Looking Back at Hurricane Katrina

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In certain areas of the world hurricanes are a part to life and although Katrina looked as if it was going to be a rough and dangerous storm many people who live in the gulf thought they would be able to handle what was storm had to offer. The storm itself, while although dangerous and cause damage it was the infrastructure and the levy the really ended up turning this disaster to the magnitude it ended up being. Hurricane Katrina provided to be a storm that not only the citizens were not able to handle but also the government was ill prepared for.

Failure to properly plan and interoperability between cities and local authorities be came on of the biggest downfalls of Hurricane Katrina. The communication was practically not exist and between those needing help and those able to provide said help. Those who had form of communication were stuck on switchboards and didn’t know if they desperate calls would be answered. The authorities did not have reliable commination or methods of helping the community members in need. A massive issue that is still relevant to our government system and played tremendous role in the time that elapsed before relief was given boils down the “he said she said” bureaucratic tendencies. Each agency and personal was claiming that the other was not providing the details or information required to for that level to assist the other. FEMA claimed at one point during the aftermath of Katrina that Louisiana was acting for some form of assistance but was provided details for what type of help was required or specific items that where needed. Member of the disaster relief efforts in Louisiana provided a 48-page document as proof the public that they had been asked in detail for help but that help never came (Th...

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...ment stalled the project even more(The Storm, 2005). The lessons that could have been learned through the mistakes include that of proper planning; and city inspection and maintenance; communication from authority to citizens, and better interstate and agency communication should have a higher priority. In all, I believe that Katrina shed much light on the issues within New Orleans and our country when it comes to disaster management and communication as a whole. However, I do not believe we have fixed the areas of great importance that if a another disaster similar in magnitude, the results would only slightly differ.

References

(2005). The Storm : Frontline. Retrieved from; http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/view/

A Failure of initatiive. (n.d.). LSU.Edu. Retrieved April 14, 2014, from http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/katrina/govdocs/109-377/pam.pdf

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