Natural disasters don’t just come to the earth without leaving something behind, they always have to leave memories behind. These two natural disasters had great impact on the areas they occurred. The Great Flood of 1993 and Hurricane Mitch, were both highly disastrous events. Hurricane Mitch occurred in Berlin, Honduras, and Nicaragua. A lot of people were left dead, missing or homeless after this disaster occurred. The Great Flood of 1993 also caused a lot of damage. After the flood, houses were left destroyed and farms almost completely gone, Both natural disasters had great effects on the environment, but Hurricane Mitch caused more serious long-term problems.
The impacts of the Great Flood of 1993 and Hurricane Mitch are almost the same
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The disasters did not just stick to one area, they were spread across the towns. According to the Hurricane Mitch text, the hurricane affected a lot of places. As stated in the text, “Agriculture was completely destroyed in parts of Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua.” This may take a long time to clear, because a lot of places would have been affected, and this would make it longer for all the ruins to be cleared. On the other hand, the Great Flood according to the text, only occurred in one town. According to the text, “At the end of July, the sheriff ordered everyone out of town.” This shows that it only occurred in one town, this feature might not make it as long to clear as Hurricane Mitch. Even though the Great Flood lasted longer, Hurricane Mitch left much more damages than the flood. According to the Hurricane Mitch text, “ In the hills of Honduras and Nicaragua, heavy rain soaked the earth so thoroughly that entire hills collapsed. Tons and tons of mud flowed down the hillsides and covered whole towns. Thousands of people and their houses were buried in mud and never seen again.” There was a lot of damage caused by the Hurricane, houses, farms, buildings, hills, almost everything was covered. To put back everything in it’s place would take a long time. “ But experts estimated that it would take 15 to 20 years for the hardest hit areas to recover.” The detriment caused
Both hurricanes were both very devastating that caused death, destruction, and impacted many lives. They were ranked highest of being the costliest storms in United States history and the deadliest hurricanes on record. Each hurricane started as a tropical storm leading them both to strengthen throughout the water, but right when they hit landfall both hurricanes decreased in a category 2 and 3
In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount of damage and danger all throughout the city, officials claimed that there was work being done to restore the city of New Orleans as a whole but many parts, and even the people, of the city were overlooked while areas of the city with higher economic value, and more tourist traffic, were prioritized along with those individuals.
In 1992, hurricane Andrew was a category four hurricane and said to be one of the worst natural disasters to happen in the United States at the time. It’s winds surpassed 160 miles per hour and caused damage to over 125,000 homes within 400 square miles. Hurricane Andrew left approximately 175,000 families and children temporarily homeless.
In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, leaving its signature of destruction form Louisiana all the way to Florida. The hardest hit area and the greatest catastrophe was in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. For many years the people of New Orleans had feared that one day a hurricane would drown their city with its storm surge. Katrina brought that nightmare storm surge and flooded the city. Yet the New Orleans levees system and flood control was the major cause of flooding, due to the inadequate repair and maintenance failure, incompletion of the levee system, and engineering designs based on outdated scientific data.
On August 24th, 1992 in the state of Florida, complete destruction was the end result of Hurricane Andrew. A Hurricane that began in the Atlantic ocean at 20mph. That is almost twice the strength that normal hurricanes begin at. The peak strength of Hurricane Andrew was so strong that devices were not able to measure the winds. An approximation of the force of the winds was said to be up to 200mph. Andrew destroyed about 28,000 homes, damaged 100,000 homes and left 250,000 people homeless along with 30 billion dollars in damage and almost 30 deaths. Hurricane Andrew did not end its devastation in Florida, soon it went to Louisiana causing more damage. (Fig.1)
Hurricane Katrina a catastrophe that changed lives of many peoples, people were left without food and water for days. That storm itself did a great damage lead to the massive flooding,
This may be a common trend in every large city if more hurricanes strike. Urban development in almost all cities in America has made flooding worse than it should be. The creation of buildings, asphalt, concrete, and other things have eliminated much of the grass in the cities, which will cause less rainwater to be absorbed into the ground. Although most major cities have rain drainage channels, Houston may not have had enough of them, which caused them to fill up with water. The water had nowhere to go except on the streets. The city of Houston avoided floodplains. The floodplains that were present in Houston were often ignored by construction companies. These companies chose to build houses on the floodplains. This is discussed in this quote by Sean Breslin, “In the months following Hurricane Harvey, Houstonians face an important decision: respect the floodplain and stop building homes wherever, or continue to ignore the lessons taught by countless flood events and build more homes in the most vulnerable areas of town” (Breslin n. pag). I feel that if the civilians and building companies in Houston would have respected the floodplains years earlier, fewer lives would have been lost in this hurricane. Coral reefs provide excellent coastline protection which slows the hurricane just before landfall. The death of coral reefs also could have played a large role in why the hurricane was so
Hurricane Andrew also caused many short and long term effects on the ecosystem and local economies. Leading up to this storm, many prominent scientists believed that the hurricane would never make landfall, or if it did hit, would not cause any major damage. Due to this foolhardy belief held by the scientists, many civilians did not have any time to evacuate their homes and barely escaped with their loved ones and whatever small valuables or keepsakes they could grab. Regretfully, many families had to leave everything they had behind. Hurricane Andrew also damaged the livelihoods of many small shop owners and farms and caused long-term problems as well.
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters to happen in the United States. The storm resulted in more then US$100 billion in damage when the cities flood protection broke and 80% of the city was flooded (1). The protection failure was not the only cause for the massive flooding, the hurricanes clockwise rotation pulled water from north of New Orleans into the city. 330,000 homes were destroyed and 400,000 people from New Orleans were displaced, along with 13,00 killed (1). Although the population quickly recovered, the rate of recovery slowed down as the years went on leading us to believe not everyone
On August 29, 2005, the third strongest and biggest hurricane ever recorded in American history hit the Gulf Coast at eight o’clock a.m. The interaction between a tropical depression and a tropical wave created a tropical storm later referred to as Hurricane Katrina (FAQS, 2013). Forming over the Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina gradually strengthened as it moved closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded on August 28th, 2005, Katrina jumped from a category three storm to a category five storm with maximum sustained winds up to 160 miles per hour. Although other hurricanes, such as Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Wilma, exceeded Katrina, this dominant storm was classified as the fourth most intense hurricane based its pressure capacity. Once Hurricane Katrina hit land, it was pronounced as a category four storm moving slowly. While people thought that the slow speed of this storm prevented trauma, records show that Katrina did more damage than any fast-moving storm could have ever achieved (Solanki, 2013). Katrina produced abundant debris. The debris was in such large quantity that if it was stacked together on a football field, the rubble would reach the elevation of ten and a half miles. The size of Katrina also caused 90,000 square miles to be affected. Once proclaimed a category three storm, Hurricane Katrina slowed to the speed of 155 miles per hour. At this point in time, Katrina proved to be the sixth most prevailing hurricane traced in history. (Solanki, 2013). Several different aspects of life were impacted by Hurricane Katrina such as availability of gasoline, economic issues, and the ability to have an adequate supply of drinking water (Solanki, 2013). Hurricane Katrina was a large storm ...
The Effects of Hurricane Mitch The 20th century brought upon natural disasters that have both impacted the social and economical aspects of life. Hurricane Mitch was one of the greatest disasters of it’s time. The conditions that Hurricane Mitch left behind in Honduras and Nicaragua, effected these countries economy is a severe way. The hurricane brought devastation and economical difficulties to the people of Central American countries. The conditions the hurricane brought upon were severe.
Hurricane Katrina was very devastating and ended up leaving 1,833 people without their lives. It was also “350 miles across and produced high storm surges” which is why it was so incredibly powerful. (Dewan) Because of the strength of this storm, it was labeled as a category 5, the highest a hurricane can be labeled. By the time it hit, Katrina lessened in it’s category; however, within the first twenty four hours there were twenty eight levees reporting failure. (Dewan) There was only 10 inches of rain recorded which made this storm more based on wind. Lastly, the Mayor of New Orleans ordered an evacuation a day before the storm possibly saving lives.
Hurricane Katrina had a huge impact on the world and more specifically, New Orleans for there was substantial damage to the citizens property and more importantly their body and minds. The biggest impact Hurricane Katrina has was on the people of New Orleans. Having their homes destroyed or uninhabitable, thousands of New Orleans residents were forced to flee in the Superdome and t...
Every year many natural disasters happen around the world. In New Orleans, and several other states, a devastating hurricane struck. High speed winds and major flooding caused many people to lose their homes and even their lives. Many people have heard of hurricane Katrina, but not everybody knows what caused it and the affect it had on the United States.
After Hurricane Betsy flooded the city in 1965, Congress authorized the first flood protection system. The project was expected to take 13 years and cost roughly 85 million dollars. When Hurricane Katrina made land fall, almost 40 years later, the system still had not been finished and the cost had been soared to 738 million dollars. (news article) Knowing that New Orleans stood a good chance every year of getting hit by a category five hurricane, leaving its levees at a category three strength was like playing Russ...