The purpose of this research will be to understand how did the breaking of the levees effect the city of New Orleans. This research is important because there were thousands of victims who were displaced from their homes and forced to deal with a new reality. The main reason families were displaced from their homes was because the water levels had reached 10 feet in most areas. The reason the city collected so much water was because the levee walls came down due to protecting the richer side of the city.  The paper will present the many reasons as to why the city decided to the levee walls fail and the impact this had on the residents of New Orleans. Even though this traumatic event occurred 12 years ago it is still affecting people in New Orleans in many ways till this day. One of the ways that Hurricane Katrina still impacts people in the city is that another storm is possible to come in the future. People saw their homes, businesses and neighborhoods completely destroyed and were forced in many situations to leave the city and start new lives in other places. Many people are still affected by the situation because many people have lost friends and family who were displaced from the city. It affected people emotionally especially young children seeing all the dead bodies and painted Xs on houses to let others know how many people who were trapped inside their homes and died. This paper will help t expand what s understood about the impacts of the storm and how many people are still dealing with the trauma. All residents of New Orleans could use the research to better understand what happened to cause all the flooding during the storm. City officials could also use this information to educate themselves if this horror happens again. Also people that repaired and operated the levees could find useful information in the research to help improve the levees.

The breaking of the levees effected the city of New Orleans in many ways.  Not only did it mess up homes and destroy the city but it caused many long term mental health issues among the citizens of New Orleans that still affect them today.  The trauma began as soon as the city started flooding.  The anxiety associated with the stressful, situation of not having a way out of the city and nowhere to go after the storm were the first steps to the mental health crisis.  The majority of those effected were poor African Americans because those are the ones that the government did not protect the people and they were the most vulnerable.  People deal with stress and disasters in different ways and it is important to use research to understand how to help the individuals with long lasting effects of this disaster. The anxiety they had during the storm from not knowing if their family and friends were safe as well as losing all of their personal belongings played a huge factor in their mental health issues.  

Today, the storm is over and the city has been repaired, but the effects of this storm will forever play a part in their mental state.  The images that will always be are constant reminders to the victims and the traumatic experiences they suffered.  They also live with the fear for the rest of their lives that this type of natural disaster could happen again and this leads to more anxiety and a decline in their mental health. Taking into consideration the massive trauma that happened as a result of Hurricane Katrina mental health has now become a more significant issue when dealing with disasters. Thus mental health should be seen as a necessary element to the recovery process and not be separate from the rebuilding process after a disaster as to insure that people receive proper treatment after a disaster 

 Hurricane Katrina had many impacts on the city of New Orleans social, political and culture impacts resulted but one of the most forgotten impacts is that of mental health. According to Kip Thompson, author of the book Socio-cultural differences in coping from stressful events as a result of Hurricane Katrina, he states facts about Hurricane Katrina before, during and after the storm. The book also mentions mental health or bad trauma from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The disaster left the city in a complete mess leaving some families spaced out and some did not make it back to their families due to death. “Stress impacts people in different ways, especially based on the culture of the individual” (32). The overall message the author is trying to appeal to the audience is that traumatic events can cause mental disorder as well some PTSD, which is usually not considered an issues after a disaster. Most people are concerned with homes, food, and water, but mental health is just as important. Dass-Brailsford and Tomalley stated additional facts about mental health after a traumatic event as it pertains to victims of a disaster.  Most of the facts presented in the research are aimed at families after disasters and traumatic events, pointing out the mental conditions that people experience after a disaster. These researchers investigated secondary trauma affects among a group of mental health volunteers as well as those who experienced the disaster first hand. The researchers gained enough information on the aftermath of the storm to help with the research. The authors explain many facts and reasons on victims who went through this traumatic event as a way to understand a disaster’s impact on people. They found that the volunteers also experencince trauma from being in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina but also compassion satisfaction which outweighed any trauma effects. The two sources are very similar and remind me of the storm and how my family had to evacuate and the mental trauma that was caused because of the event. 

Hurricane Katrina brought upon huge a catastrophic event that left nearly half the city destroyed and with hundreds dead or lost, families were left stranded and separated from each other creating chaos. When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on Aug 29, 2005 and shocked the whole city due to the devastating power of the storm, most people were not prepared for the disaster and what was going to happen in the aftermath of the storm. After a disaster, like Hurricane Katrina in 2007, there is always major clean-up and restoration of a city. However, it must be recognized that after the storm hit and the levees broke, those that were unable to get out of the city were left without help or government aid for several days. The New York Times, The Washington post as well as CNN, ABC and NBC covered the disaster as the poorest residents of New Orleans were left without food, water or any governmental organization to handle the relief effort. Bloated bodies were seen floating in water that flooded the city and images of the devastation that not only the residents saw daily until help arrived, but as the nation watched on the news as the city of New Orleans went through one of the worst disasters ever, the people were overwhelmingly shocked and disturbed. 

After the disaster took place the government begin to try to help rebuild the city the immediate focus is on that of housing, food, water and the replacements of items lost in the disaster. Most people do not think what the issue of mental health after a major disaster, because the focus is usually on replacing those items that were lost. However, when a person experiences a disaster, whether it is a flood, earthquake, plane crash or tornado, the mind of a person is severely impacted in several ways. The American Psychological Association defies trauma as a set of reactions to a specific event, like a major disaster, but it is better to look at the symptoms of a person rather than the responses to specific event. The most common response to a disaster is known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and while it is most often associated with people returning from time spent in the military, psycholists are finding that PTSD is not common for those that have experienced a major disaster, like Hurricane Katrina. 

The American Psychological Association argues that PTSD can be seen in many different ways. After a major disaster people often question how they got into this situation or why have they been signaled at for disaster, and these feelings of loss and despair can lead a person to become emotionally unstable, have dramatic flashbacks about the event itself, be unable to sleep and also be impacted in his or her ability to connect with others, reason or be social as they may have been before the disaster. Additionally, such natural disasters also impact a wide range of people; in the case of Hurricane Katrina literally thousands of people had experienced trauma on a huge scale, creating different responses in each person. Given the amount of people impacted and the scale of the disaster, the government should make mental health a priority when it comes to recovery because of the huge impacts that it has on the people who survived the disaster both now and in the future.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder impacts a person in many different ways. But medical professionals and psychologists have seen the impact of PTSD impacting a few main areas such as mental health, physical health, work and relationships. Many studies show that a person who has PTSD is more likely to develop an additional mental disorder on top of the one he or she may be currently experience. Anxiety disorders, depression, as well as eating and substance disorders are all common responses to PTSD. Those with PTSD are five times likely to develop depression compared to a regular person and six times likely to develop anxiety as well, making PTSD only the beginning of the problems for those that have experienced trauma. Both depression and anxiety can lead to self-harm, even suicide in some cases, which is why those that experienced a major disaster should be able to access mental health treatment immediately after a traumatic event.