Essay Sample on Katrina's Wrath: Unprecedented Destruction and Loss of Life

Introduction

Hurricane Katrina shaped as a humid tempest on August 23, 2005, off the shore of the Bahamas (Farber, 2018). In the next one week that followed, the tropical storm developed and formed a shattering hurricane that initially hit land in Florida, then moved along the Gulf coastline in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. The storm left a stream of destruction and anguish, characterized by astounding physical demolition. Katrina swamped New Orleans city and claimed the lives of over 1,800 people and caused over $100 billion in property damage, making the hurricane the most destructive natural disaster in American history (Farber, 2018). Katrina's destruction got hugely aggravated by letdowns by the Legislature, the Central government administration governed by President Bush, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Army Corps of Engineers. The drawback exposed a lag in disaster response and readiness (Farber, 2018).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

What Went Wrong?

The American metrologies had warned the United States government against the approaching Katrina hurricane. The American metrologies had advised the United States government to prepare for the hurricane, yet the local, state, and federal levels ignored. Critical governmental failures include confusion whereby significant national representatives were not hands-on, and they offered broken information to the nation. The United States federal officials were inadequately trained on disaster management, an aspect that hindered their disaster response. Different national organizations had variable degrees of knowledge in undertaking the duties and responsibilities assigned by the National Response Plan and National Incident Management System. Following the unfamiliarity, the federal agencies got confused over task distributions and the formation of the incident facilitation structure.

Learning failures. The Bush Administration was hardly prepared despite being widely aware that hurricanes such as Katrina were probable. Besides, the weather forecast had warned about Katrina's advancement before it hit the mainland. Coincidentally, in the previous year before the Katrina, disaster management agencies had undertaken a mockup exercise, titled Hurricane Pam. The training exercise covered tempests of comparable strength to those that hit New Orleans; however, the government agencies did not take essential lessons from the disaster management exercise (Jeanlouis, 2016).

Communication failure. According to Daniel (2014), there was a widespread collapse in communications, an aspect that froze command and harmonization, lowering the situational responsiveness of during the incident. Different disaster management agencies were unable to coordinate their activities following apparatus letdowns and an absence of system interoperability. The communication breakdown happened despite FEMA and other government bodies offering the government and local administrations grants to procure backup communication systems, an initiative that dates back to the Cold War (Daniel, 2004). Communication failure was characterized by indecision, which plagued leaders in supplies and medical personnel deployed to the affected areas.

Supplies failure. As part of being prepared for the incoming storm, emergency supplies had been prepositioned (Fussell, 2015). However, the supplies got stationed so far that their dissemination to hurricane hit such as the Superdome arena took days. FEMA was wasteful of provisions; for instance, the ice got distributed to the wrong holding centers located in towns, not on the coastline (Fussell, 2015). Resources got wasted following FEMA's paying for numerous mobile homes that cost hundreds of million dollars. However, they did not get used since the shelters were located in flooded areas (Fussell, 2015).

What Went Right?

Different stakeholders combined efforts to combat Hurricane Katrina. The stakeholders involved inter-governmental stakeholders, which were federal, state, and local, while cross-sectoral stakeholders included the public, private, and non-profit actors. A large scale crisis call for more responders with a superior diversity of capacities was conducted. The hurricane setup was so large that it was impossible to understand all the parties involved. The different organizations' response was consistent with the central goal of reducing suffering and loss of life. Various networks got created to meet specific goals. For instance, different entities were allocated specific responses such as evacuation, delivery of food, ice, medicine, and water, recovery of bodies and mortuary services, public safety restoration, restoring communication and power, and offering medical services, among other specific goals. Despite coordination problems, the majority of the task-specific networks offered unprecedented responses.

Service members, aircraft, and rescue boats were deployed by the coast guard, which helped evacuate over 30,000 people (Crosweller, 2015). The Coast Guard utilized local decision-making and ethos of independent actions that proved to be a critical element when communication elements were down. The National Guard, which is state-owned, played a significant role by helping restore law and order following the devastation of the indigenous police. The National Guard also helped different aspects of emergency response, which included medical care and wreckage removal.

Lessons Learned From Hurricane Katrina

Different challenges that arose following Hurricane Katrine provided different lessons for ICS structure and natural disasters. For instance, the then system of Homeland Security did not offer the essential context to manage the tasks posed by the modern-day disastrous threats. Effective incident management disasters call for the harmonization of a wide array of group actions, both civic and private. Following Katrina, State and local authorities were unable to communicate, organize, and coordinate resources amongst each other. State administrators struggled to undertake tasks under-taken by government and local establishments such as citizens' rescue. Therefore, as part of the lesson learned, the National administration should collaborate with Homeland Security and revisit the comprehensive plans to ensure a functioning operative structure. They should establish a liable course for all nationwide readiness efforts. The national administration must organize, train, and equip executive branch agencies for efficient disaster management.

Integrating military capabilities to disaster response was a critical challenge. Following the occurrence of Katrina, it was clear that the Department of Defense (DOD) can undertake a vital role in disaster response. However, for help to be acquired from the DOD during a crisis, the approach can be slow and bureaucratic. As part of the lesson, Homeland Security and DOD should jointly plan to have support in place to offer Federal response activities.

The storm wrecked a vast part of the central communication setup on the Gulf Coast. Katrina disabled the 911emergency call center and disrupted local emergency systems, while over 3million individuals lost telephone service (Labib & Read, 2015). Thus, as part of the communication lesson learned, Homeland Security should revisit strategies, tactics, and schemes pertinent to communication. Following the review, Homeland Security, in partnership with the Science and Technology Policy, can develop a nationwide emergency communication scheme that can support communication operability during emergencies and catastrophic events (Labib & Read, 2015).

Role Played by the Private Sector in Hurricane Katrina Response and Recovery

According to Farber (2018), the private segment played an enormous and useful role in response and recovery during Katrina. For instance, the Red Cross had approximately 239 shelters that housed over 40,000 that housed those evacuated the day Katrina attained landfall (Farber, 2018). Followed continued rescues and evacuation, the shelters expanded and held over 146,000 displaced individuals (Farber, 2018). The Red Cross also aided the people with millions of meals and refreshments to the storm survivors. The Salvation Army was also a key contributor as it housed over 30,000 in 225 shelters (Farber, 2018).

Private businesses such as Walmart played a crucial role in response as they organized to offer life-saving provisions into the dented areas. Walmart offered over cash contributions exceeding $20 million, provided free goodies, and meals feeding up to 100,000 (Farber, 2018). Insurance companies were also swiftly moving to the affected areas ensuring pay got accelerated to the covered homeowners (Farber, 2018). Home Depot also extended relief to the affected families, making it to the list of private entities that offer many supplies to the needy people affected by Katrina (Farber, 2018).

Recommendation to the Private Sector to Improve Effectiveness Response

Businesses and non-governmental institutions should have robust enticements to support the public where tragedies strike following charitable desires, from which they can gain respect and loyal customers. Following massive catastrophes such as Katrina, private entities should establish communications with government disaster response entities such as FEMA for guidelines on the support they can offer in terms of supplies. Local private entities can also extend their services to not only feeding the displaced but also help them rebuild their homes and secure promising jobs to all displaced workers. The public reaction should thus assimilate the contribution of helpers and non-governmental societies into the state strategies of disaster response. The government should engage the NGOs in disaster management planning processes.

References

Crosweller, M. (2015). Improving our capability to better plan for, respond to, and recover fromsevere-to-catastrophic level disasters. Australian Journal of Emergency Management, The, 30(4), 41. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=595588423712836;res=IELHSS.

Daniel, D. E. (2014). A perspective on the levee failures in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. In From Soil Behavior Fundamentals to Innovations in Geotechnical Engineering: Honoring Roy E. Olson (pp. 271-282). Retrieved from: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/9780784413265.022.

Farber, D. (2018). Response and recovery after Hurricane Maria: Lessons for disaster law and policy. Retrieved from: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/936195d5.

Fussell, E. (2015). The long-term recovery of New Orleans' population after Hurricane Katrina. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(10), 1231-1245. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0002764215591181.

Jeanlouis, J. (2016). Hurricane Katrina, Failed Tax Policies, and the New Orleans Recovery. SUL, Rev., 44, 85. Retrieved from: https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/soulr44&div=8&id=&page=.

Labib, A., & Read, M. (2015). A hybrid model for learning from failures: the Hurricane Katrinadisaster. Expert Systems with Applications, 42(21), 7869-7881. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0957417415004224.