There became an obvious need for immediate assistance from the National Guard and the Active Duty Army to stop looters, crime, and other chaos that ensued shortly after the flood. Gaining assistance from state controlled National Guard units was not overly difficult. Unfortunately, use of Federal soldiers comes with the stipulation that “the Governor of the affected state must request use of the resources of the DoD”. (Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance) The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco and her staff were already failing to control and lead emergency efforts.
Also, during Hurricane Katrina FEMA didn’t allow for volunteer agencies to aide in the
Hurricane Katrina shift the position of the Department of Homeland Security from making natural disasters an equally as important as terrorism. This even showed that disaster planning requires a great deal of collaboration. The Department of Homeland Security who swallowed up FEMA where not quick to react to Hurricane Katrina because all their focus was spend on planning for a prevent terrorist attacks. The failure of the disaster response system resulted in over 1,200 lives lost in Louisiana and Mississippi. FEMA failed to work closely with its State and local counterparts and communications between these partners and the public were strained at best.
1. September 11 served as a sort of "line in the sand" for domestic surveillance and preparedness. It was the event that provided an official rationale for increased monitoring to prevent terrorism before it happened. With regard to Hurricane Katrina, the police department was woefully underprepared and understaffed for a problem of that scale. What resulted was rioting, brutality, looting, shootings, etc.
FEMA’s disaster relief program is
Brown admitting that he knowingly lied to the public about their being up to the task. On the contrary, the officials had a sense of urgency because the rescue and recovery activities were not progressing as envisaged. From the film, it is clear that while citizens were losing their lives, homes, and other property, federal, state, and local officials and agencies wasted time in meetings, negotiating about who was in charge (www.pbs.org, 2). In its examination of Hurricane Katrina, The Storm does well in reviewing the turbulent history of FEMA, more so from the days following the 9/11 attacks.
More and more authorities continue to be taken away and have been spread across many agencies within DHS. “FEMA no longer manages a comprehensive emergency management program of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery and the agency function that President Carter and the Governors envisioned in 1979 no longer exists” (FEMA, 2013). The sole focus has turned to terrorism disaster preparedness and FEMA has become somewhat dismantled and lost its ability to provide the command and control that it had prior to the move to DHS. This will prove to be a major flaw and will again, show the failure of FEMA in the next occurrence of natural disaster the United States faces. There are other agencies within the DHS that need to be scrutinized as
Following the tragic event, the Water and Sewage Board in New Orleans ordered taller levees to be constructed. Hurricane Betsy in 1965 caused leaders to redesign the levee system and the responsibility of levee construction was placed under the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Once again citizens of New Orleans started to reconstruct their city after another natural disaster. Only forty years later Hurricane Katrina, the unfortunate event that was due to the failure of levees to withhold water, left many homeless, dead and looting for survival. Not only did the levees fail the people of New Orleans, but their government also fell short of supplying the desperate citizens of the city with aid and support.
It struck with winds up to 140 mph. Although the hurricane created substantial damage, the aftermath had fatal consequences. The levees that were supposed to withhold a Category 3 hurricane in turn failed and about 50 breaches were created. The 50 breaches were the result of failed construction, neglect of upkeep. The City of New Orleans local & federal legislation should supply the money in order to secure the well being of the city.
While I was searching for the college I wanted to begin the next part of my life in, I decided I wanted to attend an HBCU that was in a large city. Not only does Howard University fulfill both of these, but Howard also has all of my passions and interests in and outside of the classroom. I am interested in pursuing a Sociology degree within The College of Arts and Sciences. I want to organize my studies with a focus around the black community and urban development. The required and elective courses such as Problems in the Black Community within Howard’s Sociology curriculum will allow me to shape my classes to do this.
The utilitarian ethics states: “The greatest good for the greatest number.” Thus, addressing the statistical data on New Orleans population, there were almost 500,000 people living there before the hurricane, whereas population of the United States comprised of more that 300 million people both citizens and residents (Plyer 2015). Therefore, one may come to the conclusion that utilitarian ethics did not work in this situation since population of New Orleans was only 0.17% of the total US population. Moreover, according to McGee (2008), the utilitarianism ethics would not be applicable for coming to the aid of the people (0.3%) who suffered from the hurricane in the cities located along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. “Thus, if the federal government passes legislation to come to the aid of Katrina victims, it is clearly special interest legislation, which is unconstitutional, since there is nothing in the constitution that allows the federal government to come to the aid of any group that is less than a super majority,”- McGee (2008) states.
I am competitive; I look for the chance to run the extra mile. My competitive nature has aided in everything I commit myself to. Regardless if I am participating in a sporting event, competing for a solo in a musical production, or preparing for a final, I will indubitably devote my time and efforts to perform as well as possible. I take every opportunity that is presented to me and attempted to better not only myself but my community as well. I am confident that the Honors College at the College of Charleston will enable me to devote my attention to my studies, become actively involved within campus activities and academic assemblies, and offer my time and abilities to charitable events and organizations.
Near the end of August in 2005 Hurricane Katrina swept the nations southern coastline. Winds within the storm reached a maximum speed of 172mi/h (Category 5). This resulted in 1,300-,1,400 deaths which makes Hurricane Katrina the 5th deadliest Hurricane in U.S. History (Eamon, Fitzpatrick, Truax, 2007, p.117). How prepared were we for this disaster? The Government Accountability Office determined that part of the failure in planning was the actual plans.
Data provided in the simulation material show how effectively the government building is important for the community. First, the emergency management operations is in the basement of the building. A disastrous flooding can hamper all emergency response efforts because emergency managers will not be able to conduct operations properly unless this critical facility is relocated before the hazard impact as advised Lindell, Prater, and Perry (2007). Second, the building hosts the city, the county, the state, and the federal governments, which are the most important institutions that take part in disaster processes and allocate most of the resources needed for emergency and disaster management as said Waugh Jr. and Tierney (2007). It is known that other partners are among the stakeholders for disasters, but these officials’ actions and supports are very important to deal with an emergency and a disaster.
In order to build strategies and skills for resilience to disaster in a community you must be able to observe the disaster from beginning to end to know the pros and cons of the aftermath. Being able to mitigate and rebound back to previous state of being is half the battle. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina showed us how vulnerable we were by revealing our core issues with lack of trust and the nonexistence relationship with the community groups and establishments, religious groups, and other organizations in the communities that created difficulties in community’s relationship. As a concept, community resilience offers an outline that embraces philosophies of equity and social justice with an emphasis on developing the majority of populations
