Fema Failure

Three criticisms of FEMA is that first of all they are more focused on terrorism rather than responses to natural disasters, the second is that that FEMA has a shortage of manpower to act rapidly and effectively is disaster situations and third, the planning within FEMA for responses to natural disasters is poor.(Ahlers,2006,p.1)

and federal funds. Soon after, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin ordered an evacuation of all

Katrina was a crisis primarily because of its scale and the mixture of challenges that it posed, not least the failure of the levees in New Orleans. Because of the novelty of a crisis, predetermined emergency plans and response behavior that may function quite well in dealing with routine emergencies are frequently grossly inadequate or even counterproductive. That proved true in New Orleans, for example, in terms of evacuation planning, law enforcement, rescue activities, sheltering, and provisions for the elderly and infirm.

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating disaster that has affected many people in New Orleans. The communication broke down hours after Katrina because of the unexpected fast winds and floods that broke down “3 million phone lines and 1,000 cellular towers in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.”( Joch ). Because of the millions of phone lines that were broken down, contacting the government for help was difficult hours after hurricane Katrina. Not only that, the people of New Orleans underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina causing many to be “ stranded with no food or water” (Narrator, “The Storm”,PBS).

Hurricane Katrina was a big threat to the coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, and the governor declared a state of emergency in reaction towards potential destruction the hurricane may fall in New Orleans, a major city in Louisiana. To prepare for the threat of Hurricane Katrina, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), was sent to Louisiana to help aid the state. Later, a big disaster befalls in the state of Louisiana, and the governor declared a national evacuation. New Orleans, the heavily populated city, ordered its citizen to evacuate in the Superdome, with food, shelter, and rations being distributed. After the state evacuation was made, there was a shortage of food, water, and operable toilet facilities, thus creating

B. Thesis: The government should have help Hurricane Katrina, through additional money, supplies, and community help.

Some of these critical issues caused major problems then should have been addressed prior to the hurricane many land. The delay by both the Governor and Mayor led to overwhelming issues relating to evacuating. Mayor Ray Nagi refusal to give the order to evacuate, but rather use shelters to house Katrine victims from departing the area. The citizen of Louisiana was unaware of the severity of the storm and they trusted their State leader to ensure the safety of the people. When it came time to get the people out of New Orleans the chaos of the disaster made providing help extremely difficult. Organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army were responding to the disaster had no real execution plan, the shelters were in disarray and no logistic

The failures of government response to Hurricane Katrina was a result of the aggregation of the local and federal governments lacking proper communication with each other, the levels of government not fulfilling their duties in a state of emergency, and the lack of personal responsibility that each level of government took upon themselves in the crisis. On a local level, Mayor Ray Nagin did not mobilize evacuation via bussing, nor did he ensure that adequate amounts of food and water were stocked in shelters, despite these both being primarily mayoral duties in a state of emergency. Former FEMA director Michael Brown accused Mayor Nagin of not having enough of a sense of urgency in the situation, thus causing a delay in aid to New Orleans.

In the integration of FEMA into the DHS, FEMA had to contribute to the start-up costs of the new department, but unfortunately evidence suggests that the agency may have been made to pay a disproportionately higher amount than larger agencies. FEMA officials say this directly affected their levels of service in 2004 and 2005 (14). In the integration, FEMA lost some programs, but lost major ones as well (14). In 2005, plans continued to reduce FEMA. Director at the time, Michael Brown, wrote a memo in June expressing his concern about the agency’s future if the cuts continued (13). Perhaps the most ironic cut was the disaster planning exercise “Hurricane Pam.” This exercise, in which outlines a scenario where a disastrous hurricane hits New Orleans, leaving more than 100,000 people in the city, began a year before Katrina. The exercise was never finished because the Bush Administration cut funding (13).

There is no doubt that the government at all levels was unprepared for Hurricane Katrina’s disastrous impact. Some government officials blame each other for the slow response to Katrina. For instance, James Loy, Deputy Secretary of the department of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005, argued that it was the state responsibility to have address the importance of evacuating in a timely-manner when Hurricane Katrina struck (The Storm, 2005). Michael Brown, director of FEMA from 2003-2005, claimed that it was Congress and the president’s administration fault for not giving them enough equipment on better communication services (The Storm, 2005). Four days later after Katrina had struck, many army troops went out to help citizens that were in trouble

The Hurricane Katrina disaster highly challenged the operations of FEMA thereby leading to great changes in the agency. The Storm that is ranked as the third most intense U.S. landfalling intense caught the FEMA and at large the Department of Homeland Security unprepared thereby leading to severe losses. The hurricane claimed more than 1200 individuals and a total property of around $108 billion, of which could have minimized if FEMA could have carried out its operations effectively (Bea, 2006).

FEMA assisted in New York City’s recovery by utilizing its full spectrum of disaster assistance programs. Due to the unique circumstances of managing the consequences of a terrorist attack as opposed to a natural disaster, FEMA had to use its

Leaders tend to hide information from citizens, state, and federal organization always state that it is for their own good or that they withhold information because they did not wish to create panic and wanted to lessen the impact it could have on the citizens. Thereby, even before hurricane Katrina, New Orleans governor was aware of the problem(s) with the levee. According to Irons (2005, p. 4) Governor Blanco, who recently released her actions in preparing for and responding to Hurricane Katrina, states that no one ever predicted or

Katrina traveled into the Gulf of Mexico on August 26 and started to expand. When the storm reached the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, it strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane however, deteriorated before making it to Louisiana to a Category 3 on August 29 with winds at 145mph. Due to the 20 to 30 foot storm surge and levee failure, it resulted with the infrastructure critically damaged from Florida to Texas. State and local agencies use the Sea, Lake, and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) model to know whom and when to evacuate to include what routes people should take. There was argument on who failed the devastated areas, since the assistance needed could not get to the certain areas due to massive flooding and bridges destroyed. Even though there was no one agency to blame through the lack of coordination and communication from local agencies up through the Federal Government, the lessons learned where noticed within hours and days after the storm arrived, the local population felt as being neglected or forgotten.

On August 29, 2009, Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast. It was a Category 3 Hurricane, according to the Saffir Simpson Scale. Winds gusted to up to 140 miles per hour, and the hurricane was almost 400 miles wide . The storm itself did a tremendous amount of damage, but the storm’s aftermath was cataclysmic. Many claimed that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storm. This paper will examine the four elements of disaster management – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation – as well as an analysis on the data presented.