Trends in Terrorism - Essay Example

Tsunamis, hurricanes, and typhoons are just a few natural disasters that mankind faces from time to time (Kapur & Smith, 2010). It is up to different individuals to set the stage for some of them to be tackled. This paper will examine one such disaster, and some of the communication problems agencies might have faced when it came down to handling the situation. Hurricane Katrina, to some, may have been the worst hurricane to ever hit the Atlantic. It is estimated to have killed over 1, 800 people, and the damage assessed to over 80 billion U.S dollars. Communication failure might have worked to increase the damage in terms of lives lost and the property destroyed.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director at the time was forced to resign because of the actions or lack of actions, to warn of the failure of the levee system to drain the flood water. The New Orleans Police Department also had to let go of the Superintendent after investigations were conducted into the failure of the levee system in the area (Milakovich & Gordon, 2011). Accurate weather tracking were provided by the U.S Coast Guard and the National Hurricane Center. However, none of these agencies were provided with sufficient knowledge about the levee system in the areas affected, and there was no way the citizens in the area could have automatically known of their fate.

During the impact of Katrina, a lot of areas needed health information. Unfortunately, as the devastation of the hurricane continued, it was crucial for the agencies present to change their strategies to those of drown prevention and protection against electrical threats (Izard & Perkins, 2011). The fire departments in some of the states affected were destroyed completely, making the rescue efforts harder for the local agencies and some of the personnel to reach the affected areas. Communication became a problem due to the loss of information centers in these regions.

There were reports of department personnel from some of the agencies abandoning their posts during the storm. There would have been no definite channel of communication between the different departments and agencies that were present during the evacuation and rescue operations. The destroyed communication infrastructure disabled rescue attempts as there could no longer be any coordination of response teams. There could be no access to the police and fire dispatch centers present in the affected areas, and no public safety radio system was able to operate adequately.

In one incident, a senior state official was reported as saying there was no channel of communication and people were writing messages on paper, putting them in bottles, and throwing them in the water for people on the ground (Milakovich & Gordon, 2011). The inadequacy and inefficiency of response teams had consequences on the lives and property of the individuals in the affected areas. The economic, social, and even political scene was changing as people were quick to point fingers in every direction.

In terms of repairs for some of the damages, the administration at the time sought for over $100 billion to start some of the repairs. Land was destroyed in the aftermath of Katrina, for example in Mississippi; acres of forest land were destroyed. The redistribution of people changed the social scene drastically