Essays on Landfall

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina touched ground in Louisiana in August 2005. The resulting lack of coordination in a catastrophe of this size by federal agencies led to large numbers of evaluations, reports, and recommendations for improvement. Particularly under fire was the FEMA organization tasked with management of the disaster operations. The inability to coordinate local, state, and federal resources lead to billions of dollars in waste and additional loss of life secondary to lack of food, water, and shelter. Government policies and restrictions in addition to complicated definitions of responsibility delayed relief for the stricken areas by as much as a ...

Abstract

The problem of climate change and its effects to living organisms such as humans has already been proven by many studies and now many are questioning if Natural Hazards such as Hurricanes can be affected by this change. Hurricanes are known in many names in regions, given their formation type and their composition. It also is a common calamity in the Northern Atlantic and in the Pacific, the latter naming hurricanes as tropical cyclones. The debate upon the effects of climate change in hurricanes is still contested by scientists. On the one hand, some scientists have seen the evidences that ...

Abstract

Natural disasters have always happened and will continue to happen. Unfortunately, there is a major difference in how developed countries prepare for and respond to natural disasters, compared to developing countries. When a disaster hits a developing country, the death rates are much higher than in a developed country, the recovery period takes longer and the long term economic impact is more severe. This paper looks at the causes for the differences and addresses steps a developing country can take to be better prepared for and respond against potential natural disasters. There is a distinct difference in the terminology disaster professionals use between the ...

The Storm

Fifty-five minutes of utter chaos and fury, The Storm relives that day of November 22, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina’s landfall robber New Orleans of hundreds of innocent lives and left thousands homeless. In this midst of all this, could be heard the voice of a man saying, “Sure didn’t think I’ll die this way,” which abruptly was how it happened. When asked, everyone (The Administration, the Homeland Security, and FEMA) pointed fingers at one another. When quizzed on who was responsible for the inadequacy in preparation for the disaster, Mike Brown, the former director of FEMA said ...

Chapter 3: Introduction to the Atmosphere

This chapter is a basic introduction to the several properties of the atmosphere. Air is the main composition of the atmosphere and contains the majority of Nitrogen gas for 78% and Oxygen gas for 21%. The rest comprises of other gases. Although the atmospheric mixture also constitutes particulates such as dust, smoke, pollens, ash and other industrial emission. The atmosphere can be divided into homosphere and heterosphere. Different gases are scattered uniformly throughout this layer, unlike the composition in the heterosphere where each gas is separated in each layer. Located on the topmost part of the atmosphere is where the ...

The Importance of an Emergency Management Plan: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery

It may not come as a surprise to say that, as humans reach out in search of food and shelter, it is the environment around them that is being abused. As man’s needs grow, so too does the pressure on the environment grow, as a result of which, an ecological imbalance is created unconsciously. And once an ecological imbalance occurs, a series of events are triggered that culminates in large scale loss of life and property. There is no doubt the importance the environment has on life on this planet, but man himself, pressed for space, finds no other option but ...

Successes and Failures of New York's Response to Hurricane Sandy

Naomi Klein in her seminal work, SHOCK DOCTRINE: The rise of Disaster Capitalism, makes the startling claim that "Reconstruction is now such a big business that investors greet each new disaster with the excitement of a hot new stock offering: $30 billion for Iraq reconstruction, $13 billion for tsunami reconstruction, $110 billion for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast." (133) In the light of the strife and suffering, witnessed in New York when Hurricane Sandy made landfall, people feared that her worst visions of government failure and mismanagement of the crisis had come to pass. The commercialization of rescue efforts loomed ...

Introduction

Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Sandy both were the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to have ever lashed upon the United States. Both surfaced in the US during the active hurricane seasons. Both were extremely devastating hurricanes followed by storm surge and flooding which led to a widespread damage across the affected areas, killing people, leaving people homeless and shutting down some of the big cities of US. Hurricane Katrina initiated on a westward path, moving on to Florida and then Gulf coast while hurricane Sandy took its pace on a northward path before landing on the eastern coast of USA. All the devastation ...

A hurricane is a tropical cyclone formed in the southern Atlantic Ocean. They are characterized by low-pressure centers surrounded by thunderstorms. The thunderstorms produce great winds and rain which contribute to the intensity of the storm. As the water evaporates from the ocean, the saturated air rises leading to the condensation of water vapor. Hurricane sandy hit the coast of northeast America and was classified as a category 1 storm. On record, it became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record ever. Its winds where wide recorded at spans of up to 1800km. To this end, this aims to look in ...

he research was able to come up with conclusions and recommendations. It recommended that the council should consider excavating the landfall in one site that was considered to be the best of all. This is because it would be cheaper and more pollution free.

Introduction

As an assistant manager for the Town Council of Quillicom, Michigan, I was instructed by my boss, Robert D. Delorme to help this council in addressing the emerging problem of landfill that was already wrecking havoc to its administration. Hence, from my analysis, I found out that the council was planning to deal with this ...