Loss of Life Caused by the Flooding of New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina: Analysis of the Relationship Between Flood Characteristics and Mortality

Abstract

In this article a preliminary analysis of the loss of life caused by Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans metropolitan area is presented. The hurricane caused more than 1,100 fatalities in the state of Louisiana. A preliminary data set that gives information on the recovery locations and individual characteristics for 771 fatalities has been analyzed. One-third of the analyzed fatalities occurred outside the flooded areas or in hospitals and shelters in the flooded area. These fatalities were due to the adverse public health situation that developed after the floods. Two-thirds of the analyzed fatalities were most likely associated with the direct physical impacts of the flood and mostly caused by drowning. The majority of victims were elderly: nearly 60% of fatalities were over 65 years old. Similar to historical flood events, mortality rates were highest in areas near severe breaches and in areas with large water depths. An empirical relationship has been derived between the water depth and mortality and this has been compared with similar mortality functions proposed based on data for other flood events. The overall mortality among the exposed population for this event was approximately 1%, which is similar to findings for historical flood events. Despite the fact that the presented results are preliminary they give important insights into the determinants of loss of life and the relationship between mortality and flood characteristics.

Complete Self-Sufficiency Planning

“…(Brunkard et al 2008, Jonkman et al 2009). The latest NHC estimate is that Katrina was directly responsible for about 1200 deaths and it remains the third deadliest hurricane to strike the United States.…”

Reuse Choice, Flood Risk and Resilience, and Characteristics of Counties with Brownfield Cleanups

“…Structural factors include population density, built environment investments or policies that sustain disproportionate exposures to hazards in low-income and minority communities or that reinforce flood-hazard vulnerability from inadequate flood management [11][12][13][14]. Brownfield cleanup and revitalization at a neighborhood scale can contribute to resilient revitalization (land-use planning, population density and development, infrastructure investment, etc.).…”

Risk to life due to flooding in post-Katrina New Orleans

“…In addition to the mortality rate, the evacuation rate F E must be assumed for calculating the loss of life. During Katrina, evacuation out of the city was estimated to be about 80 % and about 10 % of the population stayed in shelters such as the Superdome (Jonkman et al, 2009b;Wolshon, 2006). Hurricane Gustav occurred 3 years after Katrina and necessitated large-scale evacuation of New Orleans and adjacent coastal regions.…”

“…Local mortality is dependent on local flood conditions and flood severity, and can thus also be represented as a value for a certain location (x, y) and scenario. The mortality functions applied in this study have been derived based on the observations of Hurricane Katrina (Maaskant, 2007;Jonkman et al, 2009b). For the metro bowl, two zones of flood characteristics have been distinguished, the breach zone and the remaining zone, which correspond to two mortality functions: Breach zone :…”

“…The surge caused by the storm overwhelmed the existing flood protection of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, leading to one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Catastrophic flooding throughout the city led to economic losses of more than 20 billion dollars, and over 1100 people lost their lives in the state of Louisiana, many in the flooded area of New Orleans (Jonkman et al, 2009b). In the wake of the event, the US government committed to provide New Orleans flood protection from a hurricane with a 1/100 per year exceedance frequency, and since then, massive effort, resources and expertise have been employed to do so.…”