Coming to Terms with Hurricane Katrina
As the state of Texas is rocked by Hurricane Harvey, it’s important to reflect on just how serious and powerful nature can be sometimes. It been only a little more than twelve years since Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana, yet the state still feels its effects in some ways. Let’s take a look:
Author’s note: This research essay was originally presented for a Geography class over climate change. This was the final research essay for the honors portion of this course. Some minor edits have been made.
“I looked around and I saw nothing like I’ve ever seen before. Everything I had every known had gone up in a whirlwind of water. What was I supposed to do? Go on? Rebuild? With what? Money I don’t have? Nah, I knew after those few days that my life here in New Orleans would never be the same.”
This quote was taken from Joy Schovest, a victim of the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, only a few weeks after the deadly storm swept across Louisiana destroying over 108 billion dollars worth of property and taking an estimate of 1,835 lives. As the third deadliest hurricane in American history, it might be easy to claim all of Katrina’s damages were purely geographical, but this simply is not the full story.

Three factors- geographical, political, and socio-economic- intertwined together to create the deadliest North American natural disaster in the 21st century. Like in many natural disasters, there were man-made factors that worsened the effects of Katrina which are worth researching and discussing. Hurricane Katrina’s damages were mostly human-made through political errors in public safety and socio-economic influences like the limited access to evacuation in poorer neighborhoods. These factors mixed with the geographical intensity of Hurricane Katrina and resulted in a crippled community that has never fully transitioned back to as strong as it once was before the storm.
Hurricane Katrina started on August 23rd, 2005, as a Tropical Storm Warning in the Bahamas, but quickly moved into Louisiana as a Stage 5 Hurricane by August 29th. Beginning as a tropical thunderstorm, factors such as low pressure, warm water, and unstable conditions quickly turned Katrina into an evolving tropical cyclone. Because of the Category 1 and 2 winds that hit the city of New Orleans for several hours, 53 federally built levee systems broke. Hurricane Katrina is estimated to have broke these levees easily while entering the city, including the three main levees of 17th Street Canal, London Avenue, and the Industrial Canal, which left 80% of the city flooded (Murphy, “Fixing New Orleans’ Thin Grey Line”). In the nearby Gulf of Mexico, 8 million gallons of crude oil spilled with over 400 reports to the local coastguard, and only 25% of the oil accounted for; Erik Olsen, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council feared “the city of New Orleans could end up being a toxic waste site” (Vidal, “Katrina Oil Spills May Be among Worst on Record”). The hurricane also caused severe beach erosion, such as the below image, which highlights the difference before Katrina (left) and after (right) for the Chandeleur Islands (Stockdon, “Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms”). Much of this beach erosion caused over 20% of local marshes and 16 National Wildlife Refugees to close permanently (Sheikh, “The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Biological Resources”).

Although Hurricane Katrina was a powerful geographical disaster, much of the damage caused was exacerbated by political factors. After a mere 15 hours on land, Katrina effectively created the costliest and 3rd most intense natural disaster destruction in American history. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, man-made mistakes constituted two-thirds of the deaths in New Orleans (American Society of Civil Engineers, “THE NEW ORLEANS HURRICANE PROTECTION SYSTEM: What Went Wrong and Why”). These mistakes can be summarized in the faulty construction of New Orleans’ levees and flood walls. Back in 1965, Congress passed the Flood Control Act which allotted money toward flood prevention efforts if construction did not exceed ten million dollars. The New Orleans levees and flood walls, especially in poorer districts, were subsequently built with shorter steel pilings in an effort to save money (Robertson, “Decade After Katrina, Pointing Finger More Firmly at Army Corps”). This shortcut led to the failure of the constructs when Katrina hit because the shorter steel pilings malfunctioned and quickly broke down, and is arguably one of the largest environmental policy failures in US history.

Both the geographical and political factors of Hurricane Katrina directly caused most of the socio-economic damages, leading to an extreme level of human casualties for this type of storm. The first ever mandatory evacuation warning blared through the streets of New Orleans less than 24 hours before Hurricane Katrina swept in. Almost 80% of residents evacuated, leaving the last 20% to fend for a safe place to live out the storm. A meta poll conducted by Gallup showed that an uneven distribution of citizens in the lower socio-economic brackets suffered more from Hurricane Katrina due to factors like lack of money to evacuate, lower standard of shelter, and less resources to reach out for help in the aftermath (Moore, “Katrina Hurt Blacks and Poor Victims the Most”). Comparatively, 29% more African Americans than white citizens lived without food for one or more days, and 24% more African Americans lived without water for one or more days during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Moore).
The photo below describes thousands of victims’ stories with all the same ending: without organized federal support, there was no way to receive food or water, even after five to seven days after the storm hit. Racial tension grew rapidly throughout the nation in response to the slow reaction from the Bush Administration. This racial disparity became mainstream as celebrities such as Kanye West and famous civil rights activist Cornel West claimed “George Bush does not care about black people,” which is cited as a major reason why the African American activist Black Panthers grew quickly in popularity (Strachan, “The Definitive History of ‘George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People’”). Racial tension in the United States has steadily grown since Hurricane Katrina.

Looking at all three major factors that played into the damage of Hurricane Katrina, the major change that should be learned from this storm is significant development in natural disaster prevention policy. The US Federal Government should not place “caps” on building expenditures because it incentivizes local governments to short cut. This was directly seen when New Orleans used shorter steel pilings to build levees which led to them to breaking when in contact with Category 1 winds, causing 80% of the city to flood. Most of the deaths and costs could have been avoided if the levees were built in the safest way, not the cheapest (Shader, “Preventing Another “Unnatural” Disaster Ten Years After Hurricane Katrina”). The US Federal Government must also provide more comprehensive mobile hospitals which in turn will decrease the overall death toll in the situation of a natural disaster (Weiner, “Response to Challenges and Lessons Learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: A National Perspective”). Although the US can never “stop” a storm, implementing quick and extensive responses could also ease most of the potential racial tension, which was also a major failure after Hurricane Katrina.
Overall, although Hurricane Katrina contributed heavy destruction through pure geographical characteristics, a majority of the negative effects from Katrina were man-made through political factors and socio-economic influences. Much of New Orleans still awaits rebuilding, but Hurricane Katrina will live on in infamy as the costliest and deadliest US natural disaster in the 21st Century.
Right as you’re reading this, the state of Texas is suffering similar effects as Hurricane Katrina. Donate to those affected by Hurricane Harvey here.
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Works Cited
Moore, David W. “Katrina Hurt Blacks and Poor Victims Most.” Gallup.com. Gallup, 25 Oct. 2005. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Murphy, Verity. “Fixing New Orleans’ Thin Grey Line.” BBC News. BBC, 04 Oct. 2005. Web. 20 Nov. 2016.
THE NEW ORLEANS HURRICANE PROTECTION SYSTEM: What Went Wrong and Why. Reston: American Society of Civil Engineers, 2007. The Library of Congress. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
Robertson, Cambell, and John Schwartz. “Decade After Katrina, Pointing Finger More Firmly at Army Corps” New York Times. New York Times, 23 May 2015. Web. 21 Nov. 2016.
Shader, Eileen. “Preventing Another “Unnatural” Disaster Ten Years After Hurricane Katrina.” American Rivers. American Rivers, 18 Aug. 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.
Sheikh, Pervaze A. The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Biological Resources. The Library of Congress. Web. 19 Nov. 2016. Published October 18, 2005.
Stockdon, Hilary. “Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms.” Before and After Photo Comparisons, Chandeleur Islands — Hurricane Katrina — Coastal Change Hazards: Hurricanes and Extreme Storms. U.S. Geological Survey, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.
Strachan, Maxwell. “The Definitive History Of ‘George Bush Doesn’t Care About Black People” The Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 28 Oct. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.
Vidal, John, and Julian Borger. “Katrina Oil Spills May Be among Worst on Record.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 15 Sept. 2005. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.
Weiner, Debra L., Shannon F. Manzi, Susan M. Briggs, and Gary R. Fleisher. “Response to Challenges and Lessons Learned From Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: A National Perspective.” Pediatrics 1st ser. 128.Supplement (2011): n. pag. AAP News and Journals Gateway. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.
