Summary: Department Of Defense's Response To Hurricane Katrina

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

“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

Many people acted gallantly after Hurricane Katrina. The Coast Guard, rescued nearly 34,000 people in New Orleans alone, and everyday citizens commanded boats, offered needed supplies including food, and did whatever else they could do to help the ones in need. But, the government seemed to be caught off guard from this disaster. The FEMA took days to authorize operations in New Orleans, and even then did not seem to have a guaranteed plan. Officials, along with President George W. Bush, seemed oblivious to the extravagance of problems and suffering New Orleans and elsewhere.

On the morning of August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall bringing with it winds between 100-104 miles per hour. Upon landfall the storm stretched approximately 400 miles across and was rated a category 3 hurricane (History.com Staff, 2009). The aftermath of the storm left the areas of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana with flooding displacing hundreds of thousands of residents and caused more than $100 billion in damages (Townsend, 2006). The events of the hurricane and its aftermath including government response or rather the perceived lack of was widely broadcasted. Hurricane Katrina provoked an enormous response from all levels of government, the private sector, and foreign countries, however even with the vast resources the response

responses to past natural and terrorist disasters (Washington Post).” Following admission of faults on their behalf, the House of Representatives initiated a Select Bipartisan committee to investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina and how the fifteen Emergency Support Functions were implemented with Katrina. So the question remains, did the state of Louisiana and the federal government foresee the possibilities of such a disaster? According to the select committee report it states that, “it remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days. The crisis was not only predictable; it was predicted.” The overall consensus regarding the management of the Katrina crisis is that it was absolute poor planning and a failure of

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina left tens of thousands of people in New Orleans without adequate water, food, shelter, and physical security. Law enforcement was in disarray as 200 New Orleans Police officers left their post. The Louisiana National Guard was short on personnel and much of their equipment was unserviceable due to flooding. Thousands of people needed help and critical distribution of resources from Defense Support of Civilian Authorities (DSCA) failed.

We tried to learn from the 2004 Florida hurricanes and do major preparation to try to lessen the damage and have a better response from the predicted storm. When the news got out that New Orleans was Katrina’s next target, I quickly notified FEMA that it must be on its highest level of alert. The Government got right to work preparing more than 3.7 million liters of water, 4.6 million pounds of ice, 1.86 million meals ready to eat, and 33 medical teams. This huge number of materials amassed to prepare for the storm was FEMA’s largest preposition or relief supplies in their entire history. Additionally, the military mover assets into place, disaster-response teams were positioned on the Gulf Coast, the Coast Guard’s Choppers were put on alert, and more than 5,000 National Guard personnel were stationed in the affected states. Also, just in case they were needed, other states were prepared to assist in any way possible. So as you see from all of this, we did our best to try to prevent damage but “the tragedy showed the helplessness of man against the fury of nature.” Katrina was a big lesson for the world, for there was nothing different that we could have done to avoid the disaster. It was all in G-D’s

Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Some feel that FEMA’s absorption into DHS was to blame for the failure to effectively respond to Hurricane Katrina. There was much unfamiliarity with the revised National Response Plan and the fresh creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

The primary response or nonexistence thereof, as a result of Hurricane Katrina, showed great levels of inability and inefficiency by government leaders. The failures experienced by the government is a lot of blame to go around before and after Hurricane Katrina hit in New Orleans, Louisiana taking a lot of lives and making hundreds of thousands more homeless. The federal government were not ready or unprepared for the disaster that took place. The Federal Emergency Management also known as FEMA took several day to launch operations in New Orleans, Louisiana, and as they tried to establish their operation for the disaster they did not have an effective plan in place for the situation they had of their hands. According to Chris McGreal, "Bush

Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Joplin, Missouri tornado are easily two of the most devastating recent weather disasters for the United States. The death toll, property damage and loss, and rebuilding and recovery costs were monumental for both events. FEMA was criticised for the lack of coordination and response to Hurricane Katrina, in which case many private and volunteer sectors stepped up (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). However, in the Joplin tornado, FEMA and city officials allowed the private and voluntary sector to control the response and recovery efforts and supplemented them as needed. New Orleans has done well to improve the higher education and employment rates and decreasing violent crimes, but has neglected

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

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina left a path of destruction down the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. It was the worst natural disaster that the United States had encountered up to that point. Even with warning signs before the storm hit, local and state governments failed to adhere to the warnings. Katrina’s worst devastation came in New Orleans where thousands lost everything due to massive flooding. New Orleans was in desperate need of assistance. Unfortunately, due to difficult circumstances at every level of government, the relief would have to wait. “Breakdowns in communication and confused emergency and law enforcement responses from local, state, and federal officials in the hours and days after Hurricane Katrina led to chaos and panic in the affected areas, endangering citizens’ property and lives.” (Tkacz, 2006, p. 1) Command Relationships were a complete failure in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina due to the absence of Command and Control, training for that type of situation, and the lack of resources.

Hurricane Katrina was a failure of government at every level. The scale of Hurricane Katrina overwhelmed the national, state, and local government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency “FEMA” weren't prepare of a crisis of that size, and that location of many people. Typically, the emergency response in the United States is driven by the state and local government at first, with a federal aid coming behind that, and there are multiple level of breakdown in the state of Louisiana as well as the city of New Orleans. As a result of things that went out of control, FEMA which represent the federal government, became part of the situation as well. So the instructions would be given from Washington in coordinating with state and local officials

The national guard had troubles with communication because all of their headquarters flooded and they could not be reached, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look outside and see that there is a storm hitting and they need to spring into action. What upsets me watching this is the chief really didn’t take responsibility and made excuses. A lot went wrong when Katrina hit, from the people living there, to the state government, to the Army and National Guard, to the levees failing. There was a lot of bad that was happening but the civilians didn’t have a choice. People would go into stores and grab food and drinks to survive because their homes were destroyed because of the high waters and flooding. The army and national guards were almost helpless with no communication but they are there for that, they are the best in the world at calming people down and making sure that everything runs smoothly. I feel bad for them because they took a lot of heat for not reacting and not being there in time, but this video shows that a bunch of their go to items were in the flood or

Consequently, poor decision making, and confusion of who was in charge was the biggest shortfall during the recovery efforts of Katrina. Prior to the 9/11 attacks, FEMA was an independent agency, affording it direct access to the president (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2011). FEMA was actually absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after the attacks, in a shift of focus to terrorism being the largest threat inside our borders. This had many ill-fated results for FEMA as an organization, the loss of valuable resources, and the creation of the National Response Plan effectively forced FEMA into a second fiddle during disasters. According to Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola (2011), “where previously the director of FEMA had maintained a clear line of authority and accountability,