How Hurricane Katrina Changed My Life

As an inhabitant on Earth, a person will have to endure events that consequently change their life. Since 1996, the year I was born, multiple events have affected the way I live my everyday life. My first life event that made an impact was Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Hurricane Katrina turned the world I knew upside down. The hurricane moved my family to a new town and gave me a new outlook on reality. The next event that impacted my life was the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. As a result of the stock market crash, many of my family’s equities in stocks were lost. The loss put my family in a financial strain since a large portion of our income was acquired through the stock market. Lastly, the BP Oil Spill in 2010 effected my family tremendously.

The closest to economic depression since the Great Depression, our country faced economic turmoil, as did my family. With a 33.8% drop in share values according to Dow Jones Industrial Value, my family heavily suffered. We had to begin strictly budgeting our finances. A large portion of income was coming from the dividends and capital appreciation which plummeted during the recession. My family who invested thousands of dollars in the stock market lost over a third of the wealth they had worked hard to acquire over the past generations. At the time, I didn’t understand the stock market. Fairly enough, I learned quickly that a failing stock market meant a failing household. The stock market loss took caused tension in my family, my parents argued. Money was extremely tight. I remember going from eating steaks and shrimp, to rationing the hamburger in spaghetti. My lifestyle changed drastically. I didn’t know how to function. My mom had to get her first job since my sister was born. The stock market crash and the loss of our luxuries helped me realize the value of family, that money is not the most important aspect of life. As my family grew apart, my relationship with God grew. I feel as if I am still growing as a Christian and in my religion as I see the United States and others growing farther from

After moving from the beach, my family still had a fascination with Orange Beach. In November 2009, my family bought a condo at Phoenix I. On April 20, 2010, an explosion on tanker Deepwater Horizon caused a BP Oil Line to rupture flooding the Gulf of Mexico with over 3 million barrels of oil. Only 42 Miles off the coast, it greatly impacted the beaches along the Gulf. Even though crews attempted to keep the beaches clean it was impossible to prevent the cancellations among the hotels and our condo. By June 3rd, according to CRED (Conversations for Responsible Economic Development) over 60% of vacations to the Gulf had been cancelled or postponed due to the spill. The condo was bought for our enjoyment, however we had planned on the rental fees to pay the mortgage. There was no insurance guaranteeing rental and sadly, we had a condo with no renters. So, once again we readjusted our finances and made the minimum payment on the condo. I could see my family struggling to pay for everything and continue to maintain our lifestyle. However, since the economic problems in 2008, it wasn’t as hard for us to adjust back to a much simpler life. Also, since the condo wasn’t rented we spent most of summer 2010 at the condo enjoying the enormous swimming pool to ourselves. We spent time at Orange Beach and it didn’t cost any more to live on the coast in our condo than it did for us to live at home. We