Who is to blame for exacerbating the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina?

[pcgeek11]

The eye of the storm hit Mississippi because the storm hooked east at the last minute.

It was a pretty bigass storm, sustained winds in NOLA were recorded at 30mph lower than the highest sustained winds recorded on land, just for the facts. I do agree that the storm missed us and we should have dodged a bullet if the federal levees hadn't failed and the federally built boondoggle the MRGO, which had basically zero commercial use, hadn't been built.

ETA: And if you really want the facts Katrina's first landfall (after Florida) was in Buras Louisiana not Mississippi. So all of your "facts" are wrong, just saying.

No my Facts are quite correct. Where is Buras Louisiana? It is on a little spit of land sticking out into the gulf. Like at the Mississippi Louisiana border. At that stage of the game you are playing fast and loose with the facts now.

The Facts are that the side of the storm that is most destructive would be the side that hit Mississippi, blowing north washing the gulf into it vice the other side which would be blowing west and then then south.

 

[werepossum]

I believe you, but every source I google talks only about wetlands mitigating hurricane damage. You or realibad should provide a link for clarification.

Realibrad did post a link to that effect, on how dry land is better than wetlands for weakening a hurricane. Fern also posted a link on how wetlands can sometimes make things worse by adding to the storm surge. The reason you see so many links stating that wetlands mitigating hurricane damage is complex, involving several factors, but mostly because they usually do. Dry land would be better, but if there is dry coastal land we'd quickly build on it. Better to let the hurricane batter itself against the wetlands before it reaches the people.

No my Facts are quite correct. Where is Buras Louisiana? It is on a little spit of land sticking out into the gulf. Like at the Mississippi Louisiana border. At that stage of the game you are playing fast and loose with the facts now.

The Facts are that the side of the storm that is most destructive would be the side that hit Mississippi, blowing north washing the gulf into it vice the other side which would be blowing west and then then south.

The reasons New Orleans got hit so hard were its weaked levees and its negative elevation. Mississippi took much more of the hurricane's energy. However, Mississippi had much better leadership and so recovered much more quickly.

 

[cabri]

Yeah, the entire Blanco pissing match over Federal troops is largely responsible for how long the chaos ruled NOLA. It was a damn shame really, when General Honere showed up there were dozens upon dozens of trucks loaded with water and food that had been sitting at a staging location for days. They didn't have the proper paper work and no one knew what the chain of command was. So while Blanco played politics water and food that was already on the ground and in place didn't get distributed for days.

Nagin just flat out screwed the pooch on the evacuation. The city did actually have an evacuation plan which he pretty much just threw out the window. I don't give a shit about drivers, the worst possible case scenario is baring down on you then put any damn body behind the wheel. You never got over 5mph on the highway during the evacuation anyway.

Unions would have blocked the use of non authorized drivers for bus use.
Otherwise, any municipal (truck) worker would be able to drive a bus (standard/automatic)

Regretfully, politics trump public safety.

 

[piasabird]

Probably the biggest problem is not enough elevated highways lead out of the city to high ground. In cities often in the USA we build a bunch of houses where in some areas like Asia they would build large tall apartment buildings.

 

[realibrad]

I believe you, but every source I google talks only about wetlands mitigating hurricane damage. You or realibad should provide a link for clarification.

What you are asking for seems a little dumb. First, wetlands do often lessen the damage of hurricanes. Wetlands accomplish this by absorbing some of he water, and the vegetation helps hold the soil to reduce erosion.

Second, hurricanes build power with warm wet air. If you take away one of those things, you will weaken a hurricane. Land is not water and as such has less moisture. Land by its very nature of not being water will weaken a hurricane.

Third, hurricanes will typically hit tropical areas. They will sometimes swing and hit non-tropical areas, but normally they will hit in warm areas. If the hurricane hits a wetland area in a tropical place, the water in the land will be warm and wet. That would mean that a wetland would not weaken a hurricane like dry land would.

I will also say that water in cold areas will weaken a hurricane. If a hurricane hits a wetland that is in a cold area, it will weaken it more than a wetland in a warm place.

The reason I say that what you are asking for is dumb, is that you are asking for an explanation about how something does not effect something. You will find in your links that nobody says that wetlands weaken a hurricane because its would be a trivial effect if any. You will also find that research also does not talk about the effect of cats on hurricanes because they would also be trivial if having any effect at all.

 

[realibrad]

Probably the biggest problem is not enough elevated highways lead out of the city to high ground. In cities often in the USA we build a bunch of houses where in some areas like Asia they would build large tall apartment buildings.

The biggest problem is that people that are supposed to manage things did a shit job. Levees were in terrible shape. The mayor did little to nothing to help. Many people did not know what to do to prepare.

If people are going to expect the government to do the job they are paying them for, then we should also hold them accountable. The OP linking an article that tries to imply that a big part of the damage was done by 2 guys (both seem like assholes) is fucking stupid. So long as we let politics shape our view on things like this, shit like this will continue to happen.