Katrina's victims tended to be low income and African American in disproportionate numbers, and many of those who lost their homes faced years of hardship.
#Lost in the storm reading level series
The devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed a series of deep-rooted problems, including controversies over the federal government's response, difficulties in search-and-rescue efforts, and lack of preparedness for the storm, particularly with regard to the city's aging series of levees-50 of which failed during the storm, significantly flooding the low-lying city and causing much of the damage. An estimated 1,200 people died as a direct result of the storm, which also cost an estimated $108 billion in property damage, making it the costliest storm on record. Because of the ensuing destruction and loss of life, the storm is often considered one of the worst in U.S. It hit land as a Category 3 storm with winds reaching speeds as high as 120 miles per hour. “Even under the most extreme scenarios of climate change, future disasters will look a lot like today’s.Hurricane Katrina made landfall off the coast of Louisiana on August 29, 2005. “If you read IPCC reports, there’s no hint that we will be overwhelmed and incapable of responding,” says Pielke. Neither the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) nor any other reputable scientific body predicts a reversal in the long-term trend of declining deaths, even if temperatures rise another three degrees or more. Fifty years ago, it would have killed thousands.”Ī cyclone in Bangladesh killed 135,000 people in 1991 while another in 1970 killed 300,000.Īnd the 90% decline in deaths over the last century occurred during a period when the global population nearly quadrupled, and the global temperature rose 1.3 degrees centigrade. “Look at Cyclone Ampham in India and Bangladesh earlier this year,” said Pielke.
Over the last four decades, poor nations like Bangladesh have reduced death tolls by over 90% thanks to simple measures like cyclone warning systems and storm shelters. “If we build well, in the right places, and have good warning systems, and good disaster response policies, such as evacuations, we can continue to do well, even with much stronger events,” he added. “One of the things that’s well-understood in the natural disaster community is that how we prepare is the most important factor in the disaster we experience,” said Pielke, who is also a Forbes contributor. Roger Pielke, Jr.īut can those declines in disaster deaths continue as the climate changes? Hurricanes aren’t increasing in frequency. In that decade, 5.4 million people died from natural disasters. There has been 92% decline in the decadal death toll from natural disasters since its peak in the 1920s, according to the International Disaster Database. In other words, hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters aren’t getting worse.
In a new review of 54 studies over the last 22 years, and published in the field’s leading scientific journal, Pielke finds “little evidence to support claims that any part of the overall increase in global economic losses documented on climate time scales is attributable to human-caused changes in climate.”
It’s huge and can’t be overstated.”īut aren’t natural disasters becoming more expensive? They are, but that’s because we are so much richer, not because hurricanes and floods are so much more severe. “One of the greatest successes of turning science into policy is reducing deaths from disasters,” said Roger Pielke, a University of Colorado professor and leading expert on climate change and disasters.
0 kommentar(er)
