Effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans

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August 29, 2005 was one of the darkest days for the residents of the State of Louisiana. Katrina, a category 3 hurricane, ripped through New Orleans and the surrounding areas causing catastrophic loss of life and property. The federal government’s disaster response team, which was formed in 1978, titled the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (commonly referred to as FEMA) responded to the needs of the survivors. Unfortunately the Bush administration through FEMA showed gross ineptitude in its response to the disaster. Pre-Katrina the lack of response resulted in a largely unsuccessful evacuation. After the storm, aid to the citizens of New Orleans was slow and inadequate. When we look back at the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, it appears that Bush’s FEMA botched much of the handling of the crisis and that overall, our “administration” could have responded to the situation much better.
The lack of response dates back to the merger of FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed in 2002 “in response to the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001”(Adamski, p4). The function of DHS is to provide a “unified defense structure against the threat of terrorism and other potential hazards” (Adamski, p4(Homeland Security Act of 2002)). In 2003 the Bush administration reformed FEMA and it was moved under the umbrella of the DHS. With that, the merger changed the mission of FEMA, from its primary focus of disaster response to counter terrorism. Removing FEMA from an independent agency which handled disaster response, and merge with DHS which responded to counter terrorism, according to Adamski, the merge sparked concerns that the coverage of natural disasters would...

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...w FEMA could have done better. History and reports indicate that FEMA was more responsive to the natural disasters than how it responded to Katrina. After the merge with DHS, FEMA could have sorted out their new policies and procedures ahead of time, maybe then the death toll and damage caused by Katrina would not have been as catastrophic. The Government of Accountability Office also made few recommendations for FEMA. The GAO recommended that FEMA obtains the Red Cross’s input when developing its resource tracking system. Lastly the GAO recommends that FEMA work with the Red Cross to reach agreement on operating procedures. With all said, the best and the most effective solution in my opinion was that the agencies should have never merged. We can only learn from our past mistakes and attempt to make a better future, we just hope that FEMA attempts to do the same.

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