Effects of Hurricane Katrina on people and property.
An area the size of the UK was impacted by the hurricane’s destruction. Within this was the city of New Orleans in Louisiana that suffered most. Much of the city flooded rapidly as three protective along the lake and river gave way. Over 1000 of the cities 460,000 died, whilst the homes of many were destroyed or severely damaged. Over half a million US citizens became refugees, it was the poor, working class population, often without insurance, who suffered the most. The state population fell by over 8% and within Louisiana, areas outside New Orleans grew in numbers as the city’s people fled. In the coastal state of Mississippi 109,000 were made homeless and over 230 died.
Housing damage and destruction was widespread and stretched up to 100km from the hurricane centre. At least 100,00 temporary homes were set up across the region.. Services in New Orleans were severely damaged. Even after 6 months after the hurricane there was no functioning sewage system and gas and electricity supplies were unavailable. Agriculture suffered great losses including the death of nine million poultry in Mississippi, while in the same state the dairy industry lost $12 million.. The forestry industry in the region also suffered heavily; over a million acres of forest was destroyed. Due to Katrina, the total financial loss to the timber industry is estimated at $5 billion. The US Corps of Engineers, the group responsible for river management, estimated that in Louisiana there were over 70 million cubic metres of hurricane debris to be removed.
