worst hurricane in us history

worst hurricane in us history

The Impact of the Worst Hurricane in US History: Lessons Learned and Future Preparedness

1. Introduction

She has transformed the relationships between Federal, State, and local governments, and the roles they should each play in disaster response, recovery, and mitigation. She hastened the retirement of at least one Federal official and prompted those who remained to re-evaluate FEMA’s post-9/11-homeland-security-oriented mission, refocusing it on natural disaster management and response. Hurricane Katrina has fostered re-evaluation of international policy concerning accepting foreign aid and expertise in responding to large disasters and crystallized the risk posed to the United States from global warming—whether or not it would directly lead to an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, storm surges, and floods. In a relatively insignificant event, she has led to re-evaluation of the risk of tornadoes following hurricanes and warnings about a new source of respiratory disease. Her taxonomic and physical attributes—Katrina’s status as the costliest, most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history, and a Category 3 hurricane at landfall—have now, for better or worse, placed her in a position of high regard—judged by the weight of the responsibilities and changes to be credited to her.

Six months have now passed since the worst of the onslaught by Hurricane Katrina—lasting little more than twenty-four hours, and the final days of flooding which followed. This storm, unlike the others which directly preceded her (Dennis and Rita), was ongoing in its history-breaking activities. The havoc Katrina wreaked was profound, extending far beyond the human suffering, as measured by displaced people, damaged homes, or lost jobs and businesses. In New Orleans, she undermined decades-long relationships, destroyed neighborhoods, and forced a constant re-thinking of urban construction codes and flood defenses. She disrupted the lives of residents and businesses throughout the United States from Texas to Canada, and from Maine to California—not to mention the Gulf of Mexico, where—due to her passage—oil and natural gas had stopped flowing.

2. Historical Overview of the Worst Hurricane in US History

From September 8 to September 25, 1900, the United States undertook a historic effort in disaster relief. Galveston, Texas, a city with a population of about 38,000 inhabitants, had to be evacuated, and most survivors were left without food and shelter. The impact of this hurricane was immediate and extensive. Not only were numerous businesses destroyed, but the entire infrastructure of the city was also totally obliterated: utilities, highways, public services, homes, and schools. This was not only a local problem requiring local relief, but also, due to the magnitude of the hurricane, a regional and national effort was mobilized. The limited options available to the city for volunteering relief efforts included the American Red Cross. Their work, which was mainly done in coordination with the U.S. Army Company G, did a lot in the fields of shelter construction, food relief, cleaning ditches, and delivering coffins and shrouds for the thousands of people that lost their lives. All over the country, relief contributions were channeled to aid hurricane victims. Many institutions contributed to the relief efforts. The U.S. House of Representatives also encouraged contributions to the relief efforts. The magnitude of destruction in Galveston was so large that the rest of the U.S. was willing to assist financially in this effort. This focus on the city and its inhabitants was mainly due to the lack of federal disaster relief at this time. News and photojournalism brought the extent of the destruction from a small, unknown Texan city to the front pages of the biggest newspapers and made this event known around the world. The total amount of financial contributions received from all around the U.S. was $567,890.90. The Texas Creamery Company raised $5,172.50 by charging consumers 25 cents more for milk bottles and donating all proceeds. The Bay City, Texas fire department raised $500 for the relief effort. In addition, the state of California also made a financial contribution in the amount of $100,000. Due to the fact that the state of Texas was already in debt, the governor agreed to the collection of toll fees from other cities in order to help start and finance the state bond. In the weeks in which the cleanup and construction efforts prevailed, the city recovered at an enormous speed.

At 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 8, 1900, a violent hurricane made landfall in Galveston, Texas. Strong gusts of wind reached speeds of 120 miles per hour. Heavy rain and high storm surges accompanied the hurricane. More than 8,000 people died and property damage was estimated at $30 million. The hurricane, known as the Great Storm of 1900 or the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history, was an unprecedented catastrophe that required massive relief and recovery efforts from local and national organizations and the rest of the country. Previous to this event, volunteer efforts for natural disasters were often sparse and uncoordinated, and nationally sponsored and funded relief and recovery efforts were nonexistent. In the wake of the Great Galveston Hurricane, the evidence of overwhelming and extensive suffering led the United States to reevaluate its disaster relief practices and initiate a new top-down policy of federally funded disaster relief.

3. Impacts and Aftermath

The immediate physical impact of Katrina was contained within New Orleans and a much smaller segment of the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coastlines. These impacts were relatively small when containing the great surge that Katrina generated. On the heavily developed Louisiana coast, effects of waves on a storm surge add to the pure “water unloading” effect and effectively created a several-mile-wide strip of devastation with a ferocity that is hard to describe, like little else we have experienced. This “freak wave” effect is apparent in such areas as the Bolivar Peninsula, the Camaron Beach, and the Pascagoula to Gulfport region for different storms. The effects of the water appear little in other areas until its forces are again contained upon impact with Earth’s solid surface. However, its rising elevation reveals dramatic impacts farther to the east.

Massive damage and enormous loss of life, along with many billions of dollars in property damage, sometimes obscure the fact that the most important effects of Katrina, as with other major weather or man-made disasters, are the impacts on the three “infrastructure” components personified by the three “Ps”: the physical; the psychological of those who have suffered from the stresses that the storm placed upon them, their families and friends; and the political aspects involving the nation’s largest engineering effort by far, the closing of New Orleans’ and Louisiana’s and the nation’s most strategic economic asset: the Mississippi River.

4. Lessons Learned and Improvements in Disaster Preparedness

The overarching conclusion is that if all lessons contained in these documents were drawn and implemented, the US disaster risk management system would improve in terms of increased disaster resilience, more adaptive societal responses, better individual and community education and behavior, more trust between the actors involved, a more effective division of responsibilities and correlative resources allocation, as well as a more successful implementation management. We are confident that such improvements will take place in the future. In this way, future disasters will open new rooms for learning and contribute to a system transformation into a “culture of disaster resilience”.

Hurricane Katrina, the worst hurricane in US history, revealed major shortcomings of US disaster preparedness and emergency response systems. This review is based on a comprehensive analysis of American National Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management core documents and represents a unique first assessment of this kind reported in public.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations for Future Resilience

Two contrasting views, commencing with immediate self-interest and personal grief, current consequences and responsibility dominate discussion. The first approach argues that those existing today should not bear responsibility for past actions or inactions. The wayward nature hypothesis and forecast errors appearing in the public comments of some meteorologists and others advocate a similar laissez-faire approach; indeed, one leading hurricane expert in a readily available published report has discussed governing authorities, including developing nations and climatologists, as though these entities existed outside of contemporary political structures. I was personally present while these discussions took place during International Geophysics Year, a 1982 group report (issued 6 years after the hurricane). Scientists suggested that on the one hand, the public would need to be persuaded to take specific actions and remained politically naive on environmental matters. On this view, policymakers cannot change mother nature! They argue that nature holds prevailing authority for actions and inactions in Galveston, that humans must adjust to their environment, and that since other human actions could negate their efforts, no funds should be expended to reduce observed natural threats.

Weather events can change the course of a nation and demonstrate the high stakes involved in the nation’s reliance on the natural environment for its many activities. The Galveston hurricane of 1900 is a particularly salient example of the major role that the natural environment can play in shifting the course of history. Noting that the geography of Galveston itself has contributed to both the substantial improvement in hurricane forecasting and natural disaster preparedness, the strategies employed in the past can provide guidance for society’s current and future at-risk locations. In this history of Galveston’s 1900 hurricane, connections linking humans with nature are interwoven, the natural and social sciences weave the story, environmental forces guide human responses, and humans and human response in turn modify the natural forces.