Hurricane Sandy in the USA - Coursework Example

Hurricane Sandy in the USA Abstract Hurricane Sandy impacted the east coast of the United States of America (USA) on October 29th evening in the year 2012. The consequence of the super storm was devastating. The role of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) before, during and after the occurrence of the disaster was crucial. Nonetheless, several issues had emerged during the preparedness and response process of the agency which contributed towards reducing the effectiveness of the overall process along with generating considerable dissatisfaction. Accordingly, shortages in food, water supply as well as other amenities were experienced by the victims. Besides, funds were also not properly distributed. Notably, the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie was alleged for using the relief fund for personal use. At the same time, inequality in terms of services provided and a lack of social justice were widely witnessed. In order to ensure ethical practice within FEMA, a few relevant recommendations towards improving the relief practice have been recommended. It is expected that such improvement will facilitate in providing ethical responses to the disaster events in the upcoming years. Introduction The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was founded in 1979. The primary goal of the agency is to engage in coordination of response during the situations of disasters that occur in the United States backed up by the resources of local and state authorities. Another major purpose of the agency is to engage in both state and local level with the pool of experts in the specialist fields and to provide financial support for rebuilding efforts and relief funds. The role of FEMA since its establishment has been noteworthy and has supported responses over 1800 events and incidents. Nonetheless, in order to acquire support responses from the agency, there are certain procedures which are required to be practiced by the affected State. In this regard, when struck by emergency situation or any undesirable disaster, the governor of the State may seek assistance from the federal government. Assistance from federal government is based on the judgment of the President who is responsible for making decision regarding the severity of the situation. Correspondingly, if the President declares the situation as emergency or major disaster, the agency provides disaster relief through Disaster Relief Fund (DRF). The agency based on the severity of the damages and the intensity of the disaster situation determines the amount to be funded through DRF and drafts it to Congress who then determines the budget to be apportioned for the relief program (Association of Risk and Crisis Communication, 2014; Lindsay & Murray, 2011). Correspondingly, this study intends to examine the ethical consideration and social justice issues that influence the disaster response and recovery efforts of the agency that were unrecognized within the overwhelming and complex situation created by the disaster cause of Hurricane Sandy. An Explanation of the Ethical Issues Related With the Philosophical Theories Individuals and communities who have been the victims of any kind of disaster are at an augmented risk of poor psychological, physical and social health after the event of disaster. This population has additional needs before, during and after the disaster. Nonetheless, complexity associated with the disaster often contributes towards the emergence of ethical uncertainty and predicament. Notably, the survivors and responders often express their dissatisfaction pertaining to the type, extent and steadiness of disaster relief. Similar dissatisfaction was revealed by the individuals and communities who were impacted by Hurricane Sandy against the response and recovery activities of FEMA (Cooper, 2012). In order to ensure effectiveness of the disaster response and recovery plan, specific criteria and standards which the society need to acknowledge and embrace have been largely advocated. In this regard, moral philosophy has been recognized to offer certain specific ethical platforms that serve as the guiding principle for planners and policymakers regarding disaster response and recovery. Concerning FEMA’s response and recovery plan with respect to Hurricane Sandy, the three philosophical theories related to ethical issues have been identified and discussed below: Utilitarianism The theory of utilitarianism argues that actions can be considered to be appropriate if these actions produce maximum level of good to the greatest number of individuals. Moreover, the theory emphasizes that actions need not have to be similar or render indistinguishable consequences for the impacted individuals or communities instead these actions must be capable of delivering the maximum benefits. For example, in the case of Hurricane Sandy, the tenet of utility can be translated to the policy that would primarily focus on the attempt of saving the lives of maximum number of people and delivering treatment to those people who are most likely to benefit from it. However, this theory has been criticized by a few philosophers on certain specific grounds. Accordingly, this theory is argued to defy ethical and moral values. Besides, it has been further claimed that under the situation of disaster where there is immediate needs generation accompanied with time constraints, it is quite difficult to predict who will be benefitted the most and will be valuable after the treatment (Soliman & Rogge, 2002). The Best Outcome for the Least Well Off The theory of “the best outcome for the least well off” asserts towards prioritizing the needs of vulnerable masses over others. Notably, it can be argued that disadvantaged people within the society are more likely to suffer disproportionate damage during the event of disaster due the certain reasons such as poverty, a lack of resources for surviving and recovering during the disaster event and isolation. Correspondingly, this theory states that aid workers are required to distribute the available resources unequally for ensuring maximum benefit for the least well off (Hoffman, 2009). Theory of Obligation The theory of obligation rests on the assumption that there lays a moral imperative to aid those impacted by the catastrophic event. This theory states that it is the responsibility of people to provide aid to those needed people. The participants engaged in providing aid are responsible for deciding the type of assistance to be provided to the needed people. The basis of assumption of this theory relies on the concept of non-neutrality. According to this assumption, the nature of human-beings associated with a lack of neutrality towards sufferings is perceived to impede the equitable distribution of aid. Moreover, socio-economic status and race are also considered to hinder the fair and equal distribution of aid (The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance, 2012). A Summary of the Major Ethical Challenges and Conflicts of Responsibility Related With FEMA Hurricane Sandy which hit the east coast on the October 29th evening in 2012 was the biggest Atlantic hurricane along with the second-costliest hurricane on record subsequent to only Hurricane Katrina. The impact of Hurricane Sandy was devastating. The impact of the hurricane was more devastating in southern New Jersey and the metropolitan area of New York. Immediately after the occurrence of the disaster, President on October 30, 2012 declared the event as emergency. The consequences of the hurricane caused death of nearly 159 people while 23000 people were homeless. The hurricane also caused massive destruction of houses that amounted to damages and destructions of 650,000 homes. The economic impact of the hurricane resulted in the loss of US$65 billion approximately (Brown, 2014; FEMA, 2013). The role of FEMA before during and after the disaster can be observed to be crucial. The agency provided an effective and efficient response to the damages caused by the superstrom Sandy. The agency in its response organized proactively and effectively managed issues pertaining to staffing and operational complicacies. It also efficiently synchronized response activities by working with key state and federal organizations (FEMA, 2013). However, challenges such as delivering timely mission assignment, execution of incident management structure as well as addressing the survivors’ requirements at early points were experienced by FEMA. At the same time, massive supply chain failure in the agency’s response was also reported. Accordingly, a failure in FEMA supply chain was witnessed in the form of shortages in food, bottled water, shelter, clothing and gasoline across the areas struck by Sandy. Victims driven by anger considered the response worse than the response executed during the disaster event caused by Hurricane Katrina (Leahy, 2012). Despite its efforts towards reducing the fatal consequences of the hurricane, FEMA that used loans as the primary form of aid to support hurricane impacted communities was criticized for not being effective at addressing the needs of individuals and communities. It was believed that the use of loans will have a long-term disastrous economic impact on the individuals and the communities suffering from the hurricane. Moreover, victims of Sandy have criticized FEMA’s flood maps and slow progress. Accordingly, hurricane victims have claimed that FEMA is doing more harm than the hurricane. Besides, the agency has been blamed for damaging the shore by the local community. It has been argued by many hurricane victims that activities of the agency have resulted in suffering and uncertainty for the hurricane victims who are unable to restore. The reason behind the discontent expressed by the local people is associated with the issue of advisory Base Flood Elevation Maps under the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. This Act advocates for expansion of flood zones, double flood-insurance premiums and seeks those in certain flood zones to elevate their homes (Knowlton et al., 2013). Besides, the role of governor in managing crisis situation is crucial. Different governors have dissimilar approaches towards handling crisis. In relation to New Jersey, it would be worth to compare the current governor, Chris Christie with the preceding New Jersey governor namely Jon S. Corzine. Concerning Governor Chris Christie, his response to Hurricane Sandy was favorably documented. However, Chris Christie was criticized for using Hurricane Sandy relief fund for personal use as well as apportioning fund for those areas with little damages rather than spending the same for severely destructed areas (Johnson, 2014). On the other hand, preceding Governor Jon S. Corzine was also criticized for displaying poor crisis management skills. In this regard, he was criticized for ethical lapses during his tenure as a Governor of New Jersey. He was alleged for eruption of crisis related to auto insurance and medical insurance premium. It can be stated that both the governors were unable to reveal ethical leadership during the time of crisis which ultimately contributed towards increasing the suffering for general public (Halbfinger, 2009). Summary of the Strategies Followed By FEMA to Maintain Responsible Conduct Hurricane Sandy caused significant devastation in New Jersey and other regions. Immediately after the emergency declaration from President, FEMA along with the support from federal department placed staff and assets in the vulnerable areas. FEMA as a preparedness and response measure created National Power Restoration Taskforce in order to minimize official procedures and increase the coordination at all the levels of government as well as private sector. Prior to the landfall of super-storm, the agency deployed personnel at different response centers. The agency also created Sandy Analysis Team as a part of its preparedness and response strategy which was responsible for reviewing the FEMA’s preparations for, immediate response to, and initial recovery from the hurricane. The agency operated closely with the Department of Commerce’s National Hurricane Center in order to frame pre-landfall decision to deal with the predicated super-storm. FEMA in collaboration with Department of Defense (DOD) created Incident Support Bases (ISBs) in order to ensure timely supply of meals, water, blankets, cots, generators and communications vehicles among others. The agency made stock of necessary commodities including millions of liters of water, millions of meals and hundreds of thousands of blankets that were strategically located at different response centers. The agency also established Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs), Points of Distribution (PODs), and Joint Field Offices (JFOs) in New Jersey and other affected areas. The agency deployed liaison officers and Incident Assessment Team at different emergency operations centers including New Jersey. In addition, FEMA Federal Coordinating Officers (FCOs) and Federal Disaster Recovery Coordination were deployed by the agency in order to organize the response of FEMA along with other federal responses in the affected areas. Disaster Recovery Coordinators of FEMA also provided individual assistance, public assistance and initiated Hazard Mitigation Grant Program as its strategy to provide support to people as well as local and state government (Homeland Security Digital Library, 2012). The agency also implemented Request Action Tracking System for staff monitoring and coordinating its mission assignments in order to eliminate duplication and confirm fair delivery of requested item (FEMA, 2013; Ladislaw et al., 2013). Besides, state also utilized its prevailing relationships with community-based, media, philanthropic and private sector organizations. Explanation of Recommendations and Rationale Responding to Hurricane Sandy, FEMA revealed certain strengths in its preparedness and responses as well as areas that need to be improved in line with the integration and coordination of federal operations. Besides, improvement is necessary for FEMA in order to deal with anticipated disastrous situations that might occur in the future time frame. In this regard, a few imperative recommendations have been suggested that could have assisted FEMA to overcome certain challenges in responding to devastating situation caused by Sandy in New Jersey and other areas of the USA (FEMA, 2013). Ensuring Unity of Effort across the Federal Response It is worth mentioning that quick response was revealed by President during the pre-landfall of the storm in terms of declaring the predicated situation an emergency which facilitated FEMA to actively deliver its support and response before, during as well as after the occurrence of the incident. Certain gaps were witnessed in terms of coordination and communication of senior leaders. It is thus recommended to assimilate federal senior leaders’ communication and coordination into response and recovery operations in order to ensure timely decision making and quick response to disastrous situation. It is also recommended to FEMA to refine its mission assignment process in order to ensure timely and effective response. At the same time, it is advised to make its operational decisions based on extensive planning and analysis (FEMA, 2013). Being Survivor-Centric The fundamental principle behind disaster response and recovering process is eventually associated with meeting the needs of the survivors. Although the personnel deployed by FEMA for responding and recovering during and after the disastrous event of Sandy demonstrated innovation in their practice which eased the rescue and recovery process but certain improvements can be recommended to FEMA. Correspondingly, the agency should ensure that personnel deployed and assigned with the task of responding and recovering are able to meet the needs of survivors during the initial interaction. It is equally important that the agency should ensure equal access to services delivered to survivors. At the same time, it was identified that certain programs of FEMA were complex to be understood by general people. It is thus suggested that it should involve in reducing complexities associated with its programs so that every individual is able to reap the benefits of the programs directed towards them without many long and harassing bureaucratic procedures (FEMA, 2013). Fostering Unity of Effort across the Whole Community FEMA during the disastrous event caused by Hurricane Sandy demonstrated commendable coordination with local and state levels. Nevertheless, it is recommended to FEMA to place significant importance on integrating response and recovery efforts in an effective manner with non-government entities as well so that more assistance is delivered to victims of disasters (FEMA, 2013). Developing an Agile, Professional Emergency Management Workforce FEMA during the disastrous event caused by Sandy deployed the largest set of personnel that it has ever deployed in any past disastrous event. However, it is recommended to FEMA to ensure that personnel deployed by it for responding and recovering are agile and are professional in dealing with disasters. It must ascertain that personnel deployed by it are qualified and trained for the response and recovery purpose. It will facilitate the reliability and effectiveness of the response and recovering process. Besides, personnel deployed at the location of disaster should be well supported by other personnel assigned with various other tasks such as communication and coordination (FEMA, 2013). Analysis of Factors Affecting the Implementation of Recommendation within FEMA There are certain imperative factors that might hinder the implementation of above articulated recommendations within FEMA. In this regard, one of the most deterring factors that may act as an obstacle to the implementation of articulated recommendations with FEMA can be identified to be the intervention of politics in its operations. It is apparent from the experience encountered during the past disastrous event that political leaders often get involved in response and recovery operations with different motives other than public welfare. Such interference may negatively influence the quick decision making regarding the strategies to be undertaken to respond to any disastrous event. Another imperative factor can be related with unpredictable nature of disasters. Subsequently, it can be stated that disastrous events occur without prior warning and the magnitude of catastrophic events is also quite difficult to predict which may influence the ability of FEMA to plan and organize its responses. The other factor that can serve as an obstacle for FEMA while implementing the articulated recommendations can be related with its long standing culture. It is possible that the senior level authorities may not be willing to transform and may prefer to adopt the existing procedures long being followed by the agency. Such strict adherence by senior authorities may likely to impede the implementation of the articulated recommendations. Anticipated Outcomes of the Recommendations The implementation of the articulated recommendations is likely to deliver significant and favorable outcomes during the disaster relief program. It will ensure in quick decision making before, during and after the occurrence of disaster. As a result of quick decision making process, timely assistance can be provided to survivors as well as it can enable to enhance the restoration process. Taking immediate decisions and measures will also result in attaining greater confidence and trust of the general public towards the agency. Decision based on extensive planning and analysis will facilitate in appropriate estimation and apportionment of financial assistance as well as it will enable in tracking the use of funds which will eventually remove the wastage and duplication of resources. Refining the mission assignment process clearly will assist FEMA to determine future course of action and it will ensure the execution of operations in an organized way. At the same time, it will increase the coordination at all levels of government and will also enable to acquire adequate support from non-government organizations. Deploying qualified personnel will facilitate FEMA to ensure increased effectiveness of its response process. At the same time, reducing the complexities associated with the programs initiated by FEMA towards reducing the impact on the victims will enable greater satisfaction amid the victims of the disaster due to the reason that people will be able to access the benefits provided by the federal, local and state government with minimum effort. Explanation of Issues In Relation To Social Justice Themes Survivors needs during and after the disaster events are often not adequately met by the relief agency due to the complexities associated with event and increased pressure. While on the other hand, strict rules and regulations often force agencies engaged in the relief work to act in a particular manner resulting in generating dissatisfaction among the survivors. With respect to the issues pertaining to the operations of FEMA during Hurricane Sandy, two major social justice themes can be identified. Correspondingly, the two major social justice themes include quality and justice. Many instances have been identified that can be related with the poor social justice theme. In this regard, it was ascertained that Hurricane Sandy reflected the situation of unevenness in terms of quality. Accordingly, the respondents revealed their ubiquitous concern related to the differences in services received by the rich and the poor survivors after the occurrence of storm. Besides, it was also observed that treatment procedure for the survivors of the storm were not executed in a fair and transparent manner (Frederickson, 2005). The officials involved in providing treatment and other medical assistance to the victims were engaged in rendering their services differentiated by race and income of the people. Socio-economic status was placed higher priority than the need or the sufferings which can be associated with a lack of ethical approach in dealing with the disastrous event (Superstorm Research Lab, 2013). Similarly, another social justice theme that can be related with the scenario or the disaster event involves the issue of justice. It can be stated that social justice is an imperative need of the modern society. It is crucial that the government including state and federal is involved in promoting social justice through meeting the unmet needs of the people. Particularly, in a disaster event, the government should display adequate social justice. However, with respect to Hurricane Sandy, the scenario was different. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the governor of New Jersey Mr. Chris Christie who was responsible for promoting adequate support to the victims of the storm failed to ensure social justice. Instead, he was alleged for using the relief fund for personal benefit (Johnson, 2014). Conclusion With regard to the overall study, it is determined that FEMA, established in the year 1979, is a federal agency responsible for providing relief to victims of disaster events. The role of FEMA during the disaster event of Hurricane Sandy can also be identified to be crucial. Despite the significant effort directed towards maintaining responsible conducts FEMA’s response to Hurricane Sandy was criticized on several grounds. Victims of the storm revealed their considerable dissatisfaction towards the quality of relief services received by them. It was observed that FEMA was unable to meet the survivors’ needs adequately. In this regard, shortages of food, bottled water, shelter and gasoline were witnessed by the victims. In addition, the assistance programs that were directed towards the victims were also burdened with complexities and huge bureaucratic procedures that made it quite difficult for survivors to avail the benefits of the programs while many people were deprived of relief services. A lack of fairness and transparency in the delivery of relief services was witnessed during and after the disaster event. Besides, the governor of New Jersey Mr. Chris Christie was also criticized for his irresponsible behavior. He was alleged of using the relief funds for personal benefits. Thus, it is imperative for FEMA to ensure improvement in various grounds in order to certify ethical response to disaster management. Likewise, several recommendations have been articulated that would assist FEMA and other relief agencies to display adequate ethical responses during and after the disaster event along with maintaining equality and justice in the distribution of resources after the disaster situation. 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