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BY THE NUMBERS – HURRICANE KATRINA, GULF COAST WETLANDS AND POLLUTION WETLANDS 16,000 - Acres per year of Louisiana's 3 million acres of wetlands lost between 1990 and 2000, one football field every 38 minutes [1] 60,000 - Acres of wetlands in the U.S. destroyed and developed each year. [2] 2 - Number of feet, on average, that the Mississippi Delta has sunk over the past 60 years. [3] 3.2 - Additional number of feet the area will have dropped by 2100. [4] 40 - Percentage of the total wetlands in the continental United States that are in Louisiana [5] 80 - Percentage of the wetlands losses in the continental United States that occur in Louisiana[6] 1 - Square mile of wetlands needed to reduce the height of a storm surge by one foot [7]
SUPERFUND SITES IN HURRICANE KATRINA’S PATH 15 - Number of Superfund toxic waste sites in the affected area of Louisiana 6 - Number of Superfund toxic waste sites in the affected area of Alabama 3 - Number of Superfund toxic waste sites in the affected area of Mississippi [8]
NEW ORLEANS WASTE 37,550 - Number of household hazardous waste containers that the EPA had collected in the affected area as of September 22. [9] 8,000,000 - Gallons of oil spilled in southeast Louisiana during and after Hurricane Katrina.[10] 22 million - Tons of hurricane debris in New Orleans. 3.5 million - Number of large dump trucks that would be required to haul hurricane debris from southeastern Louisiana. [11]
LEVEE BREACH June 2002 - The New Orleans Times Picayune publishes story about study indicating high levels of flooding in New Orleans if "the big one" hit - category 4 or 5. One researcher said that one scenario is a levee breach. [12] July 2004 - FEMA runs drill called "Hurricane Pam" - in this fictional hurricane, storm surges top the levees September 1, 2005 - President Bush says, "I don't think anyone anticipated breach of the levees" on ABC's Good Morning America.
Sources: [1] http://www.americaswetland.com/custompage.cfm?pageid=2&cid=8 & http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/LAwetlands/lawetlands.html [2] USFWS. Report to Congress on the Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States 1986 to 1997. Dahl, 2000. [3] http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/ [4] ibid [5] http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/LAwetlands/lawetlands.html). [6] ibid [7] http://www.lacoast.gov/education/functions.htm [8] U.S.EPA, Hurricane Rita Response, September 28, 2005 [11] Ellen Wulfhorst, “Storm Hit New Orleans Faces Mountains of Garbage,” Reuters News Service, September 29, 2005 http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/32725/story.htm [12] http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/ |
