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Hurricane katrina essay

Hurricane Katrina was the most dangerous, deadly, and horrifying storm to ever hit United States. Hurricane Katrina was so powerful that it devastated the lives of the people of New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as other Gulf Coast areas.

On August 29, 2005 at 8: 00 am, Hurricane Katrina reached Category 5 status. The storm hit the city hard and was the lead story on the national media stage for a number of weeks. The city was wiped out and the clean up and renovation of what is left of The City Of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina is continuing and might not be complete for many years. The storm that developed into Hurricane Katrina was one of the most disturbing natural disasters to hit the mainland United States. Its wind strength and power caused levies to fail flooding the area.

Rain fall measured 2 inches per hour and left the city completely waterlogged under nearly 20 feet of water. Hurricanes are created in tropical waters of our planets oceans. They are born when the conditions of warm water, air pressure and heat are just right. When the warm water temperature, combine with heat, pressure and air hurricanes are formed and travel powered by huge gust of winds.

When the winds build up, hurricanes get more powerful and cause enormous rainfall, as well as devastating waves called storm surges. Several sources state the warming of the planet is to blame for devastating and horrifying storms like Hurricane Katrina. A hurricane must have sustained warm water to grow. These planets recent warming oceans are partly the blame according to officials. When Hurricane Katrina hit the United States, countless people lost their property or suffered severe damage from the flood.

People did not just lose property but more than a thousand lives were lost. HURRICANE KATRINA 3 Hundreds of bodies were never recovered. During this powerful storm time was critical; at least one million people were evacuated and were relocated to shelters across the country. According the article” Economic impacts from Hurricane Katrina were also considerable. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost due to severely damaged or destroyed businesses and supporting infrastructure.

Major highways in and around New Orleans were damaged or destroyed, disrupting commerce. Katrina had a profound impact on the southeast Louisiana/Mississippi oil and gas industry, which accounts for nearly 30 percent of total domestic crude and 20 percent of domestic natural gas production. More than 30 oil platforms were damaged or destroyed and nine refineries were damaged and/or shut down for weeks following the storm. The hurricane also disrupted operations at the Port of South Louisiana and the Port of New Orleans, the first and fifth largest ports in the U. S. , respectively.

Together, these ports account for $150 billion and 20 percent of U. S. import/export cargo traffic annually”. Damage was estimated at over 75 billion dollars which is one of the most expensive natural disasters ever recorded. The major danger experienced during Hurricane Katrina huge was estimated to be the excessive flooding that destroyed everything in its path. The state that was hit the most was Louisiana, although other states included Alabama and Mississippi which were left with large areas under water also.

New Orleans was the most affected area by this devastating storm which nearly wiped out the entire city. Strong winds gusted and mixed with water to create huge flood walls that in turn caused canals and most waterways to spill over their banks. These waterways had never experienced a stronger than a Category 3 hurricane. Hurricane Katrina reached a Category 5 level, which is the strongest measurable level for these storms. It easily destroyed every structure on sea and land in its destructive path. The hurricane was strong and the vast amount of water left nearly the entire city of New Orleans under the water.

The people who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina suffered a depletion of drinkable water, electrical outages and a lack of appropriate rescue response by all responsible agencies. People who lost their homes were urged by authorities to come to the Super Dome and Convention Center where shelter was safer. These facilities were big enough to hold thousands of people for weeks. The problem was that the facilities were not equipped to handle the volume of people or the facilities for law enforcement to maintain the civil unrest. Thousands were forced to stay there because they did not have a choice and they had nowhere else to go. HURRICANE KATRINA 4 Both facilities had to be destroyed because of damage and extreme unsanitary conditions they suffered during the chaos.

Officials sustain that the atmospheric warming supposedly has escalated to such high levels because of the high levels of carbon dioxide emitted by our consumption of fossil fuels. Production of electricity by power plants, oil used to heat homes and their by products have produced pollution that has become trapped in our atmosphere. This in turn causes ocean temperatures get warmer, and this it causes stronger storms. Global warming is said to have something to do with these devastating storms that hit New Orleans. Many have questioned whether global warming contributes to developing these horrifying hurricanes.

Based on the online article “ Two recent articles, one in the August issue of Nature, and one in the most recent (September, 2005) Science Magazine, have introduced dramatic new evidence that global warming has significantly affected hurricane destructiveness. These findings are further supported by an earlier article in Science Magazine (8 July 2005) reporting clear evidence of human-caused global warming in the Earth’s oceans. The article in Nature shows a strong correlation between sea temperature and annual hurricane power in three different hurricane basins, the North Atlantic and two in the Pacific”. There are many things people can do to reduce global warming. Each individual can help by adopting a more responsible lifestyle with the goal to save our planet.

People can reduce the amount pollution in the air caused by driving car by walking, biking, carpooling with friends or taking public transportation. By eliminating driving 10 miles every week, we can reduce 500 pound of carbon dioxide emissions a year. Public transportation would be the best option to assist in this. Also by planting one single tree will also absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. Every individual taking responsibility today to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions will limit the future effects of climate change that will certainly result from global warming.

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