Natural disasters are random and uncontrollable events that create havoc for human beings. A natural disaster might be caused by an earthquake, a flood, or, in the example in this paper, by a hurricane. When a disaster takes place, danger and damage occurs both during and often after the event itself. These are multiple effects created by the single cause of the disaster. Hurricane Katrina is a good example of a natural disaster causing many effects.
The case of this hurricane is interesting in a sad way simply because of the very large scale of disastrous effects both during and after the storm. Hurricanes are not uncommon on the Gulf Coast, where the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico flow north and east, and mix with the cold waters of the Atlantic. This helps create huge storm systems at certain times of the year, including hurricanes that travel landward and threaten the southeastern and southern coasts of this country.
[...] Most of the city's remaining population - tens of thousands - were refugees, there were many looters, the occasional sniper, and over 200 police officers quit or vanished and some committed suicide (Treaster 2005) Psychological effects Hurricane Katrina had a bad psychological effect on many people. Besides the initial disruption of losing homes, jobs, and businesses, people were separated from loved ones and put into a traumatic situation where they had to deal with a survival-threatening circumstance. A Harvard Medical School study in 2006 found that suicide and mental illness has doubled among people affected by the storm (Harrison, 2007). [...]
[...] People have paid a big personal cost in dealing with the psychological and personal effects of Hurricane Katrina. Disaster effects on the aftermath After the hurricane, the city of New Orleans had to try to clean up and rebuild. First they had to wait for the flood waters to recede before they could restore power in many areas and try to make things livable again. Immediately federal disaster relief aid was used to start repairing roads and deal with the health hazards of dead animals and everything else that washes up in a flood. [...]
[...] Katrina and New Orleans are good examples about how everything can go wrong at once, and it is only made worse when a place is as unprepared as that city was. Works Cited Burton, M. and Hicks, M. Hurricane Katrina: preliminary estimates of commercial and public sector damages. Marshall University, Sept < http: research> Christie, Les. "Growth states: Arizona overtakes Nevada: Texas adds most people overall; Louisiana population declines nearly CNN. December Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hurricane Katrina Recovery Update. FEMA July Harrison, Emily. Suffering a slow recovery: failed rebuilding after Katrina sets off a mental health crisis in the Gulf. Scientific American, Sept. [...]
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