Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a devastating event that occurred along the central Gulf Coast states It destroyed houses and businesses flooded everything on land and killed many people I remember this catastrophic storm hitting news You hear the meteorologists explaining of a tropical depression forming in the southeast of the Bahamas Within 2 days it got stronger and stronger being a tropical storm then a hurricane It hit states like Florida Louisiana Mississippi and Alabama The damages I saw on the news from the reporters films were unbelievable I had never seen anything that demolished until I saw these towns being shown on live T V it was heartbreaking Now you may ask how powerful was hurricane Katrina How many people died from this What did the aftermath look like What are all the details about this natural disaster Keep reading and you will find out On August 23 2005 hurricane Katrina started off as a tropical depression in the southeast Bahamas but did not stay that way for too long because the following day it was a tropical storm moving northwest through the Bahamas By August 25 it had reached the south of Florida gaining strength in the water to lead up to a category 1 storm This was Katrina s first destination making landfall as a hurricane The most affected areas of the state were Hallandale Beach and North Miami Beach According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration it hit these areas with wind speeds of approximately 80 mph 70 kts Gusts of above 90 mph 78 kts were measured as Katrina came ashore Hurricane Katrina National Climatic Data Center Then Katrina made her way southwest becoming weaker in strength when passing through the Florida peninsula She managed to direct herself to the Gulf of Mexico which is a body of water that will once again repair her and make her very strong At this point Katrina was moving westward and a mid level ridge over Texas deteriorated which permitted the storm to turn northwest and then straight north on August 26th Seen down below figure 1 is the direction of the storm and figure 2 is the final land fall Hurricane Katrina National Climatic Data Center Figure 1 The Tropical Storm from the Bahamas makes its way to south of Florida going through the Gulf of Mexico and finally reaching land in Louisiana Hurricane Katrina National Climatic Data Center Figure 2 Moving north to land attaining extreme wind speeds and its least central pressure fell to 902 mb on August 28th Hurricane Katrina NCDC Forty eight hours later it had just about reached land with winds so robust they were considered category 5 strength According to the Data Center the hurricane was Continuing to strengthen and move northwards during the next 48 hours Katrina reached maximum wind speeds on the morning of Sunday August 28th of over 170 mph 150 kts category 5 Hurricane Katrina National Climatic Data Center Finally on August 29th is when the hurricane made complete landfall and was categorized as a level 4 storm hitting Grand Isle Louisiana LA and working its way through New Orleans LA Mobile Alabama AL and Gulfport Mississippi MS The National Climatic Data Center states that the winds were approximately 125 mph 110 kts strong category 3 intensity Hurricane Katrina National Climatic Data Center As it remained on land it turned into a major tropical storm leaving the cities and towns with more than 10 inches of rain and prevailing winds that destroyed everything It moved northeast getting weaker Figure 3 The map above shows Katrina s path for the next three to five days after landfall Hurricane Season 2005 Katrina National Aeronautics and Space Administration The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on humans and property is beyond words The flooding from the excessive rain and coastline water got many people ill due to the contamination and the environmental exposures According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there was an active surveillance system to spot outbreaks of illness after Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana They monitored 7 508 reports of health related events at participating facilities Willams 2005 The final conclusions of the impact of the storm on humans were as follows 55 6 4 169 were illnesses 26 9 2 018 were injuries and 17 5 1 321 were non acute health related events Willams 2005 These results were based on Louisiana which was directly hit by the storm and then it spread out to the other states Just image only in New Orleans LA there was more than 50 of an increase in illnesses and a little more than 2 000 people were wounded The lack of food water and medical attention due to Katrina really took effect on the wellbeing of the individuals Seen below are more statistics Willams 2005 Figure 4 Above are some of the health occurrences due to the effects of the storm People were more exposed and prone to such issues as skin or wound infection acute respiratory infection rashes etc Willams 2005 Not only were humans affected by the storm but so was property The prevailing winds ripped down trees which collapsed on land crushing houses and stores The winds ripped apart roofs and the amount of water seeped through houses pouring people s belongings out onto the streets Power sources were knocked down causing major outages Flying debris from the fast winds hit into property damaging it Cars were being pushed by the overly amount of water on land across various areas causing major damage to the vehicles All these wonderful possessions that people owned beautiful house new car and successful business were wrecked According to USA Today Katrina produced at least 125 billion in economic damage and could cost the insurance industry up to 60 billion in claims Katrina damage estimate hits 125B USA Today The article goes further into explaining that at least half of those damages were due to flooding This storm cost more economic downfall then did Hurricane Andrew in 1992 which only cost around 21 billion that s how powerful Katrina was See below the amount of damage the hurricane did Figure 5 As you can see above people lost everything Homes were completely demolished not leaving anything in decent condition Those red pieces scattered all over the land are the houses roofs Katrina Victims Seek to Sue Impact Lab Figure 7 Seen above cars are not repairable due to the massive debris collapsed on top of them Weather In The News Blog critics Figure 6 As you can see above houses were flooded to the tops All that is visible are the roofs and maybe
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