Hurricane Katrina has been known as one of the most costly natural disasters that the United States has ever faced. According to Fox News, “Katrina caused an estimated 96 billion dollars in damage.” In addition, they stated an, “estimated 300,000 homes were destroyed making them uninhabitable, and nearly 1,500 people died.” On August 23, 2005, Katrina began to develop over the Bahamas making its way to southern Florida as a Category 1 Hurricane. The hurricane grew fiercer and became a Category 5, but on August 29, 2005, just before striking the southeast part of Louisiana the hurricane became a Category 3.
Just hours after Katrina hit land, the entire communication system that Louisiana had, had failed. Two of the major companies that are responsible for routing 911 emergency calls were completely knocked out due to flooding, resulting in one of the most substantial losses in and around New Orleans (govinfo). The majority of New Orleans and other surrounding areas of Louisiana had considerable damage to their cell sites, with an estimated 2000 cells out of service. Both fire departments and police officers lost communications when their radio towers lost their back up power generators because of flooding. “Massive interoperability -failed, destroyed, or incompatible communication systems- was the biggest problem in the response to Katrina, issues with interoperability have existed for years” (govinfo). There is a deficiency of communication between our Government officials and emergency service agencies. National Guard should not have to wait to be told by a messenger to transmit messages. Governors should be able to communicate with their generals and police commanders should be able to have easy communication with their offic...
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... they realize that many things should have been done differently. Richard Clark, National Security Council stated, “it is not possible to evacuate a major metropolitan area in an orderly fashion, but we can do better than what we did (pbs.org). Clark went on to say that what seems to repeatedly happen is local authorities choose not to use both sides of the highway during an evacuation. Clark goes on to elucidate the idea turning all the traffic lights on in one direction to allow easier evacuation.
Every single level of government failed. According to Senator Mary Landrieu, “No state is equipped to respond to a catastrophe of this magnitude, and for this reason, the federal law needs to step it up (Alpert). When a catastrophe hits like it did in New Orleans, all of the levels of government need to come together, communicate accordingly, and not point any fingers.
... given the help that they deserved. One can only hope that the government learns from this past encounter with a natural disaster so destructive and hope that safety measures are properly taken in the future and that history will not repeat itself.
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
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
(Williams, Bob) FROM THE OPINION JOURNAL ARCHIVES "AFTER THE STORM" Wednesday, September 7, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007219
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,
Schneider, S. K. (2005). Administrative breakdowns in the governmental response to Hurricane Katrina. Public Administration Review, 65(5), 515-516.
Through the path of history, there have been several major events that influenced thousands of lives and were significant in forming the world today. One of the largest and deadliest events that occurred in history was a disaster not anybody could control or be held accountable for. This was Hurricane Katrina. On the early Monday morning of August 29th, 2005, a Category 5 rating Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast of the United States with winds up to 175 miles per hour and a storm surge of 20 feet high. Hurricane Katrina was one of the greatest and most destructive natural disasters recorded to make landfall in the United States. The natural causes of the hurricane, poorly structured levees, disaster inside the Superdome, and the
On August 29, 2005, the third strongest and biggest hurricane ever recorded in American history hit the Gulf Coast at eight o’clock a.m. The interaction between a tropical depression and a tropical wave created a tropical storm later referred to as Hurricane Katrina (FAQS, 2013). Forming over the Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina gradually strengthened as it moved closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded on August 28th, 2005, Katrina jumped from a category three storm to a category five storm with maximum sustained winds up to 160 miles per hour. Although other hurricanes, such as Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Wilma, exceeded Katrina, this dominant storm was classified as the fourth most intense hurricane based its pressure capacity. Once Hurricane Katrina hit land, it was pronounced as a category four storm moving slowly. While people thought that the slow speed of this storm prevented trauma, records show that Katrina did more damage than any fast-moving storm could have ever achieved (Solanki, 2013). Katrina produced abundant debris. The debris was in such large quantity that if it was stacked together on a football field, the rubble would reach the elevation of ten and a half miles. The size of Katrina also caused 90,000 square miles to be affected. Once proclaimed a category three storm, Hurricane Katrina slowed to the speed of 155 miles per hour. At this point in time, Katrina proved to be the sixth most prevailing hurricane traced in history. (Solanki, 2013). Several different aspects of life were impacted by Hurricane Katrina such as availability of gasoline, economic issues, and the ability to have an adequate supply of drinking water (Solanki, 2013). Hurricane Katrina was a large storm ...
...e governments discriminated against poor African Americans residents, but it is only natural that after receiving little aid and having no place to go, those citizens would not return to the Crescent City. The immense displacement caused by the most expensive natural disaster in United States history proved that the City of New Orleans, and the United States as a whole, was not prepared for a natural disaster of that magnitude. It also showed the challenges urban planners face in times of crisis and the weaknesses they need to overcome in order to avoid another decade of reconstruction efforts after tragedy strikes. Despite the fact that nine years post-Katrina many people have still not returned to the city, New Orleans, with every flaw it has, is still an encouraging example proving that with enough effort, battered places can rebuild and begin to prosper again.
On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina forced its way into New Orleans, Louisiana with winds of more than 140 mph. This storm was a strong category three when it hit New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina destroyed homes, businesses, and factories from the high winds and flooding. The devastation that the city suffered was terrible; many people lost family members young and old and also their most prized possessions. Most of all it displaced families and caused an abundance of damage to properties. Due to the costly destruction that the city of New Orleans faced after Katrina, they must now find a way to alleviate the blighted properties from their environment and also face the challenges.
Even though it is the responsibility of the federal and state governments to aid citizens during times of disaster, the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina were not effectively facilitated as according to their rights as citizens of the United States. The government’s failures to deliver assistance to citizens stem from inadequate protection systems in place before the storm even struck. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security were the two largest incumbents in the wake of the storm. The failure of these agencies rests on the shoulders of those chosen to head the agency. These directors, appointed by then president George W. Bush, were not capable of leading large government agencies through a crisis, let alone a disaster the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina. Along with the federal government, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans did not do enough to lesseb the damage caused by the storm, and forced thousands of poorer citizens to remain in cramped and unsanitary conditions for extended periods of time. The culmination of federal, state, and local government’s failures in suppressing and repairing the damage of Hurricane Katrina to a level acceptable for citizens of the United States is a denial of the rights citizens of the United States hold.
The relationship between inefficiency and ethical behavior for the decision makers during Hurricane Katrina was none other than a down right fiasco. There were clearly cooperation and communication problems from all levels of government. For example, it was not until 24 hours after the levees broke before the incident was considered a national disaster. By then, communication efforts from the local, state, and federal government authorities were behind the eight ball in a delayed attempt to save hundreds of lives, and minimize millions of dollars in damages. Sufficient warnings as early as two days ahead time gave the decision-makers noticed that Louisiana was in the direct path of Hurricane Katrina. Yet, the Governor and Mayor delayed ordering
Every year many natural disasters happen around the world. In New Orleans, and several other states, a devastating hurricane struck. High speed winds and major flooding caused many people to lose their homes and even their lives. Many people have heard of hurricane Katrina, but not everybody knows what caused it and the affect it had on the United States.
...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.