HLS 501 Written 6

Hurricane Katrina Name: Institution: Course: Date: Hurricane Katrina Natural disasters are a common phenomenon and have been for the largest part of natural history. As the name suggests, natural disasters are formed of natural causes as determined by nature and the forces within. Natural processes turn into adverse events and result into disasters such as floods, earth quakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and landslides among many others (Zimmermann, 2015). Natural disasters are associated with insurmountable damage, with reference to property and loss of life. Other than the loss of life and destruction to property, there is the element of economic and social loss (CNN, 2016). In the wake of 29th august 2005, America experienced one of the most devastating disasters, on the gulf coast (HISTORY.com, 2016). Hurricane Katrina is one of the most disastrous events that have rocked the united stated in the last several decades. According to National Geographic hurricanes are strong tropical storms that can pick up speed up to 160 miles per hour (National Geographic, 2016). This simply translates to more than 257 kilometers per hour. With such speeds, the hurricanes accumulate the power to bring to shore more than 2.4 trillion gallons of rain every day (National Geographic, 2016). The winds are called cyclones in the northern Indian oceans and typhoons in the west pacific.On the Atlantic, there is an average of six hurricanes that tend to pick up in the season of mid-August and later on in the month of October (HISTORY.com, 2016). The hurricanes are formed from tropical disturbances with temperature changes of the warm oceans at an average of 26.5 degrees Celsius. Using the warm seas energy the disturbances feed a low pressure system. The low system then develops speeds up to 61 kilometers per hours to become a tropical depression. This then develops into a tropical storm when it gains wind speeds of up to 63 kilometers per hour. As it develops, when it gains wind speeds of up to 119 kilometers per hours it becomes a hurricane and can then be placed in either of the five main categories. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane has five categories which are used to determine the magnitude of the storms (Nhc.noaa.gov, 2016). Category one ranges between 119 and 153 km/h, category two at 154 to 177 km/h, category three at 178 to 208 km/h, category four at 209 to 251 km/h and category five at 252km/h and higher(Nhc.noaa.gov, 2016). Hurricane Katrina started forming some two hundred miles out of the southeast coast of the Bahamas on 23rd of August 2005 (Zimmermann, 2015). At the time it was only a tropical depression and developed into a tropical storm on the morning hours of 24th of August.On 25th of August the storm escalated to category one as it reached the southern coasts of Florida. After which the magnitude dropped to a tropical storm after claiming two lives (Zimmermann, 2015). Later on over the Gulf of Mexico, the storm gathered speed and became a category five on 28th of August with speeds having picked up speed to roughly 280 km/h. as the storm turned north towards Louisiana it weakened to a category three and gained wind speeds of up to 193 km/h by 29th of August (Zimmermann, 20...