The Katrina response and relief efforts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Katrina response and relief efforts - Essay Example There are several cases illustrating failure to respond effectively to mitigate the damages to life and limb of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans was poverty stricken and at least 120,000 people where without mobility. The mandatory evacuation issued on August 28 by the local officials also made no provisions for helping in evacuating the homeless, sick, carless, elderly, infirm and low-income residents. New Orleans disaster plan called for the mayor to make use of the city school buses to evacuate residents unable to leave on their own but the city never deployed the buses and was subsequently destroyed in the flooding. Amtrak also ran a special schedule to move equipment out of the city but the government declined to take the offer of this agency to take several hundred passengers instead of the scheduled equipment. Evacuees were sent to Louisiana Superdome but the large multitude of refugees was more than overwhelming to volunteers. There were not enough provisions for food, clothing and medicine. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency did indeed provide supplies, the unexpected number of evacuees rapidly depleted the provisions. (Nates & Moyer, 2005) There was visibly an ineffective mechanism in coordinating and managing the evacuation process as the governing agencies failed to respond and implement the provisions in the disaster plan that was available to them. 2)Discuss the reasons why the examples you cited above were or were not successful. Comment specifically on whether you believe that the organizational structure at the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, and the Federal government was adequate, including communications, command, and control. (Please refer to the Organization Structure for... Hurricane Camille which battered Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama already demonstrated the vulnerability as did the documentary made by the National Geographic in October 2004 and Scientific American in 2001. What is profound is that when we review other articles, we find one common thread and that is the fact that the disaster was expected though many people did not give enough attention to what mechanisms should be installedHurricane Katrina revealed several interesting individual and community behavior during and after the occurrence of disasters. While many articles were concerned on race and looting issues, it was found that social networks play an important role during the fight to survive the disaster. According to a combined study from the University of Alabama and University of California, it was found that decision-making processes are greatly influenced by social networking. In a survey of 116 evacuees, it was found that it was the social networks that greatly influenced the respondent’s evacuation and planning activities. The role of the media was found to be less important as what many people perceive. Interviewed evacuees state that they became more aware of the severity of the situation as word spread through their social circles. Friends, classmates, neighbors and other acquaintances who gave them information enabled them to prepare more than what they would have from the information they get from radio and television.