Hurricane Katrina's Environmental Effects

Hurricane Katrina's Environmental Effects

In August 2005, the state of Louisiana experienced a category five hurricane. The storm that hit Louisiana was named Hurricane Katrina the hurricane caused massive destruction to the city of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans experienced 80% flooding and the loss of life totaled 1,500 people. In New Orleans, Louisiana, the natural ecosystem service regulating water flows were no match for Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans coastline without its natural buffers and a city below sea level. Without the levee system and machine pumps in place, it became impossible to keep water off the streets of New Orleans. A disregard for natural ecosystems left the city of New Orleans vulnerable to catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Katrina. The original levee system of New Orleans was designed for flood protection, not for storm protection, leaving the city extremely vulnerable to a hurricane of Katrina's force.

Much of the costal wetlands of Louisiana have been transformed to open water. The factors that have assisted in this transformation are human and nature induced. The more common of the two is the human factor, which is responsible for existing flood control and navigation improvements of the Mississippi River. Flood controls along with navigation improvements are responsible for the reducing the natural processes of sediment nourishment of the coast, wetlands destruction, and erosion from the oil and gas production along the Louisiana's coast in addition to building various canals (Carter, 2005).

A major topic of debate among engineers and government officials pertaining to whether or not the levee system would be built locally or by the federal government. In addition and who should be responsible for the levee maintenance going forward. One of the positive factors is that many options exist today than when the first levees for the Mississippi River were put into place (Lougheed, 2006).

Although the design and construction of the levees made today may look the same, innovations in civil engineering and technology have created sensors to help identify stresses and strains within the structure. These sensors provide a warning of dangerous pressures that could result in serious damage (Lougheed, 2006). Another change to the creation of the new levees is lining materials known as geomembranes. Geomembranes are in position underneath the structure before creation, to prevent seepage of water through the ground and avoid erosion of foundations (Lougheed, 2006). In the last 70 years, Louisiana has suffered from drastic loss of wetlands it is for this reason that this natural buffer could not minimize this catastrophe. Wetlands can minimize the effect of a hurricane, as hurricanes reach land they begin to slow down. Wetlands that contain plant life and muddy bottoms have a similar effect as dry land. These traits make wetlands can minimize the effect of a hurricane that can be cheaper and more effective than a coastal