Which was more devastating: Hurricane Katrina or 9/11?

Question

I believe that 9/11 was more devastating for a few factors. One, thousands of innocent people were killed WITHOUT WARNING. Another, hundreds of thousands felt the pain and suffering of coping with such a disaster and their relatives and friends who died, as well as the rescue officials and the hundreds of them who died. Still another, millions of dollars were damaged and lost, many people put through financial troubles, etc. Finally, and arguably the biggest reason I chose, is because 9/11 was intentional. Katrina was from nature, an act of God. 9/11 was intentionally plotted against hundreds of thousands of innocent people, over such an extreme religion. I agree with Bush for hunting down Al-Queda, although he hasn't done much in the way of searching and destroying, mostly just attacking Iraq. Thanks for your answers!

Did I leave out that I would like details please? Reasons?

Answer 1

9/11 was an unexpected and shocking attack.
Katrina was expected but fleet was not possible. The damage more widespread, I don't have the fatality numbers to compare. I think the new World Trade building with be up and running befoe anythng is done about the Katina aftermath.

Answer 2

I like your question....
I lived through Hurricane Katrina and all I can say is YIKES! I don't want that again. However, thousands felt the pain from Katrina as well. We are going to be coping with this forever. Did you know that there are actually places here that still haven't been fixed from Hurricane Camille? It's took about 35 yrs to actually get the MS Gulf Coast back on it's feet after Camile in 1969? That was something interesting I learned a few months ago. Katrina put A LOT of people out of work, plus they lost their homes and some even lost their lives. People kept comparing Katrina to Camille...well Camille didn't do it so this one won't. I do hope if anyone learned anything from this, it's don't assume the next one won't do what the previous did!

However, 9/11 has lasted a VERY LONG TIME! Even before it actually happened, the threats had been coming for a long time. It was a matter of time, of course most of us didn't realize they'd just take down massive buildings! I think 9/11 proved to the world that Americans aren't stupid...we didn't fall...we didn't stop...and we won't. However, terrorism is a SCARY SCARY idea and will never stop...I do feel for the people who lost their lives as well as the relatives who lost loved ones that day.

I think they were both huge in their own categories. Largest natural disaster in US history...Katrina. Biggest terrorist strike in the US...9/11. September 11, 2001 and August 29, 2005 are days that won't soon be forgotten by any stretch at all!!

Answer 3

It depends on how you look at it. Both natural and terror-related disasters can have economic devastation.

Nature can cause a more widespread area of damage, and can overtake us whether we are peaceful or terrorists. Survivors may wonder why such natural disasters happen. But the thing is, they happen because conditions were right for it to happen as it did.

Weather has caused flight delays, cancellations and sometimes even crashes with no survivors. But planes continue to take off from everywhere. And after conditions clear up in an area of bad weather, then affected airports are back in business.

But 9/11 was an act of pure evil intent. And we didn't know what plane was going to be next, and where it might be aimed. So all planes had to be grounded. Emotionally, there will always be the question of why that happened. There will always be the stress of how can anybody do that. Why would they? And when will we all accept each other? We are all human, so there's no excuse.

I'm not talking from experiencing either a natural or terror-related disaster. But there are unanswerable questions and unexcusable acts with 9/11 that you don't have with an act of nature. Also, from that day on, we will be in a war against terror. Air travel will never be the same. We can't go back to pre-9/11 security measures.

So, I have to go with 9/11.

We can rebuild from both kinds of disasters. But, there will never be an excuse for acts of terror. And that makes it hurt worse.

Answer 4

9/11 dealt with terroist against our country and we as US citizens received no warning but Our Presidnt "or lack there of" really instigated the whole situation. Katrina was from nature true, but was not the reason of the increase devastation. What actually caused the wrath of Katrina was the lack of taking responsibility to mainatin the levees, which is not on the mayor or the city but the US gov't the same people whom maintain the white house, san diego bridge, statue of liberty, oil refinearies.

Personally, I feel that the correct protocol was not taken. Many residents of New Orleans did not have power up to 10 hours before the storm so how could one possibly evacuate. Also, it was not the hurricane that caused all the disaster it was the lack of responsibility of the engineer who waited 40 + years to adhere to the codes and upkeep of the levees. When the levees broke that's when all hell broke loose. That's why people blame the govt. Do you believe if the Statue of liberty needed upkeep or maintenance it will be ignored for 30 + years or even the White House. i don't think so? Ignoring the levees was just the political agenda of the big time builders to rebuild New Orleans as a Casino district. they were just awaiting something to destroy and clear as many poor and minorities as they could without paying them off to move. Gentrification, look it up!! In this situation our President was the terroist against the people of the US

Answer 5

I would say Katrina. True only half as many people died from Katrina, but still many people felt the pain. Say half as many sad friends and relatives, but there were also people who put up evacuees. Monetary loss and property loss - 9/11 was just a few blocks. Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans, and the Mississippi coast as well. Many more people put through financial loss and trouble, plus they lost their homes and offices. That leaves the mental impact of a deliberate attack vs a storm. After an attack, you can spring into glamorous heroic action fighting the attacker, after a storm it takes drudgy construction work. Agreed hunting down Al Qaida & some tighter airports security are a good idea, no kudos to Bush for his digressions.

Answer 6

I think their both terrible in their own rights. First 9/11 was made by people who think very extreme and despicable acts My brother was a flight attendant for United Airlines and he lost his job because he was ALWAYS scared of flying. He couldn't cope with what happened on 9/11 and so he quit flying altogether. So I take it personally with 9/11 and also President Bush had all these signs leading up to the attacks that I think should have stopped the attacks. And going to war was his way of trying to get the public back on his side again.

Second Katrina was also horrible in its own right. It was an act of God but if the people there weren't black I think President Bush would have acted faster and gotten the help in allot sooner The people living in New Orleans would not have died or starve for 3-5 days in the hot sweltering heat of the Super dome and the pets that people left behind would still their owners if President Bush acted so accordingly.

In my eyes the President Bush administration is to blame for both of these terrible and horrible acts.

Answer 7

Although Hurrincane Katrina displaced thousands and killed hundreds, many of those victims are recovering from their mostly material losses. I feel that 9/11 was definitely more devastating with the careless disregard of so many humans lives. That attack was intentional in order to place more constricting Big Brother laws in place and to line greedy businessmens pockets and I was even more devastated once I viewed a 9/11 documentary called 'Loose Change'. I urge everyone to watch this movie. You can view the whole documentary at Google Video. Highly recommended!!

Answer 8

Your observations and points on 9/11 are correct. However devastation weather created by man or nature is destruction. In both cases the lives ,and people, have been harmed. The people who have suffered from 9/11 are still in pain from that, just as the people from Katrina are still going through the immense emotional , physical, mental trauma.
The point you made about the war, the people there are suffering the ramifications of that type of destruction and I am sure there are many innocent people suffering in that country also. Our country's men and women are there fighting to protect not only this country,. but help that country rid itself of what attacked us in 9/11

Answer 9

I would imagine, from the details you posted, that you are talking about emotional devastation.

My first instinct was that Katrina was more devastating in a physical sense, and I stand by that. There was an awful lot of displacement, destruction, and misery from that storm.

However, emotionally, the attacks of 9/11 were much more devastating, and my single biggest reason for feeling that is because they were INTENTIONAL. I think people understand that devastation can come from nature, and that we have no way of controlling what nature deals out in the way of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, or tsunamis. I think we at least can grasp that there is no one to blame for those things, and that it is not something done with malice.

9/11 was something else entirely. It was done with malice, and it was intended to cause as much harm as possible.

I think when dealing with tragedies of any kind, intent makes all the difference. That's why the law, itself, distinguishes between 1st degree murder and manslaughter--one is intentional, and one is not.

Answer 10

First of all, their was PLENTY or warning on BOTH ends -- we just ignored it. Or rather, in Katrina, the government just said-- "Oh yeah, let the n*ggers die."

Let's get real people, that's what HAPPENED. If the entire area was filled with Republicans with McMansions, that area would have been protected, the levies would have been UP, and it wouldn't have been the same at ALL.

Let's pause for this commercial break to remind our readers that there is NO GLOBAL WARMING...

Back to our story: 9/11 is possibly the BIGGEST FRAUD in American history. Day by day, more and more evidence is piling up to CONFIRM that there were huge numbers of people warned to stay away from NYC on 9/11 -- and guess what -- those people have MONEY -- wow, THAT's a shock!

That's on top of the fact that there is NO way a Jet could have hit the Pentagon, and they are hoping you are too stupid to get it. It was a MISSILE, fired by US, to seal the deal.

It's not the first time either...(Pearl Harbor)

The deal is that it was used as a reason to go to war, because when we're at war we make money. Wait, we USED to. Now, we hire subcontractors to make profits for our friends and buddies at the top.

If you don't believe it, it's not yet my problem. The facts are there, and when I saw them, they answered more questions than the media ever did.

See the movie in October : Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, mad by the same people who made the WalMart movie:

http://iraqforsale.org

You may say I'm extreme, but it will take some extreme awareness to bring this country back to the middle.

Conspiracies are NOT accusations -- they are ways of finding out the truth.