Avalanches

An avalanche is a quick flow of snow on a slope. It usually happens on mountains but it can also happen on gentler slopes too. There are a few ways to prevent avalanches or to lessen their power. One way to prevent them is snow fences as the snow builds up around the walls and doesnt roll down the hill. They also plant trees as it slows the avalanches down. It is said that avalanches can be triggered by shouting, although these are just myths and are not true as the sound waves are not big enough.

Hurricane Katrina

On the August 29th 2005 Hurricane Katrina passed east of New Orleans. New Orleans is situated along the Mississippi river. All though the harshest part of Katrina missed the city the results where dreadful. It ended up being one of the worst engineering disasters in history due to the flooding of the levee breaches. Over 75% of New Orleans was flooded within 2 days of the flood. Around 90% of people evacuated due to the floods but people such as the elderly and the poor didn’t want to move. Many of these people who didn’t evacuate had to swim for there lives or get trapped on the roofs of their houses. Most of the main roads traveling in and out of the city where damaged by the hurricane so the traffic out of the city was terrible. It is said that the cost of the damages is around $200 billion, which made hurricane Katrina one of most expensive hurricanes ever in the United States.