The Great Storm of 1975

Malachi Hinds

                       The Great Storm of 1975

This storm occurred from January 9th-12th 1975. It is also known as  “The Storm of the Century.”
In other parts of the country, it was called, “Super Bowl Blizzard,” (Vikings were playing Pittsburgh Steelers in New Orleans) or “The Great Storm of 1975.”The storm system originated over the Pacific Ocean on January 8. It crossed the Rocky Mountains and collided with both arctic air from Canada and warm tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico. Resulted in record low barometric pressure readings in the Midwest. This low-pressure system resulted in 42 tornadoes (Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Indiana, Illinois, North Carolina, and Mississippi). Simultaneously,a powerful snowstorm gripped much of the Midwest
The storm also brought wind gusts of up to 90 mph and producing snowdrifts up to 20 feet high. The storm resulted in major damage to mainly Alabama and Mississippi. The storm costed a total of $63 million.

Hurricane Matthew and Haiti

Hurricane Matthew was known as the third most powerful storm to hit U.S main land. But the real destruction happen in the Caribbean and especially Haiti. When Matthew first formed it was a category 5 but weakened to a category 4 when it hit Haiti. Even though it was a category 4 it still did massive damage. The storm hit east to southeast of Haiti. The winds of this storm went up to 140 MPH and the rain fall was 20 to 40 inches. The winds and water caused flooding, mudslides and great damage to structures  such as main roads. After the storm 175,000 people needed to take shelter in refuge. Matthew affected 2.1 million people which is 20% of the population and the total cost of damage was $2.1 billion dollars.

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The Great 1993 Flood

         The Great Flood of 1993 was put down as one of the most dangerous floods to have hit the United States. Having hit 9 states and lasting for 6 months the flood had left a total of $15 billion dolllars worth of damage. The flood had started back in 1992 with an abnormal amounts of rain in the Fall followed by high amounts to snow in the Winter. Then once the Spring had come and melted all the left over snow away, it left the groumd saturated and highly prone for flooding. Followed by thunderstorms in repeated areas during the timenof summer in 1993. This led to high amounts of rain showers that led to the flood of the Mississippi river. With some cites reciving 12+ inches of rain and led to the failure of numerous levees and left transportations outnof service for months to come.  Soon after the flooding had past new laws and regulations had been made to lower the property damage cost and lessen the chances of another event happening like this again .

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Katrina formed about 200 miles southeast of the Bahamas as a tropical depression. A band of storm clouds wrapped around the north side of the storm creating winds about 40 mph, turning it into a tropical storm. It hit Florida as a Category 1 hurricane and although it caused some flooding and casualties during its first hit, Katrina appeared to be just another hurricane in a hurricane season. It weakened after it hit Florida, but strengthened over the water in the Gulf of Mexico and re-intensified into a Category Five storm. As hurricane Katrina hit Mississippi with a large storm surge of about 28 feet it punished coastal areas in Mississippi and in Louisiana. An estimated 80% of New Orleans was left underwater and all the levees built by the U.S Army corps were destroyed.  The hurricane was so devastating that it required rescue missions from the national guards and other military units and left thousands of people homeless. Hurricane Katrina caused $81 billion in property damages, but it is estimated that the total impact in Louisiana and Mississippi may have exceeded $150 billion. The final death toll was 1,836 and almost 1,600 of these deaths were in Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina affected over 15 million people in different ways, from having to evacuate their homes, rising gas prices, and the economy suffering. In New Orleans, there are almost twice as many restaurants and shops open than there were before Katrina hit, but on the other hand, the police force is still about 25% smaller than it was the week before Katrina hit. So overall cities like New Orleans are trying their best to get back to where they were but its gonna take a lot of work.