Natural Disaster Essay

August 25, 2017 Hurricane Harvey hit the coast of Texas with absolute power. It was originally predicted that it would not surpass category 1, the elements combined and made Harvey extremely vicious. It hit the most populated areas on the United States becoming one of the most destructive. People did not have enough time to properly prepare for the unpredicted devastation ahead. However, the government and the people responded with strong efforts. Let’s start with the federal department. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (which is referred to as FEMA), with its government accomplices mobilized a work force and with many assets to help states affected. About 21,000 government assets were sent to help out during the vicious Tropical Storm. A lot of people sought refuge during the storm and the Federal government gave them many places to stay for example many government owned sites were converted refuge sites for the victims. The U.S coast guard played a huge role to aid victims. Thousands of coast guards were deployed in support of the relief efforts. They evacuated victims through government transport such as helicopters and big vehicles that could travel through the flooding. They are also opened various docks and waterways within Brownsville, Kentucky without any restrictions to the public. FEMA provided thousands of meals, medical and household items. Fema also paid rent for the victim’s short-term housing. Other ongoing Federal

Who pays for all these damages? People who live in hurricane prone areas obviously have insurance to fall back on when these disasters strike. It turns out that insurance companies also have insurance for instances like this. When insurance companies get stuck paying out large sums of money to a lot of people, they occasionally need a little help and

Hurricane Sandy was a tropical cyclone that devastated portions of the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States in late October 2012. The eighteenth named storm and tenth hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, as measured by diameter, with winds spanning 1,100 miles. Sandy is estimated in early calculations to have caused damage of at least $20 billion. Preliminary estimates of losses that include business interruption surpass $50 billion, which, if confirmed, would make it the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane in history, behind only Hurricane Katrina.

“Then New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson offered 200 members of his state’s national guard to help Louisiana the day Katrina hit, but a letter from Washington authorizing the move did not arrive until five days later.” (Robillard Web). Four days after Katrina President George W. Bush sent 7,200 troops from the National Guard (Robillard Web). The Red Cross played a big role in Hurricane Katrina suppling 68 million meals to the survivors (American Web). Millions were taken care of with food, water, and shelter by 245,000 of the Red Cross Disaster workers (American Web). Firemen from other cities volunteered in the hundreds to help clean up (American Web). Louisiana was happy to have all the help they got after the

New Orleans took precautions to keep the city safe in the event of a future hurricane. The new buildings reconstructed after the destruction of the hurricane were built to be flood resistant (“After the Disaster”). Many of the new houses were being renovated to be higher off of the ground than previous homes in a like manner (“After the Disaster”). This was to prevent equivalent damage from flooding to occur in the future. Another effect of the levee problems that made Hurricane Katrina much worse was that the city installed more and stronger flood barriers to keep the city free of flood waters (“After the Disaster”). The Department of Health and Human Services sent multiple medical supplies to health professionals so they are prepared for the future as well (“Bush”). The city of New Orleans learned so much more about their city after the hurricane hit. They learned how close of a community they lived in. The amount of people that stepped in to help the city in its time of need was enormous. New Orleanian people received help from many organizations, including: The Social Security Administration, The Department of Labor, the Postal Service, and many others (“Bush”). In a like manner, the president at the time, George W. Bush, intervened and cared for the city of New Orleans when they needed it. He gave the city hope and motivation to get back onto its feet. President

The efforts taken by both governments were insufficient in preparing citizens for Hurricane Katrina and evacuating those in danger areas. After Hurricane Katrina, The United States Army Corps of Engineers was exposed for being unable to provide adequate flood protection for New Orleans, a city that is already below sea level. Although President George W. Bush signed two bills post-Katrina which contributed over $60 billion dollars for disaster relief, he was blamed for federal inaction and many Americans believe he did not do enough to help out those affected. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director, Michael Brown, was criticized greatly by the American people and ended up resigning because of the backlash he faced. Most Americans have criticized the government, both state and federal, for their inability to respond quickly to the major disaster that was Hurricane Katrina. Since Katrina, governments at all levels have felt immense pressure to become better prepared to respond to future disasters to

The responsibility for maintaining existing levees and building new ones falls to the federal, state and local governments. In reality, the costs of most infrastructure projects are in the hundreds-of-millions to billions of dollars. This means that the cost burden must fall on the federal government (Webster). The federal government, however, failed to provide the necessary resources to build protective infrastructure for U.S. citizens since, “Under the Bush administration there was little money for nor interest in internal improvements, as the federal dollar was spent mainly on the military while the nation's infrastructure continued to deteriorate” (George). Had more money been spent on internal improvements, more levees could have been built and the impact of the storm lessened.

The majority of the immediate relief occurred thanks to the aid of private organizations such as the Red Cross along with the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund (McNeill, 2011). The Bush administration and other government figures acted incredibly slowly and were unable to give the

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).

Did you know that Hurricanes have killed approximately 1.9 million people worldwide over the past 200 years. (Karen lenhardt said in her 2017 article on facts about hurricanes). We are seeing more and more of these occur, this year we have already encountered 13 named storms, 7 of them being hurricanes. Only four other seasons since 1995 have had that many by Sept. 18. Just two more by the end of the year would put 2017 in the top 15 since 1851. Maggie Astor stated in her New York Times news report about the 2017 Hurricane season . We must take notice and learn about the hurricane process so that we are able to understand the stages that hurricanes go through to get to be so fierce and devastating to get the strength to kill that many people.

Hurricanes are one of nature’s most natural occurrences and intense phenomenal storms. Yet, as phenomenal as they are, they are still one of the deadliest and disastrous natural occurrences that continue to plague costal residents with fears of their homes being destroyed, their towns wiped out, and loved ones either disappearing or dying.

In today’s world, there has been one disaster or another, and hurricanes are one of those disasters that always happens. But, for one reason or another we are never prepared or understand the danger of any type of hurricane over a category one. Most of us have been through many hurricanes, like this learner who has lived in Miami, Fla. for over 30 years, and experienced her last hurricane which was Hurricane Andrew. Warnings are always given, first responders are trained to all ways be on alert, and FEMA is supposed to be ready to jump in once the storm has done its damage. But we can never be prepared, because hurricanes are unpredictable, and can become deadly for citizens and create millions of dollars in damages. Within this post we will discuss Hurricane Katrina, preparedness and Emergency management before and after the disaster.

While natural disasters such as floods, drought and hurricanes are commonly thought to occur due to environmental forces such as weather, climate and tectonic movements; a deeper investigation into the ‘disaster’ displays other contributing forces. Human factors have a large, if not equal, contribution to the occurrance and outcome of such disasters (Pelling, 2001). As Pelling (2001) argues, there is both a physical and human dimension to ‘natural disasters’. The extent to which the natural occurrence of a physical process, such as a flood or earthquake, impacts on society is constructed by that society, creating a ‘disaster’ as measured by a

In a new form of protection and communication, social media is the main thing that everything is using in today’s times. Marketing employees have positions as titled as social media directors. Companies have people watching and monitoring everything that happens with their social media reputation all hours of the day everyday. Young people are seeing the power of social media everyday with teachers demonstrating how fast a picture can be shared across the world. Social media is relatively new and could possibly open many gates for communication. This depends heavily on who is publishing information and news on social media. If news spreads fast on social media, then the use of it can be used for emergencies. If many people are

Hurricanes are among the costliest and the most destructive of natural disasters. Since 1995, the United States has witnessed more intense activities by hurricanes with Mobile County in Alabama experiencing hurricane Ivan and hurricane Dennis in 2004 and 2005 (Link, 2010). In 2005, Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes to have hit the United States and was rated category three in Mobile County (Marchi, 2007). The response to the disaster was poor owing to the lack of proper disaster preparedness as