Hurricane Katrina

On August 28th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States with devastating effect. It was reported that more then 1,800 people lost there lives, and more then $81 billion dollars in damages occurred.
As a result, efforts to assist those effected by Hurricane Katrina still continue, as those effected by the terrible hurricane continue to work to regain the health and livelihood that they had before the storm. It was the sixth strongest storm ever! Winds reached speeds of 175 mph!
Hurricanes form from hot air forming of the ocean and get stronger as they go along.

What is a Natural Disaster?

A natural disaster is something that occurs naturally, from mother nature. Examples of theese are floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, sandstorms and hurricanes. Natural disasters can ruin peoples lives. Natural disasters happen all the time and they give many people inspiration for films and books for example 'The Wizard of Oz' is based on a tornadoe making Dorothy's house falling on the wicked witch of the east and killing her. Natural disasters also inspire photographers for example on 'Americas Next Top Model' they did a photo shoot acting as natural disasters. Some of the natural disasters they acted out was a heatwave and a tsunami.

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004. The earthquake was caused by a tectonic plate sliding under another one and pushing it up causing an earthquake. This triggered a a devastating tsunami along the coasts of most land bordering the India Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries. Waves rose up to 30 meters high. It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand were the hardest hit.
With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded. Over 7 billion dollars were donated to help the affected people of the tsunami. The tsunami itself is given various names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Asian Tsunami, Indonesian Tsunami, and Boxing Day Tsunami.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/4136289.stm