Hurricane KatrinaHurricane 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 stormmoving 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 destinationmaking 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 Figure 2- Moving north to land, attaining extrememakes its way to south of Florida, going through the wind speeds and its least central pressure fell to Gulf of Mexico and finally reaching land in Louisiana 902 mb on August 28th (Hurricane Katrina, NCDC) (Hurricane Katrina, National Climatic Data Center).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 remainedon 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 Season2005: 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 anactive 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). Thefinal 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 (andthen 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 acrossvarious 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 USAToday, 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. Figure 6- As you can see above, houses were Homes were completely demolished not leaving anything flooded to the tops. All that is visible are thein
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