UNITED NATIONS: The ‘true legacy’ of the costliest United States hurricane disaster, known as Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and claimed more than 1,800 lives, was to raise the bar for disaster risk management worldwide, a top UN official said on Friday.

Marking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the head of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), Margareta Wahlström, said: “Hurricane Katrina exposed weaknesses in disaster risk management which are common to many hazard prone locations around the world”. “We can learn a lot from New Orleans if we are to achieve substantial reductions in disaster losses as called for in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction which was adopted by governments earlier this year,” she said.

The Sendai Framework, named after the Japanese city in which it was adopted by governments earlier this year, is a 15-year, voluntary, non-binding agreement – and the first major agreement of the UN sustainable development agenda – with seven targets and four priorities for action.

Ms. Wahlström said: “New Orleans has transformed itself into a role model for disaster resilience.”

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play