When Mother Nature decides to strike sometimes she strikes hard. Hurricane Katrina is one of those hard strikes. As the hurricane approached the Gulf of Mexico its intensity was charted as a category three on the Saffir-Simpson scale (Mazzeno, 2016). The hurricane quickly came upon the Louisiana coast and struck New Orleans. A large quantity of people evacuated before the hazard hit, but many did not. The people who stayed were mostly poor and elderly because they could not afford to leave or were not able to leave. According to Freeman (2013) roughly one hundred thousand people stayed and the hurricane forced the people to relocate to the superdome and a convention center. After the hurricane passed the government’s response to Hurricane …show more content…
A common characteristic of many natural hazards is the destruction of infrastructure. Hurricane Katrina was not any different telephone lines and cellphone towers had all either been knocked over or were not getting power to operate. The infrastructure failure was not the only issue with communication. Freeman (2013) reported orders and needs from the government officials on site of the disaster to the relief coordinators including FEMA and the President were misunderstood because they needed specific request. After the hurricane the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) was given recommendations to mitigate another failure. According to the Independent Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Communication Networks (2006) the FCC should implement continuity plans to increase power reserves, have a surplus of necessary replacement equipment, and have an emergency operation center. The Independent Panel (2006) also states that the FCC should better coordinate communication abilities between local, state, and federal governments so that the area affected gets the help they need. If the FCC applies these recommendations into actions it could help mitigate another communication failure between …show more content…
For the past several years before Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans had large scale preparations for hurricane season, but the city had not suffered any major hurricanes since 1992 ( Richey,2011) . The LANG had underprepared for the 2005 hurricane season and was also too busy aiding President Bush’s War on Terror (2011). After Katrina passed the LANG was well on its feet and pushing to support the hurricane victims, but with limitations. A major limitation they encountered was many of their transport vehicles were either immerged under water or in Iraq and Afghanistan (2011). This made it very difficult for the National Guard to respond rapidly. As stretched thin as LANG could be they also had to protect business from looters and attempt to maintain civil order among the people affected by the disaster. To try to ensure a more rapid deployment of LANG the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act was signed in 2007, which allowed any active duty National Guard troops, including those out of state, to be dispersed to aid and assist after a, “catastrophic disaster” (Bea, Halchin, Hogue, Kaiser, et al., 2006 pg 54). This provision also authorized the National Guard to suppress public uprising during a natural disaster (Halchin et al., 2006). The act gives the LANG more man power, more assets, and more authority to be able to respond to natural
Royer, Jordan. “Hurricane Sandy and the importance of being FEMA”, Crosscut.com, Crosscut.com, Web. 1 Nov 2012, 3 May 2014.
In the late summer of 2005, a terrible tragedy occurred that changed the lives of many in the south-east region of the United States. A Category 3, named storm, named Hurricane Katrina, hit the Gulf Coast on the 29th of August and led to the death of 1,836 and millions of dollars’ worth of damage (Waple 2005). The majority of the damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana. Waple writes in her article that winds “gusted over 100 mph in New Orleans, just west of the eye” (Waple 2005). Not only was the majority of the damage due to the direct catastrophes of the storm but also city’s levees could no longer hold thus breaking and releasing great masses of water. Approximately, 80% of the city was submerged at sea level. Despite the vast amount of damage and danger all throughout the city, officials claimed that there was work being done to restore the city of New Orleans as a whole but many parts, and even the people, of the city were overlooked while areas of the city with higher economic value, and more tourist traffic, were prioritized along with those individuals.
Perks, Alan R. "The New Orleans Hurricane Protection System: What Went Wrong and Why." Canadian Consulting Engineer, 48.6 (2007): 10.
Hurricane Katrina was considered as the worst hurricane in the history of United States. The winds and the rain were shattering people’s homes which collapsed and flooded. Thousands of people were suffering and dying. People were starving, and becoming dehydrated. Many people were left on the street and became homeless. After the hurricane, so many questions were left regarding the widespread damage and loss of loved ones. This devastating disaster destroyed the city of New Orleans and nearby cities and was estimated to cost $80 billion dollars in damage. State and local emergency in the affected area were struggling to perform urgent response missions such as emergency medical services, search and rescue, firefighting, giving food and water,
The Coast Guard, for instance, rescued some 34,000 people in New Orleans alone, and many ordinary citizens commandeered boats, offered food and shelter, and did whatever else they could to help their neighbors. Yet the government–particularly the federal government–seemed unprepared for the disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took days to establish operations in New Orleans, and even then did not seem to have a sound plan of action. Officials, even including President George W. Bush, seemed unaware of just how bad things were in New Orleans and elsewhere: how many people were stranded or missing; how many homes and businesses had been damaged; how much food, water and aid was needed. Katrina had left in her wake what one reporter called a “total disaster zone” where people were “getting absolutely
According to Hurricane Katrina At Issue Disasters, economic damages from Hurricane Katrina have been estimated at more than $200 billion… More than a million people were displaced by the storm… An estimated 120,000 homes were abandoned and will probably be destroyed in Louisiana alone (At * Issue). For this perspective, “Hurricane Katrina change the Gulf Coast landscape and face of its culture when it hit in 2005” (Rushton). A disaster like Katrina is something the victims are always going to remember, for the ones the lost everything including their love ones. Katrina became a nightmare for all the people that were surround in the contaminated waters in the city of New Orleans. People were waiting to be rescue for days,
Leading up to this storm, many prominent scientists believed that the hurricane would never make landfall, or if it did hit, would not cause any major damage. Due to this foolhardy belief held by the scientists, many civilians did not have any time to evacuate their homes and barely escaped with their loved ones and whatever small valuables or keepsakes they could grab. Regretfully, many families had to leave everything they had behind. Hurricane Andrew also damaged the livelihood of many small shop owners or farms and caused long term problems as well. Due to the large flooding and high wind speeds, much of southern Florida was left in ruin and many years were spent trying to clean the rubble and restore buildings. Hurricane Andrew also destroyed many precious ecosystems on top of all of that.
Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters to happen in the United States. The storm resulted in more then US$100 billion in damage when the cities flood protection broke and 80% of the city was flooded (1). The protection failure was not the only cause for the massive flooding, the hurricanes clockwise rotation pulled water from north of New Orleans into the city. 330,000 homes were destroyed and 400,000 people from New Orleans were displaced, along with 13,00 killed (1). Although the population quickly recovered, the rate of recovery slowed down as the years went on leading us to believe not everyone
In the future, if the government could find a way to improve communication about critical threats to health, then the tragedy that was Hurricane Katrina, might be helped. During the Hurricane, basic forms of communication failed which decreased early recovery efforts. This led to confusion, rumors, chaos, and an overall sense of panic within the city. Dr. Greg Henderson arrived at the Convention Center on Friday; he was the only doctor for 10,000 people. He said in an interview with TIME
New Orleans by far felt the biggest effect of Hurricane Katrina. Many people were rescued but had nowhere to go and the government was not prepared for the disaster. There was no plan for recovery. Communication failures were one of the major problems which included power failures and broken telephone lines. Homes were destroyed and many were left stuck on the roof of their broken homes. Most of the city’s major roads and buildings suffered extensive damage. Countless people were left unemployed and homeless. Above all, the worst effect caused by Hurricane Katrina was the final death toll of 1,836 people with 705 still reported
In summary, the events of Hurricane Katrina had left a lasting and devastating impact on not only the general public, but also those within public safety including local, state and federal agencies. The storm had affected nearly hundreds of square miles resulting in thousands of casualties, and people misplaced with no homes to go to as well. In addition, there were many contributing factors that had resulted in major life, including the geography of New Orleans, how the levees around New Orleans were built, as well as the lack of coordination between local, state and federal officials.
Some of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina could have potentially been avoided if protection systems were installed to the proper extents. In Louisiana, “some parts of the metro area continue to lack hurricane protection built to federal standards” (Webster). Had the greater Louisiana area been better protected, it is very likely that more people would have survived and the total cost of the storm been less. Even in areas where levees...
On early morning of August 29th, 2005 on the Gulf Shore near New Orleans, a devastating hurricane struck. It wrecked havoc, demolishing anything in its path. Leaving nothing but mounds of trash. The surviving people were forced to leave due to massive flooding and the destruction of their homes. New Orleans was not the only place hit by Katrina but it was one of the areas that was hit the hardest. Millions of people were affected by this tragedy and the cost range was up in the billions. Crime rates went up, no one had a place to stay and water was polluted. The damage done by Katrina affected New Orleans and the other areas hit years after it struck. Restoration for the areas hit was going to need support from all of America and support groups across the country. No one was ready for this tragedy or could ever predict the horrible outcome.
The use of several data sources including an extensive database of media reports and a series of government documents, but relying primarily on the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center’s field research in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the authors describe the nontraditional behavior that emerged in that catastrophe. The main thesis of this article is that emergent activities in the impacted region showed a different and opposite pattern to those suggested by the imagery employed by the media outlets mentioned above. Throughout this article we argue, and provide data to show, that a great variety of new, nontraditional or emergent behavior surfaced in this catastrophic
...he government of Louisiana soon came up with new criteria on how future structure should be built to withstand more natural disasters like these. Not only knowing basic information, knowing how to prepare, and seeing how Hurricane Katrina was so destructive should help the forty five million citizens that live on hurricane prone coastlines prepare for anything like this in the future.