Hurricane Katrina a natural disaster; was the biggest destructive
and costliest cyclone ever to have hit United States. It hit New
Orleans, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005. Other areas which were
affected by Hurricane Katrina were South Florida, Bahamas,
Louisiana, Alabama, Florida Panhandle Mississippi, and most of
eastern North America. It was actually the worst experience of
natural disasters and according to the US estimates, the death
estimation toll was in the several thousands and the damage cost
estimation was more than $200 billion.
The hurricane starts from the tropic areas in the warm seas, where
heated air expands and rises. It created an area of low pressure,
because of this low pressure, the surrounding air moves in that area
which is made to spin due to continuous earth's rotation.
In hurricane Katrina, the storm started from Bahamas and made its
way to Miami and south of Florida. Afterwards, it strengthened and
then turned into the biggest hurricane before hitting the Florida
coast. It hit with the wind speeds of 100-165mph and flooded most of
New Orleans.
This is the terrible situation of natural disaster, when we see the
damages we find them extremely high in amount. A damage that is not
immediate in its effect but bothersome is post Hurricane Katrina
salinity. The tidal surges in hurricane deposited a huge amount of
salt all over the coastal areas of Louisiana. Rice and Sugarcane
were hit hard, particularly. In case of fresh water flood the land
is easily able to recover from the bad effects, a lot better than
the sea water. Now in case of Hurricane Katrina salinity, it was
extremely problematic to get rid of soil salinization.
Excessive salt amount in the plants destroyed the vegetative plants.
This is the huge problem in terms of plants’ regrowth. Now the soil
is enormously soaked with water and did not allow the growth of
plants. This salinity continued till a few years later. It was
reported Hurricane Katrina salinity is six to eight time more than
the normal. All these areas which had affected by salinity had
excellent yield in past.
In truth speaking, in Hurricane Katrina, salinity is the worst
factor which prevents a quick return to landscaping as normal.
Because of the high flood it took a long time for the rain and other
type of artificial irrigation to clear the salt from the soil.
It was looking impossible but proper strategies and efforts made it
possible to get rid of Hurricane Katrina salinity.
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