Hurricane Katrina

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Hurricane Katrina

Article Summary

John Schwartz and Mark Schleifstein wrote an article with the title “Fortified but still in Peril, New Orleans Braces for its Future”. He published this article on 24 February 2018 and this article was published by "The New York Times". In this article, the authors are pointing towards the disasters occurred because of Hurricane Katrina starting by quoting the statement of Burnell Cotlon who like many others have lost their everything due to the hurricame. In this article, they are talking about the infrastructure and the arrangements done by the authorities. The government has spent billion dollars for securing New Orleans from the effects. The authors don’t look so optimist about the protection that is made against the floods as the Army Corps of Engineers claimed that they are not sure how long it is going to protect the city. Another major issue that has been highlighted in this article is that authorities are claiming that there are other cities as well that needed protection against flood.

Background Information

This article was on the Hurricane Katarina in 2005 that hit the United States leading to many of its states being affected badly. Local and the federal governments tried their best to repair the damages but it is so costly that they have to prioritise which cities or damages that they have to deal first. Sufficient measures were taken and protection plans were made for repairing the damages of Hurricane Katrina. This is article is of great interest as Hurricanes have become one of the most threatening calamity that cause great destruction in the USA. This article was written to aware the public about the expenses and provide information regarding how long the new protection barrier would protect the masses from the Hurricanes. In educational institutes, teachers would be targeted as the primary audience so that they could educate the youth about the preventive measures and efforts that have been put by the authorities as well as the Army Corps Engineers. John Schwartz is the scientific writer of New York Times, mainly concerned with the climatic changes. He has been writing in the New York Times since 2000. He has studied Technology, law, infrastructure, space program and more. Talking about Mark Schleifstein he is the environmental reporter of NOLA.com.

Critique

Both the authors have mentioned the main useful points that would lead people not only in New Orleans but also in other parts of the USA. This article contains all the facts and figures that were proposed by the Army Corps Engineers. Though they are presenting the facts, one of the main things that they forgot to mention in this article is that the last Hurricane protection was built before 50 years. When the previous hurricane barrier failed to protect the people, it caused the loss of 1400 lives, so the authors should have given more attention towards this fact rather than focusing on the claims of the Army Corps rgarding the current protection put into place. There are various points given by both the writes but one of the main views i agree presented in this article is that there are many other small towns that are looking towards the authorities for salvation but the sole focus and expenditure is done on New Orleans is a little unfair with the other vulnerable little towns i.e. Jean Lafitte.

Response to the article

Though being experienced both the authors have given much of the details that I agree with but one view presented in this article that i find little strange for me is that there is a contradiction between two claims. First, it says that the new protection system will deal with a 100-year flood but on the other hand, the authors are making the new protection system suspicious when they highlight the point that it is New Orleans’s 300th birthday, but not sure whether it will celebrate its 400th or not.

Support for research paper

This article is going to help me when I will be making a report on how the authorities are dealing with and repairing the damaged infrastructure of New Orleans. I would also get a lot of important information and data for filling my project about the infrastructure that has been repaired by the government affect Hurricane Katrina hit the United States. I will use this article for getting the numerical details that I will be using in my report.

Work Cited

Schwartz, John, and Mark Schleifstein, "Fortified But Still In Peril, New Orleans Braces For Its Future", Nytimes.Com, 2019

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/02/24/us/new-orleans-flood-walls-hurricanes.html