Hurricane Katrina's Effects

On Sunday August 28th Katrina made land fall in the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. With no hope for the people they evacuated to surrounding states or with family members. Watching as their homes and community feel to pieces with the wrath of the massive category five hurricane. Little did the people of Louisiana know but their world would soon come down. Many of the people had no transportation out of the hit areas, and were left on top of roofs tops and sadly dead. The levees themselves could not stand the power of Katrina which gave way to tons of water pouring into the city of New Orleans with power outages expected to last for weeks, and deadly diseases to spread.

Soon after the city of New Orleans had to start planning their options for survival and to rebuild their city. America new this would affect the country in many different ways, with unemployment rates hitting high numbers, thousands of Americans homeless, and gas prices to reach the highest they have ever been.

After Hurricane Katrina the preliminary October unemployment rate for Louisiana dropped one tenth of one percent to 11.3 percent in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, maintaining the double-digit rate for another month. The revised September unemployment rate was 11.4 percent while the October 2004 rate was 5.8 percent.

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Three months after Hurricane Katrina the unemployed rate still is at high peak positions, however they are dropping with the help from local government. Some ways the government has planned to bring business back into New Orleans is by rebuilding the city to an almost exact image, but with the reassurance that the levees will be stronger than they have ever been, and more plans to prepare for another natural disaster if it should so happen.

www.first.gov

The raising gas prices affected not only New Orleans, but America as a whole. Nearly half of the U.S. refining industry, 28% of oil production, and 20% of natural gas output are concentrated in and around the Gulf of Mexico. Gas prices before Katrina were rounding off around two dollars a gallon, but now many states are seeing prices rise to 3.50 or even 4 dollars a gallon. When many people wondered why to some it was simple because the production of oil is down 1.9 barrels of oil a day. However, full reproduction of oil refineries isn't expected until late February 2006, but there is good news because the average gasoline price in August was $3.07 a gallon and is now down to $2.72 a gallon.

www.house.gov

New Orleans now worries how exactly they will bring back the families that were left homeless and afraid. With many relocating to areas where they feel safer and away from flood affected areas. Many programs gave way to protecting Hurricane Katrina victims, just life the Dom in Texas. Without them