Introduction
Hurricanes refer to cyclones that are developed over the warm tropical oceans with sustained winds in more than 64 knots (Allen, 2001). These forms of storms are extremely dangerous in the producing fundamentally strong winds, which may lead to tremendous property destruction as well as loss of lives among people. The most prone areas with hurricanes are coastal regions. This is because they are too open to prevent the occurrence of strong winds as well as bear the strong storms from the sea. This in return leads to the rise of hurricanes, which are extremely destructive.
The intensity of hurricanes is measured in terms of scales with 5 scales being the largest hurricane to have occurred in the United States. This is the most dangerous and disastrous form of hurricane in the history of the world. One of the regions that have been hit by a hurricane is the Ninth Ward of New Orleans (Allen, 2001). This is the largest ward in Orleans and is located in the innermost downriver section of the Orleans city.
The ability to reconstruct the region is faced by adverse challenges, which are based on the economic, environmental, and cultural factors surrounding the hit region.
Economic challenges towards the reconstruction of the Ninth Ward
The Katrina hurricane is speculated to cause a loss of more than $200 billion per year. There are several ways through which these economic effects may be passed to the nation. There are several traits that may prevent the reconstruction of the region.
Every occurrence of hurricanes comes with massive destruction of homes and property. It has become common that every hurricane that occurs in the United States causes millions of dollars loss in housing and property losses. Hurricanes occur with complete demolition of property, after which the buildings have to be cleaned up and rebuilt later. This brings in massive loss to the state as well as individuals and may pose a significant challenge to the reconstruction of the Ninth Ward region.
Demolitions caused by the hurricane destroy businesses where citizens from the region obtain their livelihood in terms of employment and investments. To the government the region may not contribute in the collection of revenue from businesses. Goods that can only be produced in the Ninth Ward become extinct. This is following the adverse effects that come along with the hurricane. Following this, people will not be willing to invest in the region as they fear future losses.
Therefore, people who had buildings in the region are unlikely to construct similar buildings unless they had an insurance agency that would assist the reconstruction based on the terms of the insurance cover. The insurance company may ditch the individual if there were no such terms covered in the policy. Since most people in the regions prone to hurricanes are aware of the effects of hurricanes if they occurred, they cover their property against destruction. High demand for insurance cover will cause an increase in the number of pay outs that insurance companies need to make. In turn, this will cause insurance companies to increase rates to compensate their financial loss. With increased rates of insurance in terms of premiums will make more families unable to purchase as well as keep insurance. This means that it may be difficult to reconstruct the Ninth Ward region in the Orleans City.
As a result of the Katrina hurricane that hit the region, the Ninth Ward has become a tourist destination. Most tourists visit the region with the aim of viewing the real effects of hurricane. This has been a platform for several people and tourist companies in the region. Tourists are charged to view the points in which the hurricane got entry to the region. Around 9 million people visit the city to view the effects of the Katrina. The City Council of Orleans has found it difficult to clean the mess in the region following the heavy traffic of tourists who visit the region (Plaisance, 2012). This means that the wild challenge which caused loss of property has become a source of benefits for the region which challenges the reconstruction of the region. The efforts of the government to reconstruct the region are challenged by the tourism industry as they interfere with revenue of the residents of the Ninth Ward in Orleans.
The government does not have an ample place to relocate people from the Ninth Ward region. The government needs to find another region for the people where they will have similar benefits as they enjoyed at Ninth Ward. This may be extremely hard as people will find it difficult to settle in other regions and establish economic foundations for themselves. Therefore, people will not be willing to vacate from the region (Plaisance, 2012). This will play a significant task in preventing the reconstruction of the region demolished by the hurricane.
On the other hand, there factors that may influence the reconstruction of the city. The intensive forces that hurricanes operate in have massive effects to oil deposits. Hurricanes destroy oil rigs, refineries as well as pipelines. In most cases, oil cleaning systems are located in large water bodies. For transport conveniences, they are located along the coast. Therefore, occurrence of a hurricane will massively affect these companies. This may cause companies to halt their production to make repairs. This will result to increased prices for gas and fuel. Most industries depend on oil as a basis of energy so the occurrence of hurricanes will make these industries incur extra production cost (Stone, 2012). This cost will be passed on to consumers through high prices for goods and services produced in these industries. This will also have a massive impact to the entire economy as people will be incapable to tolerate the high prices of commodities. The government will be a force to intervene to make necessary plans for reconstruction and prevent the region from experiencing further damages to oil deposits.
The rest 16 wards are extremely developed, and it has become a challenge to reconstruct the Ninth ward. Based on the core-periphery model, it would be vital to reconstruct the Ninth ward region. The government is putting in adverse strategies to assist in the reconstruction of the region so as to assist it match the position of the rest of the wards. However, the hard work of the government have been shut down by the existence of rebellion by citizens of the regions (Stone, 2012). This means that, with the cooperation of the resident of the region with the government, the Ninth Ward would be reconstructed to match other regions in the city.
Environmental challenges towards the reconstruction of the Ninth Ward
Hurricanes usually occur along the coast line of the region in which it takes place. During the occurrence, a hurricane brings extremely destructive and powerful winds on shore. Following the adverse force that the occurrence of hurricanes is associated with, there are adverse environmental effects that go along with the existence of hurricanes. Winds are extremely dangerous during construction and to weak structures. The hurricane winds take a range of 65 knots at the lowest scale of the storm to more than 136 knots for a calamitous storm. It is extremely difficult to obtain accurate readings from high wind squalls (Crocker, 2005). This is because, anemometers, which are devices used in measuring the speed of the wind cannot withstand the intensive force and may be cleaved from their practicalities. High winds are responsible for the massive damages on structures that occur as a result of hurricanes. They destroy electric power lines as well as uproot trees. The strongest winds as a result of powerful and fast moving storms might stay high, even after the storm remains inland. The wind becomes dangerous when the actual speed of wind is mutual with the speed agitated by the squall (Crocker, 2005). Therefore, the adverse winds that are associated to hurricane may prevent the reconstruction of the region as it may become difficult to erect buildings in the region.
Rainfall-provoked flooding is the other effect that results from hurricanes. The profound rains that are associated to hurricanes are main agents of flooding in regions in which the danger strikes. Massive floods cause damage to the soil. It becomes weak and unable to hold heavy buildings (Crocker, 2005). The landscape is demolished to extent that the soil profile changes with the strength of the ground diminishing. In return, it becomes extremely difficult to carry out constructions in such regions.
Areas that have ever experienced hurricanes are exposed to storm gush. This is defined as the raid increase in the water level that budges onto land as the ogle of the storm leads to landfall. The surge of the storm is dependent on the potency of the hurricane, the powerful the hurricane the superior the surge. This means that it is extremely challenging to reconstruct an already demolished city by hurricane (Crocker, 2005). Waves hit the coast consistently with tons of speedy water hammering at any coastline structure. Therefore, it becomes extremely challenging for architects and engineers come with ideas on how to challenge the weak ground. Therefore, it is extremely challenging to build new buildings in the region.
The other effect that a hurricane hit region experiences is reoccurrence tornadoes from time to time. This is the column movement of air from time to time. This means that houses built in regions like the Ninth Ward in Orleans may not be rebuilt as they may be easily demolished by the air columns (Crocker, 2005).
Cultural challenges towards the reconstruction of the Ninth Ward
Since the occurrence of the Katrina Hurricane, in the Ninth Ward in Orleans city in 2005, only one among five residents from the lower region has returned to his residential place. The region is known as home blacks since 1700s. The regions dwellers had upheld extensive information about the cultural practices of the region (Morgan, 2012).
This region upholds several cultural values which range from family respect among the dwellers of the region. Racism is an element that existed in the region before the hurricane. The region also is divided into different classes based on the individuals’ abilities. Sexual exclusions were also among the adverse cultural effects that the Ninth Ward lower region favored (Morgan, 2012).
However, after the hurricane most people died and some of these values do not exist in the society. This poses a challenge to the reconstruction of the region as cultural values of the region will not be favored.
The neo-governance that the region experienced before the occurrence of the hurricane was demolished. This was a form of governance that is related to all the 17 wards in the Orleans city. This means that the region had to adopt new governance, which may be difficult to form (Morgan, 2012). This means it would take time delaying any process of reconstruction of the region.
The region was well known of various entrepreneurial activities which have already been demolished and tourism takes control of the region (Morgan, 2012). This poses the other challenge for the reconstruction of the region.
Conclusion
Hurricanes are characterized with adverse effects to the region in which they occur. The most evident effect is the destruction of property as well as cause of massive deaths upon victims of the incidence. The Ninth Ward in the Orleans City is an example of the challenge a hurricane may pose to reconstruction of a region once it is demolished by the hurricane. There are adverse economic, environmental and cultural challenges that may cause the challenge in reconstruction of the region. Despite the economic challenges a hurricane causes, there are merits which come along with the challenge. The merits also pose as challenges to the reconstruction of the region. The ground for the hit region becomes weak following the destruction of the soil making it hard to sustain buildings. Cultural erosion of the region also poses another challenge in the reconstruction of the Ninth Ward region in the Orleans City.
Work cited
Allen, Jean. Hurricanes. Mankato, Minn.: Capstone Books, 2001. Print.
Crocker, Dianne. "Environmental Impacts of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita | The Solutions Source of the Water & Wastewater Industry." Water & Wastes Digest | The Solutions Source of the Water & Wastewater Industry. N.p., 12 Dec. 2005. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. http://www.wwdmag.com/groundwater/environmental-impacts-hurricanes-katrina-rita.
Morgan Parmett, Helen. "MEDIASCAPE." Disneyomatics: Media, Branding, and Urban Space in Post-Katrina New Orleans. N.p., 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. www.tft.ucla.edu/mediascape/Winter2012_Disneyomatics.html.
Plaisance, Stacey. "New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward Residents Take On Hurricane Katrina Tour Operators." Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post. N.p., 4 Oct. 2012. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/04/new-orleans-lower-ninth-w_n_1938669.html.
Stone, Chad. "The Economic Impact of Hurricane Sandy - Economic Intelligence (usnews.com)." US News & World Report | News & Rankings | Best Colleges, Best Hospitals, and more. N.p., 2 Feb. 2012. Web. 1 Mar. 2013. http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/11/02/the-economic-impact-of-hurricane-sandy.
