Hurricane Katrina Case Study

What factors led to the scale of the disaster?

Why was the disaster not managed effectively when it was predicted in 2001?

Human Factors
The watch & the warning

• The United States Coast Guard (USCG), National Hurricane Centre (NHC) and National
Weather Service (NWS) were widely commended for their actions, giving accurate
forecasts and acting ahead of time. Even though the hurricane changed direction, they
were still able to inform the city upon the change.

The evacuation order

• The mayor declared the evacuation order and 90% of the people left the city. The city of
New Orleans has long been considered “a disaster waiting to happen.” For those who
prepare for, respond to, and study such events, the level of death and destruction
wrought by Katrina was not outside the realm of possibility. Although a complete
evacuation of the city has been the cornerstone of hurricane preparedness planning for
the region, the highway evacuation plan used for Katrina evolved over a period of many
years based on valuable lessons learned from prior storms in Louisiana and elsewhere.
Not all of the evacuation news was positive, however. Images of thousands of desperate
people being plucked from rooftops by helicopter, stranded at the New Orleans
Convention Center and Superdome, and awaiting rescue on freeways have
overshadowed the successes of the highway-based evacuation plan. It has been
estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 people did not or could not be evacuated
from the city. A major failure of the plans for evacuating the low-mobility population was
the lack of communication. Evacuation plans can only be effective if people are aware of
them, and evacuation orders can only be heeded if they are received in time

Why some stayed

• Many people had no way to leave New Orleans, and many of those that did had no
where to go, nor any money or fuel to go to a hotel. Also, no one had any idea of the
devastation that would be caused by Hurricane Katrina, and many people on the gulf
coast have been in hurricanes before, with no catastrophic results. So, because of this,
they felt it would be safe to ride it out in their own homes, as they had before, when
previous warnings had failed to produce such disastrous results. They had no way of
knowing the levees would not hold up, and there were no warnings that it could happen.
It was the flood waters from the broken levees, rather than the high winds that caused
most of the damage and deaths.

FEMA

• FEMA received intense criticism for its response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster in
August 2005. FEMA was widely criticized for what is seen as a slow initial response to
the disaster and an inability to effectively manage, care for and move those trying to
leave the city. President Bush appointed Michael D. Brown as FEMA’s director in January
2003; he was criticized personally for a slow response with the situation. He was largely
appointed for his political status and not for his abilities. Most of the funding was
directed towards terrorism at the time after the attacks of September 11th 2002. The
resources were not put in to fixing the Delta. Flood defences weren’t strong enough,
they were only designed to survive a category 3 storm and while the president flew over
in air force 1, people were drowning.
Physical Factors

• New Orleans was built on a delta marsh. Unlike the first two centuries of its existence,
today, a little less than half of the modern city sits below sea level. The city is
surrounded by the Mississippi River to the south, Lake Pontchartrain to the north, and
Lake Borgne to the east. The parts of New Orleans and the surrounding communities
first settled in the colonial era through the 19th century were and still are above sea
level. However flooding was long a threat, from the periodic high waters of the
Mississippi and more occasional severe storms which would push the waters of Lake
Pontchartrain into settled areas. Construction of the levees along the River began soon
after the city was founded, and more extensive river levees were built as the city grew.
However, an unintended consequence of the levees was that natural silt deposits from
the Mississippi River were unable to replenish the delta, causing the coastal wetlands of
Louisiana to wash away and the city of New Orleans to sink even deeper. The
Mississippi River delta is subsiding faster than any other place in the nation. While the
land is sinking, sea level has been rising. In the past 100 years, land subsidence and
sea-level rise have recently added three feet to all storm surges. That extra height puts
affected areas under deeper water; it also means flooding from weaker storms and from
the outer edges of powerful storms spreads over wider areas. The marshes that ring
New Orleans, as well as the land depression of the city itself, originally above sea level,
have sunk the quickest.