Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans

Introduction

The book, Drowned City Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans, by Dan Brown describes what took place in the city of New Orleans just before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina.  On August 29, 2005 the hurricane hit just east of New Orleans.  It was a category 3 hurricane with 120 mph winds. 

The city and people of New Orleans were devastated by this disaster.  Many things went wrong during the evacuation and thousands of people were trapped in the Superdome and the Convention Center.  Thousands of people died during the week that New Orleans was under water. 

Your quest is to research the following areas that failed and offer suggestions for improvements.

Task

Research the following areas that went wrong during Hurricane Katrina and offer suggestions for improvement.

  1. The Army Corps of Engineers that built the levees around New Orleans said that the walls were strong enough to protect the city from a hurricane of that strength, but they failed.
  2. The Superdome was designated as a shelter, but did not have enough supplies (food, water, etc.) for the amount of people there.
  3. More than 200 police officers were investigated for abandoning their post during the disaster

Process

Evaluation

You will be evaluated on a scale of 1-4 based on your completion.

Score Effort
1 No research, suggestions not well thought out
2 Minimal research, basic suggestions
3 Moderate research, well thought out suggestions
4 Extensive research, in-depth description of problem and suggestions for solution

Conclusion

By 2012, only 80% of the residents of New Orleans had returned to the city.  This number could have been improved if situations had been different.

Credits

Brown, Dan. Drowned City Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.