Hurricane Katrina in August of 29th 2005 - Research Paper Example

HURRICANE KATRINA affiliation The paper looks at the disastrous event that was caused by Hurricane Katrina in August of 29th 2005. The steps taken but the government and more specific federal states including the locals on the efforts aimed at providing aid in affected area and rescue measure taken to help affected people or not taken and how effective was the whole operations. The role played by several agencies during the storm and their response in coordinating the operation. The area that was neglected and where they did very well, the aftermath of the disaster, leadership failure, inadequate supply of food and water and finally poor management. Introduction It was early morning hours in 2005 August 29th, when Hurricane Katrina struck surprisingly the Gulf Coast part of the USA, when the storm finally made a landfall, it was estimated to have been Category 3 rating according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale which in its category brought sustainable massive winds of about 100-140 miles, the winds were measured per hour, it had stretched to about 400 miles across the area. The damage was grave but afterwards its aftermath was an imaginable catastrophic in nature. All the levee breach was in a massive flooding where many people were outraged about their federal government to have been very slow in responding with help to those who were affected severely and they need of help, for instance, hundreds of thousands in the states of Lousiana, Mississipi and Alabama were displaced because their homes were destroyed badly. Later after assessing the damages when the storm was over, experts estimated that the storm may have caused over 100b US dollars in damage (Daniels, Kunreuther, H., & National Symposium on Risk and Disasters, 2006). It was from the tropical depression that resulted into Hurricane Katrina, after the process that involved the clouds which was formed above the Bahamas during August of 23th, 2005, after the meteorologist’s finding, they warned people around the Gulf Coast states to evacuate because of the coming of the storm, this early warnings made it possible for many lives to be saved otherwise it could have been a grave yard. By August of 28th that year evacuation was underway and many people were ready moving across the region. On that same day, National Weather service had a prediction of most Gulf Coast region likely to be left uninhabitable for weeks as a result of the storm or even longer (Danna & Cordray, 2010). New Orleans was the most susceptible to the storm; this is because half of its city lies directly above sea level. The day before the disaster struck, the mayor Ray Nagin released what is said to be the city’s first-ever compulsory evacuation order for all citizens, at the same time he stated that the superdome which is the stadium located on a moderately high ground downtown to be of service as isolated shelter for the victims who are unable to leave the city, for instance, about112,000-500,000 citizens from New Orleans were not completely able to access a car but the efforts of the federal government, charge organizations and other agencies plus individual people had managed to evacuate close to 80% of the population by the nightfall. Some 10,000 had taken the option of superdome shelter, while the remaining tens of thousands remained at home waiting the storm helplessly (DesRoches, 2006). Many people proved to be heroes during the disaster, they took appropriate actions of saving more lives and property, for example the Coast Guard made their level best day and night and ended up rescuing a total of 34,00o people with the New Orleans alone while many other ordinary citizens used boats for the rescue, distributed food, water and shelter to their friends, family and neighbors to keep them alive. There was entirely poor management and leadership throughout, even timely recruitment of extra rescue teams and training was not done properly. Yet the whole government of the United States and more specifically federal government appeared confused and unprepared for this calamity and there emergency response was very minimal, what they did was not satisfactory at all. Federal Emergency Management Agency or (FEMA) were not able to response on time instead they delayed to set up an immediate operation center in New Orleans, in addition to that they seemed not having a concrete plan of action to work upon. Including the president of the day Mr George Bush appeared to be unaware on how bad the situation was on the ground or entire affected region, the number of people stranded or missing, the figure of homes destroyed or under floods and much aid was needed (Levitt & Whitaker, 2009). One reporter described the aftermath of the disaster as a “total disaster zone” and a place people are “getting absolutely desperate” daily. Overall emergency needed proper management at different levels and coordination. Many people had nowhere to call home any more while at Superdome where people had gathered the suppliers were running low day by day, the officials were so adamant but finally accepted about 15,000 more refugees running from the storm that following Monday after which they locked the doors. The so called City leaders were seen as status because they had no appropriate plan to follow while tens of thousands citizens were desperate looking for food, water, and at the same time shelter. This led them to Ernest N. Morial and Convention Center complex but what they found was chaos all over, in other words it was now impossible to depart from New Orleans to any other place, this increased desperateness especially the poor people who had no cars and had to go nowhere, for example some group of people attempted to walk over famous Crescent City Connector overpass to the close by town of Grema but it was in vain since the standby police officers carrying short guns stopped them and insisted for them to go back Hurricane Katrina also affected with greater margin parts of Louisiana, Alabama and finally Mississippi although more people were desperate in New Orleans. Before the disaster struck, New Orleans was known to be inhabited with black population mostly who comprised about 67% whereas a total of 30% black population lived in poverty but with the occurrence of Hurricane Katrina the situation became even worse (Tarshis & Dawson, 2011). Conclusion Therefore the real casualty of this disaster rose to 2,000 people while more were seriously affected, about 90,000 square miles was destroyed. Hundreds of thousands from the people who were evacuated are now scattered all over the country but few years down the line the recovery and rebuilding is still in progress as those who stay around the Gulf Coast currently have moved on and resettled back. Hurricane Katrina’s effects still exists to date and it will be difficult for the life to be the same for those who were affected again for years and restore back the destroy lives and properties. on the same note, it should act as a wakeup call for the government and the federal states to initiate a concrete plan to enact disaster related policies that will be used in future incase such storms and other calamities happens simply because during the disaster because the whole government of the United States and to be specifically, the federal government appeared confused and unprepared for this calamity and there emergency response was not able to cover half of the needed aid. The leadership’s performance was below the average completely, they could not offer proper direction during the disaster apart from the announcement made by the New Orleans mayor to set up a separate place for the victims to shelter. This showed a total failure in leadership management where other agencies including church organization and individual people stepped in to rescue and distribution of water and food. The federal government lacked proper system to coordinate from or set up centers where to manage the situation from. The same call goes to the citizens some took long before moving out from the most prone areas while some were just adamant to move from their homes, the rescue could have been faster and done the first day of the warning since the metrological department did a good job of alerting everybody to be aware of what was coming and it was the responsibility of the government to take over in rescue and evacuation since it has the machinery References Daniels, R. J., Kettl, D. F., Kunreuther, H., & National Symposium on Risk and Disasters. (2006). On risk and disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Danna, D., & Cordray, S. E. (2010). Nursing in the storm: Voices from Hurricane Katrina. New York: Springer Pub. Co. DesRoches, R. (2006). Hurricane Katrina: Performance of transportation systems. Reston: American Society of Civil Engineers. Levitt, J. I., & Whitaker, M. C. (2009). Hurricane Katrina: Americas unnatural disaster. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Tarshis, L., & Dawson, S. (2011). I survived Hurricane Katrina, 2005. New York: Scholastic. Read More