As we all know, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, parts of Louisiana, the city of Mobile and some parts of Alabama, and lastly, Gulfport, Biloxi and other parts of Mississippi. Katrina cost a lot of money and also claimed more than a thousand lives. The impact of the Hurricane could have been lessened or otherwise prevented if we did the same thing that we did when Hurricane Rita hit. As soon as Hurricane Katrina was detected to be a Category 4 hurricane after it passed through the Florida Keys, the authorities in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama warned the public about what kind of danger this big storm was. The people must have thought that the storm wouldn’t be as bad as they were told, considering that there had been a number of so called false alarms when it comes to storm warnings.
Not everyone was evacuated and those that were, especially in New Orleans, were sent to the Louisiana Superdome. Unfortunately there was no plan on what’s next, once the public had been evacuated. The authorities in the City of New Orleans and Gulfport requested aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), but the aid was not actually in effect until approximately 72 hours after Katrina devastated the city.
The evacuation process became chaos. There were refugees sent to the Houston Astrodome only to find out that they would not be admitted because the place was full. There was a lack of necessary and fundamental supplies like water and food, which caused even more chaos and looting in New Orleans. All in all, Hurricane Katrina caused damages of more than a billion dollars for repairs, but the lives that were lost are indeed irreplaceable.
When Hurricane Rita was detected as a Category 4 and continued to gain strength to a Category 5 hurricane, the authorities did almost the same thing as when Katrina was heading to land. With the devastation that Katrina caused, we listened and learned our lesson. Almost 90 percent of the population of Galveston evacuated, and hence there were no reported casualties directly caused by the hurricane itself. The evacuation process was not as chaotic as it was with Katrina, and the aid was already waiting for the victims of the storm.
Hurricane Rita did not cause as much damage as Katrina, but it could have been worse if we hadn’t learned our lesson and prepared ourselves for what might have happened.
Another important lesson that we have learned in this is that no matter who you are or where you might be, Americans are still strong and able to get up after a fall with the help of other Americans. As a result we should definitely be proud to be Americans.