Rachel Shereikis

4/30/18
Pd. 9
Katrina: A Man-Made Disaster
In the early morning of August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana.
Although the United States Gulf Coast had been anticipating a hurricane, governments and residents alike
shortly found out that they were nowhere near prepared, and no city was hit worse than New Orleans. In
the Big Easy alone, 770,000 people were displaced, 300,000 homes were destroyed, and almost 2,000
people died (Amadeo). This devastation is mostly due to the breach of the New Orleans levees, which
resulted in the flooding of around 80% of the city (Amadeo). But in the years after the disaster, there has
been quite a bit of informed speculation about underlying, human-caused factors that could have
contributed to the excessive damage in New Orleans, and it begs the question: can we really call the
catastrophe that was Katrina a natural disaster?
The World Health Organization defines a natural disaster as “an act of nature of such magnitude
as to create a catastrophic situation,” suddenly disrupting daily life, where “people are plunged into
helplessness and suffering” and are in need of food, water, shelter, clothing, other emergency provisions,
or protection (WHO). At first glance, Katrina fits the profile. The severe damage to New Orleans and
other areas of the Gulf Coast speak to that. However, at a closer look, it becomes clear that most of the
damage sustained and lives lost in the storm had more to do with the flooding of the city and the
aftermath of Katrina than with the actual hurricane itself. In fact, while Katrina was first classified as a
Category 5 hurricane, “there were in reality no sustained winds above Category 1 measured on the ground
during Katrina” (Masters). The majority of the devastation in New Orleans came after the hurricane, and
was caused by shoddy engineering, human-caused environmental damage, and the failure of the
government to not only respond quickly and effectively to those in need, but also to look after its citizens.
The levees that surround New Orleans are designed to prevent water from Lake Pontchartrain, the
Mississippi River, and other bodies of water from flooding the city in the event of a storm. Despite the
likelihood of hurricanes in the area, the levees never seemed to be a top priority, and so “the [Army]
Corps [of Engineers] and local levee boards that maintain flood barriers pinched pennies” (Brinkley). This
meant that the breach of some of the levees was not due to overtopping, but instead to flawed engineering.
Metal planks driven into the ground to support the levees, called sheet piling, “didn’t run deep enough,”
and “Corps geologists botched tests that should have determined soil stability below the levees”
(Brinkley). These levees were supposed to be able to withstand Category 4 conditions, but due to faulty
engineering and flimsy construction, they were broken down by Category 1 winds (Masters). Douglas
Brinkley, the primary historian in Spike Lee’s ​When the Levees Broke​, speculates that “at least 700 fellow
citizens wouldn’t have died if the levee system and pumping stations had done their jobs properly.” The
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large amount of damage caused by flooding in New Orleans was not the result of especially strong winds
or any force of nature, but unsound levees and defective engineering.
Engineering was only part of the reason why some classify Katrina as a man-made disaster;
author and journalist Michael Grunwald writes that “beneath the structural failure was an environmental
crime, a decades-long assault on the Louisiana coast.” In the last hundred years, “2,300 sq. mi. of
Louisiana's coastal marshes, barrier islands and cypress swamps have eroded into the Gulf of Mexico”
(Grunwald). In fact, New Orleans used to be an inland city before erosion left it staring the Gulf directly
in the face (Grunwald). This kind of erosion of the Gulf Coast has serious environmental consequences
that become abundantly clear in the face of a hurricane like Katrina. Hurricanes build up strength over
water, but lose that strength on land. This leads scientists to conclude that “every mile of marsh can lower
a storm surge by as much as a foot” (Grunwald). A lot of this damage is being caused by the Army Corps;
another large chunk of it due to oil drilling (Grunwald). But whatever the reason, the land bordering the
Gulf continues to be worn away, leaving cities like New Orleans more vulnerable to storms like Katrina.
The most prevalent reason why Katrina is thought to be a man-made disaster is due to the failure
of the American government to respond to the emergency and take care of its citizens. Days after the
storm, and days after Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco “sent a letter to President Bush requesting a
disaster declaration for the state in order to release federal assistance,” New Orleans residents were left
packed into the Superdome and Convention Center without food, water, and medical supplies; surrounded
by death and debris in the sweltering heat (PBS NewsHour). FEMA failed to respond in a timely manner,
earning them an enormous amount of criticism from the American people. Underneath this obvious
failure of government, there was a latent failure of government to simply provide for its citizens. In a
speech marking the ten-year anniversary of the hurricane, President Obama identified and denounced this
negligence of the people of New Orleans. He acknowledged that the city had been “plagued by structural
inequalities” that resulted in a lack of decent jobs, healthcare, and housing, disproportionately affecting
people of low socioeconomic status and people of color (Obama). Because of this preexisting need in
New Orleans, “like a body weakened already… when the storm hit, there [were] no resources to fall back
on” (Obama). While the government response to Katrina was less than satisfactory, the storm also
revealed masked government failure to take care of the people of New Orleans, both of which led to utter
chaos and disaster during and after the hurricane.
In light of these structural, environmental, and governmental factors, it’s hard to classify
Hurricane Katrina as solely a natural disaster. Clearly, humans had a big hand in causing the devastation
and suffering that ensued after the storm. Hopefully, Katrina can serve as a learning experience in storm
prevention and response so we can take proper preventative and emergency measures in the future.
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Works Cited & Consulted
Amadeo, Kimberly. “Hurricane Katrina Facts, Damage, and Costs.” ​The Balance​,
www.thebalance.com/hurricane-katrina-facts-damage-and-economic-effects-3306023.
Brinkley, Douglas. “The Broken Promise of the Levees That Failed New Orleans.” ​Smithsonian
Magazine​, Sept. 2015,
www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/broken-promise-levees-failed-new-orleans-18
0956326/.
Grunwald, Michael. “Katrina: A Man-Made Disaster.” ​TIME,​ 24 Nov. 2010,
www.content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2032304_2032746_2035982-3,00.
html.
Horne, Jed. “Five Myths about Hurricane Katrina.” ​The Washington Post​, Washington Post, 31 Aug.
2012,
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-hurricane-katrina/2012/08/31/003f4064-f1
47-11e1-a612-3cfc842a6d89_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.8bb638969041.
Kayen, Robert, et al. “USGS Scientists Investigate New Orleans Levees Broken by Hurricane Katrina.”
USGS,​ U.S. Department of the Interior, Jan. 2006, www.soundwaves.usgs.gov/2006/01/.
Marris, Emma. “’Human Error’ Doomed New Orleans Levees.” ​Nature,​ Macmillan Publishers, 3 Nov.
2005, www.nature.com/news/2005/051031/full/news051031-9.html.
Masters, Jeff. “Katrina Only a Cat 1 in New Orleans?” ​Weather Underground​, Weather Company, 13
Oct. 2005, www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/katrina-only-a-cat-1-in-new-orleans.html.
Neuman, Scott. “Obama: Katrina a ‘Man-Made’ Disaster Caused by Government Failure.” ​National
Public Radio,​ NPR, 27 Aug. 2015,
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/27/435258344/obama-katrina-a-man-made-disaster-c
aused-by-government-failure.
Obama, Barack. Speech. 27 Aug. 2015. ​NOLA​, NOLA Media Group, 28 Aug. 2015,
www.nola.com/katrina/index.ssf/2015/08/transcript_of_president_obamas.html.
PBS NewsHour. “FEMA Faces Intense Scrutiny.” ​PBS​, NewsHour Productions, 6 Sept. 2005,
www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/government_programs-july-dec05-fema_09-09.
World Health Organization. “Natural Events.” ​World Health Organization​, WHO,
www.who.int/environmental_health_emergencies/natural_events/en/.