Principle Of Federalism: The Case Of Hurricane Katrina

New Orleans on the other hand is usually seen as a prime example of the shortcomings of Federal aid agencies in disaster relief and the subsequent recovery was much slower and costly, requiring Billions in assistance. At first it may seem like this is a clear cut case of the Federal government being and expensive failure and local government thriving when left alone but I would argue that the cities were facing vastly different circumstances during each of their natural disasters and that comparing them isn't so clear cut. First take into consideration the population difference between the two. New Orleans had well over 10 times the population of 1900 Galveston, with over 10 times the amount of people being effected by the storm it is not surprise that responding to the needs of that many people during a natural disaster would be far more costly to deal with than with the much smaller population in Galveston. The type of government Galveston created after the disaster also work so well in part do to the number of people that it was governing. A city of less than thirty thousand people is very small by today's standards, that's around the number of people Galveston would have had after the storm, it is my believe one reason that the reason the government of the

When problems arise in our nation, we are left with a complicated crisis as to whose job it is to do what and who exactly should be taking care of any bad situation that seems to pop up with daily life anywhere in the world, but in this case, America. Certain governmental systems, such as Federalism, can be considered a solution to these crises. Federalism can be defined as the relationship between the individual state governments of America and the national or federal government of the United States; and works to balance the power of a large central government, and the power of the smaller regional governments.

Why was the Louisiana National Guard unable to help? The headquarters were flooded also by Katrina

Federalism is a system of government in which things likes states share power with a national government. The United States government functions according to the principles of federalism. There are a lot of things that happen in the world that cannot be explained. Hurricane Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters in American history that raises this question like why or how did this happened. Hurricane Katrina was an extremely destructive and deadly tropical cyclone that was the costliest natural disaster and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the eleventh named storm, the fifth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The hurricane was so disastrous, there was no help for days after it hit. A lot of lives lost because of no communication and bad execution of a hurricane that was aired to hit the United States.

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.

In my opinion, all three levels of government failed the people of New Orleans in responding to Hurricane Katrina. There was plenty of pushing the blame on one another that ended up delaying responses and finding results. It seemed like one level of government would try saying the other level of government is responsible for that role. For example, The Director of FEMA, Michael Brown would say that the local and state are in charge of evacuation planning. There is some truth to that, but according to the U.S federal law governing homeland security it states that FEMA, “operations to save lives, through evacuating potential victims.” (Producers, 2005).

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 not only provided new response for natural disasters but also for terrorist response and mitigation. Hurricane Katrina helped the Department of Homeland Security to see the vulnerability of the nation and how bad a single storm could affect the communities. After Hurricane Katrina DHS started to plan and “imagine” the possibilities of future disasters both natural and manmade as if they were actually going to happen. After 9/11 FEMA was downsized and DHS replaced most of its disaster and planning operations. This became clear after seeing the poor response FEMA had with Hurricane Katrina and the thousands of people left stranded without help. The aftermath of Katrina showed how much we needed both counterterrorism along with

Before watching the video titled Federalism: Lessons of Katrina, I expected it to be about how the government responded to hurricane Katrina. Not only was my assumption correct, I gained a better understanding of federalism by observing how the local, state, and national levels of government responded to one of the worst crises in American history. From my observation, it seemed that the government on all levels failed to prepare, and then aid, the victims of the disaster. I think this failure was caused by the lack of communication between the different levels of government and could have been prevented had the governments worked together. In addition, I think the government’s failure to respond effectively

While Super storm Sandy directly killed 148 people, Hurricane Katrina killed 1,200 (United States). The main difference being who the leaders were. The states were the clear leaders during Hurricane Sandy as they should have been. They knew what they needed and they were willing to articulate those needs at the federal level. The federal government has never been good at seeing to the day to day needs of everyday citizens. It was not set up to do so. That role has always been delegated to the states. For some reason during Katrina state and local authorities decided it was the other way around and they suffered for it. Katrina was not only a perfect storm in nature, it was also a perfect storm on all levels of government. During the crisis of hurricane Katrina there was not a clear chain of command. State and local Leaders were looking toward the federal government for leadership in the relief

The preamble states the idea that the federal government’s purpose is to provide protection and benefits for the whole nation. As the matter of fact, Katrina did not only bring destruction to only Louisiana but also damaged many other states such as Florida and Mississippi. Moreover, it caused severe economic damage to the U.S oil industry and agriculture in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil price greatly fluctuated. West Texas Intermediate reached its high oil price record of seventy dollars per barrel. All of crops exportation passed through the Gulf shut down after the hurricane. Considering these factors, Hurricane Katrina affected the peaceful relationship between several states and threatened the country’s economic interest. It is definitely a national-level affair, which comes within the jurisdiction of the federal government.

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

I believe the principle of federalism didn’t work in the case of hurricane Katrina for the following reasons. Before the storm no one really did anything to prepare. Very little people evacuated like the mayor urged them to. Some people gathered food food and tried to fill up their cars with gas but gas stations started to close down. Even though the President knew that the storm was going to hit, he was on vacation visiting his mother instead of preparing for the storm.

Hurricane Katrina resulted in massive loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. There are many lessons worth learning from this event. Finger pointing started before the event was over. Most of the focus on Hurricane Katrina was on its impact on New Orleans; however, the storm ravaged a much wider area than that. This paper will briefly summarize the event, the impact on the city of New Orleans and the lessons learned to ensure preparedness today.

Initially the city of New Orleans police came on television and told everyone that no evacuation was necessary. Behind the scenes and discussed on television, the weather specialists, the mayor, the city and town police, and the Governor of Louisiana were all in discussions with trying to decide the best way possible to handle the influx of people they anticipated would be seeking shelter from the coastal states east of Louisiana. They thought the storm was heading towards Florida. To their surprise, the storm seemed to make a quick turn and started heading straight for the Louisiana coastline and was growing in size and intensity. Soon, the Mayor was on television talking about ways to evacuate, what areas they anticipated would flood, trying to prepare people for the loss of electricity, food, water, and overall backtracking on his initial city-wide evacuation decision and also asking people not to panic, but to get out of town quickly.