Hurricane Katrina Fault

Hurricane Katrina: What went wrong?

Preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. These are the four components that consist of a well-planned and successful mission for any natural disaster. When Hurricane Katrina made land fall on the Gulf Coast in August of 2005, there were many factors that resulted that were devastating. Some of the factors include, the breaching of levees, the response of federal, and mutual aid units as well as late evacuations just before the storm had made land fall. These factors as a whole will have left an impact on both federal, state and local agencies in how they had prepared, and responded to the disaster.

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast of the United States. The storm was measured as a category three hurricane which had reached winds of approximately one hundred and forty miles per hour. The storm had initially measured almost four hundred miles across affecting the areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Of these three affected areas, Louisiana contained the largest amount of damage; however, one city in particular suffered the greatest damage and was the primary focus of this disaster. That was the city of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans was at an incredibly high risk for a few reasons. One reason was that New Orleans was surrounded by significant bodies of water. Each of these bodies of water had contained levees that were built in the twentieth century, where some were stronger than others. Those levees that were not built properly held the greatest risk of being breached and causing treacherous flooding as well. Another factor included New Orleans being located below sea level, which had included the “city’s poorest and most vulnerable pe...

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...n had been disrupted, and were not able with withhold the intensity of the storm. This had involved dispatching centers to be shut down, which had left the inability for the dispatchers to provide the necessary information to emergency providers about the emergencies taking place.

In summary, the events of Hurricane Katrina had left a lasting and devastating impact on not only the general public, but also those within public safety including local, state and federal agencies. The storm had affected nearly hundreds of square miles resulting in thousands of casualties, and people misplaced with no homes to go to as well. In addition, there were many contributing factors that had resulted in major life, including the geography of New Orleans, how the levees around New Orleans were built, as well as the lack of coordination between local, state and federal officials.