Geography 2152F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Flood Wall, Windbreak
7 Dec 2017
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Document Summary
Katrina formed from a tropical wave that had moved off the west coast of africa and then developed into a tropical depression. When the rush of air hits the stratosphere, it flattens out and the storm starts turning counter clockwise. After hurricane betsy in 1965, the government set standards for the levees. Before the levees, when the mississippi river flooded the wetlands were strengthened and replenished. The wetlands protected new orleans against hurricane storm surges, soaking up the violent waters like a sponge, while stands of cypress trees acted as a windbreak. The wetlands began disappearing after the levees were built because the levees stopped the rivers from flooding which starved the wetlands of new soil and started disappearing at an alarming rate. The depleted wetlands are more vulnerable to the encroachment of saltwater from the gulf, which kills most freshwater plants. The workers used sandbags to repair the breaches in the levees.
