Encyclopedia, \"Hurricane Katrina Is Estimated

¶ … Encyclopedia, "Hurricane Katrina is estimated to be responsible for $81.2 billion....in damages, making it the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history (1)." People all over the world were devastated by all aspects of this hurricane. "The storm killed at least 1,836 people, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane" (Wikipedia, 2006). The author of the article "Protecting New Orleans" discusses both the events leading up to the disaster as well as the aftermath. He wishes to convey some possible solutions being debated concerning the Katrina catastrophe as well as the background and undertone of the situation.

This particular circumstance would appear to have great relevance to our society. In the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" (a fictional movie about a possible aftermath of global warming), an iceberg the size of Rhode Island is seen breaking off in the Antarctica region. According to "Warnings From the Ice" (a transcript of a NOVA documentary airing in April 1998), "In 1995, an iceberg the size of Rhode Island broke off from the Larsen ice shelf along the Antarctic coast. And a large portion of the ice shelf disintegrated in a matter of days (1)." Melting ice becomes water and that means the water tables will rise. This eventually may pose further problems with devastation from coastal storms.

There is an old saying that "a stitch in time saves nine." One of the main points the Arthur attempts to convey is that Katrina's devastation could have been minimized. The author writes about previous disasters that happened in England and the Netherlands concerning coastal storms. Both countries engineered plans to minimize damage from further storms and enacted them. Furthermore, the writer also discusses preventative proposals that were made very close to the onset of the catastrophe by the Army Core of Engineers. These preventative concepts were dismissed by Congress. Noting this history, it would seem that with a little foresight much of Katrina's death and destruction may have been avoided. This also seemed to follow a pattern set by the 911 disaster (prior warning signs were ignored by governing officials then as well).

The article brings to the reader's attention the problem at hand, which is that there are three main proposals being debated to prevent any further severe coastal damage in this region. All of them are very expensive and this seems to lie with the way the work will be contracted. The author (Michael Fischetti) even includes that the Army Core of Engineers is usually the group who would handle the design and the building of any safety structures (71).

Most of the information in this article has been common knowledge but can easily be referenced if one wished to verify the information contained within. It is rather disappointing that the article does not include any journal citations to make the reader's job of checking for accuracy less tedious. The author does however include a collection of topographical maps and design graphs that greatly contribute to the article's clarity as well as quoting from several sources of personal communication (67-71).