Disasters of hurricanes have hit the city of New Orleans and the areas around time and time again. The city had been founded by a French explorer in the early 1700s. Several hurricanes have hit the city with the most recent ones causing serious disasters and destructions to the city and the areas around. Some of the deadliest of the hurricanes were the 2005 Katrina and Rita, twin Hurricanes. Most historians and scientists have it that these two hurricanes hit hard due to human interference with nature. Many projects and constructions have been laid down on the wetlands and the high areas close to the Mississippi River. By August of 2005, the city was booming with business and boasted as one with great cultural heritage. Its port became the world's busiest as it had a lot of canals for transportation. A huge hurricane to hit the city and displace a third of the inhabitants had been predicted prior to the 2005 twin hurricane disaster of Katrina and Rita.
Over the years, the city of New Orleans grew with new constructions put in place and more people settling in the lowland. Various hurricanes such as Flossy, Hilda and Camille hit the city in the 1950s and the 1960s. The effects of the hurricanes cannot by any chance compare to the impacts of Katrina alone in 2005. Floods had always been a threat to the inhabitants of the city and building levees along the river was a priority. The river had its own natural levees and also deposited its loads continuously on the wetlands and on the gulf which naturally protected the area from disasters such as hurricanes and floods. The government built extensive dikes and levees along the river to prevent floods and protect the city. The river, therefore, directed all its water and load to the gulf. In order to ease river's pressure, a few outlets were then constructed.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
As the port expanded and developed, many canals were built which also let out salty water into the wetland thereby killing the trees in the area. The salty water also eroded the land and rendered it weak and vulnerable. More settlements and projected occupied the high areas close to the river. The canals also provided routes for possible hurricane surges. Later, the anticipated disaster struck on the 29 th of August 2005 which went on to destroy property worth one hundred and twenty-five billion dollars. Over one thousand five hundred people were reportedly dead. The efforts made in the past to protect the city tried to control nature. In the future technologists may look to combine natural resources and intelligence to ensure such a disaster does not occur again. Projects to strengthen the levees and repair the breaches are underway.
Analysis
Nature has always proven time and again that it is absolutely uncontrollable and unpredictable. The article tries to describe how human interference with nature slowly caused the occurrence of the deadly hurricane disasters. The article explains that the recent hurricanes have been more damaging and disastrous as compared to the earlier ones. In the early days, the natural barriers such as the levees and the river load deposited on the wetlands and the gulf protected this region from strong hurricanes. Human projects and constructions interfered with the natural barriers and rendered the area more vulnerable to hurricanes. The author through his sources says that the 2005 hurricanes were caused by miscalculations made during construction of dikes, canals, and levees. I most certainly agree with the author that in the future, technologists should combine nature with intelligence in order to better protect the city of New Orleans ( Zahran et al. 2010) .
References
Zahran, S., Mielke, H. W., Gonzales, C. R., Powell, E. T., & Weiler, S. (2010). New Orleans before and after Hurricanes Katrina/Rita: a quasi-experiment of the association between soil lead and children’s blood lead. Environmental science & technology , 44 (12), 4433-4440.
