...Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was one of the worst devastating storms in U.S. history. The storm was unavoidable; the loss of life was. The Golf Coast was hit with category three winds from Louisiana to Alabama causing the water level to rise and flood over 80% of New Orleans and nearby neighborhoods (Raven, Berg, & Hassenzahl, p. 110, 2010). The levees simply could not hold the water and because New Orleans sits below sea level in most places, the city was submerged. Many people were asking how a tragedy like this could happen. This case study will attempt to review some of the key factors that contributed to the flooding. Factors to review will be the human factor, the destruction of the natural environment for anthropocentric reasons, and the technological mistakes. Each of the factors together had the power to weaken the natural environment unknowingly causing a vulnerability to the city and its inhabitants. Human population continues to grow and with this expansion comes the need for housing. The depletion of suitable land leads builders to begin to look at other options. In this case, many years ago it was decided to build levees and canals in the wetlands area of New Orleans. The initial purpose for the construction of the levees and canals was for commerce, but the city planners changed direction as the need for housing became more urgent, and the city was built. Humans through no fault of their own expanded into an area that was not suitable for construction and in the...
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...It is human nature, that at a “personal and institutional level - to lose focus on long- term needs in the light of short- term demands.”64 Major Hurricanes of the scale of Katrina do not happen frequently so society tends to neglect and take no action. In doing so, they will unknowingly contribute to the severity of the consequences from the next hurricane strikes. Long term safety must take precedence and needs to “place the protection of public safety, health and welfare at the forefront of the nation’s priorities.” 65 What any city can learn from Hurrican Katrina is that each city needs to develop a long term plan to protect its citizens.. If a plan does not exist at all, it is important that they make one that contains all necessary elements...
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...By: Miralem Smajic October 2, 2011 Political Science 3000 Professor: David G. Houghton In the milestone event of hurricane Katrina’s devastating destruction in 2005, the recovery process has had major impacts on the people in the Gulf of Mexico. Throughout the incident of Katrina, many organizations have helped contribute and donate their effort for the people of Louisiana and other states that have been affected by Katrina. Although years have passed since Katrina occurred, Red Cross for instance has raised the most for the beneficiary victims of Katrina. Donations throughout the United States such as: Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Joan B. Kroc, The American Cancer Society, and many other contributors raised funds for the victims of Katrina. The contributors statistics show that “The Red Cross moved up two spots to No. 2, rising nearly $3-billion,” Chronicle of Philanthropy. 20.2 (Nov. 1, 2007) while “The Salvation Army fell to No. 3, raising $1.6-billion” Chronicle of Philanthropy. 20.2 (Nov. 1, 2007) in the effort to provide outstanding amount of contribute to the people of Katrina’s destruction. Many who have lost their businesses and other data in the computing related plans by which the “Information Technology (IT) Disaster Recovery plan (DRP) to help protect their business data so as to ensure their survival,” (Academy of Strategic Management Journal. 10.2 (July 2011): p127) provides people who own businesses a safer straightforward plan to protect their...
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...Enron, Hurricane Katrina Examples of Leadership Gone Wrong Poor crisis leadership was on display after Hurricane Katrina and during the financial crisis The New Orleans masses who huddled in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Enron retirees who lost their life savings, and the laid-off workers buried under the economic ruin of financial companies all live with a simple truth. Just as spectacularly as great leadership can spark success, failed leadership can bring down cities, businesses, and economies. The collapse of major financial companies starting with Bear Stearns, the stunningly botched reaction to Katrina, the inept federal response to tips about Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and the financial sleight of hand that brought down Enron are only the latest examples of leadership failure. "We keep making the same stupid mistakes, generation after generation," says William Baker, who holds a doctorate in industrial psychology and is the journalist in residence at Fordham University. Many of the most stunning leadership disasters have common ingredients, such as executives who lack integrity and build organizational cultures where dissent isn't heard. "Leadership is not position. It's moral authority. Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect," says Stephen Covey, author of several bestselling books on leadership and self-improvement, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective...
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...Popul Res Policy Rev (2010) 29:127–141 DOI 10.1007/s11113-009-9133-x The Role of Community in Disaster Response: Conceptual Models Olivia Patterson • Frederick Weil • Kavita Patel Received: 1 May 2007 / Accepted: 15 October 2008 / Published online: 5 November 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract We focus on the role that community plays in the continuum of disaster preparedness, response and recovery, and we explore where community fits in conceptual frameworks concerning disaster decision-making. We offer an overview of models developed in the literature as well as insights drawn from research related to Hurricane Katrina. Each model illustrates some aspect of the spectrum of disaster preparedness and recovery, beginning with risk perception and vulnerability assessments, and proceeding to notions of resiliency and capacity building. Concepts like social resilience are related to theories of ‘‘social capital,’’ which stress the importance of social networks, reciprocity, and interpersonal trust. These allow individuals and groups to accomplish greater things than they could by their isolated efforts. We trace two contrasting notions of community to Tocqueville. On the one hand, community is simply an aggregation of individual persons, that is, a population. As individuals, they have only limited capacity to act effectively or make decisions for themselves, and they are strongly subject to administrative decisions that authorities impose on them....
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...commitment, investor loyalty, customer satisfaction, and bottom line). The American Red Cross (ARC), also identified as the “The Face of Recovery”, is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. The ARC is a non-profit organization that offers services in five areas of society. The community service sector helps citizens that are in need. In the communication sectors, the ARC provides comfort for military members and their families. The collection, processing and distribution of blood and blood products are also services provided by the ARC. There are also educational services on preparedness, health, and safety which are imperative for recovery acts. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic Hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes. Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Louisiana and Texas only a month later and was even larger category 3 storm (Ferrell, Ferrell, Fraedrich 2011). The ARC raised more than 2 billion in private donations to fund massive relied efforts for both these disasters (Ferrell, Ferrell, Fraedrich 2011). Now let’s examine how this disaster impacted the ARC, benefits of business ethics. Business ethics’ is the application of ethical values, such as integrity, fairness, respect and openness, to business behavior. The American Red Cross was criticized for their operations...
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...Effect of hurricane katrina on insurance industry stock prices Abstract This study tests the efficient market theory by measuring the effects of Hurricane Katrina, one of the most deadly and destructive natural disasters to occur in the United States, on stock prices in insurance industry. It hypothesizes that insurance providers who offer services in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina should incur a loss in the market-price of their stock following the natural disaster. This event study analyzed fifteen publicly-traded major insurance providers and the risk-adjusted rate of return on their stock before and after the date of dissipation of the hurricane, observed as August 30th, 2005. Results show stock returns, although dropping slightly after Hurricane Katrina, not having any measurable negative effect as a result of the storm. These results support the efficient market theory, as the insurance industry did not have any adverse effect from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, allowing for no opportunity for abnormal return or avoidance of a loss. Appropriate statistical tests for significance conducted in this study show that Hurricane Katrina had no significant impact on the risk adjusted rate of return on selected insurance industry stock prices over the event study period. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Natural disasters have an opportunity to affect the stock market, but how soon subsequently to such events does the market react? Is it possible to avoid...
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...Governmental Fumble: Hurricane Katrina Things that occur naturally such as tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes are unpreventable and are considered to be natural disasters. However, when man knowingly aids in the destructive power of naturally occurring events to inflect more damage, it is unquestionably a manmade disaster. For many years, both in the past and present, the United States has experienced some of the most devastating natural and artificial catastrophes such as The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s and the September 11 terror attack by the Al-Qaida terror network among others. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the human factor contributed to both the deadliest and costliest hurricane to impact the city of New Orleans. A city that is known to be the birth place of Jazz and the yearly celebration of Mardi Gras has unfortunately inherited a new chain of thought as the city that went underwater. Hurricane Katrina was the third strongest land hurricane and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. The hurricane is approximated to have affected more than 1.5 million individuals in the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, which contributed to the loss of billions of dollars in damages and job losses caused by the hurricane. The city of New Orleans was the most affected because it stood directly in Katrina’s path and although it is impossible to stop a naturally occurring event from occurring, it is not impossible to limit the damage that it inflicts...
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...Hurricane Katrina Jordan Edge Herron High School In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the gulf coast and left widespread devastation in its path. New Orleans was the hardest hit and most affected area in path of the hurricane. As well as physical damage, the hurricane had economic, social, political, and environmental effects on the entire eastern seaboard. The physical storm effects of hurricane Katrina reached states as far north as Ohio, and resulted in a large shift in population from southern states. Hurricane Katrina was one of the most powerful storms to impact the United States in the last 100 years. During its time in the Atlantic and the central part of the gulf, Katrina reached specifications to be classified as a category 5 hurricane with estimated wind speeds as high as 175 miles per hour (NOAA). When it reached shores in the gulf, Hurricane Katrina was classified as a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and had estimated wind speeds of 125 miles per hour (Anne Waple). In terms of economic impact brought about by the hurricane, the largest contributing factor was the disruption of the oil industries located in the affected regions. According to Anne Waple (2010), “Preliminary estimates from the Mineral Management Service suggest that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was reduced by 1.4 million barrels per day (or 95 % of the daily Gulf of Mexico production) as a result of the hurricane.” In direct result to the disruption of...
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...A Gender Comparison of Resiliency among Older African American Katrina Survivors Name Institution Date A Gender Comparison of Resiliency among Older African American Katrina Survivors The hurricane Katrina is rated the fifth most deadly hurricane in the history of the United States. The period of the hurricane witnessed massive destruction of property besides lost of lives. In addition to thee various forms of loss that became manifested in the period of the menace, a number of cases of psychological torture were reported due to the fear of the unknown. The coast regions reported high number of these cases with the coast line extending from central Florida to Texas experiencing the highest cases of destruction and situations of general turmoil. In connection to the harsh situations experience in this period, the reaction strategy among persons affected was different (Lawson, 2010). The manner in which persons reacted to this calamity depended on a number of factors among the ethical group, gender, geographical region besides other aspects that became highly central in the nature of the reactions. In most instances, copying strategies were adopted in order to help persons effectively adapt to the situations that also involved designing possible measures for curbing the adverse effects of the hurricane. Among the group of persons that were highly affected by the calamity was the African American community. A key attribute to this was the large number of the ethnic...
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...As the response to Hurricane Katrina and relevant recovery operations required ethical decision-making, due attention should be paid to assessment of the validity and effectiveness of ethical decisions. There are many resources, both videos and articles, that provide detailed description of the tragic situations created by the impact of the natural disaster and some ethical dilemmas faced by responders. In all cases, the concepts of ethics, justice, equity, equality, and professional competence played an important role in decision-making processes. The storm caused “more than 1,800 fatalities and more than $100 billion in damage” (American Society of Civil Engineers, 2015). Policy makers’ decisions caused harm and completely destroyed the...
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...The Future of Emergency Management Jeffrey C. Jones Case Studies in Natural and Man Made Disasters Professor Charles Kocher July 16, 2012 Abstract Emergency managers have historically been just that, managers of emergency situations. As the field of emergency management changes, more and more emphasis is being placed on the prevention of the emergency all together. This paper will lay out the frame work of emergency management in terms of total reorganization. The current model although tweaked many times is still response heavy, the new model will be more prevention and mitigation based, as will call for the total overhaul of conventional emergency management. Introduction The American public as an expectation that be it private or government on any level professional responders and emergency managers should be capable of handling any and all types of emergencies. They have an expectation be it fair or not that these responders should execute these responses without error. This expectation is only further fueled by popular television programs that depict stoic emergency managers that handle the large events everyday. In addition to emergency managers the same could be said about military commanders, and political leaders. The odd coincidence is that this was also the key duty that emergency managers have always focused on. The thought was that if a manager handles the call or...
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...“coastal swamps that helped absorb the energy of storm surges before they reached dry land.” (Stillman 228) At this point Americans were more concerned with the floods that happened annually from the Mississippi River. In the early days, settlers built a mile long levee to block overflows from the mighty Mississippi while landowners constructed their own levees. “In 1879, Congress created the Mississippi River Commission” (Stillman 228) in which they hoped to train the river. Herein lay one of the earliest problems. Congress assigned the Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) to head this newly created commission. The Corps believed they could control Mother Nature however as the video footage from The Lost City of New Orleans: A Case Study proved, “human kind cannot take on Mother Nature”. These engineers did not have the experience however they continued to increase the levees stating this would “confine the rivers for good”. However, “the more the levees constricted the Mississippi, the higher the waters rose”. (Stillman 228) As new plans and projects for the protecting New Orleans from Mississippi floodwaters were enacted, federal government financially backed all of them. The Mississippi River and Tributaries Project was enacted to design levees to protect against an 800 year flood. Controlling the river came with other consequences, it no longer brought natural silt and the coastal marshes that helped protect New Orleans from hurricanes. “The city was now safer...
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...Orleans. I spent many years dodging hurricanes and massive Tropical storms but unfortunately one year my luck ran out. HURRICANE KATRINA: Satellite Images Confirm Aerosol Geoengineering and EM Modification of CAT-3 Storm Chemtrails The tropical depression that became Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and meteorologists were soon able to warn people in the Gulf Coast states that a major storm was on its way. By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region. That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer. By the time Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans early in the morning on Monday, August 29, it had already been raining heavily for hours. When the storm surge (as high as 15 to 20 feet in some places) arrived, it overwhelmed many of the city’s unstable levees and drainage canals. Water seeped through the soil underneath some levees and swept others away altogether. By 9 a.m., low-lying places like St. Charles Parish (my home parish) and the Ninth Ward were under so much water that people had to scramble to attics and rooftops for safety. Eventually, nearly 80 percent of the city was under some quantity of water. Death, destruction, and terror all wrapped up in a beautiful satellite picture. Katrina hit my home state and caused the horrific scene that was plastered on everyone’s televisions. The memory of this event made me appreciate...
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...Hurricane Katrina? The communication systems broke down hours after hurricane Katrina because nobody had been prepared to handle disaster 0f such magnitude. Everyone went into shock and those responsible did not have a clear-cut plan or well-defined procedure to initiate proper rescue and recovery procedures. Due to the rapid winds and the flooding, millions of phone lines and cellular towers had been brought down. Most of the cities switchboards including the police’s later broke down too. What was the purpose of the Hurricane Pam exercise? Why was it unsuccessful? The Hurricane Pam exercise was meant to carry out mock studies with regards to emergencies such as hurricanes. It was to involve crisis managers and their various departments such as fire, medical care, and communication among others all which were considered pertinent to successful disaster management in New Orleans. However, these plans were halted and proper preparations towards disaster management were not made due to findings. As such when the hurricane hit, nobody was prepared to handle it and the people responsible were driven into a myriad of confusion....
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