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Hurricane Katrina Essay

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To what extent do you agree with President Bush´s description of Hurricane Katrina as a natural disaster? In August 2005, over 1,700 people lost their lives as a result of Category 5 hurricane Katrina. The hurricane affected over 90,000 square miles in many of the Gulf Coast states, under which Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. (Hurricane Katrina). However, it particularly damaged New Orleans, due to its poor infrastructure and unfortunate geographical location. However, the main complication that had a negative influence on the effects of hurricane Katrina was the poor response of the government. The hurricane has been the cause for many economical, environmental and political problems and is affecting the city up until today. …show more content…

Additionally, scientists had been warning New Orleans and the government that climate change would lead to increased storm activity and that the city’s defenses weren’t strong enough for such a storm. However, these warnings were ignored by the government and no preventative measures were taken which has influenced the effects of the storm. The reason for the poor response of the government and their negligence of the warnings is arguable. However, it is positive that the reason for this is that the majority of the people affected were the poor, and mostly colored, citizen of New Orleans. The city is racially and economically segregated and these citizen lived in the lower parts of the city, which go down to 11 feet below sea level. (Hurricane Katrina: A Man-Made Crisis?). Additionally, as their economical situation is inferior, it was harder for them to flee the flooding. Therefore, it was mainly this class which was affected and the government was not rushing to help. The slow reaction and the negligence of the government had a major influence on the effects of the storm. If their response was quicker or their preventative measures stronger, the effects could have been reduced as more people could have been evacuated, lives would have been saved and the damage would have been reduced due to extra protection. (Obama: Katrina A 'Man-Made ' Disaster Caused By Government Failure). Therefore, it is to say that hurricane Katrina was definitely partially a man-made

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