Hurricane ~ Krithika ~ Day 3

Hey Sarah!

I SURVIVED IT!!! I survived the storm! The storm was a disaster. Nobody expected it to come out this dangerous. It has been a week since the storm ended and most of New Orleans is under sea level. That idea just scares me. The first floor of our house is foot deep full of water. The roof on top of the garage has blown off, but lucky nothing happened to the 3 cars that were parked inside.

I literally went into shock when I was watching the news. Our side of New Orleans faced nothing compared to what happened near the Gulf. The estimated death toll is 1200 people. We had no power until yesterday and we couldn't get out of the house. Good thing that we were prepared though, my aunt has experience with hurricanes, so she was prepared with all the food and supplies we needed throughout the hurricane and after. Tens of thousands of people evacuated. Most of them came back to see that their houses and belongings are no longer standing. All those people are homeless. Everyone is trying to help those homeless but there are so many that it is becoming impossible to help everyone.

Hurricane Katrina impacted the environment really badly. It was the worst. There has been a lot of oil spills near the gulf and it is contaminating the flood water, which is seeping slowly into the groundwater, which people use to drink. Thats why the meteorologists are telling us not to use tap water. Oil spills are not the only problem, pesticides, heavy metal, and other toxic chemicals are making their way into the groundwater. The flood water is made up of billions of gallons of sea water. 80% of New Orleans is flooding. Flooding was not the only environmental impact, trees fell everywhere due to the wind, cutting of the electricity wires. That is not good because for some places it is going to take weeks to replace those wires.

The damage that this hurricane caused is going to take years to fix, and a lot of money. A lot of people lost their jobs because their work places got destroyed. More than 200,000 homes got destroyed, only in the New Orleans. It is going to take a lot of money to rebuild all those houses. Most importantly the oil productions and refining operations in New Orleans shut down. Also the Port of New Orleans is badly damaged which disturbed the shipping industry. They are losing a lot of money. This hurricane really is effecting the economy.

What I described to you right now is just in New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina also hit a lot of another states, and much more damage has been done. Don't worry about me Sarah, I'm doing fine right now. I'm coming home sooner that I am supposed to so see you then. If you want to see more damage of hurricane katrina, click here.

~Krithika~