Brief Overview
Hurricane Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to hit the United States that has ever been recorded. This was also the deadliest hurricane in seven decades in the U.S. It hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, and when it first hit landfall it was at a category three rating according to the Saffir-Simpson Scale and escalated to a category five. The City of New Orleans was at the most risk. By the time Hurricane Katrina actually hit New Orleans it had been raining for hours. The city is surrounded by water, so the Army Corps of Engineers built a system of levees and seawalls to keep the city from being flooded. The levees along the Mississippi River were strong and reliable but the ones along lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne and along the swamps were not as strong. Water seeped through the soil underneath some levees and even wiped some levees out altogether, which caused massive flooding. Eventually, eighty percent of the city was under an amount of water.
Aftermath
The United States Coast Guard rescued over 34,000 people alone, and some citizens helped in rescuing as well. The FEMA or Federal Emergency Management Agency took a while to respond to the hurricane. This natural disaster killed about 2,000 people and destroyed nearly 90,000 square miles of United States land. The Superdome in New Orleans sheltered about 15,000 people, but government officials had no real plans other than that. Katrina plummeted parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.
Hurricane Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to hit the United States that has ever been recorded. This was also the deadliest hurricane in seven decades in the U.S. It hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, and when it first hit landfall it was at a category three rating according to the Saffir-Simpson Scale and escalated to a category five. The City of New Orleans was at the most risk. By the time Hurricane Katrina actually hit New Orleans it had been raining for hours. The city is surrounded by water, so the Army Corps of Engineers built a system of levees and seawalls to keep the city from being flooded. The levees along the Mississippi River were strong and reliable but the ones along lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne and along the swamps were not as strong. Water seeped through the soil underneath some levees and even wiped some levees out altogether, which caused massive flooding. Eventually, eighty percent of the city was under an amount of water.
Aftermath
The United States Coast Guard rescued over 34,000 people alone, and some citizens helped in rescuing as well. The FEMA or Federal Emergency Management Agency took a while to respond to the hurricane. This natural disaster killed about 2,000 people and destroyed nearly 90,000 square miles of United States land. The Superdome in New Orleans sheltered about 15,000 people, but government officials had no real plans other than that. Katrina plummeted parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.