Examining the factors that affected the choice of adjustments and responses of Hurricane Katrina

1. Hurricane Katrina
Adjustments and Responses to
Alex and Steph

2. Hurricane Katrina
Most costly disaster
in 2005
≈ $108 Billion
• August 23rd to
August 30th, 2005
• Category 5
Hurricane
• ≈1,800 fatalities
200,000 homes destroyed
800,000 displaced
• Louisiana, Florida,
Mississippi

3. Louisiana
State itself has$47,500/capita
Rank 21 forGDP/capita
Contributes to 1.4%
of the GDP in the
USA
New Orleans: $17,300/capita
Background

4. LouisianaBackground
Ethnicity Structure
Statewide:
32.4% Black persons
63.8% White persons
3.8% Other persons
New Orleans:
60.2% Black persons
33.0% White persons
6.8% Other persons
51% of the
fatalities in
Louisiana were
black persons
Vulnerability Summary
Black persons, due to USA's
segregation in the past.
Several lived with poor quality
of life or inadequate housing to
protect themselves
• 2000 persons per square
mile in New Orleans
• 25.7% below poverty line
o 18.4% statewide

5. Adjustments Before
80% of New
Orleans is
below sea level
• Man-made Levees and Floodwalls
o Over 50 failures of levees and floodwalls
• Hurricane Warning Days in Advance:
o Initially predicted as a level 2 hurricane,
but turned into a level 5 overnight
o Approximately 85% of Population
evacuated
• Mayor opened the Superdome for voluntary
evacuation

6. Responses: Community
Mayor Ray Nagin opened Morial
Convention Center as a shelter
of last resort in New Orleans.
Search and Rescue
began the afternoon
Katrina hit New
Orleans
However, communications
began to fail around this
time, causing more issues
State of
Louisiana
declared a state of
emergency

7. Responses: National
500 Different
Organizations
• Delivered
materials
o Food, water,
ice, medicine
• Dealt with bodies/
mortuary
• Medical services
• Search and
rescue
FEMA

8. Responses: International
Denmark: Water
purification units
Russia: First country to
offer assistance.
Supplies and rescue
team
Poland: Made offers of
help and assistance
And many more!
Philippines: Offered to
sent a 25 team of aid
workers and Red Cross
donated $25,000
Several
donations include
Oman: Pledged $15
million
Japan: $800,000 worth of
tents and emergency supplies,
but one individual donated $1
million of his own.

9. Adjustments After:
• Improved Levee and Floodwall
System
o 560 km of Levees and Floodwalls
• Diverted water from Mississippi River to rebuild
wetlands
• Established a network of back-up warehouses
o Enough to feed and shelter 350,000 residents

10. The main factors affecting adjustments and
response were:
• New Orleans' physical location
• Poverty of population/economy
• Lack of communication and poor
coordination
• Rescue, Rehab, Reconstruct
• Preparedness
IN CONCLUSION

11. DANKE!
GRACIAS!
MERCI!
MERCI!
THANK
YOU!
DANKE!

12. Bibliography
• http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/22/2255000.html
• http://www.cdcfoundation.org/program/response/katrina
• http://irgc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/
Hurricane_Katrina_full_case_study_web.pdf
• ^ The best pdf in the world, like seriously.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Katrina_in_New_Orleans
• http://www.livescience.com/22522-hurricane-katrina-facts.html
• http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2007/06/art1full.pdf
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Effect_of_Hurricane_Katrina_on_the_Louisiana_Superdome
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/27/new-orleans-since-
katrina_n_1834696.html