This is a satellite photo from the NASA website of Hurricane Katrina in late August, 2005. As you can see the storm takes up most of the Gulf of Mexico as it takes aim at the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Three years ago on August 29th, 2005, this monster hurricane smashed its way ashore with its eye about 25 miles east of New Orleans.
But it was almost a day later when the real horror began in New Orleans. The levees for the outfall, drainage canals -- the London Canal, the Industrial Canal, and the 17th Street Canal -- suddenly broke, and a tremendous flood occurred putting 80% of the city of New Orleans underwater. About 2,000 people died in Hurricane Katrina. The entire population of the city -- over 400,000 people -- were forced to evacuate, many to distant, unfamiliar cities and states. Some of them later died from illness, trauma, or other hardships; and many of the ones who survived still have not returned home. And all of them suffered either physically or emotionally.
Much of the city -- in neighborhoods like Gentilly, New Orleans East, Broadmoor, Lakeview, the Ninth Ward, and the Lower Ninth Ward -- is still, to this day, left in ruins. Houses remain destroyed and abandoned, and lives torn around and wrecked.
Hurricane Katrina was the worst disaster -- in terms of cost-- in American history.
All of the students, teachers, and volunteers at SVDP-ALC endured this nightmare, directly or indirectly. Hurricane Katrina is one reason why our school takes the topics of science and mathematics seriously; and why we are glad to have pen pals in the USAP in Antarctica who support, directly or indirectly, the study of weather conditions on our planet and the increasingly crucial study of climate change.
Our school blog will be having many more posts, and hopefully writings from our students, about the hurricane as we approach the third anniversary of that horrible day.
-- Adrian
No comments:
Post a Comment