Hurricane Survival
Surviving Hurricanes:
Lessons Learned from Katrina
When Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana and Mississippi at the end of August of 2005, causing the levees in New Orleans to break and flood the city, the resulting TV coverage and finger pointing redefined how Americans perceive hurricanes, rescue efforts and preparedness. No hurricane has wrought so much political and social change since Hurricane Andrew damaged so many homes in Florida in 1992.
By most measures, Hurricane Katrina is the largest disaster to strike the United States to date. In terms of dollars of damage, number of people affected, geographic area affected and lasting damage it exceeds Hurricane Andrew, the San Francisco earthquake, and even historical calamities such as the Johnstown Flood, the Chicago Fire and the big one in California a century ago. Only 9/11 and Pearl Harbor exceeded the damage to our national psyche caused by Katrina, and that is because they were caused intentionally by an enemy force.
A force 5 hurricane, Katrina killed more than 1,800 people, injured thousands, and left millions homeless. Wind damage and destruction ranged 100 to 150 miles inland -- farther than normal for hurricanes that traditionally affect only those in coastal areas. Total cost of the damage is estimated at more than $80 billion.
When we look at how to prepare for hurricanes, it makes sense to consider lessons learned from Katrina, which was a multifaceted disaster.
In evaluating the situation, it’s important to note that Katrina was not a single disaster; it was multiple disasters rolled into the grandmother of all disasters:
- The initial hurricane-force winds were followed by the storm surge that destroyed huge amounts of housing and other buildings in commercial areas.
- Then there was the flooding. New Orleans survived the hurricane winds and rains relatively well --it was the breached levees and the resulting flooding that evening that caused the long-term disaster and interfered with what would have otherwise been a relatively straight forward rescue effort similar to any other hurricane. Some 80 percent of New Orleans and surrounding parishes were flooded.
- In the absence of law enforcement, there was the looting and criminal behavior by many New Orleans residents.
- There were mistakes made by local and state government before the storm that compounded these problems. Inadequate preparation and lack of evacuation were two primary problems.
- There were miss-steps by the state, local and Federal officials in the recovery effort that compounded problems and added to the confusion.
Our primary job at Captain Dave’s is not to point blame --although we will discuss it later – but instead to help you prepare before a disaster strikes you. While we supported the relief effort, our primary interest comes from evaluating the disaster and the response so that we can identify important lessons that will enable each of us to protect ourselves, our families and our property in future disasters, whether natural or manmade.
We can learn a great deal from the collective experiences of the residents, the victims, the rescuers, the governmental bodies, the police, the criminals and the massive media coverage of the entire event. The next pages address specific lessons learned.
