9/11 and Hurricane Katrina Disaster Evaluation - Term Paper Example

 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina Disaster Evaluation Introduction United States of America, the world’s oldest democracy saw two catastrophic disasters in 2001 and 2005. Hurricane Katrina was one of the deadliest Atlantic Cyclone that rattled the USA. On 11th September of 2001, American pride was hurt when two planes hit the twin towers. These two disasters raised lots of questions in the minds of the global people. US Governmental authorities were not aware about the terrorist attack. On the other hand, in case of Hurricane Katrina, they were certainly aware about this upcoming devastating natural disaster but in front of the mighty nature, the government authorities and agencies were helpless. This report will evaluate and analyze a manmade disaster and a natural disaster and their effects on the US citizens. The essay will include a brief summary of the disaster, different psychological symptoms of the victims. It will also include how the victims were assisted by different organizations. Long term effects of the disasters will also be discussed in the course of the paper. Role of the media will be scrutinized. Thesis statement of this essay is, “Effects of 9/11 attack and Hurricane Katrina on the victims”. Evaluation and analysis Brief summary Militants associated with Islamic terrorists group conducted the heinous attack in September 2011. The attack was carried out with the help of 4 hijacked airliners by one of the world’s ferocious terrorist group Al-Qaeda. It was a clear and sunny New York morning. People of America were getting prepared for their day to day lives. But suddenly at 8.45 a.m. of the Tuesday morning nightmarish incident took place when American Boeing 767 plunged into the northern tower of the World Trade Centre. It was bolt from the blue to the US people. The airliner was loaded with jet fuel of 20000 gallons. The first strike was at the 80th floor of the 110 story building. As soon as the first strike took place, hundreds of people died and thousands of people were trying to find the escape routes from the hellish situation. The situation became even worst after the 18 minutes when the second devil airliner struck the southern tower. It sliced into the 60th floor of the second building. That collision resulted into the massive expositions, heaps of debris was coming out from the twin towers and the explosions were felt up to the distance parts of the New York City. One plane crashed into the US army head quarter Pentagon located just outside of the capital city. One more plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Almost 3000 people from different countries were the victim of 9/11 attack. Hurricane Katrina took away almost 1,833 lives. Epicenter of the hurricane was Bahamas. In the history of America this disaster accounted for huge amount of money. Amount of the losses in terms of monetary values were almost $108 billion. Area like New Orleans was significantly affected by the hurricane. Death toll was highest in that area. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hurricane Katrina was the most dangerous storm that struck the US ever. When the storm crossed across the Florida, then category of the storm was 1. Its power was increased and became category five when it crossed the Gulf. At the time of land fall it became category 3 and struck Louisiana. Speed of the wind was almost 75 nautical miles. The hurricane was formed due to tropical depression. High speed of wind and pressure of water resulted into breakage of embankments. Due to that the city of New Orleans flooded. Thousands of people became homeless and were searching for safe shelters. Detailed description of the psychological symptoms After the 9/11 attack, one of the most common symptoms was psychological stress due to fear in the mind of the victims. According to a survey 5% of the surviving victims of the 9/11 disaster were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Not only the civilians but also the firefighters and police men involved with the disaster were also affected by the stress. Another common symptom that most of the victims demonstrated was mental restlessness. According to Dessau, after some days of the disaster victims were not able to sleep at the night (Precin, 2014, pp. 80-85). They always replayed the incident in their minds. In their minds they were anticipating more attacks. They were unnaturally frightened with the large noises. Whenever they were closing their eyes for the sleep victims were witnessing that catastrophic incident. Concentration levels of the victims were down. Victims were not able to concentrates towards their current work. Memories of the victims were occupied with those memories. They became unsocial and tried to isolate them from the proximity of the relatives (WHALLEY & BREWIN, 2006). After the incident general anxiety disorder was also a common symptom among the victims. A fear psychosis was always there in the minds of the victims. Aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina especially people of New Orleans were significantly affected psychologically. Low income Afro American parents were suffering from depression and anxiety. According to a survey conducted on the 222 victims of the Hurricane, 52% people were affected by poor mental condition. After the disaster, victims lost all their social networks and they were helpless. A sense of helplessness was prevailing in their minds. This disaster also left behind some similar kinds of psychological effects in the minds of victims. Like 9/11 incident victims of the Katrina also replayed the horrible memories of the disaster. It was often being noticed that low income victims in the refugee camps woke up at the middle of the night due to the nightmare of the incident. It was one of the most common symptoms with the victims of the Hurricane. Survival guilt was also a prominent symptom after the Hurricane Katrina. Parents who lost their children in the disaster thought they were the main culprits because they could not save the lives of their children from the hand of the surging waters. It mentally affected them. They lost all the interests in their lives. Often the depression level was so strong that tried to commit suicides. Resources available to treat and assist victims Federal Government was one of the most important assistance for the victims of 9/11 incidents. The Government passed a law called Victims of Terrorism Relief Act of 2001. The Act provided some tax reliefs to the victim’s family. The law signed by the then President, Mr. Bush and it ensured benefit of $10,000 to the families of the victims. State government of New York also played significant roles to assist the victims of the terrorist attack. City Fire department used 200 units of fire fighters to combat the situation and to assist the victims. This state effort was backed up by the efforts of different off duty medical staffs and fire fighters. Emergency services unit of New York City police also came to take care of the victims. World Cares centre was a NGO which treated and assisted the victims of the disaster significantly. The NGO kept open its door and victims were always welcome into their centre. The organization helped the families of the victims to restore their lives back on tracks. Victims were provided lots of mental and as well as physical assistances. Federal Agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA gave $85 million for the different house hold goods for the victims of Katrina. This federal agency has supplied different products like kitchen items and sleeping necessities. The federal agency developed different disaster recovery centers to assist the victims of Hurricane. It also established a hot line to arrange donations for the victims of Katrina. Red Cross also provided significant assistance to the victims of the Katrina. It arranged temporary residences for 1.6 million people. It created almost 702 shelters for the victims. It served almost 6.7 and 6.2 million meals and snacks for the victims of the disaster. Almost 40000 workers of Red Cross conducted the whole rescue mission (American Red Cross, 2005). The organization focused towards the basic needs of the victims and tried to raise donations for them. After the disaster almost 154,000 people were entered in the Red Cross Family Link. The retail giant Wal-Mart distributed 40000 water jugs among the victims of the disaster. Different drug companies took the initiatives and created their own distribution centers to distribute medicines to the flood affected areas. Different churches and charitable organizations donated food materials and cloths to the victims of the Katrina. According to different researchers and critics disaster management, rescue efforts by federal government and other nonprofit agencies in case of Hurricane Katrina could have been better. Long term effects of the disasters There are many long term negative effects which can be observed after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. This disaster happened in the year 2005 but the impact is going on till date. Hurricane Katrina incident killed more than 2, 000 people and displaced more than 2, 50,000 people in America. New Orleans faced a phase of destruction and death due to this storm. All the buildings and roads were completely destroyed. People faced massive financial losses. More than 2, 000 children lost their parents and became homeless. Communication system was destroyed and for this reason the locality was completely isolated from the rest part of the world (Levitt and Whitaker, 2009, pp. 147-150). After the disaster, people were suffering from the trauma and they were not able to involve in any work for more than one year. Quality of work decreased than the earlier days. Workers could not find any kind of motivation to do productive work after losing their close relatives and family members. After the disaster of 9/11, mental health of local people in US was changed in a significant way. People became more stressful within short span of time and the percentage of heart disease increased among people after that incident. Workers became inactive in their respective work field and they were suffering from many mental problems which affected their physical health also. As a result, productive work and progress of the country was stopped for a long time. People were getting fear about any further attack in near future. Several deaths happened due to toxic dust and more than 18, 000 people were affected from such issue. Aftermath of this incident a high percentage of population was suffering from the lounge diseases and cancer and still they are fighting against many critical diseases. Economical condition of the country was in worst situation and US lost its position in the world market. Industrial development in this country stopped for some times and after that the progress could be observed in slow speed (Makinen, 2011, pp. 19-21). Impact of trauma from these disasters on children Several impacts could be observed on the children after the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. Children with their families were displaced from this destruction and they were struggling for basic existence i.e. food, shelter and clothes. Children of the country became refugee as they lost their homes in this storm. Again children across the country were affected by the economic outcomes of this incident. Their parents became jobless and for that reason children did not get proper food for surviving their lives in a sustainable way. Their education and developmental skill were hampered. Many children witnessed the terrible event which grew fear inside their mind. Again they observed frustration, depression and anger of the adults around them and this impact on them in a negative way. There was negative effect on children after the 9/11 terror attacks. Researchers found that there was significant behavior problem among pre-school children after the above mentioned disaster. They became afraid for going to school or coming out from home. They liked to play indoor game and were afraid to play outside of their home. Many children were suffering from depression and post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. Many children got the mental disorder from their mother as they were also suffering from mental disorder and depression after losing relatives and family members. Even if after one year of this incident, a significant percentage of mothers and children were suffering from PTSD and depression. Again school going children were also affected as many of them lost their parents in this attack. Their confidence levels were reduced than the earlier days and they were losing concentration on their studies. Parent child relationship was affected due to the post trauma symptoms. Role of media Media always play a crucial role after any kind of natural disaster or man-made destruction. Media gave some important warning to the people after the incident of Hurricane Katrina. Again they represented the condition of local people and the country to the world. Media helped to collect financial and human support from the other countries. It became easier for quick rescue operations and rebuilt the roads and buildings of the country. Media was also involved for sending messages regarding public health. After the disaster media promoted the activities which the country was taken for the development of nation. Media was involved for getting continuous supply of food, water and medicine from the neighbor countries. Media continuously pushed the government for taking corrective steps to recover the people from such kind of situation as soon as possible. They did the role of seeker for getting help from government agencies and officials, public (via e-mails and cell phones) and other media outlets (news paper, wire services etc.). Media played a central role after the disaster of 9/11 attack. They provided time to time information to the mass people of the country and the world about this incident. Again media created an awareness program aftermath of this incident so that the chances of this kind of incident reduce in near future. BBC news did a detailed coverage of this incident and helped to raise voice from the each corner of the world against such kind of violent incident. They also did detailed analysis that how the dramatic example occurred and where was the loopholes in the chain of securities within the country. They did a structural analysis to understand the situation and after that guided the government for taking necessary steps against this disaster. Media directed the local people after this incident and prevented them from get panicked. Media unfolded many incident which were related to 9/11 disaster and highlighted the terms “hijacking” and “terrorism” to the viewers of whole world. Media described the reality effect to the people and through this way they motivated people to face the situation and struggle against such kind of unwanted situation. Conclusion All the above discussions are clearly reflecting the thesis statement of the study. Different information is articulating that both terrorist attack of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have significant negative effects on the victims. These two disasters were huge and caused lots of damages to the human lives and assets. The paper has utterly analyzed that how these two unprecedented disasters have disturbed the psychological stabilities of the victims. During the course of the essay it has been noticed that in both the cases psychological symptoms of the victims are almost similar. The essay also has indicated that these two disasters have kept long term effects in the minds of victims and rescue workers. Children’s psychology has been affected severely by the both incidents. In both the cases, Federal and State Government played important roles. Different NGOs also extended their helping hands towards the victims of two humongous disasters. Media of the country also played their parts by helping the victims in a committed fashion. References American Red Cross., (2005). Facts at a glance: American Red Cross response to Hurricane Katrina (update 16). Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/report/united-states-america/facts-glance-american-red-cross-response-hurricane-katrina-update-16. Levitt, J. and Whitaker, M. (2009). Hurricane Katrina: America’s unnatural disaster. Nebraska: U of Nebraska Press. Makinen, G. (2011). Economic effects of 9/11: A retrospective assessment. Pennsylvania: DIANE Publishing. Precin, P., (2014). Surviving 9/11: Impact and experiences of occupational therapy Practitioners. New York: Routledge. WHALLEY, G. M. & BREWIN, C. R., (2006). Mental health following terrorist attacks. Retrieved from http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/190/2/94.full. Read More