Hurricane Katrina 2005
Hurricane Katrina hit the South East coast of America in late August 2005. It caused around 89.6 billion dollars of damage (56.7 billion pounds). It destroyed homes and ruined lives in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
But where did it come from? and why? As most Hurricanes do, Katrina started as a small atmospheric disturbance over Africa. these disturbances cause clusters of thunder storms which then travel across africa, and then meet the tropical waters of the Atlantic. The cluster storms soon develop into a hurricane which is put into a spinning motion from the earths rotaion. This is because of warm water vapour rising. This vapour soon cools and condenses, real easing even more heat which allow the rest of the vapour to rise even quicker. This water vapour produces even more storm clouds. |
These storm clouds then continue east and grow to look more and more like a hurricane. The spining motion of the storm is formed by the rotation of the earth. This, along with the water vapour continuously release heat and then allowing more water vapour to rise, is what allows a hurricane to pick up speed. When rotation speeds in the storm reaches sustained speeds of over 74 mph, that system then officially becomes a catagory 1 hurricane (hurricanes are measured on a scale of 1-5 in catagories). Katrina was a catagory 5 hurricane. Windspeeds in the eye wall (the area of the hurricane where winds are strongest) got as fast as 175 mph! these winds blew roofs off houses and tore anything in its path apart. As well as that, just before Katrina hit land, she blew the sea onto the land, which is know as a storm surge, which caused devestating flash floods across the gulf coast. This sea surge was 8 metres deep!
The damage caused by Katrina was so devestating, that not all of it has even been rebuilt today, 8 years later. the people who were effected by Katrina had to evacuate thier home towns, leaving all their belongings behind to be engulfed by the hurricane. |
|