Hurricane Katrina came to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. A category 5 hurricane lasting for 33 days, Katrina first made landfall on August 23, 2005, between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With winds varying from 70-170 miles per hour. With very little warning, more than 1,800 lives were taken due to winds and flooding. The mass hysteria of panicking families trying to get to safety and the low income families who are looking for a new place to live relates to the sudden and home wrecking witchcraft trials in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
The beginning of this hurricane was completely innocent. Maintaining a category of 1 with winds starting at 74 miles per hour. It first made landfall between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There were reports of 5 inches of rain in some areas pertaining to the Florida peninsula. 5 inches of rain is enough rain to fill up the streets of a small city. Katrina spent less than eight hours over land. It then continued to move to warmer waters. The next sighting of the hurricane was over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The colossal hurricane remained over the Gulf of Mexico for about 4 days before returning its attention back to land. The beginning of this Monstrous hurricane was merely innocent not enough to cause major damage. Which relates a lot to the beginning of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible in the witchcraft trials pertaining to how Abigail and the girls were merely doing something innocent. They couldn’t really think that all the potions and chanting was going to work, they just hoped it did. No one knew anything, it was completely innocent at first. Or so we thought.
4 days later on August 27th, Hurricane Katrina became a category 3. A category 3 is considered a major hurricane because of their potential for significant loss of life and damage which consist of winds that range from 111 to 129 mph. Now having a circulation that covers virtually the entire Gulf of Mexico. By the following afternoon, what we know now as Hurricane Katrina became one of the most powerful Atlantic storms on record. Which means winds now consisting of 170 miles per hour. With a wind speed of 170 miles per hour is enough power to take out houses and pull trees right out of the rooted ground. Showing how powerful and impactful this hurricane is just relating awfully to Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. In The Crucible we have these girls that are controlling everything. They are the real reason as why innocent people are losing their lives. These witch trials in our history show just how impactful this was on the family in that time and in our history.
The hurricane never changed direction until the 6th day, August 29th. On this day Katrina was stable at a category 4. The hurricane now changing direction towards Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Then continuing Northeast, crossing the Mississippi Sound. Once passing those areas it made a second landfall near the Pearl River. Creating a storm surge more than 26 feet high. Which is the highest storm surge ever recorded on the U.S. Coast. This slammed into the coastal cities of Gulfport and Biloxi, Mississippi. This second monstrous landfall destroyed homes and resorts along the beachfront of the coast. Katrina weakened to a tropical storm Monday evening, northwest of Meridian, Mississippi. The hurricane continued to move northward across Far Eastern Mississippi overnight, then into Tennessee Tuesday morning. Katrina finally lost its tropical characteristics as it merged with a cold front over Northern Pennsylvania on August 31st, 2005. The way this storm changes direction, speeds up and dies down, just going in a whole bunch of different ways relates to Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible in how the trials with the girls would just be going along smoothly then people would start accusing innocent people and the speed of the story would go faster with more damage and drama.
During this vigorous hurricane something unexpected happened. The levee system that held back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne had been completely overwhelmed by 10 inches of rain and Katrina’s storm surge. While New Orleans missed a bullet with the intense winds they did in fact get hit by the extreme flooding. The first areas to flood were areas east of the Industrial Canal. It didn’t take long for Katrina to make its mark, by the afternoon, some 20 percent of the city was underwater. As we know Katrina produced the highest storm surge ever recorded on the U.S. coast, with a surge of 27.8 feet, taking place at Pass Christian, Mississippi. This created a 20 mile stretch over the Mississippi Coast. Fully 90 miles of coast from eastern Louisiana to Alabama received a storm surge characteristic of a category 3 hurricane, even if the hurricane wasn’t close.
The mandatory evacuation was ordered on August 28th by the New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin. This evacuation plan included people with mobile transportation, head north and people who had no mobile transportation to get out, there would be city busses to pick them up. With this evacuation, an estimated 1.2 million people left. While tens of thousands of residents could not or would not leave. They either remained in their homes or sought shelter. Many of the shelters include The New Orleans Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome. The remaining residents were faced with a city that by August 30th would be 80 percent underwater. With no relief in sight and the absence of any organized effort to restore order, some neighborhoods experienced looting. “People are just casually walking in and filling up garbage bags and walking off like they’re Santa Claus.” (Desi; Devastation. Heartbreak, and Pleas for Help, NBC). By September 1st about 30,000 people were still seeking shelter under the Superdome while an additional 25,000 took shelter at the convention center. This especially relates to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in how there was absolutely no relief in sight for these accused people. There was no kind of effort to restore the order in Salem. These people were in this alone.
All these people had to leave their homes and their most prized possessions when Katrina hit. With this sudden storm these families were left with no home to go back to. Many people lost loved ones due to this prolonged disaster. Relating to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in how many families lost loved ones due to the unfair Salem Witch Trials. Many people spoke up on what Hurricane Katrina was like. “It’s like being in a third world country, trying to work without power. Everyone knows we're all in this together, we’re just trying to stay alive.” (Handrich; Devastation, Heartbreak and Pleas for Help, NBC). What this person experienced relates to The Crucible in how Abigail and all the girls started to wrongly accuse people of being witches. While the people being accused had to stick together, Abigail and the girls also had to stick together to survive this, as said in the text. During Katrina, more than 1,800 people lost their lives. Most people lost their lives due to flooding and debris being dropped on top of them. Left more than 800,000 housing units destroyed leaving many families homeless.
Katrina caused a lot more bumps in the road for the residents of New Orleans, with the levee systems broke, an absence of basic sanitation combined with the bacteria of the rich floodwaters created a public health emergency. Finally on September 2nd, crews began to rebuild the levees as well as the evacuation of hurricane victims continued. Dozen of countries contributed to the funds and supplies to help with the clean up and rebuilding of the city, New Orleans. Canada and Mexican deployed troops to assist with the cleanup and rebuilding. U.S. Army engineers pumped the last of the floodwaters out of the city on October 11th. Many people reported seeing bodies lying in the city streets floating around. Many of the dead were left in the water or sun for days, hindering efforts by Coroner’s to identify the bodies. Some deaths weren’t due to the hurricane but to drug overdose, suicide, and also believed homicide. The storm caused more than $160 billion in damage. The population of New Orleans fell by 29 percent between the fall of 2005 and 2011. After the passing of Hurricane Katrina, Congress passed an act to reorganize FEMA. The Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act offers grants to help cities revise evacuation plans. Provisions for better communication with non-English speaking people and those with disabilities and recognizes the evacuation needs of people with pets.
Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster causing mass Hysteria roughly among twelve million fifty-three thousand people. Relating to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in many ways causing mass hysteria in 1953 Salem, Massachusetts.