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Report on Analysis of Hurricane Katrina

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Added on  2020-05-04

Report on Analysis of Hurricane Katrina

   Added on 2020-05-04

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Analysis Katrina 1HURRICANE KATRINABy NameCourseInstructorInstitutionLocationDate
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Analysis Katrina 2Analysis of Hurricane KatrinaIntroductionOn August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the gulf coast of the United States as a category three ratings. It brought strong winds with speeds exceeding 140milesper hour stretching over an area 400 miles wide. Although the initial impact of the storm made serious damages, the aftermath presented a catastrophic disaster (Gutmann 2011). Breaching the levees caused massive flooding over Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Thousands of lives were lost,and many more were displaced in the flooding that followed. Over $100billion, worth of property was destroyed with the meteorologists predicting that most places would remain uninhabitable for weeks or months.Causes and Impact of the ConflictHurricane Katrina formed from the interaction between the Tropical Depression Ten and a tropical wave over the south of Bahamas. As a storm, it moved toward Florida strengthening to hurricane barely two hours before landfall at Hallandale Beach on the August 25, 2005(Gutmann2011). It strengthened rapidly upon entering the Gulf of Mexico reaching category five within a span of nine hours delivering winds upto 280km/h. It was the strongest recorded hurricane of all time although hurricane Rita would eventually eclipse it later in the year. The hurricane later weakened to category three making second landfall at Buras-Triumph in Louisiana with strong winds of 190km/h and heavy rains (Brunkard et al 2008). It moved southward toward Mississippi making a third landfall near its border with Louisiana.Although a system of levees had been constructed by the army corps of engineers to keep the city of New Orleans from flooding, officials expressed concern over the possibility of surge
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Analysis Katrina 3waters overtopping the levees (Brunkard et al 2008). However, nobody foresaw the whole system of the levees collapsing as it did. The storm surge led to more than fifty levee breaches in the system designed to protect the city of New Orleans from flooding (Malhotra&Kuo 2008). Neighborhoods housing the poorest people in the city sat below the sea level critically exposing a large population to a catastrophe.Katrina surged forth with overwhelming power destroying bridges in areas bordering Lake Pontchartrain. St. Bernard Parish was swept with waters becauseof levee being breached as heavy rains continued pouring waters (Horne 2008). By October 23, over seven hundred bodies were recovered in New Orleans alone. Scenes were replicated in Miami, Florida’s Panhandle and the Mississippi among other places.The Response to the ConflictThe response to the disaster involved the federal government, the affected states as well as several local non-profit organisations.The size and impactof hurricane Katrina made extraordinary response of stakeholders seem insufficient (Malhotra&Kuo 2008). The evacuation and medical response and the immediate search and rescue missions were not only incomprehensive but also failed the test of time. Over five hundred organisations were involved in the aftermath mostly responding to the need to save lives where possible while reducing the suffering of those who survived (Malhotra&Kuo 2008). In line with this general objective, there were the specific goals of delivering food and materials to the affected persons, medicine and making the critical evacuations. Restoring communication lines took center-stage as efforts to trace the missing intensified (Fritz et al 2007). A network of these organisations was affiliated with one or more of the objectives leading to duplication of duties.Although the groups provided unprecedented response, there were problems with coordination ofthe vast numbers across and within the networks. A case in point happened to be the
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