Since 1900, New York City’ s average annual temperatures, measured from Central Park,have increased by over 1.67 degrees Celsius, and the sea levels surrounding the cities have risen by over a 30 centimeters. In addition, sea levels could rise additionally up to 2 meters by 2100 (Gerken, 2015). Resultantly, more extreme precipitation events are expected to occur in the future, such as hurricanes and flooding. Currently, 11 percent of the city’ s area is currently included in the 100-year flood plain, affecting over 400,000 residents, and that number could increase to 20% by 2100 (Gerken, 2015). The mayor of the city, Bill de Blaiso, had announced a sweeping plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by the year 2050, allegedly make neighborhoods safer from disaster. …show more content…
Hurricane Sandy demonstrated some of New York’ s upcoming challenges this century, as part of Manhattan lost power and massive flooding occurred in the city’ s subway tunnels and vehicular tunnels connecting territory across both the Hudson and East Rivers. One method of protection includes, “a flood protection system for Manhattan’ s Lower East Side and investments to protect vulnerable waterfront communities,” (Gerken, 2015) but will that protect Manhattan from disaster?In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy caused 117 deaths and leaving $62 billion worth of damage in its wake when it passed through the New York region (Sheppard,
New Orleans is a city that is rich in culture as well as history. The city is in effect, an island – Lake Pontchartrain surrounds the city to the north, the Mississippi River to the west and south, and a bevy of lakes – including Lake Borne to the east. Surrounding the city is a series of levees to keep these bodies of water at bay. In addition to these levees, the only defense the city has is a series of canals and a very antiquated pumping system. However, the same levees that protect the city, makes it a death trap should a major hurricane make a direct hit to the metropolitan area. The risk of intense flooding brought forth by storm surges of 20+ feet would wipe the city out.
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.
They found that various socio-demographic predictors of flood risk impact the difference across flood zone categories. The main residents in inland flood zones are non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic, while coastal flood zones have more higher median income and housing value residents. I considered the study a valuable reference for future flood hazard research and comprehensive public policy making. Social groups with higher vulnerability also tends to stay instead of moving away, for they do not have the affordability for moving to other neighborhood, giving up what they have and almost start from scratch. Thus, they are actually the group of people that suffers the most and paying the most towards natural events. It is also important for the government to create a official help system to improve their resilience.
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
Out of the largest 136 coastal cities in the world, Vancouver ranked 11 in terms of future flood damage (ibid) creating concerns for the safety of the human population. The historic sea level rise in Vancouver is 2.0cm/50 years but has jumped to an expected one meter by the year 2100 (“Sea Level Adaptation”, 2013). Majority of Canadians will be living within 20km of the coast with approximately 80% of British Columbians living within 5km (ibid). It is projected that the number of people living near coastlines will increase while will raise the amount of the population vulnerable to climate change trends
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.” 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. Even before the storm, officials worried that those levees, jerry-built atop sandy, porous, erodible soil, might not withstand a massive storm surge. Neighborhoods that sat below sea level, many of which housed the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people, were at great risk of
Climate change is no doubt one of the greatest threats to this planet today. Coastal cities flooding due to melting ice caps and rising water levels, cities experiencing extreme weather, and ocean life dying because of warmer water temperatures, it is not wonder why so many scientist and country leaders are worried about the safety and future of their country. The U.S. is just one of these countries where climate change endangers 333 million people. That is why the U.S. must take action to assure the future of their residents and safety of their numerous coastal cities. Due to the rising coastal water levels, previous legislative mistakes, and the risk of further climate change consequences, President Trump should acknowledge the need for the
"Welcome to the new Venice," McKenzie joked as salt water surged from the sewers. ---- Michael J. Mishak, Associated Press June 7, 2014 Over the years, Earth has been through numerous catastrophic events; such as, the KT dinosaur extinction, but none of these events are comparable to the +7.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions that are being produced in the United States of America yearly.(Tonto.eia.doe) As Al Gore once stated in his book, Earth in the Balance, “the process filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other pollutants – is a willful expansion of our dysfunctional civilization into vulnerable parts of the natural world” (234). These greenhouse gas emissions will pollute our atmosphere causing catastrophic events, therefore we our obligated to help reduce and maintain greenhouse gas emissions before they cause these destructive effects on Earth. In order to discuss theses catastrophic events, it would be more efficient to discuss the greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse effect individually.
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
Although a considerable amount of the blame has been placed at the feet of FEMA, it should be understood that multiple factors contributed to the situation in New Orleans. Some sections of the levees had been poorly constructed, and were not properly maintained. Local agencies failed to adequately plan and prepare of such an event. Local officials waited too long to order an evacuation, and did not consider how to assist those citizens who lacked the financial resources evacuate on their own. (1,24)
Some of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina could have potentially been avoided if protection systems were installed to the proper extents. In Louisiana, “some parts of the metro area continue to lack hurricane protection built to federal standards” (Webster). Had the greater Louisiana area been better protected, it is very likely that more people would have survived and the total cost of the storm been less. Even in areas where levees...
Hurricanes are formed over tropical waters. These intense storms consist of winds over 74 miles per hour (Ahrens & Sampson, 2011). The storms addressed here are Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. This paper will explore the contrasts and comparisons between these two horrific storms.
On early morning of August 29th, 2005 on the Gulf Shore near New Orleans, a devastating hurricane struck. It wrecked havoc, demolishing anything in its path. Leaving nothing but mounds of trash. The surviving people were forced to leave due to massive flooding and the destruction of their homes. New Orleans was not the only place hit by Katrina but it was one of the areas that was hit the hardest. Millions of people were affected by this tragedy and the cost range was up in the billions. Crime rates went up, no one had a place to stay and water was polluted. The damage done by Katrina affected New Orleans and the other areas hit years after it struck. Restoration for the areas hit was going to need support from all of America and support groups across the country. No one was ready for this tragedy or could ever predict the horrible outcome.
In a world divided by war, it is easy to overlook problems that affect all of mankind. The dramatic rise in ocean levels worldwide constitutes just that sort of problem. Although the fundamental problem of global warming has been given airtime and plenty of written-media coverage, the problem of rising sea levels seems to have met a certain amount of apathy. A likely explanation is that the rising sea levels mainly threatens impoverished peoples that may have no choice but to doubt the threat, since there is no way for them to relocate. Concurrently, Americans, seemingly beset by some false sense of well-being, really have no fear of the possible annihilation of our coastal cities. Granted, the worst case scenario (the total loss of all glacial ice) would take several hundred years to become a reality, but the possibilities are frightening.
He talks about how sea levels will rise and will be covering land in places like such as Florida and New York in his article called “Rising Sea Levels Threaten U.S. Cities”. The sea levels rising will cause some people to lose their living area. According to the passage, if we do nothing to stop climate change, over 26 million Americans ' homes might be inundated, and more than 1,500 U.S. cities and municipalities could find the areas where half of the residents live, also inundated. Moreover, the rate of increasing the sea levels is faster than ever. The passage mentions that the sea levels, rise in these 50 years is faster than the past 1,500 years. Moreover, there are more consequences caused by the climate change. According to Climate Central in Princeton, N.J., the sea levels increase might create some new wetland around the Mississippi River and there will be more flooding. Because of these consequences of climate change, the author suggests the US government to take action in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. How much sea levels increase is determined by how much carbon dioxide is emitted. The passage also warns those people who know the fact of climate change but still didn’t take action to prevent it. They will lose some of the land if we still do