ESCI 1012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Gulfport, Mississippi, Natural Hazard, Landfall
Document Summary
Katrina weakened from category 5 to category 3 before making landfall. Eye of storm passed to east of city. Left forward quadrant, weakest part of the storm system. Prior to stor(cid:289) se(cid:362)ere (cid:363)eake(cid:290)i(cid:290)g of city(cid:910)s (cid:290)atural defe(cid:290)ses. Continued subsidence of and as old delta deposits compacted. Loss of wetlands due to saltwater incursion. Canals built for shipping and oil industry. Co(cid:289)bi(cid:290)ed (cid:363)ith u(cid:290)der(cid:289)i(cid:290)i(cid:290)g of city(cid:910)s artificial defe(cid:290)ses. Levee system only designed for category 3 hurricane. Consequently, miles of canal walls, over 8,000 miles but only a handful of breaches was enough to flood the city. After 9-11, lots of money and regulations was put into emergency response (mostly on terrorism) but not as much into coordination. Emergency communication in katrina was hampered by frequency differences and battery choices. Mold e(cid:362)ery(cid:363)here i(cid:290) the houses, e(cid:362)e(cid:290) if house (cid:363)as(cid:290)(cid:910)t destroyed. Right forward quadrant was in gulfport, mississippi which did not receive much attention.