Hurricane Katrina the Impact of Vertical and Horizontal Intergovernmental Fragmentation - Article Example

Hurricane Katrina the Impact of Vertical and Horizontal Intergovernmental Fragmentation In 2005 a huge catastrophic event occurred in Louisiana and Mississippi which affected the community especially the New Orleans area. The natural force that struck this area was Hurricane Katrina. It was categorized in the Saffir-Simpson scale as category five hurricane. Such a categorization means the winds speeds reach a peek of over 156 miles per hour. The damages of human life and property were devastating. There were a total of 1836 fatalities and the damages were estimated to be above $105 billion according to the Bush Administration. This paper focuses on the role of intergovernmental relationship and provides evidence of vertical and horizontal fragmentation in preparedness and response. It describes the specific problems that occurred in New Orleans and the reasons why the government evacuation response was slow and inefficient in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The people affected in this area suffered greatly due to this unforeseen event. The entire infrastructure of New Orleans was totally destroyed. The exodus of residents from the area due to lack of housing has changed the place. It is estimated that over 770,000 people were forced to seek refuge because of Katrina, a figure which represents the largest migrations of Americans since the Dust Bowl Migrations of the 1930’s (Homeland Security, 2006). In the early states of the aftermath of Katrina the Superdome was utilized as a refugee center for over 20,000 people. The surrounding areas were in a horrible state and overcrowding of the center cause serious sanitation problems. There was overheating with no air conditioning and bathrooms malfunctioned because of lack of water. Throughout the city riots exploded as starving people became desperate and turn to violence. Looters began to take everything from abandoned flooded stores. The crimes and desperation of the residents made it unsafe to evacuate the area until the situation could be stabilized by law enforcements. Excessive flooding was a factor which slowed down evacuation tremendously. The city of New Orleans did not have any type of legitimate plan to handle a disaster prior to Katrina. All major cities have plans to evacuate their entire population in case of an emergency. In New Orleans their massive evacuation plan was to rely mainly on the faith based community to organize and mobilize caravans to out of the city for those without cars or who needed special assistance (Walters, 2005). A city is responsible of attending the need of its residents during the first 24 to 48 hours during an emergency. State and federal government are not able to provide instant assistance. New Orleans was a very poor community prior to Katrina which was mostly populated by African Americans. In 2005 68% of the residents of New Orleans were African-American and 23% of the overall population was living below the federal poverty standard, a poverty rate nearly double the national average (Guion & Scammon & Borders). A community with such a high proportion of its population in one ethnic group has the characteristics of a segregated community. The general perception of the African American population in the area was that their community was not of importance to the government before, during, or after Katrina. After the storm hit there were insufficient vehicles to evacuate the area. Over one-fifth of the population did not have access to cars and the city’s inefficient public system delayed the evacuation process. High levels of poverty and the governments’ indifference towards improving the living standards of a minority owned community greatly influenced the ramifications of Katrina. Hurricane Katrina required a massive evacuation of people. There were complications during the entire process and the government’s evacuation response was slow. The list below provides some of the reasons this occurred: A high demand for services such as water, food, shelter and search and rescue missions. Inadequate response capacity. Local authorities became victims of the flood themselves and the federal government could not respond on time due to the distance from the disaster. A lack of communication limited the ability of authorities to establish situational awareness, share information and coordinate action. The authorities lacked experience working in a disaster of the magnitude of Katrina. (Moynihan, 2007) Louisiana and New Orleans were two areas which did not have the governmental capacity to deal properly with a medium size emergency; an event like Katrina was overwhelming. The Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and National Preparedness was understaffed by 40% in comparison with other states (Moynihan). Responsibilities of this office were outsourced to the local National Guard without providing the unit any training to deal with such matters. The police and fire departments had a total of five boats combined (Moynihan). The topography of this area was predisposed for potential flooding. Approximately 55% of New Orleans lies eight feet below sea level. (Guion, et. al., 2007). The Mississippi area also had artificial levee which required high levels of maintenance and capital improvements which were unattended. The Corps of Engineers was the agency responsible to make the upgrades to the levee. The federal government cut the budget of this agency. The overall 2005 Corp of Engineers budget was $290 million, a figure which represent $300 million less than the required amount to fixed the levee (Times Picayune, 2005). The Bush administration ignored the recommendation of the Corps of Engineers and the consequences during Katrina were enormous. Failure to the Mississippi levee caused a lot of the flooding in the New Orleans area. Governmental intervention in natural disasters requires unified and coordinated efforts among all levels of the national government. Federal, state and city agencies must work together efficiently. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is one of the most important agencies responsible for helping people during disasters. The agency prior to Katrina had gone through a lot changes including major budgets cuts and change in its philosophy. The tragic events of 9/11 changed the agency into a type of paramilitary organization as far as its policies on information sharing. The agency also separated itself from the preparedness function. The responsibility in case of a disaster between the three chains of governments is different for each level of government. In Louisiana there were huge power struggles and lack of communication between all three levels of governments prior to Katrina. The relationship between this state and FEMA was not good. In 2004 three executives of the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security were indicted for alleged misuse of over $60 million of FEMA mitigation money (Walters, 2005). FEMA retaliated against this state after this scandal and a lot of institutional knowledge and important human assets were not available to this state afterwards. Robert Leblank, Verlimion’s director of emergency preparedness, made public allegations that one of the key human resources that was not available during the disaster was Mike Brown; Leblank said: “He knew exactly what to do during emergencies” (Walters, 2005). The dysfunctional relationships in this state were everywhere. There were tensions between New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, and the mayor of Baton Rouge. The feud was over a lack of support during political campaigns, which made no sense since they were both democrats. Ray Nagin did not make any hurricane preparation for New Orleans. The fact that the city had not been struck by a hurricane in 65 years could have given him and his administration a false sense of security. President Bush declared a state of emergency for the area two days before the hurricane past through the area. The local government did not order an immediate evacuation after the president’s warning. The local evacuation came at the last minute when flooding was well underway. The neighboring cities could have provided help in the evacuation mission, but it did not occur. The only refuge alternative utilized was the superdome which was an area which was only supposed to serve the needs of the elderly and disable, not the entire community. The local governments did not have experience or training to make logistical decisions that affect large amounts of people. The financial impact of the decisions they were suppose to make was out of the scope of their political powers. Local and federal government did not facilitate the process and decision making was too slow. A lesson was learned from this tragedy and federal government has taken measures to ensure the proper chain of command is in place once again. The agency with the most experience in these matters is FEMA. The congress of the United States passed a law known as the Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 to make FEMA the national government disaster coordinator (Cigler, 2006). References Cigler, B. (2006). Intergovernmental Lessons from Katrina and the Great Flood of 2005 in New Orleans. 15-22. Retrieved June 13, 2007 from http://www.personal.psu.edu/bac8/Intergovernmental_Lessons_final.doc Guion, D. , Scammon. D. , Borders, A. (2007). Weathering the Storm: A Social Marketing Perspective on Disaster Preparedness and Response with Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 26(1), 12. Retrieved June 17, 2007 from EBSCOhost database. Homeland Security (2006). Statement by Homeland Security Michael Chertoff Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Retrieved June 12, 2007 from http://www.dhs.gov Moynihan, D. What Makes Hierarchical Networks Succeed? Evidence From Hurricane Katrina. 20. Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://www.lafollette.wisc.edu/appam/mohynihankatrina.pdf Moynihan, D. (2007). From Forest Fires to Hurricane Katrina: Case Studies of Incident Command Systems. 15. Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://www.businessofgovernment.org/pdfs/MoynihanKatrina.pdf Times Picayune (2005). New Orleans. Retrieved June 20, 2007 from http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/08/the_levees_befo.php#before Walters, J. (2005). Features Convention over Catastrophes. Retrieved June 16, 2007 from http://www.govexec.com Read More