...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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...Concept Paper: New Orleans Post-Katrina December 8, 2013 New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina, which hit the southeast United States in late August of 2005 was one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes in United States history. The city of New Orleans was arguably hit the hardest by the hurricane. The objective of this paper is to analyze the link between economic, political, and social conditions in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina and the conditions in New Orleans post-Katrina. Although natural disasters are an inevitability, the human suffering that citizens faced in New Orleans immediately following Katrina were largely avoidable, the result of a lack of adequate evacuation planning and massive governmental negligence. Furthermore, it was no accident which people suffered the most in the aftermath of Katrina. Financial, political, racial, and social disparities in New Orleans long before Katrina dictated who would be most affected after Katrina, both immediately and years after the hurricane. Rebuilding efforts, just like the evacuation, have tended to favor the rich and White and neglect the poor and Black. Pre-Katrina New Orleans was disproportionately Black and poor relative to the rest of the United States. According to 2000 U.S. Census data, Blacks made up 12.3% of the nation’s population while Whites made up 75.1% of the nation’s population (U.S. Census, 2000b). In contrast, the city of New Orleans was 28.1% White and 67.3% Black...
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...equilibrium is defined as a condition or state in which the economic forces are at a balance. In this particular discussion, one will discuss equilibration, the process of moving between two different points that is affected by a change in demand or supply. One will cover how a specific world event, Hurricane Katrina, caused home prices in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to fluctuate between two equilibrium states. Also to be covered is how the process of said movement occurred using the behaviors of both supply firms and consumers. In the late summer of 2005, Hurricane Katrina bared down on the City of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. This storm caused a surge that caused the storm levees to break that in turn, flooded the City of New Orleans and took most of the city’s housing with it. Because of the destruction, about two hundred and fifty thousand people were relocated to nearby Baton Rouge, making it the largest city in Louisiana. Let us start the discussion by stating that the average price of a single-family home in Baton Rouge before Katrina was one hundred thirty thousand dollars, shown by point A on the graph (O'Sullivan & Sheffrin, 2002). With the explosion of the population, the average price jumped to one hundred and fifty six thousand dollars within six months, point B, and the market shrunk from three thousand six hundred homes on the market to only five hundred homes on the market (O'Sullivan & Sheffrin, 2002). Essentially, the increase in population caused...
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...Case In Point Analysis Kristine Santacruz SCI/362 July 19. 2012 Mr. Anthony Pitucco Case in Point Analysis Case Hurricane Katrina Along Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama the North-Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina was hit in August of 2005. It produced a storm surge that caused severe damage to the city of New Orleans as well as the other coastal cities and towns in the region. The damage from Hurricane Katrina caused a little more damage that some have expected. Not only has Katrina wiped out homes, and has left thousands of people homeless. The high waters caused levees and canals to fail, flooding 80% of New Orleans and many nearby neighborhoods. In New Orleans, long-term searching and settling of the area created a shoreline without its natural buffers and a town which was below sea level. Natural environment services controlling water flow and drainage were substituted for machines levees and pumps to prevent water off the roads. The unintended consequences that led to the disaster in New Orleans from Katrina was the delta formed over millennia from sediments deposited of the mouth of The Mississippi River. The city’s development has disrupted the delta building process at the locations of New Orleans. For sea and river commerce, over the years engineers have constructed a system of canals to aid navigation and of levees to control flooding, since the city is at or below sea level. The canals allowed salt water to intrude and kill the freshwater march vegetation...
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...Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans in 2005 Most of the population in the United States is known for living in coastal cities such as: Houston, New York, and Miami. Although these cities have significant landscaping, behind the landscaping is a hidden body of water. That body of water is mostly an ocean rather than a river. Since coastal cities are closer to a body of water – known as an ocean – the chances of floods increase through seasons. While living in the coastal planes, there is a higher chance of undergoing a hurricane or tornado due to the land being located by a big body of water. Unfortunately, in 2005, a hurricane known as Hurricane Katrina hit the most vulnerable city in the United States, New Orleans. New Orleans is located...
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...devastating natural disasters, Hurricane Katrina, hit near New Orleans, Louisiana and caused more than 9,000 confirmed casualties and $96 billion in damage. The lack of communication, cooperation, confusion, being able to share responsibilities and other factors made this chaotic event even more chaotic when the affected areas were trying to recover from the storm. A storm in which Louisiana just wasn't prepared for. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency made to reduce the loss of life and property, and protect the nation from hazards of all kinds through preparedness, protection, response and recovery. They were involved in helping with the recovery of Hurricane Katrina. However 13 months before the hurricane hit FEMA started a simulation plan called Hurricane Pam that if they would have finished would have been very helpful in the recovery process. FEMA still helped out at they could through. They were constantly working 24 hour shifts and having 25 search and rescue teams out helping. They only have 2,600 people involved in FEMA, so they had most of their workers out helping FEMA was also big on respecting those who died from the storm. They put in huge efforts in trying to recover dead bodies and respecting the dead by asking the media not taking pictures of those who passed. Michael Brown, the director of FEMA, was put in charge for a while until Michael Chertoff removed him from being in charge of the Katrina case. When Brown was in charge...
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...AMERICAN RED CROSS AND THE KATRINA EMERGENCY 3 The American Red Cross has people, systems, and plans in place to respond to disasters. They are considered the go-to agency in cases of emergencies and crisis when people are in need, with much success. The American Red Cross response to Hurricane Katrina surpassed any disaster response before it and nothing in the last ten years has reached its magnitude. “The Red Cross: Provided more than 3.8 million overnight stays in shelters across 31 states and Washington, D.C. – seven times higher than any other disaster up to that point. Served nearly 68 million meals and snacks, four times more than what the Red Cross had ever provided during past relief efforts. For the first time, served a million meals in a single day. Provided emergency financial assistance to 1.4 million families – nearly 20 times more than any response prior to Katrina” (The American Red Cross, 2017). These numbers show how effective their planning can be, nevertheless with the magnitude of...
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...Running head: THE HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE BP OIL SPILL 1 THE HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE BP OIL SPILL 6 The Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill Hieu Le Columbia Southern University The Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill The 2005 Hurricane Katrina is one of the worst natural disasters in the United States history. This hurricane killed 1836 people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other nearby states, and deleted hundred billion dollars in wealth. Several people were losing their homes, businesses and they had to live in poor conditions, such as, without water, foods, and lack of shelters. Although the Bush administration had been reaching out to help civilians by sending medical staffs, authorities, and other legal officers to help the hurricane victims, critics had argued that the government reacted slow, little, and too late which could be been taking their actions much faster and better supports. The primary reasons many critics argue that local, and federal governments did not react fast enough to rescue Hurricane victims, who had been suffering in this hurricane. Media suggest...
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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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...“Hurricane Digital Memory Bank” is an ethical representation of the natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina. It has nothing negative on the website towards anyone or anything that I have seen. We all realize that this natural disaster was a terrible event; therefore there is some unpleasant pictures and stories but nothing that is considered unethical. In the archive, values of the people who have posted stories and pictures are somewhat present in select features. Some have talked about how they relied on God during this terrible time, praying and having faith. One photograph shows a rainbow as the hurricane is approaching. The caption speaks about the family relating this as God’s promise in the Biblical story of the flood and that God would...
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...Case in Point Analysis Michelle Vasquez SOC/362 June 12, 2011 What happen in Louisiana, New Orleans long term and subsidence of the land had left a coastline without its natural buffers and city that was below the city sea level. Natural eco system services regulating water flow was replaced with machines levees and pumps that keep the water off the streets. This had lack of regard for natural ecosystems left the city of New Orleans, vulnerable to a catastrophic flooding during this Category 5 Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina had been listed one of the most horrible storms in history. The environmental consequence was devastating. New Orleans was vulnerable to wind and water, and over time a great deal has been done to help save this city from harm. Hurricanes Katrina storm course breached floodwalls and levees New Orleans, causing a widespread of damage along with the hampering rescue and improvement. The flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina was predicted, the degree of flooding was vague. Since much of the landscape of the city is underneath the sea level and lacking natural drainage precipitation frequently causes local flooding which is controlled by a system of canals and pumps (Cater 2005). New Orleans was faced with flooding threats from the Mississippi River, costal storms and severe precipitation. The levees as well as floodwalls around the city were intended to present a certain level of defense for such threat as Katrina. However the levees prevented...
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...head: HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans Carlos F. Campos Introduction to Public Safety Administration 302 Professor Wertman February 7, 2016 1 HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 2 Abstract Hurricane Katrina hit the southern states of Louisiana and Missouri in late August of 2015 almost as a Category 3 hurricane leaving behind death, devastation, and displaced people. The Washington Times (2005) reported that “Louisiana officials have said there were more than 1 million evacuees from that state alone, and Mississippi officials have said the total number of people displaced there could be several hundred thousand.” This essay provides a brief history of the devastation left by Katrina: one the costliest and deadliest natural disasters ever to strike the United States in the last 10 years, and what the city of New Orleans learned from such disaster. HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 3 Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans Introduction According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2015), “Hurricane Katrina was responsible for 1,833 fatalities and caused $108 billion in damage.” making Hurricane Katrina one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States. On August 25, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the southern counties of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale...
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...Introduction Hurricane Katrina became the New Orleans¡¦ biggest nightmare in year 2005. Even though the city was spared the full impact of the hurricane, the city¡¦s levees were breached and flooded more than 80 percent of the city. At the end of the day, the total death toll has reached 1,836 as of May 2006, and the experts estimated the total cost of Hurricane Katrina at $81.2 billion or more. It was true that Katrina was a natural disaster; therefore, it was unpredictable and unavoidable. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) saw its approach to Katrina as a success story. However, many of the criticisms were directed toward the ill-prepared FEMA and the lack of coordination in the rescue operation, in which FEMA refuse volunteers¡¦ help including manpower and food. Some even suggested the abolishment of FEMA for good. The point at issue here is whether FEMA is effective in doing what it is suppose to do. We would identify the strength FEMA possesses, as well as the weaknesses the agency contained. Recommendations would be made in the end by using organizational behavior tools. What is FEMA? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was established as an independent agency by presidential executive order on March 31, 1979. However, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th, FEMA became a part of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003. Basically, FEMA integrates the emergency-related programs of Nations and is the central agency within the Federal...
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...New Orleans was originally founded on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River, above sea level. Also surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes that would come up the coast into the Gulf. Originally New Orleans was naturally protected by “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...
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...Jason Coleman 06-11-12 New Orleans Recommendation Paper The Case For, or Against, New Orleans Management Decision Models B6025 Dr. Usha Dasari We will look at many factors in our case for rebuilding or not rebuilding New Orleans. This recommendation will be reviewed by state and local governments for their decision. We will perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis which will represent the residents of New Orleans, the residents of the surrounding floods plains, the Mayor of New Orleans, and the federal government represented by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the taxpayers. We will look at scenario models, risk management, and decision trees to support our decisions and analysis. This natural disaster took an enormous toll on the residents of New Orleans. Over 1200 lives were lost and countless injuries were suffered. The loss of revenue from the shutdown of businesses, loss of homes and possessions of residents caused much pain and human suffering. We will conclude with an executive summary which will summarize our decision for or against rebuilding of New Orleans. Prior to the hurricane New Orleans was a tourism magnet. The city offered many restaurants, festivals, and great weather. These positives made tourism a thriving market. Other boons for the economy of New Orleans were the mining, transportation, and warehousing along its waterways. More products came through this port than any other port in the world. There are many colleges in the area than add...
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