hurricane katrina essay

fires burning in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

Adding to the destruction following Hurricane Katrina, fires burn in parts of New Orleans in an apocalyptic scene from early on September 3, 2005. The storm struck the Gulf Coast with devastating force at daybreak on Aug. 29, 2005, pummeling a region that included New Orleans and neighboring Mississippi.

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Hurricane Katrina, explained

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest storm in U.S. history, and its effects are still felt today in New Orleans and coastal Louisiana.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall off the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005. It hit land as a Category 3 storm with winds reaching speeds as high as 120 miles per hour . Because of the ensuing destruction and loss of life, the storm is often considered one of the worst in U.S. history. An estimated 1,200 people died as a direct result of the storm, which also cost an estimated $108 billion in property damage , making it the costliest storm on record.

The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed a series of deep-rooted problems, including controversies over the federal government's response , difficulties in search-and-rescue efforts, and lack of preparedness for the storm, particularly with regard to the city's aging series of levees—50 of which failed during the storm, significantly flooding the low-lying city and causing much of the damage. Katrina's victims tended to be low income and African American in disproportionate numbers , and many of those who lost their homes faced years of hardship.

Ten years after the disaster, then-President Barack Obama said of Katrina , "What started out as a natural disaster became a man-made disaster—a failure of government to look out for its own citizens."

( What are hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons ?)

The city of New Orleans and other coastal communities in Katrina's path remain significantly altered more than a decade after the storm, both physically and culturally. The damage was so extensive that some pundits had argued, controversially, that New Orleans should be permanently abandoned , even as the city vowed to rebuild.

The population of New Orleans fell by more than half in the year after Katrina, according to Data Center Research . As of this writing, the population had grown back to nearly 80 percent of where it was before the hurricane.

Timeline of a Storm

Katrina first formed as a tropical depression in Caribbean waters near the Bahamas on August 23, 2005. It officially reached hurricane status two days later, when it passed over southeastern Miami as a Category 1 storm. The tempest blew through Miami at 80 miles per hour, where it uprooted trees and killed two people. Katrina then weakened to a tropical storm, since hurricanes require warm ocean water to sustain speed and strength and begin to weaken over land. However, the storm then crossed back into the Gulf of Mexico, where it quickly regained strength and hurricane status. ( Read a detailed timeline of how the storm developed .)

On August 27, the storm grew to a Category 3 hurricane. At its largest, Katrina was so wide its diameter stretched across the Gulf of Mexico.

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Before the storm hit land, a mandatory evacuation was issued for the city of New Orleans, which had a population of more than 480,000 at the time. Tens of thousands of residents fled. But many stayed, particularly among the city's poorest residents and those who were elderly or lacked access to transportation. Many sheltered in their homes or made their way to the Superdome, the city's large sports arena, where conditions would soon deteriorate into hardship and chaos .

Katrina passed over the Gulf Coast early on the morning of August 29. Officials initially believed New Orleans was spared as most of the storm's worst initial impacts battered the coast toward the east, near Biloxi, Mississippi, where winds were the strongest and damage was extensive. But later that morning, a levee broke in New Orleans, and a surge of floodwater began pouring into the low-lying city. The waters would soon overwhelm additional levees.

The following day, Katrina weakened to a tropical storm, but severe flooding inhibited relief efforts in much of New Orleans. An estimated 80 percent of the city was soon underwater. By September 2, four days later, the city and surrounding areas were in full-on crisis mode, with many people and companion animals still stranded, and infrastructure and services collapsing. Congress issued $10 billion for disaster relief aid while much of the world began criticizing the U.S. government's response .

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Geography of new orleans.

The city of New Orleans was at a disadvantage even before Hurricane Katrina hit, something experts had warned about for years , but it had limited success in changing policy. The region sits in a natural basin, and some of the city is below sea level so is particularly prone to flooding. Low-income communities tend to be in the lowest-lying areas.

Just south of the city, the powerful Mississippi River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. During intense hurricanes, oncoming storms can push seawater onto land, creating what is known as a storm surge . Those forces typically cause the most hurricane-related fatalities. As Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans and surrounding parishes saw record storm surges as high as 19 feet.

Katrina, Then and Now

New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina seeking aid from National Guardsmen

Levees can be natural or manufactured. They are essentially walls that prevent waterways from overflowing and flooding nearby areas. New Orleans has been protected by levees since the French began inhabiting the region in the 17th century, but modern levees were authorized for construction in 1965 after Hurricane Betsy flooded much of the city . The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers then built a complex system of 350 miles of levees. Yet a report by the

Corps released in 2006 concluded that insufficient funding, information, and poor construction had left the flood system vulnerable to failure.

Even before Katrina made landfall off the Gulf, the incoming storm surge had started to overwhelm the levees, spilling into residential areas. More than 50 levees would eventually fail before the storm subsided. While the winds of the storm itself caused major damage in the city of New Orleans, such as downed trees and buildings, studies conducted in the years since concluded that failed levees accounted for the worst impacts and most deaths.

The aftermath

An assessment from the state of Louisiana confirmed that just under half of the 1,200 deaths resulted from chronic disease exacerbated by the storm, and a third of the deaths were from drowning. Hurricane death tolls are debated, and for Katrina, counts can vary by as much as 600. Collected bodies must be examined for cause of death, and some argue that indirect hurricane deaths, like being unable to access medical care, should be counted in official numbers.

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest in U.S. history and left widespread economic impacts. Oil and gas industry operations were crippled after the storm and coastal communities that rely on tourism suffered from both loss of infrastructure and business and coastal erosion.

An estimated 400,000 people were permanently displaced by the storm. Demographic shifts followed in the wake of the hurricane. The lowest-income residents often found it more difficult to return. Some neighborhoods now have fewer residents under 18 as some families chose to permanently resettle in cities like Houston, Dallas, and Atlanta. The city is also now more racially diverse, with higher numbers of Latino and Asian residents, while a disproportionate number of African-Americans found it too difficult to return.

Rebuilding part of New Orleans's hurricane defenses cost $14.6 billion and was completed in 2018. More flood systems are pending construction, meaning the city is still at risk from another large storm. A series of flood walls, levees, and flood gates buttress the coast and banks of the Mississippi River.

Simulations modeled in the years after Katrina suggest that the storm may have been made worse by rising sea levels and warming temperatures . Scientists are concerned that hurricanes the size of Katrina will become more likely as the climate warms. Studies are increasingly showing that climate change makes hurricanes capable of carrying more moisture . At the same time, hurricanes are moving more slowly, spending more time deluging areas unprepared for major flooding.

Hurricanes are escalating more quickly than ever. Here’s why.

This bird can predict the intensity of a hurricane season. Here’s how.

No state is losing land like Louisiana—but no other state has a bolder plan

Portraits of Katrina

Five Years On, Superstorm Sandy Houses Rise Up

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Hurricane Katrina Essay

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes to ever hit the United States. The storm made landfall on August 29, 2005, causing widespread damage across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. In all, more than 1,800 people lost their lives and tens of billions of dollars in property damage was done.

Katrina was particularly devastating for the city of New Orleans, which saw its levees fail and floodwaters inundate much of the city. In the aftermath of the storm, many residents were left stranded without food or water for days.

The response to Hurricane Katrina was widely criticized, with many people pointing to the slow federal response as a major failing. In the years since, however, much has been done to improve disaster response in the United States. Hurricane Katrina was a tragic event that will be remembered for years to come.

Our environment and ecosystem allow us to thrive and enjoy our planet. Natural catastrophes are not affected by man’s will or desire. They might happen at any time and in any place, but we may choose how to protect our environment by acting responsibly for these natural disasters.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most destructive natural disasters in U.S. history. It hit the Gulf Coast region on August 29th, 2005 and caused catastrophic damage, particularly in the city of New Orleans and the state of Mississippi. The hurricane killed over 1,800 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

The physical damage from Hurricane Katrina was widespread and devastating. Entire neighborhoods were leveled, leaving nothing but debris behind. Houses were torn from their foundations, trees were uprooted, and cars were thrown about like toys. Floodwaters inundated entire communities, causing even more damage as they rose and receded. In all, it is estimated that Hurricane Katrina caused over $100 billion in damage.

But the damage from Hurricane Katrina was not just physical. The storm also had a profound psychological effect on those who lived through it. Many people who survived the hurricane recounted feeling traumatized by their experiences. They described a sense of loss, displacement, and grief that was overwhelming. For many, the stormrepresented not just the destruction of their homes and belongings but also the loss of their community and way of life.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was a great deal of discussion about how to rebuild the affected communities. Some argued that it was important to rebuild as quickly as possible in order to restore a sense of normalcy for residents. Others argued that rebuilding should be done thoughtfully and with an eye towards creating more resilient communities that could better withstand future storms.

What is clear is that Hurricane Katrina was a major disaster with far-reaching implications. The physical and psychological damage caused by the storm will be felt by those who lived through it for many years to come.

The aquatic ecosystem of the nearby lakes was devastated by the levee failure in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The breach of the dikes caused water to rapidly flood the region and become contaminated with city sewage, chemicals, medical waste, and human remains, which were then pumped into the lakes.

The main body of water effected was Lake Pontchartrain which provides much of the city’s drinking water. The hurricane also destroyed the coastal wetlands which act as a natural buffer from storms, these wetlands have not yet recovered.

New Orleans is situated in a bowl-shaped area surrounded by levees that protect it from flooding. The bowl is actually below sea level, so when Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005, and the levees failed, the entire city was flooded. More than 80% of New Orleans was under water, with some areas being submerged under 20 feet of water.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, many people were left stranded without food or clean water. As conditions in the city deteriorated, looting and violence became widespread. The federal government was criticized for its slow response to the disaster.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes in US history. It caused more than $100 billion in damage, and left thousands of people homeless. More than 1,800 people were killed, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in US history.

Water bearing all sorts of pollutants was pumped into any available destination, as long as it didn’t submerge the city, after Katrina. Apart from Katrina causing havoc, one of the most significant flaws in government and army Corps of Engineers efforts was the lack of protection and efficiency of the levees. The consequences of the levees’ failure and water eventually engulfing the city were only amplified.

The water that submerged New Orleans following Katrina was filled with all types of contaminants. Oil from cars and boats, animal carcasses, and even human remains were all mixed in the murky water. This water not only destroyed homes and buildings, but also seeped in to the soil and groundwater. The long-term effects of this contaminated water are still being studied, but it is safe to say that they will be felt for many years to come.

In addition to the contaminated water, there was also a great deal of air pollution caused by Katrina. As the storm ripped through houses and buildings, it generated a tremendous amount of dust and debris which contained harmful toxins like asbestos and lead. This debris was then sent airborne where it was inhaled by residents, further exacerbating the health problems caused by the storm.

All of this pollution had a devastating effect on the environment of New Orleans. The contaminated water destroyed plant and animal life, as well as the natural habitats that they lived in. The air pollution tainted the air quality for miles around, making it difficult for people and animals to breathe. And the debris left behind clogged up waterways and made it difficult for new vegetation to grow. It will take many years for the environment of New Orleans to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.

We must recognize that the traditional “levee solution” is more detrimental than beneficial, and it must be rethought. According to the Association of State Floodplain Managers, “There are only two kinds of levees: ones that have failed and ones that will fail.” To protect and safeguard our ecosystems more effectively, levi structure and design must be significantly altered.

We have to think long-term when it comes to these things. In 2005, one of the most infamous natural disasters occurred in the United States. Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi hard, causing many fatalities and leaving thousands homeless. This hurricane was different than any other because of the widespread damage that it did.

It is important to note that while hurricanes are a common occurrence in this area, the devastation caused by Katrina was Unprecedented. In order to understand how such destruction could happen, we must first understand what goes into making a hurricane and the different types of storms.

A tropical cyclone is “a rotating, organized system of clouds and thunderstorms that originates over tropical or subtropical waters” (National Hurricane Center). These storms are fueled by warm, moist air and can grow to be very large. There are three main types of tropical cyclones: tropical depressions, tropical storms, and hurricanes.

A tropical depression is the weakest type of storm and has winds that range from 22-38 mph. A tropical storm is a bit stronger, with winds reaching 39-73 mph. The last and most severe type of storm is the hurricane. These storms have winds that surpass 74 mph and can cause catastrophic damage (National Hurricane Center).

Now that we know what goes into making a hurricane, we can begin to understand how Katrina formed. The conditions for this particular hurricane were just right; it had all of the necessary ingredients to turn into a category 5 storm.

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Hurricane Katrina

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 28, 2023 | Original: November 9, 2009

Early in the morning on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States. When the storm made landfall, it had a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale–it brought sustained winds of 100–140 miles per hour–and stretched some 400 miles across.

While the storm itself did a great deal of damage, its aftermath was catastrophic. Levee breaches led to massive flooding, and many people charged that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the people affected by the storm. Hundreds of thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were displaced from their homes, and experts estimate that Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damage.

Hurricane Katrina: Before the Storm

The tropical depression that became Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and meteorologists were soon able to warn people in the Gulf Coast states that a major storm was on its way. By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region. That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.”

Did you know? During the past century, hurricanes have flooded New Orleans six times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and 2005.

New Orleans was at particular risk. Though about half the city actually lies above sea level, its average elevation is about six feet below sea level–and it is completely surrounded by water. Over the course of the 20th century, the Army Corps of Engineers had built a system of levees and seawalls to keep the city from flooding. The levees along the Mississippi River were strong and sturdy, but the ones built to hold back Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and the waterlogged swamps and marshes to the city’s east and west were much less reliable.

Levee Failures

Before the storm, officials worried that surge could overtop some levees and cause short-term flooding, but no one predicted levees might collapse below their designed height. Neighborhoods that sat below sea level, many of which housed the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people, were at great risk of flooding.

The day before Katrina hit, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation order. He also declared that the Superdome, a stadium located on relatively high ground near downtown, would serve as a “shelter of last resort” for people who could not leave the city. (For example, some 112,000 of New Orleans’ nearly 500,000 people did not have access to a car.) By nightfall, almost 80 percent of the city’s population had evacuated. Some 10,000 had sought shelter in the Superdome, while tens of thousands of others chose to wait out the storm at home.

By the time Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans early in the morning on Monday, August 29, it had already been raining heavily for hours. When the storm surge (as high as 9 meters in some places) arrived, it overwhelmed many of the city’s unstable levees and drainage canals. Water seeped through the soil underneath some levees and swept others away altogether.

By 9 a.m., low-lying places like St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward were under so much water that people had to scramble to attics and rooftops for safety. Eventually, nearly 80 percent of the city was under some quantity of water.

Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath

Many people acted heroically in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Coast Guard rescued some 34,000 people in New Orleans alone, and many ordinary citizens commandeered boats, offered food and shelter, and did whatever else they could to help their neighbors. Yet the government–particularly the federal government–seemed unprepared for the disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took days to establish operations in New Orleans, and even then did not seem to have a sound plan of action.

Officials, even including President George W. Bush , seemed unaware of just how bad things were in New Orleans and elsewhere: how many people were stranded or missing; how many homes and businesses had been damaged; how much food, water and aid was needed. Katrina had left in her wake what one reporter called a “total disaster zone” where people were “getting absolutely desperate.”

Failures in Government Response

For one thing, many had nowhere to go. At the Superdome in New Orleans, where supplies had been limited to begin with, officials accepted 15,000 more refugees from the storm on Monday before locking the doors. City leaders had no real plan for anyone else. Tens of thousands of people desperate for food, water and shelter broke into the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center complex, but they found nothing there but chaos.

Meanwhile, it was nearly impossible to leave New Orleans: Poor people especially, without cars or anyplace else to go, were stuck. For instance, some people tried to walk over the Crescent City Connection bridge to the nearby suburb of Gretna, but police officers with shotguns forced them to turn back.

Katrina pummeled huge parts of Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama , but the desperation was most concentrated in New Orleans. Before the storm, the city’s population was mostly black (about 67 percent); moreover, nearly 30 percent of its people lived in poverty. Katrina exacerbated these conditions and left many of New Orleans’s poorest citizens even more vulnerable than they had been before the storm.

In all, Hurricane Katrina killed nearly 2,000 people and affected some 90,000 square miles of the United States. Hundreds of thousands of evacuees scattered far and wide. According to The Data Center , an independent research organization in New Orleans, the storm ultimately displaced more than 1 million people in the Gulf Coast region.

Political Fallout From Hurricane Katrina

In the wake of the storm's devastating effects, local, state and federal governments were criticized for their slow, inadequate response, as well as for the levee failures around New Orleans. And officials from different branches of government were quick to direct the blame at each other.

"We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," Denise Bottcher, press secretary for then-Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana told the New York Times . "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin argued that there was no clear designation of who was in charge, telling reporters, “The state and federal government are doing a two-step dance."

President George W. Bush had originally praised his director of FEMA, Michael D. Brown, but as criticism mounted, Brown was forced to resign, as was the New Orleans Police Department Superintendent. Louisiana Governor Blanco declined to seek re-election in 2007 and Mayor Nagin left office in 2010. In 2014 Nagin was convicted of bribery, fraud and money laundering while in office.

The U.S. Congress launched an investigation into government response to the storm and issued a highly critical report in February 2006 entitled, " A Failure of Initiative ."

Changes Since Katrina

The failures in response during Katrina spurred a series of reforms initiated by Congress. Chief among them was a requirement that all levels of government train to execute coordinated plans of disaster response. In the decade following Katrina, FEMA paid out billions in grants to ensure better preparedness.

Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers built a $14 billion network of levees and floodwalls around New Orleans. The agency said the work ensured the city's safety from flooding for the time. But an April 2019 report from the Army Corps stated that, in the face of rising sea levels and the loss of protective barrier islands, the system will need updating and improvements by as early as 2023.

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Hurricane Katrina: an American tragedy

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Tee L. Guidotti, Hurricane Katrina: an American tragedy, Occupational Medicine , Volume 56, Issue 4, June 2006, Pages 222–224, https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqj043

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The true extent of the American tragedy that is Hurricane Katrina is still unfolding almost 12 months after the event and its implications may be far more reaching. Hurricane Katrina, which briefly became a Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, began as a storm in the western Atlantic. Katrina made landfall on Monday, 29 August 2005 at 6.30 p.m. in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, turned north, gained strength and made landfall again at 7.10 a.m. in southeast Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane and rapidly attenuated over land to a Category 3 hurricane. New Orleans is below sea level as a consequence of subsidence and because of elevation of the Mississippi river due to altered flow. The storm brought a nearly 4 m storm surge east of the eye, where the winds blew south to the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and gusts of 344 km/h at the storm's peak at ∼1.00 p.m. Levees protecting the city from adjacent Lake Pontchartrain failed, inundating 80% of the city to a depth of up to 8 m. Further east in the Gulf Coast, a storm surge of 10.4 m was recorded at Bay St Louis, Mississippi [ 1 , 2 ].

What followed was horrifying and discouraging. Poor residents and the immobilized were left stranded in squalor. Essential services failed. Heroic rescues were undertaken with wholly inadequate follow-up and resettlement [ 3 ]. Emergency response was feeble. It was only after the military intervened that the situation began, slowly, to improve. New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast to the east is still a depleted, devitalized, largely uninhabitable wreck. Less than a month later, on 24 September, Hurricane Rita followed. A much stronger storm in magnitude, Rita caused further displacement and disruption in Texas, where evacuation measures, undertaken in near-ideal conditions, were shown to be completely inadequate.

Floods usually conceal more than they reveal. Hurricane Katrina was an exception. It revealed truths about disaster response in the United States that had been concealed. Now, months later, one may assess the response and recovery to the disaster, evaluate how the country handled the challenge and determine what lessons were, or could have been, learned.

Katrina revealed that natural disasters and public health crises are as much threats to national security as intentional assaults. An entire region that played a vital role in the American economy and a unique role in the country's culture ground to a halt. During Katrina and Rita, ∼19% of the nation's oil refining capacity and 25% of its oil producing capacity became unavailable [ 4 ]. The country temporarily lost 13% of its natural gas capacity. Together, the storms destroyed 113 offshore oil and gas platforms. The Port of New Orleans, the major cargo transportation hub of the southeast, was closed to operations. Commodities were not shipped or accessible, including, in one of those statistics that are revealing beyond their triviality, 27% of the nation's coffee beans [ 5 ]. Consequences of this magnitude are beyond the reach of conventional terrorist acts.

Katrina revealed the close interconnection between the natural environment and human health risk. The capacity of wetlands in the Gulf Region to absorb precipitation and to buffer the effects of such storms has been massively degraded in recent years by local development. This has been known for a very long time [ 6 ], but development yielded short-term economic gain while mitigation was expensive. Katrina also revealed that understanding the threat and the circumstances that enable it means nothing if no concrete preparations are taken. The disaster that struck New Orleans, specifically, was not only foreseeable but also understood to be inevitable. Emergency managers had participated in a tabletop exercise that followed essentially an identical scenario just 13 months before, called ‘Hurricane Pam’ [ 7 ]. Had their conclusions and recommendations been acted upon, the actual event may have turned out differently. Although the levees would still have failed, perhaps those responsible for safeguarding the people would not have done so.

Katrina revealed that the federal agency designed to protect all Americans was incompetent. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reached its peak under President Clinton, when it enjoyed Cabinet-level rank. Post 9-11 FEMA was subordinated within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a department highly focused on terrorism and intentional homeland threats. The wisdom of combining the two was always in doubt. The logical solution is to move FEMA out of DHS but so far there has been no political will to do so and FEMA is so reduced and depleted as an agency that it probably could not now operate at a Cabinet level even were it to have the authority [ 5 , 8 ].

Katrina revealed how large and resilient the American economy has become overall. The evidence for this is how quickly the country has returned to economic growth and business as usual, despite the destruction of a region once economically important [ 9 ]. Katrina devastated ≥223 000 km [ 2 ] of the United States, an area almost as large as Britain. Yet, with one exception, the economy of the country barely registered an effect, even on psychologically volatile indicators such as stock market indices. It is projected that Katrina, as such, will only reduce growth in GDP for the United States by about one half of 1%. Although the southeast region served by New Orleans is very large geographically, it constitutes only 1% of the total American economy [ 10 ]. The lower Mississippi region adds little of its own economic value to GDP, other than tourism and as a source of energy. The exception noted above, of course, was the price of oil, as reflected in the prices of gasoline and refined petroleum products.

Katrina revealed how marginal the Gulf Region had become to the American economy, despite the wealth that passes through it. New Orleans itself was a poor city—it probably still is, although the returning citizens obviously have sufficient resources to allow them to return—and its neighbours in Mississippi and Alabama are not rich, either. The region is economically significant mainly for tourism, transshipment of cargo, oil and gas and for redistribution of wealth (in the form of legalized gambling). Reconstruction efforts may even fuel an economic expansion in the rest of the economy, although precious little prosperity resulting from it is likely to be seen in the devastated Gulf itself anytime soon. Astonishingly, the compounded effect of the war in Iraq, the high price of crude oil and the direct effects of Hurricane Katrina did not set back growth in the American economy, although it may have kept stock market prices level to the end of 2005.

Katrina revealed the great divide that remains between people living next to one another but differing in the clustered characteristics of race, poverty, immobility and ill-health [ 11 , 12 ]. Those who lacked the resources, who could not fend for themselves, who were left behind, who happened to be sick were almost all African–American, and therefore so were the ones who died. Relatively, well off residents near the shore of Lake Pontchartrain also sustained many deaths [ 2 ]. However, the brunt of the storm was clearly borne by the poor and dispossessed. That this was not intentional does not make it any more acceptable.

Honour in this dishonourable story came from the role of rescue, medical, public health and occupational health professionals. Rescuers took personal risks to save the stranded citizens of New Orleans. Public health agencies quickly identified and documented the risks of water contamination [ 13 ], warned of risks from carbon monoxide from portable generators [ 14 ], identified dermatitis and wound infections as major health risks [ 15 ] and identified outbreaks of norovirus-induced gastroenteritis [ 16 ]. Occupational health clinics and occupational health physicians and nurses treated the injured, from wherever they came [ 17 ]. Occupational health professionals returned critical personnel to work as soon as it was possible, to hasten economic recovery and rebuilding. Occupational Safety and Health Administration professionals warned against hazards in the floodwaters and the destroyed, abandoned houses but supplies for personal protection were nowhere to be found. The American College of Occupational and Environmental Health served as a clearing-house for information and provided almost 200 participants with web-supported telephone training on Katrina-related hazards and measures to get workers back on the job safely.

It was not enough. No human effort could have been by then. But what can we, as a medical speciality, do better next time? The occupational health physician is not, as such, a specialist in emergency medicine, an expert in emergency management and incident command or a safety engineer, although many do have special expertise in these areas because of personal interest, prior training or military experience. The occupational health physician is, however, uniquely prepared to work with management and technical personnel at the plant, enterprise or corporate level. We can assist in preparing for plausible incidents, planning for an effective response, identifying resources that will be required, and advising on their deployment.

The occupational physician has critical roles to play in disaster preparedness and emergency management. Our role in disaster preparedness is distinct from those of safety engineering and risk managers. Our role in emergency management is distinct from those of emergency medicine and emergency management personnel. Our roles in both are complementary, sometimes overlapping and predicated on the value that we bring to the table as physicians familiar with facilities. We have the means to protect workers in harm's way and from the many hazards already so familiar from our daily work. Katrina demonstrates that occupational health professionals can translate experience of the ordinary to play an integral role in dealing with the extraordinary.

US National Interagency Coordinating Center. SITREP [Situation Report]: Combined Hurricanes Katrina & Rita. Access restricted but unclassified (3 January 2006 , date last accessed).

Wikipedia. Hurricane Katrina. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina (5 January 2006 , date last accessed).

Economist. When government fails, 2005 .

Bamberger RL, Kumins L. Oil and Gas: Supply Issues after Katrina. CRS Report for Congress RS222233. Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 2005 .

Time 2005 ; 166 : 34 –41.

Louisiana Wetlands Protection Panel. Towards a Strategic Plan: A Proposed Study. Chapter 5. Report of the Louisiana Wetlands Protection Panel. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Report No. 230-02-87-026, April 1987 . http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/UniqueKeyLookup/SHSU5BURRY/$File/louisiana_5.pdf (6 January 2006, date last accessed).

Grunwald M, Glasser SB. Brown's turf wars sapped FEMA's strength. Washington Post 2005 ; 129 : A1 ,A8.

FEMA. Hurricane Pam exercise concludes. Region 4 Press Release R6-04-93. 24 July 2004 . http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=13051 (3 January 2005, date last accessed).

Samuelson RJ. Waiting for a soft landing. Washington Post 2006 ; 167 : A17 .

Fonda D. Billion-dollar blowout. Time 2005 ; 166 : 82 –83.

Atkins D, Moy EM. Left behind: the legacy of hurricane Katrina. Br Med J 2005 ; 331 : 916 –918.

Greenough PG, Kirsch TD. Hurricane Katrina: Public health response—assessing needs. N Engl J Med 2005 ; 353 : 1544 –1546.

Joint Taskforce. Environmental Health Needs and Habitability Assessment: Hurricane Katrina Response. Initial Assessment. Washington, DC and Atlanta, GA: US Environmental Protection Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005 .

MMWR. Surveillance for Illness and Injury After Hurricane Katrina—New Orleans, Louisiana , 2005 .

MMWR. Infectious Disease and Dermatologic Conditions in Evacuees and Rescue Workers after Hurricane Katrina—Multiple States, August–September, 2005 , 2005 ; 54 : 1 –4.

MMWR. Norovirus among Evacuees from Hurricane Katrina—Houston, Texas , 2005 .

McIntosh E. Occupational medicine response to Hurricane Katrina crisis. WOEMA Quarterly Newsletter (Western Occupational and Environmental Medical Association) 2005 , pp. 2, 7.

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Essay on Hurricane Katrina

Students are often asked to write an essay on Hurricane Katrina in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Hurricane Katrina

What was hurricane katrina.

Hurricane Katrina was a big and very bad storm that hit the United States in August 2005. It was one of the worst disasters in the country’s history. The storm grew very strong before it reached land near New Orleans, Louisiana.

The storm caused a lot of destruction. It broke dams, and water flooded many homes and streets. Thousands of people lost their houses, and many had to leave the city. Sadly, some people also lost their lives.

The Response

After the storm, people from all over the country came to help. They gave food, clothes, and a place to stay to those who lost everything. The government and charities worked to rebuild homes and help the city recover.

Lessons Learned

Hurricane Katrina taught everyone a lot about preparing for big storms. Now, cities and people make better plans to keep safe when a hurricane is coming. It showed how important it is to help each other in tough times.

250 Words Essay on Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was a giant storm that hit the United States in August 2005. It was one of the strongest storms ever to strike the country. Katrina started over the ocean, where warm water made it grow bigger and stronger. It then moved towards the city of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast.

The Impact of the Storm

When Katrina reached land, it brought very strong winds and huge waves. These waves, called storm surges, pushed water onto the land and flooded many areas. New Orleans was especially hard hit because it is built below sea level and relies on walls called levees to keep water out. Sadly, the levees broke, and most of the city was covered in water. Many homes were destroyed, and people had to leave their houses.

Helping After the Disaster

After the storm, many people needed help. They had no electricity, food, or clean water. Groups from all over the country came to give aid. They brought food, water, and clothes. They also helped people find places to stay. The whole country worked together to help those affected by the storm.

Hurricane Katrina taught us a lot about preparing for big storms. Now, cities have better plans for when such disasters happen. They make sure levees are strong and help people leave dangerous areas before the storm arrives. Katrina was a tragic event, but it made people realize how important it is to be ready for nature’s power.

500 Words Essay on Hurricane Katrina

Introduction to hurricane katrina.

Hurricane Katrina is remembered as one of the most powerful and destructive storms in the history of the United States. It struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005. This storm caused a lot of damage in many places, especially in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. Many homes were destroyed, and a lot of people had to leave their homes and move to other places.

What is a Hurricane?

A hurricane is a huge storm that forms over warm ocean waters and has very strong winds. These winds spin around a calm center called the “eye” of the hurricane. Hurricanes can cause heavy rain, high winds, and big waves called storm surges. These storm surges can flood the land near the coast.

The Power of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was very strong. It was a Category 5 hurricane, which is the highest level on the scale that measures how powerful hurricanes are. When it reached the coast, it was a Category 3, but it still had winds of up to 125 miles per hour. These winds and the storm surge caused the sea to rise and flood the coastal areas.

The Impact on New Orleans

New Orleans was one of the worst-hit areas. The city is built below sea level and is protected by walls called levees. But during Hurricane Katrina, the levees broke, and water flooded into the city. Many houses were covered with water, and people had to go to their rooftops to wait for help. The flood made it very hard for people to get food, water, and medical care.

Rescue and Help for People

After the storm, many people came to help those who were affected by the hurricane. The government, charities, and volunteers from all over the country worked together. They gave out food and water, and they helped people find safe places to stay. Rescue teams used boats and helicopters to save people who were trapped by the floodwaters.

Rebuilding and Remembering

It took a long time for New Orleans and other places to start to look like they did before the hurricane. People had to rebuild their homes and fix the damage. Even years after Hurricane Katrina, some areas were still working to get back to normal. The storm taught everyone a lot about being ready for such disasters and how to build stronger buildings and levees.

Hurricane Katrina was a very sad event that showed how powerful nature can be. It reminds us that we need to be prepared for big storms and help each other when they happen. Even though it was a time of trouble, it also showed how people can come together to help those in need. Katrina will always be remembered, not just for the damage it caused, but also for the strength and kindness people showed in the face of disaster.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

Remembering Katrina and Its Unlearned Lessons, 15 Years On

There’ve been so many storms — literal, cultural and political — since the hurricane hit New Orleans. But for the sake of all cities, we can’t forget it.

The author’s home in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans in 2005, damaged by flooding from Hurricane Katrina. Credit... Sheryl Sutton Smith

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By Talmon Joseph Smith

Mr. Smith is a staff editor.

Aug. 21, 2020

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Early in the evening on Aug. 25, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Florida. A modest Category 1 storm, with top winds of only about 90 miles per hour, it passed just north of Miami, then lumbered across the Everglades toward the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

That night a birthday cake, white with pineapple filling, sat inside a glass cake stand on the dining room table at a house on the east corner of Dreux Street and St. Roch Avenue in New Orleans. It was my older brother’s birthday.

Within 72 hours, the storm grew into a colossal Category 5, its eye headed straight for the city. My family fled, leaving almost everything behind.

On Aug. 29, at 6:10 a.m., Hurricane Katrina slammed into the mouth of the Mississippi River as the fourth-most intense hurricane ever to make landfall in mainland America. Upriver in New Orleans, poorly made federal levees — which bracket the drainage canals coursing through the city — began to break like discolored Lego pieces when buffeted by storm surge. And a great deluge began.

On Aug. 31, President George W. Bush, who had been vacationing in Texas when the hurricane hit New Orleans , took a flyover tour of the destruction in Air Force One, while four-fifths of the city was underwater, and tens of thousands were stranded on rooftops, marooned on patches of dry streets or trapped in shelters.

On Sept. 2, as many still awaited rescue, and the death toll of more than 1,800 was still being tallied, The Baltimore Sun reported that the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, “questioned the wisdom of spending billions to rebuild a city several feet below sea level.” It was a common sentiment at the time — also published in mainstream outlets like Slate and The Washington Post — that New Orleanians have never forgotten.

A month or so later, my family returned to our home on Dreux Street, with masks and gloves, to survey the damage, a mildewed mess: our furniture, works by local artists, the old piano, all ruined. A chair hung from the chandelier. Below it on the counter, looking soggy yet almost untouched, was the birthday cake, still tucked inside its glass dome.

At the time, many here feared that “we may not see this city ever again, or at least not in the form we recognize,” as Wendell Pierce, the New Orleans native who starred in the HBO series “Tremé” about post-Katrina turmoil in the city, reminded me years later.

Mr. Pierce recalled how in those early months and years, “ Do You Know What It Means (to Miss New Orleans) ” by Louis Armstrong hit differently — not as bittersweet, but a dirge.

To his relief and that of millions of others, much of the city recovered after the hurricane, in its own uneven way.

Yet now, the coronavirus has killed over 4,000 Louisianans, put New Orleans’s service-based economy into a coma, shown the rest of America what a Katrina-size failure feels like and revealed how the lessons from the storm’s aftermath, regarding crisis management and social inequality, remain unlearned.

It can be hard to clearly remember August 2005 . There have been so many storms — literal, cultural and political — that have happened since. But we can’t forget the singularity of its disaster.

We can’t forget that the levees, properly built, easily “could have been sufficient” for the storm surge, as Stephen Nelson, a professor emeritus of earth and environmental science at Tulane University and author of the seminal paper “ Myths of Katrina: Field Notes From a Geoscientist ,” told me. But the Army Corps of Engineers failed to drive the steel pilings that hold levee panels together far enough into the earth , among other grave failures .

We can’t forget that, adjusted for inflation, the median Black household in the majority-Black city earned only about $30,000 in 2000, and that evacuating can cost thousands.

We can’t forget that despite commanding the greatest ground, air and naval forces in history, the U.S. government took roughly a week to put in place a thoroughly engaged rescue effort — leaving tens of thousands stuck without suitable shelter, food or water.

Precisely because the federal government was largely missing for days — while state and local officials were mired in petulant disarray — we can’t forget the heroic acts New Orleanians did for one another.

One of the first people I visited this month in New Orleans was Rudy Major, a man responsible for rescuing 125 or so people from floodwaters in my old neighborhood, Gentilly, according to his rough estimate. Mr. Major, a man full of jokes, is girded by a militarylike seriousness when ready to talk business.

He sat me down in his den and explained that he stayed as Hurricane Katrina approached because he was confident that his house, on a ridge, would not flood and because he was equally confident that the low-lying Ninth Ward, only a couple of miles away, would — and he wanted to help.

Soon after two nearby levees broke that Monday morning, Mr. Major hopped into his 30-foot boat with his son, Kyle, then 19. They made dozens of trips to fetch people in the surrounding area from their roofs and bring them back to his terrace, just safely above the waterline, “whether they looked white, Black, Creole, something else, whatever.”

They saw corpses float by. They hacked into an attic after hearing faint cries for help to discover a grieving woman with her two young daughters and their lifeless grandmother.

Such stories are just some of thousands of wrenching tales from the aftermath, created and compounded by government ineptitude. Mr. Major expressed a similar frustration with the government now, as the coronavirus strikes Louisiana with a particular severity.

“There are distinctions, but a lot of similarities,” he said. “You need a federal plan, a state plan, a local plan and they have to be connected.”

In 2005, the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin; Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana; Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi; and the Bush White House stumbled over logistics and wrestled over funding as lives were in the balance. In 2020, the cast of battling characters is simply broader, as governors from California to Texas to New York clash with mayors, and the Trump administration undermines them all, while refusing to take the lead itself.

Depending on where and who you are, the result of this politicized crisis response is just as deadly. “I’ve lost 15 friends to Covid,” Mr. Major said.

Pre-Katrina, there was already a considerable shortage of affordable housing in New Orleans . The situation has only become worse, as many of the affordable units the city had were never rebuilt after the storm and the urban core became whiter and wealthier.

New Orleans now has roughly 33,000 fewer affordable housing units than it needs, according to HousingNOLA , a local research and advocacy group. There are opportunities in every corner of the city to fix this, argued Andreanecia Morris, the executive director of HousingNOLA, when we met in her office in Mid-City on South Carrollton Avenue.

Most New Orleanians are renters. Pre-Katrina, the market rate for a one-bedroom apartment was around $578 monthly. It has roughly doubled since then, meaning a full-time worker must now earn about $18 per hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment.

Real wages, however, have stalled, and many of the places that employ New Orleanians remain closed. Tens of thousands of workers in the city’s beloved music, drinks, food and tourism businesses — who were the most likely to lose their livelihoods both after the storm and now during the pandemic — make a minimum wage of $7.25.

In some other cities, Ms. Morris explained, unaffordable rent “is the result of a housing stock shortage, but in New Orleans we have a vacancy rate of about 20 percent!” In total, there are about 37,700 vacant units. I could feel it biking and driving through the curvilinear streets that weave from the river to the lake, passing by elegant, unfilled properties on otherwise vibrant blocks, then by neatly rebuilt houses sitting lonely in areas frozen in 2007: three empty lots for every six homes you see.

Residents like Terence Blanchard, the Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, who resides in a thriving midcentury neighborhood along Bayou St. John, live this dichotomy. “People talk about the recovery,” he told me as we stood on his dock overlooking the water and City Park. “But if you go to my mom’s house in Pontchartrain Park, there was no real recovery.”

The federal housing vouchers mostly known by the shorthand “Section 8” — which subsidize rent payments above 30 percent of participants’ income — fully cover “fair market rate rent,” which in New Orleans is calculated as $1,034 to $1,496 for a one-bedroom apartment. That means even in increasingly upscale, higher-ground areas of town there is little stopping developers and landlords with vacant properties from lowering rents by a few hundred dollars and still being able to generate revenue.

For Ms. Morris, the continued holdout by many landlords that want “a certain kind of family,” or Airbnb customers, has grown to “psychotic” levels of classism and racism. “At a certain point,” she said, “the math has to let you at least manage your prejudices.”

I met Malik Bartholomew, a young local historian and born-and-raised New Orleanian , at the last Black bookstore in town, the Community Book Center, based in the Seventh Ward on Bayou Road. A cultural hub that was on the verge of closing because of the coronavirus, it’s been rescued for now by what the owner — known to her clientele as Miss Vera — views as a surge in white guilt after the death of George Floyd.

“Books started flying off the shelves,” Miss Vera said, her ambivalence visible despite the mask on her face.

Shortly after, Mr. Bartholomew gave me a history tour of the Faubourg Tremé, the iconic old neighborhood where I briefly worked as a teenager in 2013. Already gentrifying then, it’s become even fancier since.

As an eighth-generation New Orleanian, I wanted to be a good native and scoff at it all. But I found myself almost viscerally charmed by the carefully redone homes and the cafes frequented by young white people alongside the scene of a retired Black gentleman enjoying his shaded porch.

Couldn’t there be, I asked, a world in which some of the well-off people who come to visit and decide to stay then respect the culture, integrate into it, increase the tax base and help uplift others?

Mr. Bartholomew asserted — in between waving to residents he knew — that my integrationist daydream puts too much faith in “the Part 2,” in which wealth and power would be shared. “I’ve never seen that happen,” he said. “People just make money off our culture.”

As Mr. Bartholomew and other community organizers see it, “the wealthy interests are more powerful than ever.”

The mayor of New Orleans, LaToya Cantrell, said she largely agreed.

Ms. Cantrell, both the first woman and the first Black woman to lead the city , is from Broadmoor, one of the seven lower-lying neighborhoods that a panel appointed by the mayor’s office after Hurricane Katrina planned to transform into parks and wetlands.

She rose in local politics as a leading opponent of that failed plan and won the mayoralty on a platform of creating a New Orleans “for all New Orleanians.” But she confessed as we spoke in her sunlit yellow and blue City Hall office that, even before the coronavirus, every day felt like pushing a boulder uphill.

“All the time,” she told me, stretching out each syllable. “But if you don’t push, you’re not going to move. The systems that have been created, particularly in this city, are so that we’re doing all the pushing around here — and have been.”

Those systems are many and layered. There are regional business elites and the Federal Reserve — which has once again declined to be as generous to indebted municipalities as it’s been to the corporate markets it has saved. A hostile and controlling conservative state government blocks or vetoes many policies City Hall desires and starves the city of funds, even though much of the tax revenue generated in New Orleans goes to state coffers. As a result, Ms. Cantrell complained, she has no ability to make reforms like raising the minimum wage, and little room to redirect taxes or revenue.

So far, she has had more success with infrastructure projects, including a deal to divert some tax dollars from the tourism industry into initiatives that include a focus on sustainability. Instead of abandoning low-lying neighborhoods, the city is seeking to re-engineer their open spaces — like unused lots and wide avenues — into a network of water gardens, mini wetlands and drainage canals that feel more like babbling creeks. These “ blue and green corridors ” are meant to reduce flooding and reverse subsidence, the sinking of land, which has been increasing.

This reworked cityscape will be immensely beneficial to New Orleans’s viability if completed. But in the face of climate change — rising seas and disappearing wetlands to the south — Ms. Cantrell acknowledged it won’t be enough over the next 15 years.

There’s only so much, she said, that a mayor with a municipal budget can do — for wages, infrastructure, housing, education, economic mobility and more. And that’s true anywhere.

For all of New Orleans’s cultural uniqueness, for all of its ability to be a multicultural mecca in fleeting, festival moments, its struggles and needs are practically the same as every other urban area. Nearly everywhere, the city — this central, vital organ of modern society — is yet to be fairly figured out, with citizens living in just and environmentally stable harmony.

For such a city to be achieved, rich people of all colors will need to stop hoarding resources and live next to working people, schoolteachers may have to be paid like professors, living wages may need to be subsidized and epic adaptations will have to be made for climate change.

The scale of this need can be met only by the vast fiscal and monetary powers of the federal government. The alternative is for coastal areas around New Orleans, Miami, New York and Charleston, S.C., to become ever more unequal in the coming decades, sinking under the weight of their contradictions, then succumbing to nature and being overrun by the sea.

A day or so before I left town, I sat with Dr. Nelson, the Tulane geologist, in his backyard, and he told me he was skeptical of society’s ability to control coastal erosion in time. “For humans, if the return on investment isn’t immediate, you don’t do it,” he said. “But the Earth doesn’t work that way.”

For America to make an adequate pivot to environmentalism and egalitarianism may require a miracle unseen in lifetimes.

Still, as I took off from Louis Armstrong Airport, I noticed how within seconds we were soaring over the wetland created by the Mississippi River, much of it less than 1,000 years old, but now teeming with humans busying about, visible from a vehicle thousands of feet on high — a larger, more implausible-seeming miracle.

It reminded me of one of the last things Dr. Nelson told me, eyes smiling above his mask: “You can’t ignore what’s underneath you. Because you’re building everything on top of it.”

Talmon Joseph Smith is an economics reporter based in New York. More about Talmon Joseph Smith

Understanding Katrina

What Katrina Teaches about the Meaning of Racism

To what extent was West’s statement fair? More generally, what would it mean to ascribe the racial profile of Katrina’s victims to “racism”? This essay will argue that the debate over the racial meaning of Katrina exposes a public disagreement in the United States about the meaning of racism itself. The fundamental divide in the debate over racism in the United States today is between those who regard racism as essentially a question of individual psychology versus those who consider it a social, structural phenomenon.

One of the most fundamental problems with the discussion of racism in the United States today is the tendency (most commonly found, it must be said, on the political right and among whites) to equate racism with racial prejudice . People of this persuasion define racism as being identical to (and, crucially, limited to) ethnophobia —that is, disdain for other people on the basis of their supposed racial characteristics. In this definition, racism is not a social condition but rather is something that exists in the minds of “racists.”

It is widely and correctly observed that this sort of racial prejudice, or bigotry, has abated greatly in this country in the last half century. Though racial prejudice certainly still exists, many fewer people despise others simply because of their skin color. This is true not only in terms of a reduction of the number of bigots, but also in terms of a steady restriction of the social arenas in which prejudice manifests itself. Even subtle displays of bigotry are today widely regarded as illegitimate not just in the political arena, but also at work or even in social circles. For example, while many whites may still cavil at their daughters marrying a black man, the vast majority of whites no longer actively or even passively refuse to work alongside people of color; and that someone might be refused service on public transportation because of their skin color is unimaginable. It is precisely this tabooification of active racial hatred that leads some to believe that racism is no longer a significant problem for American society.

It is impossible to overstate what huge progress the curbing of bigotry represents for the United States. But if rolling back bigotry is a necessary condition for eliminating racism, it is arguably not a sufficient condition. This is precisely the fulcrum of the political debate in this country today about racism.

The problem with equating racism with prejudice is that it fails to address the fact that racial discrimination takes place not merely through intentional (though perhaps unselfconscious) interactions between individuals, but also as a result of deep social and institutional practices and habits. That is, historical patterns of race-based exclusion do not disappear in lock-step with the diminishment of the chthonic prejudices that underpinned the original race-based exclusions. Long after white people cease to actively hate and consciously discriminate against racial minorities, there persist social patterns—where people live, which social organizations they belong to, what schools they attend, and so on—that were built during the hundreds of years where active racial prejudice was the fact of ethnic life in America. These social and institutional structures, in other words, are constructed on prejudicial racialist foundations. As such, they are bearers of the racist past, even though they may today no longer be populated by active bigots. This social and economic exclusion on the basis of race is what “racism” is really all about.

The continued exclusion of blacks from certain prestigious, purely social organizations is the archetype for this sort of racism. Consider the illustrative archetype of the all-white country club. The barrier to entry for blacks into these sorts of institutions is rarely an active rule banning blacks from joining. 2 Rarely, but hardly never. The popularization of televised golf championships, ironically, has spotlighted the continued existence of statutorily all-white country clubs in the United States. See “Golf’s host clubs have open-and-shut policies on discrimination,” USA Today , April 9, 2003 . However, these exceptions prove the rule: whenever the media shines a spotlight on these statutes, the institutions almost invariably cave in and eliminate the exclusionary rules—but the elimination of the rules only rarely result in changes to the actual membership of these bastions of privilege. Rather, what excludes blacks is that the club members know few if any black people as social equals outside the club. Now, it would be a mistake to conclude from this lack of black friends that the club members are necessarily prejudiced against black people. Rather, the club is simply an institutional manifestation of a longstanding social network of upper-class whites. For such a social set, it’s not that they’re against the idea of socializing with blacks (though maybe their parents or grandparents were), it’s just that as a matter of fact they don’t socialize with blacks. The phrase “not caring about black people” is thus both fair and accurate to describe the mentality of this social milieu. Folks in this milieu may not be bigots, but they scarcely know any black people and thus don’t pay much mind to the specific concerns and welfare of black folks. In the meanwhile, the club facilitates the making of money (within their narrow social circle), the reproduction of the elite (within the same narrow social circle), and thus generally works to assure the social replication of the longstanding racialist pattern, all without a discriminatory thought ever entering anyone’s head.

Moreover, it should be stressed that racism can replicate itself merely via an unwillingness to challenge these racialized institutions and patterns. Undoubtedly the majority of white Americans regard themselves as post-prejudicial; yet many continue to consider the impact of racialist patterns of exclusion as something that the individual victims of those patterns must take individual responsibility for redressing. 3 See the recent Pew Poll’s survey of the huge opinion gap between whites and blacks about whether or not the government response would have been better if most of the victims had been white: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=255 The result is a huge gap between blacks and whites in their understanding of the racial meaning of Katrina: for blacks, the disproportionate blackness of Katrina’s victims is a sign of how the plight of their community is systematically ignored by the government; whereas the large majority of whites consider the racial issue as more or less irrelevant. 4 In fact, there were some who even claimed that to raise the issue of the race of the victims was itself “racist,” underscoring the way some regard the individual consciousness of race, rather than the social practice of racial exclusion, to be the essence of racism. (A less comfortable example for the average reader of this essay might be the challenge of making “diversity hires” at elite universities: when someone on the search committee insists that there simply are no qualified minority candidates for a given position, this argument is far less likely to be the result of active prejudice than it is to derive from an unwillingness to challenge a process that at every step imposes race-tinged filters.)

It cannot be repeated often enough that racial exclusion, e.g. racism, today happens not so much through active bigotry as it does through the tacit exclusions created by these sorts of unstated, unconsidered social habits. The fundamental point is one that is deeply uncomfortable for large sectors of this country: if your social network is, for purely historical reasons, defined by color lines that were drawn long ago in a different and undeniably widely bigoted age, then you don’t have to be a bigot yourself to be perpetuating the institutional structures of racial exclusion, e.g. racism. This was exactly Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s point when he declared on the Senate floor that the poor response to Katrina was not “evidence of active malice,” but merely the result of “a continuation of passive indifference.” 5 “Statement of Senator Barack Obama on Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts,” September 6, 2005 . These structural exclusions matter very much for one’s total life opportunities, including crucially one’s economic opportunities…and thus greatly affect one’s opportunities to, say, escape from deadly hurricanes.

The social definition of racism underpins the argument that while anyone can be prejudiced or bigoted toward anyone else on account of their skin color (including blacks who hate whites), rac ism is something that only applies to blacks and other ethnic minorities. Since racism is a matter of racially-coded social exclusion from positions of power, and since white people are not systematically so excluded, white people cannot be victims of racism. Yes, a white person can be a victim of bigotry, and a black person can be a bigot, but it is only society itself that is racist. Individuals can only meaningfully be described as “racists” insofar as their prejudices actively perpetuate society’s racism.

When two thirds of blacks believe that “racism continues to be a problem” in this country, while two thirds of whites believe that it is not, the divide in good measure can be explained by the competing understandings of what constitutes racism. To quote the Wall Street Journal ’s op-ed page, “For white Americans in general…as the proportion of whites who supported or were complicit in Jim Crow segregation or other racist institutions declines…the question of race becomes less fraught with every passing year.” 6 James Taranto, “The Best of the Web Today,” Opinion Journal , September 8, 2005. By contrast, black people find themselves systematically outside the centers of power and privilege, and conclude that the lovely thoughts inside white people’s heads aren’t the salient issue.

People on the right hate the argument that racism is not a matter of individual psychology but rather a social condition. They are not wrong to see that this definition flies in the face of the myth that America is a land of unlimited individual opportunity. Nor are they wrong to suspect that defining racism as larger and longer-lived than the bigotry of individuals leads nolens volens to the idea that ending racism requires structural reform. For if dissolving racism cannot take place simply by adjusting individuals’ “preference sets” to non-bigoted settings, then the solution to racism cannot happen exclusively in the marketplace, but instead must be mediated by an institution outside the market. Even if you haven’t read Hayek, you know where the argument is going.

The specter of Hayek raises a final point (one of no small methodological moment to the social sciences, one may observe in passing), namely that regaining progressive political possibilities requires reconstituting ideas about social collectivities; obversely, it requires dismantling Margaret Thatcher’s notorious claim that “there’s no such thing as society.” 7 Women’s Own , October 31, 1987. The whole quote: “There is no such thing as society: there are individual men and women, and there are families.” This literally anti-social perspective represents a fundamental obstacle to addressing social problems, including racism. After all, if there’s no such thing as society, then why try to solve society’s problems? Put in these terms, perhaps the dark lesson of Katrina is that much of America, and in particular the current administration, in fact does not regard the victims of Katrina as wholly belonging to the same society as them. In this sense, Kanye West’s blurted remark was entirely on the mark.

In sum, Katrina provides an unprecedented opportunity to communicate that “racism” is not just a matter of the psychology of hatred but is instead also a matter of the racial structure of political and economic inclusion and exclusion. This is one lesson from Katrina that social science should help communicate. Moreover, we should not blinker ourselves: this message is one that is deeply opposed by powerful political forces in the United States today. Those who deny the social nature of racism (whether substantively or methodologically) may not be bigots, but they are undoubtedly abettors of racism in the social sense of the word.

Nils Gilman is a high-tech executive and entrepreneur in the Silicon Valley. He is the author of Mandarins of the Future: Modernization Theory in Cold War America (Johns Hopkins, 2003) and coeditor of Staging Growth: Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War (University of Massachusetts Press, 2003). He is currently working on an intellectual biography of Peter Drucker.

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The Outcomes of Hurricane Katrina

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Disaster’ Health and Medical Aspects: Hurricane Katrina Essay

Introduction, first responder, the emergency medical service, the response to katrina, national incident management system, improving performance of emergency response, works cited.

The damage caused by Hurricane Katrina was a very serious one and an eye-opener to the emergency medical service providers and the fire department. Indeed it was the most powerful hurricane to have ever hit the United States. The fire departments are traditionally the first responders to many of such incidences of disaster and accidents.

The fire department not only responds to hurricanes but to all kinds of emergency circumstances, including bomb attacks, as the one the US experienced on September 11th, 2001. due to the fact that the fire department is the first responders to emergency calls, the medical emergency services have joined the panoply and are part of the fire brigade or come as a third party. During a disaster incidence, many governmental and non-governmental bodies turn out to assist in the management of the problem. This has stimulated the incorporation of public works departments into disaster response as the need for a combined effort, and coordinated operation is critical in the event of a disaster.

It can be remembered that the fire department, along with its emergency medical service team, was the first organized group that responded to the bombing of the world trade center in New York City. Other responses were from individuals from police, security guards, and maintenance staff (Daniels 98). The organized response was more effective as the fire department and emergency medical services had brought protective gear, garments, and equipment. The organized response is usually very efficient because of the preparedness they portray in terms of discipline, Command, and the proper equipment for carrying out the job of emergency service provision (Christopher et al. 57).

The responsibility of first responders in the event of a disaster is critical and warrants some discussion here. In most cases, the EMS personnel come to the scene first when an emergency strikes. This emergency medical personnel, including paramedics, begin immediately trying to save lives by offering medical intervention. The reaction of the first response shapes the way the whole disaster response mission would be like (Daniels 103). Upon arriving at the scene of an emergency, the first responders should carry out a brief evaluation by use of a situation report. This report (SITREP) offers a standard format of the scene assessment, and this informs other responding organizations appropriately (Daniels 108).

Hurricane Katrina of 2005 was the deadliest; hence an emergency medical service response was very important. As a requirement by any organized group that responds to a disaster and provide medical assistance, the emergency medical services, otherwise abbreviated as EMS, had to take a lot of precaution in handling the situation (Hogan& Burstein 78). Emergency medical services are designed to give pre-hospital and in-hospital treatment to victims of a disaster, just like hurricane Katrina. The treatment is to help the victims (ill or Injured) to reach the hospital and get the proper treatment that would enable them to attain the physical capabilities they had before the emergencies.

Emergency Medical service is the total combination of services and equipment that help provide medical assistance to the victims; it includes ambulances, paramedics, and other first-aid providers like the Red Cross (Hogan& Burstein 78). The hurricane Katrina victims greatly benefited from the services by the EMS, but the service was challenged by some operational problems that need to be improved ( Chan 1230) . Making a comparison with the situation in 2001 when the world trade center was bombed, the performance of the emergency service providers was quite improved in the 2005 Katrina disaster. This improvement could have resulted from the lesson learned from the previous.

Disasters are dynamic and unpredictable events that present threatening challenges to live and hence require critical management measures. In most cases, vital factors inherent to salvaging the situation are destroyed, like power loss, breakdown of communication, and destruction of transport means (Hogan& Burstein 78). Furthermore, the rescue could be restricted by jurisdiction disputes, economic limitations, and insufficient preparedness.

There are five critical elements that add up to the action to be taken and resources to be used for developing and adequately executing the rescue mission ( Chan 1230) . They are prevention, arrangement (plans), grounding, response, and analysis. Nonetheless, the EMS personnel are expected to remain calm, flexible, and realize that these elements are all equally important.

Disaster concentrates its efforts on identifying the specific hazards and then taking the relevant preventive measures to mitigate the loss of property and life ( Chan 1230) . EMS plays a vital duty of preventing disaster escalation through their extensive interaction with the members of the neighborhood, offering insights into medical attention and providing the infrastructure as well as their knowledge of the area geography. Moreover, EMS personnel are responsible for initiating preventative community education on handling victims ( Chan 1230) . They also insist on communication and utilization of information like hospital contacts or standard operating procedures.

Preparedness

Thorough planning, together with practical training, is vital for preparedness and is one of the strong factors of effective disaster management. EMS personnel and the responders are required to be very innovative so that they can improvise things to use for rescue ( Chan 1232) . Nonetheless, devoid of a properly practiced framework within which to operate, the response activities can be ineffective and disjointed. There are some very articulate responder guidelines prepared by the DHS office of disaster preparation describing the degrees of performance and management training. Disasters are rare, but when they occur, they are usually very stressful and therefore need a very high degree of competence for handling the case (Christopher et al. 57). Dairy drills for the EMS and fire department should include disaster management skills

The EMS has an Incident Command System (ICS) used for directing response operations. The ICS paradigm is vital for effectual disaster emergency response. The operations are categorized into Command, staging, medication, transportation, logistics, and triage. All the above functional elements are specific responsibilities for the EMS (Christopher et al. 58). Failing to perfume the duty properly in anyone of the can be very detrimental to the rest as well.

Conventionally, representatives of the fire department are required to have worked as Incident commanders (IC); however, regardless of who is the IC, the work has to be done within the ICS (Saqib 2). EMS also has a medical commander who is in charge of identifying casualties and organizing medical attention so that the injured persons can stabilize after treatment and that they are transported to a definitive healthcare facility. The success of the rescue mission greatly relied on the degree of training, facilities, and planning done by the EMS taking on the mission of rescue ( Chan 1237) .

The national response plan of the United States identifies the response to any disaster incidence as the responsibility of the local government. In case the local government runs out of their resources, they can then request assistance from the county level, and similarly, the request proceeds to the federal government (Brinkley 123). Some disaster management of Katrina started some time before the hurricane, especially by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Other outstanding assistance teams were the coast guard who rescued over 33,000 people stranded in New Orleans, and the service of the armed forces.

The United States Northern command came up with a combined coordination program that helped to control and manage the operation of the Shelby camp in Mississippi (Brinkley 123). The joint task forces acted as military on-scene Command, and close to 60,000 security personnel were enlisted to deal with the aftermath of the storm. The troops were drawn from all over the 50 states of the united state (Saqib 2). Most of the assistance that was provided by the government was not an immediate one though it was of great importance to the survival of the victims.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provided help to house more than 700,000 household which had been left without homes. It also paid hotel residence for 12,000 individuals and families. Law enforcement and public safety agencies have also played a crucial role after the disaster, especially in Louisiana and some parts of New Orleans, by providing manpower and equipment for house construction (Brinkley 126).

It’s a framework that the US uses to coordinate the way emergency incidences will be managed and also take of the incidents at various stages of government like local, state, and federal levels. NIMS is used by government and non-government bodies when responding to disasters or terrorist attacks. This system was initiated by President Bush in 2003 (Brinkley 129). Homeland security was made responsive to developing and implementing the program. The program works on two principles, which are the flexibility of service and standardization. Regarding flexibility, NIMS offers a steady, flexible, and modifiable nationalized structure within the government and non-government entities (Christopher et al. 59). The response can be made together despite the size, place of complexity.

For standardization, NIMS offers a benchmark framework and set the requirements for the rescue, processes, and systems intended to develop operability among authorities and disciplines in several areas.

The major components of NIMS include Command and management chain and preparedness. The nationally recognized systems of Command are the Incident command system – this is a system developed to enable effective and efficient management of emergency situations by the integration of personnel, facilities, and processes; other systems include the Multi-Agency Coordination System and Public Information System (Saqib 3).

The component of preparedness is a range of vital tasks and undertaking appropriate to develop, uphold and advance the operational capacity to avert, guard against, respond to and recover from household events within NIMS; the concept of preparedness is focused on creating guidelines and standards for training and certifying personnel and equipment (Saqib 3).

Resource management components require that there be an efficient system in place to identify the resources that are obtainable at every jurisdictional point so as to allow well-timed and unhindered right to use to resources that are needed for preparation, response, and recovery from an emergency (Saqib 4). This is how mutual aid agreements come into play, use of specialized personnel from the local, state, and the federal government.

EMS Mutual aid is a response policy program to ensure that the rescue mission in the event of a disaster is successfully accomplished in a well-timed and dependable manner. The EMS mutual aid appeal, has to be done with the intention of creating the closest obtainable EMS unit respond to the victim’s medical needs, at the moment when the resources of the agency making the request are temporarily not available or have been exhausted (Saqib 4).

The risk involved in the rescue of victims involved in a disaster is the first problem that hinders the effective performance of the emergency medical service. The sites of the disaster are always risky, and at times they may lead to the loss of lives of the paramedics and the firefighters. The major improvement that has helped improve the performance of the emergency health care service providers have been the introduction of specialized units in the department (Cottone 213).

Paramedics provide first aid services to the victims as other firefighters put out any fires that may endanger the rescue plan. The health hazard has also been reduced by the provision of safer garments and equipment (especially modified breathing equipment) the fire without endangering their lives. The safer equipment is systematized into engine, ladder, and dangerous material units; all these enable assignment specific work that allows effective utilization of manpower and the apparatus (Cottone 213).

The on-scene operation has been a serious problem with some individuals working independently and bringing out confusion, which is risky to the victims who are in need of medical service (Cottone 216). The fire department has to restructure the on-scene command system managing all the aspects of the operations taking place at the scene of the disaster.

The management of the fire department is another area of concern that needs to be restructured to allow easier administration of the departments involved. Staffing in the populated communities requires that the fire department operate larger machines and attend to incidences that they cannot simply handle on their own. Working together with other departments of firefighter becomes necessary as disaster management requires mutual collaboration (Christopher et al. 59). Such conformity would require that agreement be made and executed between elected bodies and managers rather than working directly within the departments.

The ambulance transport system offered by the private sector has been very inefficient, resulting in problems and loss of lives. The United States developed specialized pre-hospital health care units to replace these simple ambulances. These allow the paramedics to offers some form of treatment before the victims are loaded into the ambulance to be taken to the hospital (Cottone 217). All local hospitals are required to have emergency sectors to handle such occurrences.

Improving the provision of emergency health care to victims of disasters is very important, and is, therefore, the duty of each one involved to make sure that the service is efficient. Major improvements made include the use of standing orders or protocols as compared to the radio calls that unreliable, sponsoring specialized teams that include rescue operations, vehicle searches, and hazardous material units. In order to increase the chances of survival of victims of disasters, the emergency health care providers have included other activities such as blood pressure screening, healthy living education, or pulmonary resuscitation teaching. Another notable advance in the provision of emergency medical care came with the development of modern emergency management replacing the civil defense system.

Brinkley, Douglas. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. New York, William Morrow. 2005. Print.

Chan, Theodore, Killeen, Jim, Griswold, William, a nd Lennert, Leslie. Information Technology and Emergency Medical Care During Disasters. Academic Emergency Medicine , 11.11(2004): 1229–1236, 2004.

Christopher, Farmer et al. Providing Critical Care During A Disaster: The Interface Between Disaster Response Agencies And Hospitals. Critical Care Medicine , 34.3(2005): 56-59, 2005.

Ciottone, Gregory. Disaster Medicine, 3 rd Ed., Philadelphia, Elsevier/Mosby, 2006. Print.

Daniels, Ronald., Kettl, Donald., and Kunreuther, Howard. On Risk And Disaster : Lessons From Hurricane Katrina . Philadelphia; University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Print.

Hogan, David and Burstein, Jonathan. Disaster Medicine, Philadelphia; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2007. Print.

Saqib, Dara. Worldwide Disaster Medical Response: An Historical Perspective. Critical Care Medicine , 33.1 (2008): 2-6.

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Hurricane Katrina

August 24, 2005 JPEG

Tropical Storm Katrina had just become the eleventh named storm of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer ( MODIS ) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image on August 24, 2005, at 11:50 a.m., Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The storm formed late on August 23 and developed quickly into a tropical storm by 11 a.m. the next morning. By the time MODIS acquired this image, the storm was just starting to take the recognizable swirling shape of a hurricane. Katrina had winds of 64 kilometers per hour (40 miles per hour) and was expected to get stronger as it approached the south Florida coast, possibly becoming a Category 1 hurricane before coming ashore.

A more serious danger is Katrina’s rains. The storm is moving slowly, just 13 km/hr (8 mph), and it is expected to slow as it moves over land. This means that Katrina’s heavy rains will linger longer over one area, dumping 15-25 centimeters (6-10 inches) of rain over Florida and the Bahamas and possibly up to 38 cm (15 inches) in some regions, the National Hurricane Center warns.

For more information about the storm, please visit the National Hurricane Center . This image is available in multiple resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

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Hurricane Katrina exploded into a category 5 storm on August 28, 2005, as it moved north through the Gulf of Mexico towards the United States. It was one of the most powerful storms on record for the Atlantic Basin.

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Hurricane Katrina Essay

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Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina: Before the Storm

Levee Failures

Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath

Failures in Government Response

Political Fallout From Hurricane Katrina

Changes Since Katrina

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Hurricane Katrina: an American tragedy

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Essay on Hurricane Katrina

100 Words Essay on Hurricane Katrina

The Response

Lessons Learned

250 Words Essay on Hurricane Katrina

The Impact of the Storm

Helping After the Disaster

500 Words Essay on Hurricane Katrina

What is a Hurricane?

The Power of Hurricane Katrina

The Impact on New Orleans

Rescue and Help for People

Rebuilding and Remembering

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Remembering Katrina and Its Unlearned Lessons, 15 Years On

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What Katrina Teaches about the Meaning of Racism

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The Outcomes of Hurricane Katrina

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