Wal-Mart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina

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Wal-Mart’s Response to Hurricane Katrina

So far in the American history, hurricane Katrina remains to be one of the most devastating hurricanes to have ever been witnessed. Though preparation were already in place to counter its effects, the storm’s impact turned out to be one of the most unprecedented ever seen. This is even notable from the way government agencies reacted to this disaster. It brought out the inefficiencies and inadequacies of the emergency units both at the federal and state level. This is because these governments’ response standards to this disaster were far much below the threshold expected. Government efforts could not match, and hence counter, the impacts of hurricane Katrina. This led to loss of massive property and people’s lives and property. Local and Federal governments face criticism up to date because the private sector seemed more prepared to counter effects of hurricane than the government.

Despite the disappointment and let downs from the government side, people along Mississippi, Louisiana and generally the entire affected Gulf coast received incredible help from the private sector. Among those private corporations, which were in the forefront into countering the effects of hurricane Katrina, is the Wal-Mart Chain of Stores Corporation. Wal-Mart began the process of response preparedness several months earlier before the actual happening of the hurricane.

Wal-Mart was interested in the compartment of Katrina’s hurricane for a number of reasons. Though it was a means by which it was giving back to the society, Wal-Mart stood to lose immensely from the impacts of the hurricane. It runs lots of chain stores along the Gulf coast where the hurricane Katrina struck hard. Loss projections were eminen...

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...cane, the point of concern was how to rescue the lives of people and property. How was the impact to be handled and how long it would take to rebuild that which the hurricane destroyed.

How the Books Addressed this Issue

The issue about hurricane Katrina has been documented by many writers. Some had firsthand experience with the disaster while others relied on secondary sources of data. Though many authors remain as objective as possible in this matter, government continues to receive criticism whenever a new publication is released. However the book combined some elements of objectiveness and subjectivity so that facts of what truly happened are accounted. Though most publications criticize government on how it dealt with Katrina case, the truth is that it played a major role and the only underperformance shows up because the disaster was large than anticipated.

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