Hurricane Katrina Tropical cyclones have cost US a lot of damage of property and destruction.

One such disaster hurricane is Katrina. Hurricane Katrina which is a tropical storm passes southeast of New Orleans on august 29, 2005. The storm caused almost 50 breaches in the canal leaves. 80% of the entire city was flooded and watered up to 15 feet. The disaster caused massive destruction and even stimulated the federal involvement. Apart from the Labor Day hurricane, the hurricane Camille, hurricane charley, Katrina was equally disastrous and caused a lot destruction across new Orleans. After its second and third landfalls in the gulf coast region, massive numbers of casualties were reported. Hundreds were dead and trapped. The total death toll was estimated around 1464. Communications failure caused due to the storm surge. Buildings like the Hyatt regency were blown out and the superdome was damaged. Leeve failures caused more flooding and many more buildings were apparently damaged. Over 1.7 million people lost power in their homes and offices in Gulf States. Civil disturbances and violence were also visible as a post disaster effect. On august 31 the government commenced with the evacuation efforts across the entire gulf coast. A mandatory evacuation was ordered for all those remaining in New Orleans. A lot of relief organizations helped in the relocation process. A lot of survivors had taken shelter in the superdome. They were later shifted to Houston. The total number of evacuees that swelled across the entire Orleans was about 42000 in number. The airborne division arrived on September 2nd. The paratroopers helped in regaining control of the region, clearing debris, streets etc. Apart from the damage that occurred, the flooding also caused spreading of various diseases like TB, hepatitis A, cholera and so on because of the contamination of food and drinking waters. A lot of efforts were made to carry out evacuations from hospitals. Patients with risky conditions were immediately shifted with a stream of helicopters and choppers. Emergency triage center was established to help people who needed immediate health care. Katrina hurricane also had detrimental effects on the economy too. With almost the entire city submerged in water, the port of New Orleans suffered massive decline in transport, public service and entertainment sectors. Another major area was decline in production of oil. Prices rose and as many as 9500 were suddenly unemployed. With the passing years more and more efforts were made towards reconstruction and rebuilding. Restoration of wetlands, and with ecological industry prospering, the city was able to thrive again. The economy started improving with a huge natural capital. Apart from Katrina, some other hurricanes that struck the New Orleans port were the Betsy hurricane in 1965 when 89 people died and a lot of offshore oil rigs were damaged. The next was Camille, in 1969 with a death toll of 335. The government took immediate evacuation steps and about 85000 people were evacuated in Mississippi. Oil rigs were damaged too but no oil workers died. Though NHC had issued early warnings about it, but issued an order to evacuate just4 hours before the landfall which helped saving hundreds and thousands of lives. No such thing as natural disaster

According to Neil smith, there is absolutely no such thing as natural disaster. All phases and events that occur post the disaster which may include results, response and reconstruction and then preparedness for any other future impending domes are always triggered by various causes. The causes are not always natural. For instance winds and storms hurricanes such as Katrina could be a result of severe climatic changes due to carbon emissions and other pollutants. Global warming is a huge cause. So the supposed naturalness in causes becomes a mask to hide the real reason behind a disruption. Of course the saying is true, if you tamper with Mother Nature, it would surely ruin man made environment too. The Katrina is an example of that. Incompetence of preparations and efforts also is well known. While it was shown that Katrina is a disastrous event to occur, negligence on the \part of federal emergency management made a lot of people suffer. The political policies were not with acutance with welfare of the people. Media when showed how badly the city was damaged, the real stories without scripts started to appear then. A lot of people were agitated as they did not get immediate help. The reconstruction was dominated by government awarded contracts that still looked for capitalist profits and so on. It is clear that some Social and political context shape the impact of the disaster. If the recovery and reconstruction is simply based on factors like political occupancies and other relations in the city, then how is the disaster natural in any way? We because it and then the aid is triggered by what sort of availability is the government ready to provide. For instance only a quarter of available search teams were sent. The National Guard worked under orders to control the city militarily and protect properties does any further damages. The government aid was more or less absent till the fourth day. The other aspect that includes attention is the presence of a lot of groups that may experience varied forms of treatment in the recovery and reconstruction period. Of course it is not possible that every group would receive the same amenities. This is shaped by the social context of the region. It was seen in new Orleans , the well off had cars to get out, credit cards and access to resources, while some like the afro American populace were still surviving on sewage ponds. Racial and socioeconomic inequalities were made while the reconstruction efforts were being made. The issue of vulnerable groups shall be discussed in the coming section. So the issue of reconstruction and impacting including even the causes could not be termed as natural. There is always a social and political, racial, ethnic and economic context that dominates the effort of reconstruction. Though there were a lot of Ngos and government operations that contributed yet the havoc could have been easily reduced if capitalist profits and inequalities are ignored.

Vulnerable groups. As the hurricane Katrina struck the gulf region, its impact was felt with various class, race and gender divides. Some groups felt more risky than others like the women folk, the afro American people. they faced multiple disadvantages during the crisis and each group coped with the aftermath of the disaster in a different way. Poverty was a common problem in New Orleans. Those who were the most vulnerable when it came being poor were women. Women make up majority of minimum wage earners. The labor

force workers were left unemployed post Katrina. Initially if there was 50% unemployment then post Katrina, two out of five women even being employed was still no poor. The case was worse for afro American women adding the racial disadvtange too. These women who were on their own who had to take care of their children. With the breaking of levees and flooding of the entire area forced them to leave their homes. According to the IPWR analysis, the total percentage of single mothers in New Orleans decreased by 40.6%. Women both young and old faced high risks post Katrina. These families had no or very little resources. In comparison more women were rendered poor than men. the issue of race apart from gender disadvantage is again startling one. Women were vulnerable, but afro American women faced higher risks. In New Orleans, race and class were significant divides and this was seen post Katrina and during rebuilding. J. Philip Thomson evaluates this. With limited support from the federal government, the afro Americans faced a double disadvantage. The images of many black people being stranded on sewage ponds struck the whole nation. 71% of the afro American populace was affected against just a 3 % white population. Afro Americans whether be it men or women had less chance to uplift themselves. Yet there were some helpful charitable organizations from Houston, Baton Rouge that helped tge black victims. They described that though the attitude of federal bureaucracies was cruel but still the political implications of race were visible. Even though the citizens might have helped each other, yet politicized attitudes triggered the aid that people received. Even if the mandatory federal policies had laid out plans for reconstruction, yet there was no system in place to ensure that displaced and unemployed people would get proper employment. The resistance against poor people was visible, the long term unemployment of the poor led to permutation of crimes like drug dealing and riots. Professional planners looked at the larger picture of building and reconstruction, but issues such as mentioned above somehow were left as it as to be mended on their own. To conclude, I would say that disaster such as Katrina swiped the entire New Orleans and massive destruction occurred that affected a lot of people; some really vulnerable groups who either were forced tp flee from the state or had to cope with the adverse conditions. Repopulation was difficult and a lot of people who fled from the city did not return. Hazards posed a considerable threat that affected people