A REFLECTION ON KATRINA HURRICANE

KATRINA HURRICANE OVERVIEW

The New York Times reported that Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast with devastating force at daybreak on Aug. 29, 2005, pummeling a region that included the fabled city of New Orleans and heaping damage on neighboring Mississippi. In all, more than 1,700 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others displaced.

Packing 145-mile-an-hour winds as it made landfall, the category 3 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane’s storm surge — a 29-foot wall of water pushed ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast — was the highest ever measured in the United States. Levees failed in New Orleans, resulting in political and social upheavals that continued a half decade later.

Katrina ranks as one of the most punishing hurricanes ever to hit the United States. Damage, costing billions of dollars, has made it one of the costliest storms on record. In New Orleans, floodwaters from the breached levee rose to rooftops in the poorest neighborhood, and in many areas residents were rescued from roofs of homes that became uninhabitable. The hurricane’s howling winds stripped 15-foot sections off the roof of the Superdome, where as many as 10,000 evacuees had taken shelter. An exodus of hundreds of thousands left the city, many becoming refugees, finding shelter with nearby relatives or restarting their lives in states as far away as Massachusetts and Utah.

Experts who studied the disaster say the hurricane was more like four storms — at least — that battered the area in different ways. They say the flood protection system in New Orleans was flawed from the start because the model storm it was designed to stop was simplistic, and led to an inadequate network of levees, flood walls, storm gates and pumps. And experts say that understanding the failings is essential in planning the next generation of flood protection for a rebuilt New Orleans, and for systems nationwide.

In the wake of the storm, the region’s grinding poverty, longstanding corruption and political ineptitude — particularly in the Big Easy — were exposed along with the inadequacies of federal, state and local agencies. Gradually, the region stabilized as aid was meted out and many of its residents returned.

 Impending Disaster: 
Hurricane Katrina was a category 5 hurricane on August 28, 2005,

One day before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast

      The Levees are Breached: 
      Water pours into New Orleans

     The Flood: 
     Hurricane Katrina's most devastating damage was caused by flooding

MY REFLECTIONS ON KATRINA HURRICANE

Katrina Hurricane was the most deadly, largest and strongest hurricane that happened in the United State of America, why did this happen? Natural calamities will only happen anytime and anywhere and we couldn’t stop or even control this kind of devastating incident when our mother nature will strike.  Though, we couldn’t avoid such disaster the best thing that we can do is to do preventive measures,   learn how to be ready for the calamities that might  happen and also, in times like this, Government has a heavy responsibility to response immediately and know how to handle even in a difficult situation. As far as what happen in Katrina, according to  The New York Times “The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael D. Brown, was stripped of his post amid fears within the Bush administration that its delayed response to the disaster could do lasting damage to both President George W. Bush’s power and his legacy. But more important to some members of the administration, it dented the administration’s aura of competence. In the end, the federal government’s response was seen as too little and too late”.

 Incompetence, weak administration, poor leadership  and lack of communication is the major factor as what the government best described during the hurricane the government did not act promptly, in order them to  save  more lives and properties that  Katrina Hurricane made. It resulted to more casualties, displacement, and property destruction. All of this, can be avoided if proper planning, preparedness, good governance, people coordination and someone who’s on the top that has a bigger heart, innovative, knowledgeable and strong enough to act every time natural and manmade calamities will occur. We couldn’t afford to lose everything when this situation may happen to us, many lives and properties will be at stake.  

However, in my  point of view, everything has its own reason and no one is exempted and everything is in Gods time, no matter what happen, whether we are prepare or not, only one thing is for sure his will and wish is our command and  yet, we aren’t ready and prepared to face him except that we repent our sins every day and always remembering him wherever and whatever we do,  through our prayers  and strong faith, and during the calamities,  he will save, guide and protect us for every difficult situation and dilemmas  that we may encounter because he is the greatest the strongest, and the All knower and has the best plan to mankind.