Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the havoc Mother Nature can play on a modern city.
It also brought to light the way our concerns about economics can compromise people's safety when we attempt to control nature.
Over one million people in the Gulf area were affected by "the storm," as residents call it, including just about everyone in New Orleans. Ninety percent of this 485,000-person city evacuated as 125,000 homes were severely damaged and 250,000 homes were summarily destroyed.
"The 150 mph winds from the east funneled water into the man-made navigation canals and the Category 5 surge strength made the levees breach starting with the 17th Street Canal of the Industrial Canal," said Richard Campanella, associate director of Tulane University's Center for Bioenvironmental Research and a research professor with Tulane's Department of Earth and Environmental Science. "Sixteen feet of water poured into an area that was four feet below sea level. That caused a flood of 20 feet in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward. This area had been developed after Hurricane Betsy [of 1965]."
"There was no electricity and the city was empty, with no sound, no birds and in complete darkness," said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana), relating her feelings a few days after the storm as she looked over the city from a high bridge. The born and bred Orleanian and former mayor found Katrina's damage to be an unbelievable "out of body experience."
They both spoke at the annual conference of the American Planning Association (APA) recently, which focused on the effects of Katrina and the recovery effort. READ MORE
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