New Orleans: A Major Port City
New Orleans is a major port in the United States with a large coverage of the metropolitan area in Louisiana State thus being the capital. The city has a population of 343,829 which is according to the census conducted in 2010 while the entire metropolitan region of New Orleans has a population of 1,167,800 thus being considered the 46th
largest area in United States(Klijn, 2013).
The area is combined with Bogalusa and Metaire to form a larger statistical area with a bigger population and an ample trading area. Oreans Parish was once a popular region which was ranked the third most preferred center compared to neighbouring trails of East Baton Rouge as well as the Jefferson Parish but was highly affected by Katrina Hurricane which occurred in 2015.
The Distinct Spanish and French Creole Heritage
The city is well recognized due to the distinct Spanish together with French Creole architecture in addition to a multilingual heritage characterized by cross culture that includes the jazz music, cuisine and the Mardi gras annual festivals. New Orleans region was established in May 7th 1718 by French Mississipe firm that worked under Jean-Baptiste’s direction in the land initially occupied by Chitimacha(Klijn, 2013). Its name was initiated by Philippe II who used to be the Duke of Orlean working as a Regent from the France Kingdom. The region is located on a marsh with a half of the current city sitting below the sea level. The Mississipi River, Lake Borgne located on the eastern side as well as Lake Pontchartrain surround the region thus making it vulnerable to flooding disasters.
Flooding and Funding Challenges
The residents of the New Orleans had raised alarm to the state government due to the low level of the city which had an ineffective flood control plan. The federal authority had cut the public funding which had a large coverage in local representatives as well as the media since many projects in the area had been left undone(Klijn, 2013). In addition, there were disagreements among the authorities in New Orlean whereby some argued that funding would help address the challenges while other did not find the preparedness incase of disaster as a crucial issue.
Inadequate Levee System
According to researches conducted by various scholars in New Orlean region, they raised concerns about the emergency management since the levee system in the city was designed to endure category three hurricanes which are small compared to the Katrina disaster that occurred recently. Moreover, the scholars’ challenged the low protection level which received low fundings from the federal authority(Klijn, 2013). A superior project manager working with the Engineering Corps in the region identified the cutting of budgetary allocations to cater for the important levee project as a challenge towards disaster preparedness.
The Failure of Flood Walls
The city had prepared for disasters through the corps who contributed in the construction of flood walls which had already been completed and did not require readdressing. In the Corps point of view, the flood walls would effectively shield the residents from hurricane diasters since they had been properly constructed having an efficient elevation that would survive incase of a storm. Unfortunately, the Katrina Hurricane was larger than the anticipated storm since it is categorized as group five storms(Klijn, 2013). Engineers had noted the challenge before the event took place and had proposed for a construction of a system that would withstand storms such as the Katrina. The Corps Engineering department did a challenge in the construction of flood wars whereby the federal government refused to allocate enough funds to cter for the disaster since they did not expect a category five disaster to take place in the near future.
References
Klijn, F. (Ed.). (2013). Comprehensive flood risk management: research for policy and practice. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
