Hurricane Katrina as the Deadliest Storm since the Last Few Decades - Research Paper Example

Hurricane Katrina Introduction: Hurricane Katrina, one of the most catastrophic events to ever occur in America, has struck “New Orleans, LA, Mobile, AL, and Gulfport” (Hurricane Katrina, 2005, par.1) during the month of August, 2005. This storm was by far the most deadliest one since the last few decades and is also said to have been the most expensive one as it led to “economic losses in excess of $100 billion” (Shah, 2005, p.24). Reports show that almost 1836 people lost their lives to this natural phenomenon. Katrina started out in the Bahamas just as any tropical storm on August 23rd. Later it started moving westwards and caused landfall in Florida on 25th, although it subsided it revived intensity when it reached the Gulf of Mexico on 26th and attained the status of “major hurricane” (Hurricane Katrina, 2005, par.4). By 27th, it became a category five hurricane and led to drastic storm surges, which caused the seawater to rise and hit coastlines as well as bays. On the 28th, it reached its maximum level of winds and caused further damages with wind speeds of 175mph. The 29th of the month witnessed landfalls at LA and Grand Isle as well as heavy rainfall throughout the gulf coast. As on the 31st, New Orleans was flooded from lakes nearby and some parts were submerged as much as 20 feet under, along with parts of Mississippi and Gulfport as well. Katrina had by this time dissipated over Canada. However, it can be seen that Katrina was a very intensive hurricane, which expressed its wrath over America and caused so much loss of life and property. It can be seen that traditionally America has made the state and local governments in charge of responding to disasters and natural calamities, with a limited role from the federal government. Homeland security in the country called for a National Incident Management System (NIMS) and also a National Response Plan (NRP), developed in 2004, which would give an idea to the government to tackle situations wherein nature becomes an enemy to the mankind. These are emergency plans, which would help government at local, state as well as federal levels to be prepared in the face of any disaster. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible to make such emergency plans. Preparedness for Hurricane Katrina: Hurricane Katrina was the first Incident of National Significance (INS), declared so, formally on August 30, 2005. The NRP failed to clearly state the exact actions to be performed and steps to be taken in the event of an INS. During the eight months after its creation, parts of the plan were already executed to test its accordance with the federal government. Therefore, some functions mentioned to be done during the course of an INS were already performed before the Hurricane Katrina was actually declared an INS. There are a lot of entities responsible for emergency response during events of natural disasters. The Emergency Support Function (ESF) refers to a group of “government and private sector entities that provide support, resources, and services” (The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006, par.27) in order to help federal agencies provide the necessary assistance and resources that state and local governments require. The Incident Command System (ICS), the main constituent of the NIMS, with its five functional elements “Command, Planning, Operations, Logistics, and Finance/Administration,” (The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006, par.13) aims to “coordinate the efforts of individual responders and agencies” (The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006, par.13) in the event of a major incident. The various entities focus on coordinating government at all levels and private sector organizations in order to facilitate sharing of information, planning, utilization of resources, emergency response as well as recovery actions at the time of an incident. These entities include Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (LOHSEP), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Regional Response Coordination Center (RRCC), Homeland Security Operations Center (HSOC) and so on. Emergency plans that were in place before the Hurricane Katrina struck include local plans such as Louisiana Emergency Operation Plan as well as central plan such as NRP and the NIMS. Then there is Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), which facilitates mutual aid as well as various response assets needed at the time of crisis. The lack of preparedness and training of the government as well as other authorities can be seen through the damages that entailed as a result of Katrina. Although it can be seen that The US Coast Guard as well as various private owned enterprises “conducted extensive planning and training for disasters” (Hurricane Katrina: A National Still Unprepared, 2006, p. 3) and made use of these during the disastrous storm It is clear that the emergency management officials received inadequate training for any such disaster and when Katrina finally hit, these officials and National Guardsmen received “basic NRP and ICS training only two days” (Hurricane Katrina: A National Still Unprepared, 2006, p. 15) later. Before Katrina, there was time to conduct just a single large-scale federal exercise, the DHS TOPOFF 3, as NRP was issued just three months before. As far as the populace is concerned, there is no way they could have known about any emergency plan prior to the arrival of Katrina, as even the some government officials were unaware of such a plan, and those who knew were unprepared and unfamiliar with it. Emergency Planning Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina: Planning for any disaster is very important as it has everything to do with the way the emergency response system works. There were a lot of planning failures revealed as a result of Hurricane Katrina. First among these is that the 100,000 population had no means to evacuate itself when such a disaster struck. The federal government did not revise earlier plans or pay attention to the New Orleans officials when they reported that the city could not provide for the pre-storm evacuation. The city was unable to provide proper transportation facilities as mentioned in the plan. The US Department of Transportation and FEMA did not expect the possibility of actually being called upon for assistance and thus, could not facilitate evacuation at an early stage. Communication and coordination also seemed to have failed despite have been paid more attention to during the planning stage. Another major cause of failure is the destruction of the levees built to protect New Orleans from getting flooded, as they were not cut out for the most severe of hurricanes. “Critical elements of the National Response Plan were executed late” (A failure of Initiative, 2006, p.2) and proved to be “ineffective” (A failure of Initiative, 2006, p.12) There were various organizational and policy factors responsible for the planning failures too as is seen when President Bush said “the system, at every level of government, was not well-coordinated, and was overwhelmed in the first few days” (The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006, par.43). The draft CIS was circulated for final approval only after the landfall occurred as a result of Katrina. The major setback here was Department of Homeland Security having waited for the requests from state and local governments to send in federal government for help. There was a doubt as to who was in charge. A lack of “integrated search and rescue command” (The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006) was also seen, which was a result of failure of organizational policy The first and foremost lesson learned is that the traditional role of state and local governments alone in the event of a disaster should be expanded and the responsibility should be equally shared by the federal government as well. In the event of a disaster, the federal government should take the role of ‘push’ rather than ‘pull’ and this can be checked by the Department of Justice in order to invoke effective response through federal law enforcement. Federal government must revise existing plans and make new ones, which would prove to help the whole country brace for further such catastrophes. The DHS needs to “develop a modern, flexible, and transparent logistics system” (The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, 2006, par.45) and the Department of Transportation needs to “be prepared to conduct mass evacuation operations” in the event of natural as well as man-made disasters. Federal government now focuses to have an efficient system that would incorporate into it all elements needed in the event of response to catastrophes such as planning, communication, coordination, evacuation, relief and so on. Although Hurricane Katrina has caused wide-spread damage and loss, it has also taught the government important lessons and opened their eyes to develop and maintain a system that would prevent and be able to cope up with any such natural or man-made disasters that may occur in the future. Reference List A Failure of Initiative. (2006). U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved from Hurricane Katrina. (2005). NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved from < http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/special-reports/katrina.html> Hurricane Katrina: A National Still Unprepared. (2006). Retrieved from Shah, H. (2005). Hurricane Katrina: Profile of a Super Cat: Lessons and Implications for Catastrophe Risk Management. Risk Management Solution Inc. All Right Reserved. Retrieved from The federal response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned. (2006). The White House. Retrieved from < http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/chapter2.html > Read More