Hurricane Katrina

The hurricane Katrina came to existance at August 24th 2005. She arrived at the land of Miami as a hurricane of category 1 at the Saffir and Simpson scale. This hurricane weakened for a moment and then expanded above the Gulf of Mexico up to a hurricane of category 5 (heaviest).

Prediction

On August 28th 2005 National Weather Service predicted that Katrina would arrive on land at New Orleans on August 29th. A forced evacuation was adjusted because of the fact that big parts of New Orleans are up till 6 meters below sea level. At last Katrina went just near New Orleans. Even though there was complete chaos because of the high water level. People got evacuated to the Superdome. But also the Superdome was damaged and after the air-conditioning broke down and there was a shortage of food and water, evacuation of the Superdome got necessary to avoid a breakout of diseases. On September 5th the evacuation of the Superdome was completed.

Consequences

80% of New Orleans flooded as result of the various dike bursts. In the Gulf of Mexico 20 drilling platforms got ruined so that the production processes stood still and the oil price increased strongly. Also 400.000 military people were send to New Orleans to make an end of the ransacking that was going on. In the end, on September 6th everybody had to leave the city for health reasons.

The costs of Katrina: 1417 death, 2500 missing people en 75 billion dollar.

Rebuilding

Meanwhile the rules for rebuilding are determined and people just started to rebuild homes. These have to become minimal 1 meter higher than before. If people do not do that they risk a higher insurance fee.
At the rebuilding also dams will be looked after. The goal is to protect 98 percent of the city against extremely high water that can appear once in a hundred year. It will take untill 2010 before the city will be done with the adjustments of the dams. More about the rebuilding and recovery can be found on the website of the Government.

Social effects of Hurricane Katrina

At this moment, almost a year later, only 196.000 people have returned to New Orleans. Before the hurricane there lived about 450.000 people in New Orleans. There are still people coming back but the population differs a lot than before the hurricane. The city became more "white". Before the hurricane 36% of the population was black. Now only 21% of the population is black. On the other side the percentage of white people raised from 54% before the hurricane to 21% after Katrina. It is assumed that this has to do with money. Before the hurricane the black people lived in the poorest parts of the city. The rich white people have the money to rebuild homes, a lot of black people do not.

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