Summary Of Inside Hurricanes By Mary Kay Carson

The story I read was Inside Hurricanes by Mary Kay Carson. It describes where hurricanes are most likely and least likely to strike. The book also described hurricanes that devastated the United States. It shows how to stay safe when a hurricane is coming and firsthand accounts from hurricane survivors. One of the hurricanes that was listed in the book was Hurricane Katrina. I read the story and the hurricane inspired me to do my book report on it.

A hurricane (also called tropical storm) usually forms over the warm ocean waters. A hurricane is a monstrous, large swirling storm/ giant whirlwind which moves around the center of extreme low pressure. A hurricane can become 600 miles wide and have strong winds that can reach 75-200 miles per

It was the result of the leftover of tropical depression 10 meeting a wave. It headed west toward Florida and turned into a hurricane a few hours before moving onto land in Hallandale beach and Aventura on August 25. Katrina made landfall on the Gulf of Mexico and the warm waters fueled the hurricane turning it into a monster category 5 on August 26. Katrina weakened to a Category 3 storm in southeast Louisiana and further weakened to a Category 1 over south and central Mississippi because there was very little water to give the storm energy. Then Katrina turned to a tropical storm Northwest of Meridian,

It also created floods that destroyed houses and also left people homeless. Over 80% of the city was flooded and the floodwaters stayed for weeks. Mississippi beachfront towns had been flooded by over 90%. The flooded water level was up to 6 feet high and up to 20 feet high in some places and raft and boats were everywhere. The coast guards helped rescue 34,000 people in New Orleans alone.

The government was not well prepared for Hurricane Katrina. The New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, did not have a good evacuation plan. He delayed the emergency evacuation order until just before the day Katrina struck. This led to many deaths because some people could not get out of the city in time. Nagin also didn’t use school buses as part of his evacuation plan. In addition, President George W. Bush was on vacation for Victory over Japan day at Coronado, California. He was criticized for not flying immediately back to the White House to deal with the issue.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, over 70 countries helped donate money to people who were affected by Katrina. Some of them include Pakistan, China, India, and Qatar, all who made large donations. Kuwait donated 500 million dollars, the most out of all of the supporting countries. Millions of people were jobless after Katrina. President George W. Bush reduced funds for people affected by