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On Monday, August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina reached land in New Orleans, Louisiana. When it arrived, it was a category 3 hurricane, which means that winds were moving as fast as 130 miles per hour. As it traveled through the city, it became clear that this Hurricane was worse than anything they had ever dealt with in the region.
Some had imagined this disaster would come to fruition. In 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported three possible threats that would be the most crippling to our nation. One of which was the possibility of a significant hurricane hitting New Orleans that would drown the city and kill its residents. In 2004, a team of engineers reported the possibility and effects of a category 5 hurricane on the city. The report concluded that the existing structures that protect the bowl shaped city are insufficient for anything more than a category 3 hurricane. They gave suggestions and cost estimates as to what can be done to mitigate the possible damage, such as raising the levees, and building flood gates. These warnings were ignored, and there was no improvement to their infrastructure. One way they tried to prepare was by running a drill they called Hurricane Pam. It was a hypothetical hurricane of category 3 that was to hit New Orleans. The drill indicated that transportation was going to be a problem worth working on.
Let’s fast forward to Sunday, August 28th, 2005. In the days prior, Katrina had been traveling in the Gulf’s warm waters and getting stronger since it first hit southern Florida. On the 27th, the Mayor issued a voluntary evacuation. It was not until Sunday afternoon, after receiving grave warnings from the National Hurricane Center and desperate pleas from the director of FEMA t...

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... recovered at least 90 percent of their pre-Katrina populations, which puts them on the right track to full recovery.

Works Cited

http://www.hurricanemarketing.com/hurricanes/hurricanes_types.htm http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/hurricane-sandy-vs-hurricane-katrina/ http://www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2013/08/hurricane_katrina_eight_years.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina#Federal_government_response http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee_failures_in_Greater_New_Orleans,_2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_preparedness_for_New_Orleans http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/national/nationalspecial/10cnd-katrina.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/nationalspecial/10katrina-docs.html http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E1D9113CF93AA1575BC0A9639C8B63&pagewanted=1

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