Water is one of the primary elements that life on Earth needs in order to survive. Water is both beautiful and graceful, as well as destructive and costly. For example, the damages due to the floods caused by Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, and the entire Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina caused billions of dollars worth of damage to the Gulf Coast, although much of the damage was taken by New Orleans, which has had multiple disastrous floods. Because of poor reactions, infrastructures, and geographical layout, New Orleans will face numerous destructive floods in the future.
First, the geographical placement of New Orleans causes an imminent flood threat. New Orleans is located on the bank of the Mississippi River, as well as Lake Pontchartrain. The location of New Orleans poses an overlooked fear of flooding, because of springtime flooding, the erosion of wetlands and marshes, as well as heavy storm’s rain water that flows into the Mississippi River. Water is constantly coursing through New Orleans, like blood flowing through veins. Furthermore, much like blood, water pressure builds along the canals, and levees of the city which may cause the levees to break, like they did during Hurricane Katrina.
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City officials told citizens to evacuate the city. Deion Duckett, a resident of New Orleans, said “Most of the people in New Orleans did not trust the local government and thought that we would just ride out this hurricane as if it were just another storm.”Along with not evacuating, the people who stayed back did not take the precautions of protecting their homes, as well as themselves.Many did not board up their windows, or block their doors with sandbags. Thus when the flooding started, water rushed into houses, entirely submerging many. Citizens were stranded on their roofs for days, fighting the storm, fighting to stay alive until help