John J. Pinson
Per 1 Geography
Katrina essay
11/6/11
PG. 1
Hurricane Katrina essay
A couple years ago one of the worst storms ever to hit the United States destroyed one of
the greatest cities in the world. The storm of hurricane Katrina completely wiped out a once
great place. The storm had tragic mental and physical effects. Many people died from this manmade disaster. Katrina was a tragic man-made disaster that was caused by weak levees,
destroyed natural barriers, and the fault of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
that was supposed to be there to help people that were hit by the storm. Hurricane Katrina was
definitely more of a man-made disaster rather than a natural one because of the poorly built
levees, the fault of FEMA, and people destroying New Orleans natural barriers.
A major reason that the effects of hurricane Katrina were so bad was mostly the fault of
the United States army corps of engineers. A reason it was their fault was because they were
supposed to build levees around New Orleans and the levees were supposed to be strong enough
to keep water out and of course they were not. When the storm hit the levees were way too weak
and just were washed away when the storm surge came in. Even in dim light people could see
huge noticeable cracks in it. A big reason that the levees were too weak and flimsy against the
storm was because they were not far enough into the ground and because the flimsy floodwalls
were built in soggy soils which were a terrible combination. The city of New Orleans used up
most of its money on other projects that did not help the city and had not enough money left over
to build good strong levees. When the United States army corps of engineers built the levees,
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not only did they make them poorly but when they made them by doing so they destroyed the
wetlands which served as a natural barrier protecting the city from storm surges. As a matter of
fact the poor levees caused most of the flooding, about 70-80 percent more water came into New
Orleans because the levees were built in such a ruinous way.
Another big reason why the effects of the hurricane were more man-made is because of
the huge faults of FEMA. They did practically nothing; they may have done something but
nothing that really made a difference. Most of the people who died either had drowned in the
flood or did not get help from FEMA right away when they should have gotten it. Even when
they had done as little as possible president George W. Bush complimented the head of FEMA
saying “you’re doing a heck of a job brownie”. When FEMA was supposed to be saving lives
and helping people that were in pain, instead they were going on talk-shows and interviews not
even trying while people were dying and it was as if they didn’t know or just didn’t care. As a
result of FEMA’s carelessness people did not receive help in time and some people (not a lot)
died. Also people after the storm called in for FEMA trailers to live in and even today people
still have not gotten theirs. Another problem many others had with FEMA was that their job is
to help people immediately after a disaster by bringing those people supplies and food but the job
that they did was nothing until five days after the hurricane. It took them five whole days to
come and help when people were suffering, dying and were starving. FEMA was lazy and when
they decided to help they ended up doing a very lousy job.
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Something else that brought upon the horrible effects of hurricane Katrina was the
destruction of New Orleans’ natural barriers, the wetlands. When the United States army corps
of engineers built the poor levees and channeled the water of the Mississippi river differently
than it was naturally it destroyed the wetlands. Now, the wetlands of New Orleans were very
important they were almost like natural levees protecting the city. What the wetlands did
specifically was that they weakened the storm surge of Katrina making it weaker and much more
likely to do less damage than it actually did. So the wetlands were actually a lot better than the
levees that were designed to do a great job of protecting the city from floods. If there was a way
for there to be levees and the wetlands together, then probably the storm surge would be
weakened by the wetlands and the water would not have pushed down the levees. It was stupid
and a huge reason why Katrina was more of a man-made disaster when the wetlands were
destroyed, so I a way New Orleans have themselves to blame for the terrible storm.
Hurricane Katrina was definitely more of a man-made disaster because of the weak
levees, FEMAs faults, and the destruction of the wetlands. The levees were built so poorly that
they fell over making the flooding even worse than it was. FEMA came to help to late and by
then many people were suffering or were dying. With the destruction of the wetlands the cities
natural barriers were destroyed and the storm surge was all the more powerful. Katrina was
more of a man-made disaster rather than a natural one. Maybe in the future the levees can be
built correctly to be strong or people can let the wetlands come back and FEMA can maybe do a
better job next time.
Resources

“When the levees broke” video and packet

“Democratic Deliberation” worksheet

“The threatening storm” worksheet

“Katrina essay” organizer