Environmental effects of Hurricane Katrina: On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans as a Category 3 hurricane on the hurricane scale. Saffir-Simpson hurricanes with winds up to one hundred and forty miles per hour. Katrina was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes ever to hit the United States. One thousand eight hundred dead, seven hundred missing and one million displaced are proof of the human toll caused by Katrina and its cost of 84 billion dollars makes Katrina the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States. (Blackwell) Although these numbers are devastating, the environmental impacts of Katrina still threaten the citizens of New Orleans today. Katrina's environmental impacts were compounded by human-caused environmental hazards. (West)Due to above-average levels of poverty, many homes in New Orleans had very high levels of lead and arsenic. (Pastor) This, combined with the fact that eighty percent of the city was flooded, released significant amounts of lead and arsenic into the environment that still exist today. Soil samples taken before and after Katrina showed elevated levels of lead, iron and arsenic. (Reible) A new study of one hundred and nine households found that sixty-one percent had lead measurements above federal standards, and twenty-seven percent above one thousand two hundred ppm, which was significantly higher than the five hundred sixty ppm. collected before Hurricane Katrina. (Rabito) These inorganic compounds are linked to cancer risks with which New Orleans already has a significant problem. This complicates the decision about when and where to conduct environmental cleanups in New Orleans to remove lead, iron and arsenic. In addition to these problems in homes, New O...... middle of paper ..... .e miles per year before Hurricane Katrina and levee failures increased this figure. The wetlands were already being affected by oil and gas development, rising sea levels and the invasion of an aggressive beaver like rodent called coypu. (Rastogi) Katina has had significant negative environmental impacts on New Orleans. The extent of the impacts is still unknown and continues to pose a risk to the population of New Orleans. The environmental and health impacts of Katrina will be severe and long-term. The effect of long-term exposure to contaminants on citizens of New Orleans is still uncertain. Due to this uncertainty, neither the population nor the local government will delay rebuilding the city. This raises the question of whether people are delaying their return to New Orleans and what the long-term effects of contamination would be on them and their children. (Reible)