Hurricane+Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

1,833 citizens of the US have lost their lives in Hurricane Katrina, many more of which are injured or have lost their home, their prized possessions, their mental stability, and much more. The whole city was completely annihilated; a lot of buildings were destroyed and the streets were littered with trash. Over 30,000 people went to the Superdome to seek shelter. Many people drank contaminated water or lived in unsanitary conditions, and were infected with some sort of disease because of the condition of their immune system. This hurricane caused over $250 billion in property and economic loss.



Hurricane Katrina, a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, tested the United States’ ability to cope with such a strong natural disaster, and the US failed this test of preparation. Although many organizations immediately started to help, it was a slow process for most of them. Although 60,000 were rescued, Bush’s initial response was undermining the hurricane and not taking direct action. He did not even reference his mistakes in the state of the union address. The fact that the US was not able to help fast enough killed the spirit of the nation since they saw that we were not motivated enough to take faster action. Years after this natural disaster the nation continues to remember what happened. Many families are still affected by the injuries and death it caused, mentally and physically. To this day New Orleans only has 80% of what its population once was, and the poverty rate is at 23%, showing complete recovery will take a very long time.

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