To what extent was Hurricane Katrina was a natural

disaster? LO: To works as a group to form a balanced answer to this question

Natural?Hurricane Katrina’s scale (the storm was 500

km across) and magnitude (wind speeds as high as 240 km/s) meant that even though its path veered away from New Orleans at the last minute it still had a huge impact on the city as well as devastating the Alabama coast

Natural or human?The magnitude and scale of Katrina was a key factor as the

flood defences were rendered ineffective. Unusually high sea temperatures in the Gulf or Mexico (possible an effect of global warming) helped build Katrina into Category 5 storm when defences were only built to withstand a category 3 hurricane.  The distribution of the population throughout the region is responsible for much of the heightened natural hazard risk. 

Human?• New Orleans is a major urban centre of 485,000 people. It is a

hazard prone area that has continued to attract population but as pressure on land has increased, many affluent Americans, oil industries and gambling businesses have moved into areas of hazard risk, whereas several decades ago, it was only the poorest (and often African American) populations that lived in these areas or on and around the levee system. It was parts of the population without the social or economic means to leave the hazard zone in response to the threat of Katrina that became the victims. 

Blue Hat

• You are in charge of making sure your group sticks to the ‘hat’ they should be wearing.

Example: you must make sure people are positive if they are wearing the yellow hat.

Red Hat

• Which words sprang to mind as soon as you looked at this?

• What did you feel as soon as you saw this?

Black Hat

• What are the facts and figures?

• What data is there? (For example; names, dates, places).

• What are the details?

Yellow Hat

• Be positive!

• What are the good points?

• What happy / positive things are there?

Purple Hat

• What are the problems with this?

• What are the scary points?

• What might go wrong?

• Be negative.

Green Hat

• What are the alternatives?

• What might happen in the future?

• What suggestions would you make?

• What ideas do you have?

Task

• Blue Hat: keep everyone on task and wearing the correct coloured hat.

• Black Hat: Key facts and figures

•  Red Hat: ‘gut reaction’

•  Yellow Hat: What are the positives?

• Purple Hat: What are the negatives?

• Green Hat: What are the options for the future?

Each ‘blue hat’ should now feedback their group’s ideas to the whole class.

To what extent was Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster?Use the notes taken to provide the structure

for an extended piece of writing…..Black Hat = introduction, Red Hat = 1st

paragraph (giving your opinion), Purple and Yellow Hat = for and against then Green Hat = conclusion (looking forward)