The Effects Of Flood Protection Regulations

This case summarizes events preceding the Hurricane Katrina, which was one of the worst natural catastrophes in the modern history of the USA. It raises questions about the lack of reasonable prevention and preparation actions due to flimsy structure and management of the responsible organizations and persons, invalidity and inconsistence of their actions and incapability of making the decisions in a timely manner. As a result of the unstructured and incoherent activities, we could observe several ineffective and costly attempts to mitigate floods and hurricanes. In the beginning the local officials, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and “White Houses past and present always seem penny-wise and pound-foolish” because of the chain of the wrong

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

Since its inception, FEMA has dealt with quite many disasters. In all these disasters, at least, people’s lives and property have been saved. Public opinion on the performance of FEMA is quite divergent. However, there is a feeling that FEMA has several weaknesses that if corrected will help the agency achieve its objectives and even exceed public expectations about its performance. In particular, FEMA’s responses to 9/11 attacks and

The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act is mainly focused on response. The government was nowhere near prepared in 2005 when hurricane Katrina struck, then shortly followed by hurricane Rita. “In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of homes and displaced over 1 million people. In light of widespread Congressional and public interest in U.S. agencies’ performance in assisting hurricane victims, GAO initiated work under the Comptroller General’s authority to examine federal housing assistance.” (GAO Reports. 2007.)

Over the years of Hurricane Katrina, Fema faced many criticisms. Back in 9/11, They acted fast and accordingly to the disaster. During hurricane Katrina, they were slow and had false promises that the locals of New orleans believed (Maestri, “The

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.

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.

in “A+E Networks”). That is more than enough warnings to get governments attention to prepare for another yet stronger hurricane that was about to hit the city of New Orleans. In the song “Georgia…Bush” the rapper states “So what happened to the levees, why wasn’t they able to control this?” (27-28). In Mark Castay research he found that the levee built in New Orleans was designed for category 3 hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina was category 5 the Army Corps. of Engineers has said that Katrina was just too massive for the levees original construction. Castay researchers also stated that barriers should have been constructed to assist levees better control such a massive storm. President Bush should have made preparations for the category 5 hurricane before it demolished the city of New Orleans. If the government would have upgraded the levee system after hurricane Betsy in 1965 the aftermath of Katrina would not have been so fatal. The lack of preparation cost the city billions of dollars and lost properties they will never get back. Proper precaution should have been alerted and taking care of from the time hurricane was found to hit the city at high

One of the main issues leading up to the flood of 1993 was the failed communication and partnership between local, state, and federal governments. The federal government is in charge of floodplain management instead of the local and state government, which prevents local governments becoming involved. This form of management flaw became revealed by the amount of damage the flood made. The reason the damage was so devastating and so many people lost their homes and businesses is because the federal government failed to understand the Executive Order of 1977 and

On Tuesday, November 14, 2017 the US House of Representatives passed the 21st Century Flood Reform Act (HR 2874) with a whopping 237 to 189 vote. If passed by the Senate and the President, the bill would extend the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for another 5 years. The NFIP, which saw another devastating year of flood claims, is set to expire on December 8th.

It is my opinion that some of the problems FEMA experienced can be attributed to the public’s lack of awareness of the assistance available during those chaotic times. To combat this lack of awareness, FEMA teamed up with the Ad Council and a private advertising firm, Muezzin Brown & Partners, to develop a public service campaign that made the public aware, through the use of media outlets, that assistance was available and provided FEMA’s toll-free number to register for assistance. (Haddow, Bullock & Coppola, 2017)

The purpose of this report is to geologically evaluate the potential hazards for flooding in Hazard City. This report will include a detailed historic and extrapolated Stream Gauge Data Worksheet, as well as a graph of the Discharge Frequency Curve expected on Clearwater River. The report will provide Hazard city with my scientific analysis, conclusions, and provide recommendations concerning potential flood damages.

Storm Surge is an abnormal rise of ocean water that is pushed ashore by the oncoming hurricane’s winds. A major hurricane such as Hurricane Sandy pushed more than 30 feet of storm surge into parts of New York City and surrounding areas. This rise in water can cause extreme flooding in coastal areas. Storm surge produced by hurricanes posed the greatest threat to life and property. The National Weather Service reports that seventy percent of all Presidential disaster declarations are associated with

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most damaging hurricanes in the U.S. history. This disaster was not only due to natural causes, but to the catastrophic levee failure resulting from the storm surge. The public widely reprimanded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) afterwards since they built the New Orleans Levee System. However, the Corps of Engineers was unable to rebuild the outdated levee system due to lack of federal funding. This paper will focus on how President George. W. Bush and Congress were culpable for not providing enough funding for the proposed flood protection projects. While both the president and Congress were at fault, this paper is directed towards Congress

The city of Houston, DIVISION 2. - STANDARDS IN SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREAS (Sec. 19-32) is responsible for the regulations that are provided to prevent hazards in flood zoned areas. The city has regulations that state that construction must be built to reduce the damage when flooding occurs and make special modifications to building construction to prevent flotation, collapse or movement of a structure. The sewage system must be designed to eliminate the infiltration of sewage whenever there may be a flood. The water supply systems must be designed to prevent or eliminate infiltration of floodwaters into the system. The sanitary sewer systems must be designed to eliminate infiltration of floodwaters that may enter the systems. Also, the electrical,