some perspective on Hurricane Katrina
by phil on Tuesday Aug 30, 2005 7:40 PM
What follows are various photos and factoids to give myself and others a macro perspective of Hurricane Katrina's effect on New Orleans.
Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans:
From MSNBC
City of New Orleans Ground Elevation:
From Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes.
New Orleans is here:
From wikipedia
What's a levee breaking:
From Stanford
From Google Maps
Where the hurricane came from:
From Noaa
Timeline of hurricane movement:
From Wikipedia
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the 2004 New Orleans population to be 20.0% white and 67.9% black
The median income for a household in the city is $27,133
New Orleans is usually pronounced by locals as "Noo Aw-lins". The term "N'Awlins" is not generally used by locals but has been popularized by the tourist trade
Reports from the Associated Press state that 80% of the near 500,000 had evacuated safely from New Orleans prior to the hurricane's landfall. Even if licensed drivers had been available and the available buses had been used to evacuate the remaining approximately 150,000 people, they may not have made it to safety before landfall.
(from wikipedia)
Astrodome and Superdome shelters
From Yahoo and wikipedia
Damage Map
From wikipedia
Various history of Louisiana
1519 - Alvarez de Pindea (Spain) discovers mouth of the Mississippi
1682 - Robert Cavalier claims territory for Louis XIV of France, for whom Louisiana is named.
1718 - New Orleans is founded and named for Phillippe Duc D'Orleans
1762 - Louis XV gives the "Island of New Orleans" and all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi to his cousin, Charles III of Spain
1803 - Louisiana is purchased from Napoleon I by the United States for $15,000,000
1815 - Battle of New Orleans is won by General Andrew Jackson against British
1838 - First Mardi Gras parade is held in New Orleans
1861 - Louisiana secedes from the Union and after a brief period as a republic, joins the Confederacy
1868 - Louisiana is re-admitted to the Union
1915 - The name "Jazz" is given to music of New Orleans origin
1963 - Tulane University accepts five black students, the first in its history
1975 - The Super Dome in New Orleans is completed
from Louisiana History
The five largest ancestries in the state are: African American (32.5%), French/French Canadian (16.2%), American (10.1%), German (7.1%), Irish (7%).
(Louisiana)
Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.
(Krugman)
