After the recent mismanagement of resources and loss of human life, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recognized the need to reorganize and reassess how to handle emergency situations.  The world must be better prepared to avert the loss of life and property in the case of a natural disaster.  Read below about the devastating results of Hurricane Katrina. 

FEMA has asked your team for assistance in developing preventive measures and strategies to address natural disasters. 

Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Hurricane Katrina was the eleventh-named tropical storm, fourth hurricane, third major hurricane, and first Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the third most powerful storm of the season.

The sheer physical size of Katrina caused devastation far from the eye of the hurricane; it was possibly the largest hurricane of its strength ever recorded, but estimating the size of storms from before the 1960s (the pre-satellite era) is difficult to impossible. On August 29, its storm surge breached the levee system that protected New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Most of the city was subsequently flooded mainly by water from the lake. Heavy damage was also inflicted onto the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, making Katrina the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States and the deadliest since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane.

More than 1.5 million people were displaced — a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen in the U.S. since the Great Depression. The damage is estimated to be about $75 billion by the NHC (with other estimates ranging from $40 to $120 billion), at least double the previously most expensive Hurricane Andrew, making Katrina the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

On September 3, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as "probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes" in the country's history, referring to the hurricane itself plus the flooding of New Orleans.

(excerpt from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina on January 5, 2006)

Quick Facts about Hurricane Katrina

Formed: August 23, 2005

Dissipated: August 31, 2005

Highest winds: 175 mph (280 km/h) sustained

Lowest pressure: 902 mbar (hPa)

Damages: $~75 billion (costliest tropical cyclone of all time)

Fatalities: 1,383 (potentially more)

Last updated on January 6, 2006 by Anthony Salcedo

TGBTG