How a City Slowly Drowned

August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. A plan of action was created only hours ahead of time. One can say the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina and the poor execution is a lesson learned for all officials who are the head of Natural Disaster Preparedness. Unfortunately 1200 lives were lost and the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States in over 75 years. With the state of Louisiana already lying below sea level and being warned by experts for years, hurricane Katrina is a vas lesson that came with a deadly

In the problem analysis phase of effective decision making, group members should recognize any obstacle that may arise that needs to be improved or changed and determine the characteristics, magnitude, and possible cause(s) of that obstacle confronting them. This phase lays the groundwork for what the group should be prepared for as they work together (Hirokawa & Salazar, 1999 p. 170).After analyzing the problem, the group should then discuss and establish goals and objectives in order to generate proposed solutions of

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. The results were catastrophic. Katrina and storm-related flooding took more than 1,800 lives and caused an estimated $81 billion in damages. In the storm’s aftermath, there was widespread debate over government response to the disaster. I believe that the bulk of the responsibility lay with the state and local governments. They should have been better prepared ahead of time and had more comprehensive plans in place to minimize danger to citizens. The national government has traditionally only sent its military into a state at the request of that state’s governor. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi did not immediately request that action (Fraga, L.

*Research, describe and explain in your own words the advantages of using ‘TOP DOWN’ approach to engineering problems.

New Orleans was originally founded on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River, above sea level. Also surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes that would come up the coast into the Gulf. Originally New Orleans was naturally protected by “coastal swamps that helped absorb the energy of storm surges before they reached dry land.” (Stillman 228) At this point Americans were more concerned with the floods that happened annually from the Mississippi River. In the early days, settlers built a mile long levee to block overflows from the mighty Mississippi while landowners constructed their own levees.

Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic natural disaster in American history. The aftermath had substantial negative impact on New Orleans and it could have been avoided if proper disaster management practices were put in place. Therefore, it is important to determine the factors that caused the hurricane to be catastrophic. One factor that was responsible for the disaster was failure of the three levels of the government working cohesively (Thiede & Brown, 2013). The incoherent interaction between the three levels of government will be assessed. Another factor that will be examined is social and psychological refusal of Hurricane Katrina

My methodology includes (1) Identify the problem, (2) Look for ethical solutions, (3) Pick the best solution for that particular problem, (4) Execute the solution, (5) Reflect back on the solution and see if it was a good solution and, if not think about how you could have handled it in a better situation. My decision-making is intuitive and comes natural when I am put in a situation but I still have steps that I follow to help me make

Even though it is the responsibility of the federal and state governments to aid citizens during times of disaster, the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina were not effectively facilitated as according to their rights as citizens of the United States. The government’s failures to deliver assistance to citizens stem from inadequate protection systems in place before the storm even struck. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security were the two largest incumbents in the wake of the storm. The failure of these agencies rests on the shoulders of those chosen to head the agency. These directors, appointed by then president George W. Bush, were not capable of leading large government agencies through a

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

On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana as a category 4 hurricane, bringing with it a storm surge that was as high as 29.5 feet in some areas, overwhelming the levees and drainage in New Orleans, which led to the devastating flooding (History.com Staff, 2009). Many viewed thee nation’s response as a massive failure, and in some ways, it was; yet we cannot fully blame the leadership that was in charge at the time. The guidance that was in place at the time had some inadequacies, which ultimately lead to the delay of sending necessary assets to Louisiana. Investigating where and how the nation failed ultimately led to the developed of new guidance to better prepare,

I believe in a directive and conceptual decision style. When there is a small problem that requires a quick solution, I would use the directive decision style. This would be similar to a problem that I would have already dealt with in the past. For larger obstacles

First step in decision making process is identifying the problems. As McShane and Von Glinow (2000) stated, a problem can be

We have to think about the qualitative factors that are involved in our decision making too. In the decision making process, as we saw in a case called The Nancy M. Hohman, we saw that many times the numbers will not speak louder than our personal preferences. The Nancy M. Hohman was a less than one year old ship, worthy US$ 40 million, carrying 200,000 tons of crude oil and 28 crew members and had an engine malfunction 9 miles way off the coast of South Africa. However, Port Elizabeth (the nearest one) was too small for the ship and the next close one was 380 miles away.

The difficulties that were accompanied with this approach led to deviation from the rational model. Complexity of modern organizations and the limited cognitive ability of decision makers were most influencing factors in the deviation . The decision makers were unable to operate under perfect rationality conditions. The information about a decision was mostly unavailable or unclear, and open to different interpretations. Also, the criteria of evaluating alternative solutions were not agreed upon. It also required very long time and a lot of energy of the decision makers to pursue a maximizing outcome. These constrains led to a conclusion that the absolute rational model is unreachable.

Any decision process is based on the ability to collect and generate information and evaluating it. This process depends on the type of problem which being investigated. Thus, innovation and creativity are essential for formulating and generating alternatives and solutions. So that structured method is very important in the decision-making process.