Damage to the Gulf Coast Region and New Orleans the Hurricane Katrina - Essay Example

The Hurricane Katrina The Hurricane Katrina caused vast damage to the Gulf Coast region and New Orleans, in the year 2005. The present miserable of these regions clearly demonstrates the bureaucratic apathy, incompetence and discrimination practiced by American rulers and administrators. Measures to improve the conditions such as cleaning up the debris and rebuilding the damaged roads and bridges were not undertaken by the authorities. A large number of working class districts were demolished by the storm (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). In New Orleans, several houses were damaged and no authority made any effort to address this situation. On the other hand, the city planners were planning to demolish houses that had been damaged in the floods. According to official statistics, more than one thousand eight hundred people had lost their life, during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The city officials failed to remove the cadavers from the ruined houses, and these corpses were allowed to decompose in the flood – damaged houses. Even, several weeks after the storm, dead bodies were to be found in many places (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). There were no plans made to rebuild New Orleans, even after a year had elapsed, after this terrible storm. Moreover, the situation obtaining in the other affected areas along the Gulf Coast was no different. There were no efforts by the authorities to locate the thousands of residents who had been rendered homeless by the storm and who had consequently left the place. The nation’s administration failed to take restorative measures in these storm affected areas (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). The state and local officials were looking for help from Washington. The federal government, state and local governments allowed the situation in New Orleans to deteriorate further, after the Hurricane Katrina storm. However, tourist places and wealthy areas were rebuilt immediately after the storm. The federal aid was apportioned by the financial actors and social lawyers. The majority of the working class people, who were the victims of the storm, were by and large granted no help, whatsoever (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). This glaring injustice was succinctly brought forth by Newsweek, which described the official initiative as, “mostly an opportunity for Southern companies owned by GOP campaign contributors to make some money in New Orleans.” (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). A major initiative of these authorities, prior to even the constitution of the euphemistically named Gulf Opportunity Zone, was the drastic reduction in the remuneration being paid to the workers in these reconstruction efforts (One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot, 2006). There was widespread violence and crime, immediately after the Katrina storm in New Orleans. Robbers pillaged houses, shops and banks; and utilized garbage cans and air filled mattresses to float on the flood water. They robbed anything capable of being robbed, like blue jeans, shoes and television sets. In one incident, thieves took control over a pharmacy, used forklifts to open the shutters and entered by breaking the glass. In another incident, a driver of a nursing home bus was threatened with weapons and asked to hand over the bus to the gangsters. The terrified driver surrendered the vehicle to these criminals (Associated Press, 2005). Crime was widespread in New Orleans after the storm; and the situation was so drastic that even police officers had to procure a greater number of weapons to control the robbers, thugs and looters. The police insisted upon the residents to surrender their firearms to the police before they had evacuated their homes. Some police officers, who were stranded on a hotel roof, stated that robbers had attempted to shoot at them. According to the police, saving human lives was their first priority; hence, they stayed back and tried to control the robberies and looting (Associated Press, 2005). The New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, stated that the looting was so high that it warranted the intervention of the police and the employment of stringent measures to stop the looting at any cost. Hurricane Katrina was the most fearful disaster in the history of that region. Thousands of people were assumed to have drowned in the flood waters; and the ineffective city authorities and ruling elite, could do nothing except to turn off the lights in the ruined city for months thereafter. As such, the streets in this area were submerged under the floodwaters (Associated Press, 2005). The health care system in New Orleans, Louisiana did not regain normalcy, even six months after the Hurricane Katrina. Federal aid was inadequate to rebuild the damaged properties in the city and hospitals had no funds to provide treatment to their uninsured patients. Some state sponsored facilities, like the Tulane University Hospital, were reopened with insufficient resources for providing proper treatment (Zwillich, 2/25/2006, p637-638). There was a heavy shortage of nursing homes, nursing staff, health care workers, medical professionals and mental healthcare services. Most of the medical professionals and nurses had left for other places across the country, in search of safer places and higher remuneration. The result was a drastic understaffing of the New Orleans emergency facilities, which were unable to meet the standards set for the treatment of illness and injuries (Zwillich, 2/25/2006, p637-638). The New Orleans airport sustained a loss of $55 million due to the Katrina storm. Most of its hangars and the steel paneled roof of the main terminal were badly damaged. Repairs to these damaged structures, entail several months of concerted effort. The airport receives most of its revenue from arrivals and departures, which on a daily average number one hundred and seventy. The estimated loss of daily revenue was $170,000. Ironically, this airport, registered a record level of three thousand eight hundred flight operations a day, in the week following the Katrina disaster, but these were due to the plying of the rescue helicopters (Cho, 10/3/2005, p21-21). The New Orleans criminal justice system has been notorious for its inefficiency and structural barriers. The process of fair judicial administration had long been subverted, due to these structural barriers. Moreover, there was scant funding for the criminal justice system agencies in New Orleans. They were accused of incompetence and mismanagement. This was the situation with regard to criminal justice system in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina occurred. After the hurricane struck, a number of efforts were made to rebuild the city. This provided a unique opportunity for the authorities of the criminal justice system to assess the overall situation with regard to the damage caused by Katrina and the ills of the system that had been in existence even before Katrina had struck, and to reconstruct the criminal justice system accordingly (Justice in New Orleans, 2007). Hurricane Katrina was the most harmful natural disaster in US history. The Brookings Institution estimated that nearly a third of the New Orleans’ schools, hospitals and libraries had to be closed down after the Hurricane Katrina. Half of the public transportation routes were severely damaged by the storm, and thousands of people were displaced. One family, namely the Hamiltons, were forced to take the difficult decision of changing their residence of sixteen years, after the damage caused by this hurricane; however, with commendable optimism, they decided to restore the status quo ante, regarding their dwelling and their words in this respect were, "When we finally got back, we seen the devastation and at that time we had decided wed tear the whole thing down and we probably wasnt gonna return. But each time we came back, we were leaning more toward rebuilding." (McLaughlin, 2006). A majority of the New Orleans’ population were dispersed after the storm. The remaining residents were frustrated with the government’s incompetent measures of rebuilding and recovery. The crime rate increased drastically and the exodus from this area comprised of people belonging to all age groups. Some people, who were in their sixties or seventies had grown up children, who had settled in other communities; these elderly people had been evacuating their homes in large numbers, in order to settle with their children. These elderly people were the main contributors to the communal activities. Hence, communal officials were more concerned about them. Almost all the institutions had lost their major donors and contributors due to Hurricane Katrina (Chalew, 2006). According to Katie Couric, CBS News anchor and managing editor, thousands of people had dispersed across the nation and the city had been emptied as more than half of its population evacuated to safer areas. In addition, the Lower Ninth Ward was dangerously flooded, due to the bursting of the levees. A similar situation was to be found in New Orleans East (Rebuilding New Orleans Is Slow Going, 2007). A community – wide task force was established to implement the rebuilding plans. The first priority of the plan was to determine means to retain the current residents in New Orleans and to invite new settlers to the city. Hurricane Katrina provided some positive outcomes after the storm. One of these was the rapidly increasing spirit of cooperation between the Jewish organizations in New Orleans. For instance, Beth Israel Congregation, the Orthodox synagogue, which was submerged in ten – feet of water, was found to be holding a Shabbat minyan at the Reform Gates of Prayer Congregation. Similarly, the Anti – Defamation League was utilizing the federation office space. Sharing and cooperation between the various agencies increased. In order to gain money for sustenance, the JCC rented out its facilities to these community agencies (Chalew, 2006). Hurricane Katrina caused severe damage to the Gulf Coast, and this damage was estimated at $150 billion. New Orleans was transformed into a giant disaster zone, and the reconstruction process was very slow. Several people voluntarily came forward to help rebuild the city. Some women formed a six hundred member strong organization to act as tour guides for the visiting congress members in the storm – hit areas in New Orleans. One member Anne Milling stated, "No one can understand the magnitude of the devastation or the challenges unless they see it block by block, mile by mile (Rebuilding New Orleans Is Slow Going, 2007)." List of References Associated Press. (2005, September 1). New Orleans mayor orders looting crackdown . Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9063708/ Chalew, G. N. (2006, August 17). One year after Katrina, New Orleans Jews rebuilding. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://www.jstandard.com/articles/1451/1/One-year-after-Katrina,-New-Orleans-Jews-rebuilding Cho, A. (10/3/2005, p21-21). Better Emergency Planning And Flexibility Needed in Crisis. ENR: Engineering News-Record , Vol. 255 Issue 13, 1c; (AN 18550002). Justice in New Orleans. (2007, August 28). Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://www.urban.org/publications/411530.html McLaughlin, E. C. (2006, August 30). A year later, recovery in New Orleans not easy. Retrieved May 14, 2008, from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/08/29/katrina.anniversary/index.html One year since Hurricane Katrina: New Orleans left to rot. (2006, August 29). Retrieved May 15, 2008, from World Socialist Web Site: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/katr-a29.shtml Rebuilding New Orleans Is Slow Going. (2007, August 28). Retrieved May 14, 2008, from CBS Evening News: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/28/eveningnews/main3212929.shtml Zwillich, T. (2/25/2006, p637-638). Health care remains basic in New Orleans. Lancet , Vol. 367 Issue 9511, 2c; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68244-5; (AN 19865405). Read More