Introduction
Hurricane Katrina was the most dangerous natural disaster that has ever occurred in the history of United States of America. It was experienced from 23 to 31 August 2005 in USA. The hurricane affected major cities in USA such as Eastern North of America, Ontario, Georgia, left 1833 people dead, and rendered so many people homeless without basic supplies.
Property worth of $ 108 billion was destroyed. Hurricane Katrina was caused by the hurricane itself and the collapse of manmade levees for protecting the city that is built below sea level (Brodie et al. 2006.p. 1402-1408). The impact of the hurricane included persistent flooding, destruction of industries, evacuation challenges, environmental pollution, and destruction of utility networks such as road network, water, energy. This essay will discuss the preparedness of United States of America authorities in dealing with Hurricane Katrina. The analysis will be based on prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery measures adopted in USA to deal with Hurricane Katrina.
Prevention
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of US of Homeland Security for the management of disaster in the country. The governor Katherine Babineaux Blanco declared a state of emergency in New Orleans Louisiana on 26/08/2015 and requested President George W. Bush federal state of emergency before the Hurricane Katrina occurred. The federal state emergency issued by the president gave FEMA the mandate to not only organize but also mobilize resources for the evacuation of New Orleans residents (Elliott et al., 2006.p. 295-321).
Ray Nagin, New Orleans Mayor, declared voluntary evacuation of the city that was later ordered mandatory evacuation before the occurrence of the hurricane. Several residents of the city refused to evacuate the city and have several reasons for their action such as lack of adequate finances to move, some believed then city was their homes, and some argued that the buildings they planned to stay were safe, others wanted to protect their property (Kessler et al., 2006.p. 930-939). Louisiana Superdome was opened to provide shelter for residents who were unable to leave the city.
Protection
The federal government has worked together with scientists and come up with a better policy that will protect the New Orleans and the USA as a whole from dangerous disasters such as Hurricane Katrina (Yee et al., 2007.p. 1032). These protection measures include rebuilding of natural protection by creating a coastal protection and restoration authority that handles developing more wetlands at the coast that slows down storms hence protecting the coast from hurricanes disasters. Secondly, engineering a new levee system along the coast to protect the region from future strikes of hurricanes.
The I-shaped walls of the levee have been replaced with T and L shaped walls supported by beams of 19.8 meters above the sea level that provide a better support of levee and protects the country from future flooding. Thirdly, preventing complacency will help reduce the adverse effects of hurricanes in future. The Act of 2006 Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act was passed with the aim of improving communication in areas affected by a disaster and reduces loss of life if another hurricane takes place in the country (Yee et al., 2007.p. 1033-1039).
Mitigation
Tornado warning system is currently being used at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) that gives a warning in cases of a disaster. The Hurricane Katrina left many students hostages on the USM campus for several days. Secondly, building of Diamond Head home along the coastal regions of USA that is reinforced with laminated beams along the ceilings that is not easily affected by Hurricane Katrina (Cutter et al. 2006.p.8-20).
Furthermore, the house has a safe room located in the middle of the house full of emergency essentials. Thirdly, building houses that meet the standards of 2003 International Residential Code with all the structural components tied to the path in a continuous manner. Such houses are capable of withstanding minimum wind gusts of at least 130 miles per hour. Additionally, FEMA’s community education and outreach personnel educates citizens on building homes that are not easily affected by disasters and encourages the citizens to insure their houses against flooding.
Response
After the occurrence of Hurricane, Katrina FEMA responded by mobilizing one thousand Homeland Security workers to provide assistance to residents New Orleans, who were affected by the hurricane. FEMA in its effort of organizing a response to the disaster, FEMA stressed that neither firefighters nor ambulance could respond to areas hit by the Hurricane Katrina without the prior mobilization by local and state authorities (Briaud et al., 2013.p.140).
This declaration by FEMA affected negatively response to the disaster because it slowed down the whole process of response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. FEMA being a federal government agency for Homeland Security did not allow involvement of certain non-governmental organizations to help to respond to the crisis in New Orleans.
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According to American Red Cross report (2005), showed that the American Red Cross participation in the New Orleans was not granted by FEMA hence being unable to support the government in response to Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. Louisiana Superdome was packed beyond capacity by 30 August 2005 with over 20, 000 resided in the building. The conditions in the Louisiana Superdome became worse because of overcrowding that all people who resided in it had to be evacuated immediately.
The government response to Hurricane Katrina was very inefficient and lacked adequate information concerning the extent of destruction the disaster had caused in the city. The government deployed a large number of its workers in the region who were unable to control the ever increasing destruction of effect of the disaster with several residents still stranded in New Orleans and looters taking advantage of the situation to steal from stores (Hawkins et al,2010.p.1777-1793).
The federal governments seek the assistance of firefighters in responding to the crisis that did not use their skills putting out fires but assisted FEMA in handing out flyers. The Urban Search and Rescue and the Civil Search and Rescue failed to coordinate their efforts of searching and rescuing of residents and performed poorly in response to the hurricane Katrina (Gutmann, 2011).
Recovery
Direct housing assistance, the government of USA provided mobile homes for over 92000 Louisiana families and trailers for use as temporary housing. The FEMA Louisiana Recovery Office was established in United States of America following the effects of Katrina and Rita hurricanes. The public assistance provides supplemental federal disaster grant assistance for the repair, replacement or restoration of disaster managed properties such as buildings and houses, publicly managed facilities and the facilities of eligible private non-profit organizations.
The government also assists in repair and maintenance of roads and bridges, police and fire departments, schools, health care facilities, public transport network and public owned utilities. FEMA Public Assistance funds of about $ 11.9 billion were used in the repair of public infrastructure damaged by the hurricanes and removal of debris. Other funds were allocated to various sectors of the economy as follows, $3.88 billion for education activities, $1.04billion for public safety facilities, $ 5.87 for maintenance and repair of general infrastructure and $ 1.16 billion for healthcare facilities (Cutter et al 2006.p.8-20).
Conclusion
Hurricane Katrina was the most dangerous natural disaster that has ever occurred in the history of United States of America that left 1833 people dead. The government has used several methods to help protect the country from a repeat of the effects of the hurricane Katrina. The methods include prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Reference
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