Flooding Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans

With the weatherman having predicted Hurricane Katrina, the government made Pre Katrina evacuation programs which were supposed to enable smooth evacuation operation. However, once the hurricane started affecting the city, there seemed to be a change of idea on how things were running, which now lead to disorganization (The New York Times, 2013). This paper aims to identify various issues that arose during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, including the problems during evacuation, resettlement and rebuild grant from the government.

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During pre-Katrina, there seemed that some people had decided to stay behind as they didn't consider the warnings to be serious. Such people defected any evacuation plans from the government and were ready to face the storms (Campen, 2015). On the other hand, the evacuation plans for those willing to leave the city were challenged by poor communication between the national and federal and administrations. The two governments failed to communicate on the division of responsibilities such that they ended up colliding and failing to evacuate people in the right procedure (Horowitz, 2017).

New Orleans is a diverse place with people from different ethnicities culture and economic groups. The impact of the storm was spread and felt across all social and racial groups living in the region. The Katrina disaster resulted in massive destruction of property whereby most people were left homeless (Zimmermann, 2015). Additionally, there were shortages in portable water and food. Lack of basic sanitation created health emergency in the region affected.

In terms of compensation, there seemed to be some discrimination in regards to those eligible. Up to the present date, some families have not recovered fully (Marable & Clarke, 2016). Some have been compensated in small chunks which are quite ineffective when it comes to a big project like rebuilding, which requires a considerable amount of money (Fussell et al., 2010). Since the black community was affected the most, they have not recovered equally as compared to the whites (Sullivan, 2005). The whites have the upper hand in the economy of the city. The white and the rich have become the new groups that define the city.

References

Santos, N. (2019, April 26). Fourteen Years Later, New Orleans is Still Trying to Recover from Hurricane Katrina. Retrieved from https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/fourteen-years-later-new-orleans-is-still-trying-to-recover-from-hurricane-katrina

Marable, M., & Clarke, K. (Eds.). (2016). Seeking higher ground: the Hurricane Katrina crisis, race, and public policy reader. Springer.

Campen, A. D. (2015, January 16). Hurricane Katrina Represents A Failure to Communicate. Retrieved from https://www.afcea.org/content/hurricane-katrina-represents-failure-communicate

The New York Times. (2013, October 28). Hurricane Katrina Aftermath: In the Shadow | Retro Report | The New York Times [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlLh9WoZxfk

Fussell, E., Sastry, N., & VanLandingham, M. (2010). Race, socioeconomic status, and return migration to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Population and Environment, 31(1-3), 20-42.

Horowitz, A. (2017, September 14). Opinion | Don't Repeat the Mistakes of the Katrina Recovery. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/opinion/hurricane-katrina-irma-harvey.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FHurricane%20Katrina&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics%C2%AEion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=collection

Sullivan, L. (2005, September 23). How New Orleans' Evacuation Plan Fell Apart. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4860776

Zimmermann, K. A. (2015, August 27). Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Damage & Aftermath. Retrieved from https://www.livescience.com/22522-hurricane-katrina-facts.html