Hurricane Katrina Struggles

On August 29th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic damage and flooding in Mississippi, Louisiana, New Orleans and areas in between. It destructed the lives and homes of thousands of people, with a total of 1,883 fatalities (Hurricane Katrina Statistics Fast Facts, 2015). Hurricane Katrina left many homeless and hospitals unprepared for the challenges posed to the healthcare system as a whole. Some of these challenges included gaining access to healthcare facilities, providing expedited care to those most in need, and preventing spread of disease that commonly occurs during natural disasters. Many facilities did not evacuate in time and many were left stranded in flooded waters as patients conditions worsened and access to essential medications and treatments became limited.

The devastating and deeply rooted traumatic effects of Hurricane Katrina will live in the psyches of the people of New Orleans and beyond for generations to come. Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane to make landfall in the United States barreling in as a Category 5 with up to 175 mile-per-hour winds and a 20-ft storm surge that would create a humanitarian emergency with the likes never before seen in the United States. This hurricane caused unimaginable death, destruction, and displacement, leaving a known death toll of 1,836 and an unknown number thought to be washed out to sea. The real truth is we will never know exactly how many people lost their lives during Hurricane Katrina.

“When communities are rebuilt, they must be even better and stronger than before the storm,” (“Bush”). This is what former president George W. Bush said during his speech in New Orleans concerning the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was a massive natural disaster that consisted of high powered winds and immense amounts of water. The hurricane was initially a category 3, but gradually rose to the classification of a category 5 storm, which is the largest storm there is (“Hurricane Irene”). In fact, there were accounts of winds recorded at about 127 miles per hour in the Gulf areas such as Grand Isle, Louisiana, and near the Mississippi River (“Hurricane Katrina Statistics”). All of these factors are made

During times of extreme poverty and inequality more attention is provided to those in hardship. A prime example of this is New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Before the hurricane hit the only time I had hear of New Orleans was if someone was speaking about doing down to Mardi Gras. The people affected by the hurricane lost a lot. Many lost their homes, tangible possessions stored in their homes, animals, and some lost their lives. Hurricane Katrina was a huge devastation to the country, but many survivors say they did not get adequate supplies, shelter, food, or support (Lee, S, 2006).

Hurricane Katrina was a catastrophic natural disaster in American history. The aftermath had substantial negative impact on New Orleans and it could have been avoided if proper disaster management practices were put in place. Therefore, it is important to determine the factors that caused the hurricane to be catastrophic. One factor that was responsible for the disaster was failure of the three levels of the government working cohesively (Thiede & Brown, 2013). The incoherent interaction between the three levels of government will be assessed. Another factor that will be examined is social and psychological refusal of Hurricane Katrina

Being able to identify the areas of mistakes during hurricane Katrina made it possible for better planning for future disasters. Using the four key elements of emergency response allows for State, local and the federal government to better prepare for any disaster or terrorist attack. Many mistake were made during the Katrina disaster and being able to develop better training, communication, the use of resources and planning in the future will prevent a catastrophic disaster from resulting in the loss of so many lives.

Hurricane Katrina is one of the U.S’s most catastrophic events, and this was due to the number of people who were killed and displaced. Most of those effected most harshly by the storm were those that were of the poor community, which in New Orleans was mostly black. These people were not able to evacuate the storm, and also had the most trouble to try to rebuild after the storm. Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s documentary on Hurricane Katrina, Trouble the Water, portrays Hurricane Katrina in a different light, one that constantly get ignored by the popular media. By answering five main questions based on this documentary, a close to accurate portrayal of Hurricane Katrina can be made.

Hurricane Katrina took 1,833 lives, but this number could’ve been lower had the government respond in a proper manner. The failure of proper execution of the Mayor Ray Nagin, of New Orleans at the time, the failure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to execute actions in a timely manner, and the failure of the President to actually visit the people in need to help all led to more destruction. Former FEMA director Michael Brown failed to address the request made by officials. The Lieutenant Governor was also criticized for making vague request and not communicating properly what she needed. Many of the officials in charge did not properly communicate what they needed. And those who did communicate request, were ignored.

During the time of Hurricane Katrina, there were numerous failures from the government to provide aid to those who resided within the boundaries of New Orleans. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina became one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike North America. With over 1,500 people killed and over $100 billion in property damage, all levels of government were not prepared for and did not cooperate efficiently with one another to react to this type of natural disaster. The many government officials near the New Orleans area, all failed to provide proper assistance while the hurricane cycled through and wreaked havoc about the state.

Emergency managers’ response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was uncoordinated and went poorly. Survivors were left for several days without basic relief such as food, water, and sanitary items. This paper investigates what led to this major response failure. The conclusion is that preparedness was not a top priority for officials at the local, state, and federal levels. First, this paper describes the major response failures in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the reason that they failed using the National Preparedness Framework and the National Response Framework. Then, it identifies several instances in which preparedness efforts were postponed despite the well-known risk that New Orleans was well overdue for a major hurricane that could

The large-scale natural disaster that I chose was that of Hurricane Katrina from 2005. Although the damage and lives lost was catastrophic, the toll it took on the race relations, political rhetoric, and emergency response tactics was more evident throughout the recovery process. This hurricane produced as many heroes as it did villains. It also brought about improvements in weather forecasting and natural disaster communications. Hurricane Katrina also displaced countless families, most who lost their homes and belongings. “Hurricane Katrina was a devastating category 4 hurricane that overpowered the levees of New Orleans, which were only designed for category 3. It gave way massive flooding, thousands of deaths, and cost millions of insurance

Hurricane Katrina will always be remembered for the devastation it caused, my close friends, the Adams family knows this better than anyone else. My family has been close friends with the Adams for nearly my whole life, the thing that stood out about them the most was their passion to help others and their obsession for the New Orleans Saints. The Adams have numerous relatives who live in Louisiana, including their parents on the father’s side. The parents live just twenty minutes south of New Orleans on a small farm. During Hurricane Katrina, when the levees were breached, water flooded the town and their farm. They lost what few livestock they owned and their home was damaged beyond repair due to the high flood waters. The couple had to seek shelter on their roof until help could arrive. Meanwhile, the Adams family had no way of contacting them to ensure that they were alright and worried for almost a week. Finally, almost a week had passed before the parents were able to contact our friends, the Adams. After the parents were rescued from the roof of their flooded house, they were taken to the Superdome that housed thousands of other helpless victims. The only reason the parents had chosen not to evacuate the city like most other residents is because they both had survived Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 with minor damage. Also the parents could not bear to abandon their livestock, which was their main source of income. After staying in the Superdome

Hurricane Katrina not only tore the city apart and forever changed the lives of the people living in New Orleans, but truly hit home for the rest of America as well. Nothing of this brutal disaster had really hit the nation before August 23th, 2005, so the shock of it all struck the nation at an all time high. The after math of Katrina was catastrophic on the worst levels. Families were torn apart, homes and vehicles swept away or completely ruined by the massive amounts of water, and all that was planned to save lives was partly ironically what drown them. In a situation like this one would expect a hospital to be sophisticated and more equipped to keep it together, but it ultimately the opposite happened entirely. When the lives lost were

Hurricane Katrina was a devastating hurricane that hit New Orleans in 2005. It made landfall in New Orleans August 29, 2005. It was a separating storm between Grand Isle, Louisiana, and the Mississippi River. In these areas there were severe floods. When this tragedy happened I was three years old. I remember watching this on the news with my grandparents saying, “Wow, that’s crazy, I hope everyone is ok”. Even though I was very young, I still knew what was going on in the world at the time.

As Hurricane Katrina approached New Orleans, federal and local officials underestimated the severity of the storm. Once the storm hit, they believed that it was not horrible and that it would be easy to recover from the storm. They were not expecting the levee system to fail and that 80% of the city would be under water hours after the storm passed. Once the levees failed, it took days before residents of New Orleans to get the help that they needed and many people lost their lives waiting for help. Since many New Orleans police officers lived in the city, they were the first to respond to the crisis. Due to the lack of electricity, it was hard for officials to communicate with each other, making crisis response difficult. People reported acts of violence without actually having proof. The media publicized the inaccurate information without getting evidence.