflicted by Katrina was economic, the environment took a hit as well. Hurricane Katrina caused significant beach erosion and land transformation, devastating coastal ecosystems. Not only this, but the hurricane caused oil spills from forty-four different facilities in Southeastern Louisiana (“Hurricane Katrina”,