In his book The Storm. (2006), Ivor van Heerden wrote about Hurricane Katrina. In doing so he offered an opening dedication that read “…to those who lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina and to their families…for the first responders, who unselfishly did their best against the odds to save lives…” and “…to disaster researchers everywhere, who follow their passion even under duress and never lose sight of the ball” (van Heerden, 2006, Dedication Page).
Many argue that Hurricane Katrina was a “man-made disaster and” not “natural.” The hurricane was natural, they say, but the failure of the levees was a man-made disaster.
“It was a natural disaster—but magnified enormously by the government’s crushing incompetence in both preparation and response. The storm leveled the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but man-made problems destroyed New Orleans. The catastrophic flooding there should never have happened. Properly designed and constructed levees would have protected the city. Instead, they collapsed. Never in American history has a natural disaster been magnified so disastrously by the systemic failure of our government to protect and serve the people. The result is the national tragedy known forevermore as simply Katrina”.
Perhaps then, in terms of the economics of disaster, it is impossible to separate the two — man-maid enablers from natural hazardous events that culminate in expanded disastrous outcomes.
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