(Case Study on some of the most

devastating hurricanes in history of US)

*
*
* Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most
destructive Atlantic tropical cyclone of the 2005
Atlantic hurricane season.
* It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one
of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of
the United States.
* Katrina was the sixth most intense Atlantic
hurricane ever, part of the 2005 season that
included three of the six most intense Atlantic
hurricanes ever.
* At least 1,833 people died in the hurricane and
subsequent floods.
* The NHC (National Hurricane Centre) issued a hurricane watch for
south-eastern Louisiana, including the New Orleans area at 10 am
CDT Saturday, August 27. That afternoon the NHC extended the
watch to cover the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines as well as the
Louisiana coast to Intracoastal City.
* The United States Coast Guard began prepositioning resources in a
ring around the expected impact zone and activated more than
400 reservists. On August 27, it moved its personnel out of the New
Orleans region prior to the mandatory evacuation. Aircrews from the
Aviation Training Center, in Mobile, staged rescue aircraft from Texas
to Florida.
* All aircraft were returning towards the Gulf of Mexico by the
afternoon of August 29. Air crews, many of whom lost their homes
during the hurricane, began a round-the-clock rescue effort in New
Orleans, and along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines.

*
* President of the United States George W. Bush declared a
state of emergency in selected regions of Louisiana,
Alabama, and Mississippi on Saturday, the 27th, two days
before the hurricane made landfall.
* That same evening, the NHC upgraded the storm alert status
from hurricane watch to hurricane warning over the stretch
of coastline between Morgan City, Louisiana to the Alabama-
Florida border, 12 hours after the watch alert had been
issued, and also issued a tropical storm warning for the
westernmost Florida Panhandle.
* Voluntary and mandatory evacuations were issued for large areas of
southeast Louisiana as well as coastal Mississippi and Alabama. About
1.2 million residents of the Gulf Coast were covered under a
voluntary or mandatory evacuation order.

*
* On August 29, Katrina's storm surge caused 53 different levee
breaches in greater New Orleans, submerging eighty percent
of the city.
* A June 2007 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers
indicated that two-thirds of the flooding were caused by the
multiple failures of the city's floodwalls. The storm surge also
devastated the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, making
Katrina the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in
the history of the United States, and the deadliest hurricane
since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane.
* The total damage from Katrina is estimated at $81.2 billion
(2005 U.S. dollars), nearly double the cost of the previously
most expensive storm, Hurricane Andrew, when adjusted for
inflation.

*
* Federal disaster declarations covered 90,000 square
miles (233,000 km2) of the United States, an area
almost as large as the United Kingdom.
* The hurricane left an estimated three million
people without electricity. On September 3, 2005,
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
described the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as
"probably the worst catastrophe, or set of
catastrophes," in the country's history, referring to
the hurricane itself plus the flooding of New
Orleans.
* Even in 2010, debris remained in some coastal
communities.

*
Even in 2010, debris remained in some coastal
communities.
* The economic effects of the storm were far-reaching.
The Bush Administration sought $105 billion for repairs
and reconstruction in the region, which did not
account for damage to the economy caused by
potential interruption of the oil supply, destruction of
the Gulf Coast's highway infrastructure, and exports of
commodities such as grain. Katrina damaged or
destroyed 30 oil platforms and caused the closure of
nine refineries; the total shut-in oil production from
the Gulf of Mexico in the six-month period following
Katrina was approximately 24% of the annual
production and the shut-in gas production for the
same period was about 18%.

*
* The forestry industry in Mississippi was also
affected, as 1.3 million acres (5,300 km2) of forest
lands were destroyed. The total loss to the forestry
industry from Katrina is calculated to rise to about
$5 billion. Furthermore, hundreds of thousands of
local residents were left unemployed, which will
have a trickle-down effect as fewer taxes are paid
to local governments. Before the hurricane, the
region supported approximately one million non-
farm jobs, with 600,000 of them in New Orleans. It
is estimated that the total economic impact in
Louisiana and Mississippi may exceed $150 billion.

*
* Katrina also had a profound impact on the
environment. The storm surge caused substantial
beach erosion, in some cases completely devastating
coastal areas. In Dauphin Island, approximately
90 miles (150 km) to the east of the point where the
hurricane made landfall, the sand that comprised the
barrier island was transported across the island into
the Mississippi Sound, pushing the island towards land.
* The storm surge and waves from Katrina also
obliterated the Chandeleur Islands, which had been
affected by Hurricane Ivan the previous year. The US
Geological Survey has estimated 217 square miles
(560 km2) of land was transformed to water by the
hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

*
* The damage from Katrina forced the closure of
16 National Wildlife Refuges. Breton National
Wildlife Refuge lost half its area in the storm.
As a result, the hurricane affected the habitats
of sea turtles, Mississippi sandhill cranes, Red-
cockaded woodpeckers and Alabama Beach
mice.

*
*
* Hurricane Sandy (unofficially known as
"Superstorm Sandy") was the deadliest and
most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic
hurricane season, as well as the second-
costliest hurricane in United States history.
Classified as the eighteenth named storm,
tenth hurricane and second major hurricane of
the year, Sandy was a Category 3 storm at its
peak intensity when it made landfall in Cuba.

*
* Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western
Caribbean Sea on October 22, quickly strengthened, and was
upgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy six hours later. Sandy
moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and
gradually intensified. On October 24, Sandy became a
hurricane, made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica, re-emerged
a few hours later into the Caribbean Sea and strengthened
into a Category 2 hurricane. On October 25, Sandy hit Cuba as
a Category 3 hurricane, then weakened to a Category 1
hurricane. Early on October 26, Sandy moved through the
Bahamas.
*Much of the East Coast of the United States, in Mid-
Atlantic and New England regions, had a good chance of
receiving gale-force winds, flooding, heavy rain and
possibly snow early in the week of October 28 from an
unusual hybrid of Hurricane Sandy and a winter storm
producing a Fujiwhara effect.
*Government weather forecasters said there was a 90%
chance that the East Coast would be impacted by the
storm. Jim Cisco of the Hydrometeorological Prediction
Center coined the term "Frankenstorm", as Sandy was
expected to merge with a storm front a few days before
Halloween

*
* At least 286 people were killed across the United
States, the Caribbean, and Canada, as a result of
the storm.
* A total of 24 U.S. states were in some way affected
by Sandy.
* The hurricane caused tens of billions of dollars in
damage in the United States, destroyed thousands
of homes, left millions without electric service, and
caused 72 direct deaths in eight states, including 48
in New York, 12 in New Jersey, 5 in Connecticut, 2
each in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and 1 each in
New Hampshire, West Virginia and Maryland.

*
* Several organizations have contributed to the
hurricane relief effort. Disney–ABC Television
Group held a "Day of Giving" on Monday,
November 5, raising $17 million on their
television stations for the American Red Cross.
* NBC raised $23 million during their Hurricane
Sandy: Coming Together telethon. News
Corporation donated $1 million to relief efforts
in the New York metropolitan area.

*
* On March 15, 2014, a group of those who remained displaced
by the hurricane organized a protest at the Nassau Legislative
building in Mineola, New York, to raise awareness of their
frustrations with the timeline for receiving financial
assistance from the New York Rising program.
* On March 18, 2014, Newsday reported that 17 months after
the hurricane those who were displaced from rental units on
Long Island faced unique difficulties due to the lack of
affordable rental housing and delays in housing program
implementations by New York State.
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* Sunil – U11CO014
* Tanisha – U11CO078