Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was the 2005 category 5 hurricane that struck New Orleans. Due to the power behind Hurricane Katrina, many levees broke, which left the streets flooded and people trapped in their homes, and causing over 1,200 deaths in the process. Many people believe that Katrina came up the Mississippi causing flooding, but in fact, Katrina fed into Lake Pontchartrain.
Levees
A levee is a wall or some kind of ridge that is natural or man made that helps to stop/prevent the overflow, or flooding of water. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the levees failed, not because Katrina was too strong, but because of the engineering failure behind the practicality of the levees that were built to protect New Orleans.
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As you can see from this picture, there is no support behind the levee to help keep it upright. When water and wind, as well as other debris, is smashing against the wall has nothing behind it to help keep it upright against the sheer force pounding on one side of it. In total, there was over 50 levee failures that had occurred during the time of Hurricane Katrina.
Photography by Sophia Corkill
Above is a picture showing the levee failures (blue dots), as well as where generators ended up failing due to flooding (green dots). Since the generators were on the ground, once they were flooded with water, they failed to work, causing water to not get pumped out of the city. The city of New Orleans did not have any above ground generators until after Hurricane Katrina. The red area is where there was flooding. Flooding stayed in the in the area for weeks and left many people displaced.
Discrimination
Discrimination was very prevalent during the time of Hurricane Katrina. Not only before, but after, was discrimination shown. From evacuation efforts, economic status, as well where in the city they lived. For more information about discrimination during Hurricane Katrina click here.
FEMA stands for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Their mission is to "support the citizens and first responders to promote that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards." (doe.dc.gov). They are brought in during a time of mass emergency, such as Hurricane Katrina. They help with rescues, bring in supplies, and help relief efforts. For more about FEMA and what they did during Hurricane Katrina click here.
FEMA
Restoration
There were difficulties restoring the city of New Orleans to what it once was before Katrina hit. The lower ninth ward still suffers greatly from the lack of funding help from the government. This catastrophe was looked at as one of the governments biggest failures due to the lack of preparedness as well. There are many things you can do to better prepare yourself and your loved ones for an event like this.
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