Compare And Contrast Earthquake And Hurricane Katrina

Both the Christchurch Earthquake and Hurricane Katrina were both devastating disasters. The Christchurch Earthquake was a magnitude 6.7 earthquake, and Hurricane Katrina was a category 5 hurricane. They both caused the city they affected a lot of damage and chaos. This essay will compare the two disasters and identify which of the two had a bigger impact overall based on the magnitude of the consequences they caused. In summary, both of these disasters affected their city very significantly.

Firstly, the social impacts of both the disasters. The social impact on Hurricane Katrina was certainly greater. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused 1,833 deaths and destroyed 200,000 homes, and there was clear racial prejudice when it came to the evacuation

The aftermath of a disaster usually leads to destruction of property, destruction of infrastructure, and lowers the amount of tourists and visitors to the location of the incident. In New Orleans, where Hurricane Katrina damaged most, there was a loss of 95,000 jobs, and the repair of the damaged city cost over $190 billion USD($303.8 billion NZD). On the other hand, there were a total of 69,500 jobs lost in Christchurch, where the earthquake was, and a total cost of only $40 billion NZD to repair. The outcome of the comparison is extremely clear. Hurricane Katrina had cost the city of New Orleans almost 8 times more money than the earthquake did to the city of Christchurch, and around 20% more jobs were lost in the hurricane. Overall, Hurricane Katrina had a larger economic impact on the city of New Orleans than the Christchurch Earthquake had on the city of

The cultural resources and structures aren’t the only things harmed by a disaster; the amount of environmental impacts can lead to the destruction of many ecosystems such as marshlands, lakes, and forests. Hurricane Katrina caused over 320 million trees to be killed and/or stripped bare, and thousands of litres of oil leaked from over a thousand pipelines and pumping stations. Researchers had claimed that a “significant surge” of oil was spilt into nature, polluting marshes, lakes, and even the ocean. The flood was so great that wetlands were ripped from their place and were floated out into the ocean. The organisms in the marshes could not live under such different conditions, so this led to many fish and bugs’ death. In Christchurch, however, there were only a total of 384 trees that were destroyed. There were numerous landslides and rockfalls which could crush people to death, and there were also changes in the level of land. One of the most important, however, was liquefaction. Mud and earth were shaken so much that they formed a non-newtonian liquid; a strange state where a substance acts like a liquid but is not/does not have the exact properties of a liquid. The liquefaction would act like quicksand; anything that went over it could sink into it. Numerous people and vehicles were stuck inside the mud and required assistance to get out, and some plants were literally absorbed