Katrina Brianna Duplan

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Oct 30, 2023

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Katrina Brianna Duplan March 29, 2023 The Earth's Environment- 02C Godfrey Uzochukwu Environmental Studies Program Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State Universit Greensboro, NC

Page 2 Table of Contents My Experiences…… Pre Katrina/ Coming Days/ Preparation…. Landfall /After Effects….

Page 3 My experiences When choosing a topic to write about my eyes were immediately drawn to the topic of hurricane Katrina. This was a topic that I knew I could truly understand and relate to on a personal level. Being born and raised in the city of Orlando, I experienced many hurricanes in my childhood. (2016 Hurricane Matthew, 2017 Hurricane Irma) It was normal. Shelves being completely wiped clean from panic, people boarding up their homes, and school being canceled until further notice. Then coming outside after the stom past with trees and debris in the streets. So, researching and seeing the documentary of hurricane Katrina it felt like that could have easily been my experience. My home could have easily been destroyed, I could have easily been displaced for a lifetime, and it could have affected everybody in my community. Growing up in class it was normal every school year for at least one teacher to ask if we remembered how horrific Katrina was. Then it would always come with the next sentence saying we were too young to remember. Being that it was in 2005, I was 2 turning 3. I was in the age group where everyone of us and everybody after wouldn't truly understand how catastrophic it was. Our experience with hurricanes growing up was always compared to this one.

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Page 4 Before moving any further I want to explain what a hurricane is. It is a tropical storm with winds that have reached up to at least 74 miles per hour or more. Hurricanes are made of previous storm, warm waters, thunderstorm activations, and wind shears. There is a hurricane season each year from June 11th to November 20th because this is when the ocean water is at its warmest. The hurricane zone is called hurricane alley, in this area ranges from the West Coast of northern Africa all the way up to the East Coast of Central America going through the Gulf of Mexico of the southern U.S. In the US this affects Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas , and Florida. September 22nd-24th of 1722 was the first documented hurricane to hit Louisiana. The strong winds lasted around 15 hours. Since then, there has been 62 hurricanes to hit Louisiana. With the worst is record history being Hurricane Katrina that made landfall on August 23, 2005- August 31, 2005, in New Orleans. This storm caused more than $160 billion in damages and around 1,392 fatalities. This is known to be the most devastating storm to hit Louisiana.

Page 5 Pre Katrina/ Coming Days/Preparation September 19th, 1965, a hurricane named Betsy hit New Orleans with winds over 100 mph and from now to then, 40 years later, the city's population has fallen from 627,000 - 437,000 residents right before Katrina hit. Between that time the federal government constructed a hurricane protection levee system. A levee system is “built parallel to a waterway, most often a river, to reduce the risk of flooding on the landward side." This system was originally designed to contain the flow of water and protect residents. After hurricane Betsy the governor at the time said “nothing like this will ever happen again” then, when Katrina came a storm with lesser magnitude caused far more damage. When Betsy hit during the colonial era houses were made elevated above the floodplain. After World War Two houses started to be built only a few inches above the ground. The city acknowledged that this was a mistake to start doing but no steps we're taking to change what was already done. Following Hurricane Betsy, the city wanted structural protection and the Corps of Engineers gave a plan to Congress for new levies and it was approved. This plan had been put aside and not finished until 2005 and was originally supposed to be completed by 1978 (WHAT IS a LEVEE? NFIP Definitions of Levees and Levee Systems, n.d.)

Page 6 Hurricane Katrina was first spotted in the Caribbean near the Bahamas discovered on August 23rd, 2005. Approximately 326,000 black people lived in poverty in New Orleans before Katrina. Prior segregation resulted in the majority being located in the most vulnerable part of the storm. Evacuation was a must, but many didn't have automobiles, due to their daily needs being concentrated in one area. So, when they realized that they had to evacuate thousands of citizens began to walk the Crescent City connection and were met with armed police. This forced many people to stay through the deadly storm. Katrina hit on August 29th, 2005, and by the time it made landfall it was already a category five storm with winds reaching 175 mph but lowering when it hit landfall to 140 mph. (Crash Course, 2022) During/ After Landfall

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Page 7 This category 5 storm caused the poorly constructed levee system to fail. This failure affected the black population of New Orleans due to previous segregation and being unable to find safety due to being forced to stay by law enforcement. Part of the city became flooded with nearly 20 feet of water. After a few days 85% of the city was under water forcing survivors to wait for help on the roof of their homes. The only transportation was by boat or helicopter to evacuation sites. The Coast Guard rescued nearly 34,000 people but over 1000 people lost their lives. Nearly half of them are elderly and die as a result of drowning. Other deaths were caused by injury or heart conditions. Houses were completely destroyed, and people were left stranded. As a result of this hurricane, New Orleans was forever affected. After the storm New Orleans suffered from a permanent population loss but the city started to recover with more opportunities for employment, income, and education. When the storm initially hit New Orleans was not in a favorable position to thrive after this catastrophe

Page 8 so the population in other cities like Houston and Boston grew. Today New Orleans' population is nearly 400,000, compared to its previous population of more than half a million. Today, 36% of adults hold college degrees while 26% held one before Katrina. The median household income is now $40,000. It was $27,000 before, and the poverty rate is down. Previous generations of New Orleans residents had migrated to different cities for better paying jobs. Before Katrina the black population was 326,000 people which made up 67% of the population and now 233,000 over a 29% drop. While the white population has dwindled, it has remained rivetingly the same. The long-term black residents fled to places like Florida Texas and Georgia. “On the tenth anniversary of Katrina, the Houston Chronicle estimated that 40,000 people who fled New Orleans for Houston just before or after the storm had stayed, many of them minorities.” (editor et al., 2020) this is all while the city is now suffering from a middle class black flight.

Page 9 References 1. editor, N. G. is a C. J. contributing, Institute, a senior fellow at the M., Street—, the author of A. the F. S. C. from W., & Washington. (2020, September 4). After Katrina . City Journal. 2. Edwards, C. (2015, August 27). Hurricane Katrina: Remembering the Federal Failures . Cato Institute 3. Hurricane Katrina: Crash Course Black American History #49 . (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved February 22, 2023 4. New documentary shares the stories of children who lived through Hurricane Katrina . (2022, August 28). PBS NewsHour 5. NOAA US. (2021, May 13). How do hurricanes form? Noaa.gov. 6. Plyer, A. (2016, August 26). Facts for Features: Katrina Impact | The Data Center . Datacenterresearch.org 7. US. (2019). NWS JetStream - Hurricane Katrina . Weather.gov.

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Page 10 8. WHAT IS A LEVEE? NFIP Definitions of Levees and Levee Systems . (n.d.). 9. US. (2019). NWS JetStream - Hurricane Katrina . Weather.gov. Title of Paper: Author: Evaluation Max Points Points Awarded Comments Organization 10 (Logical information presentation, evidence of preparation, interesting sequence which is easy to follow and page numbering, titled cover page, table of contents with page numbers, subtitles, etc) Length 5 (Write the required number of pages) Discussion 20 Clear expression of ideas in simple and clear English language) Content 20 (Presentation of relevant information which relates to the topic) Has national significance or a high impact on a broad area of science Creativity and Innovation 20 (Use of effective visual aids and organized thought process) Word use, spelling, etc. 10 (correct spelling, use of period, punctuation marks, paragraphs, spacing, font size, headings and subheadings, etc) References/Bibliography 10 (alphabetical listing of references, author’s names, www with author’s names included) Neatness 5 (clean project) Total 100

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