Hurricane Katrina1
Disaster, Public Health, and Law Enforcement during Hurricane Katrina
Dr. Hollie Pavlica
Health Policy and Management
MPH 525
February 2014
Abstract
This paper is an analysis of Hurricane Katrina and how public health and law enforcement agencies worked together. During natural disasters it is the government’s role to assist in the need of resources to the affected areas. This analysis covers the strengths and challenges that the government and public health went through during hurricane Katrina. This analysis ends with recommendations from the writer.
Introduction
Natural disasters come in different forms across the world from floods to wildfires these disasters can change the environment and harm residents in their way. Hurricanes have specifically changed lives around coasts. Hurricanes are giant, spiraling tropical storms that can pack wind speeds over 160 miles an hour and unleash more than 2.4 trillion gallons of rain a day. The hurricane season is from mid-august to late October (Hurricanes, n.d.). That is exactly when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, August 29th. Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf coast of the United States, and was considered a Category 3 rating. This hurricane produce winds of 100-140 miles-per hour and went across 400 miles. Flooding caused the main damage in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, causing an estimat3d $100 billion in damage. The following will give you a greater understanding of how the U.S. collaborated between different public health and law enforcement agencies, volunteer agencies, how improvements were made for next time, and what the role of the local, state, and federal government played.
Before the Hurricane
With technology advances throughout the years, forecasters were able to predict the day and around the rating which hurricane Katrina would be. The National Weather Service predicted that, “most of the gulf coast area will be uninhabitable for weeks...perhaps longer.” (Hurricane Katrina, n.d.). This was a key piece for law enforcement because it allowed the Mayor to issue a first-ever mandatory evacuation order. Even with a mandatory evacuation from the city thousands still remained in their homes, it was estimated that 80% of the population evacuated the city. In New Orleans a regional evacuation plan from law enforcement was put into place re-directing traffic on key highways allowing fast evacuation of all lanes out of the city. Those without access to cars or any form of transportation were directed to the superdome, however, it was overcrowded and were forced to close its doors with over capacity of 15,000 people.
Another key aspect of preparation was from the United States Coast Guard as they heard of the natural disaster they started preparing resources around the expected area of concerns and prepared the air crew to travel necessary products to be dropped.
During the Hurricane
The hurricane itself did little damage, it was the aftermath of flooding that caused this hurricane to be a natural disaster. The city’s levees and drainage canals could not hold the amount of water that was brought on and swept them away leaving 80 percent of the city under water.
After the Hurricane
It was confirmed that a total of 1,836 people lost their lives during and after hurricane Katrina. Also some 60,000 people were stranded in New Orleans alone, with no access to food or water, the coast guard was commended for their heroic efforts saving some 34,000 of these stranded (Hurricane Katrina, n.d.). FEMA also provided wide assistance for housing across the United States. However, this may have been the only positive responses from the government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took days to establish operations in New Orleans, and even then did not seem to have a sound plan of action. It was stated that the local government uses its resources and then ask for assistance from federal government. This lead to investigation of FEMA chief as to why Bush’s declaration of state of emergency did not include the coastal parishes of Louisiana. Brown the director of FEMA stated, Louisiana governor Blanco had not included those parishes in her initial request for aid. However her documented letter became public and she specifically named 14 parishes including New Orleans (Louisiana Government, 2005). This resulted in the resignation of the direct of Michael Brown of Federal Emergency Management agency and the New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Eddie Compass (Zimmerman, 2012).
Volunteer agencies were an important part of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, FEMA stated that they partnered with 408 volunteer organizations to help with efforts. The national groups involved in the first response effort included the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, and the North American Mission Board (Southern Baptist Convention). These groups and others sprang into action and helped provide emergency shelter, supplies, and hot meals immediately after the disasters. (FEMA, 2012). Again these organizations were not allowed into the affected area for two days for safety reasons.
Lessons Learned
Hurricane Katrina earned a place in history as the most costly and destructive natural disaster to occur in the United States. Before Hurricane Katrina many law enforcement agencies did not have written hurricane plans, therefore, they had not practiced or were not trained for disasters of this size to occur. In these events there are usually no communication lines available from the damage, a plan needs to be put in place to identify command and control,, and priority tasks for emergency responders.(law enforcement lessons learned, n.d.). The biggest challenge that was faced was during the aftermath with mass communication. 911 services were deliberated making it near impossible for communications, a comprehensive, national emergency communication is needed to confront the challenges. The White House stated, after reviewing and analyzing the response to Hurricane Katrina, we identified seventeen specific lessons the Federal government has learned. These focus areas are:
- National Preparedness
- Integrated Use of Military Capabilities
- Communications
- Logistics and Evacuations
- Search and Rescue
- Public Safety and Security
- Public Health and Medical Support
- Human Services
- Mass Care and Housing
- Public Communications
- Critical Infrastructure and Impact Assessment
- Environmental Hazards and Debris Removal
- Foreign Assistance
- Non-Governmental Aid
- Training, Exercises, and Lessons Learned
- Homeland Security Professional Development and Education
- Citizen and Community Preparedness
Each, particularly when taken in aggregate, directly affected the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our effort during hurricane Katrina (Chapter 5, n.d.).
Roles of the Government
Local
A state's governor orders a preliminary disaster report to be completed, usually after a disaster has struck. Once this report is finished, the governor can then request from the President a major disaster or emergency declaration for affected areas. This request can be transmitted as soon as it is obvious that the destruction is significant, often while a large scale weather event is still in progress. () The mayor of New Orleans did mandate an emergency evacuation 24 hours before the storm, however, many stated that was too late for the underserved area which it hit because of the lack of transportation they had.
State
State government is the important connection between the national and local branches of government. The Governors role in the time of crisis is to ensure that the agencies under the governor’ jurisdiction can respond to the threat of disasters. The threat of a disaster can occupy the administration of the governor. The governor must be the spokesperson of the event and the person in charge of the evacuation and rescue mission. The governor must avoid the appearance of inadequacy or the inept appearance of irresponsibility to an emergency. The governor should take steps before the disaster strikes to make sure that the state government functions smoothly in an emergency. The most important of these steps is a policy statement on comprehensive emergency management-not only for preparedness and response, but also for mitigation and recovery together with the appointment of a state emergency management director. Governor Blanco was controversial in this role to many not being in the fore front and taking charge but making decisions quietly (Gibson, n.d.).
Federal
Currently, the role of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to coordinate the federal government’s support of our nation’s citizens and first responders in the time of domestic disasters. The role that the federal government played during hurricane Katrina is stated above with lessons learned (IAFF, n.d.).
Opinion on Disasters Policy
In my opinion, I think that a couple things need to be changed, first I don’t think we can rely on the federal government only to help during disasters of this extent. The federal government does not employ that many people to help. We need to rely more on local government to make quick decisions and responses in order to get the needed assistance. I believe the chain of command needs to be changed because the front line of people in the area best know what is needed and where. This was a problem in hurricane Katrina where FEMA director stated he did not know until two days after that people were in the Convention center and needed food/water supplies. FEMA stated that they have made provisions after hurricane Katrina, these were focused on key leaders instead of function.
Second, I believe that we need to be able to get the volunteer organizations into the affected area at faster rate. They need to partner with government to keep safe but also be effective much faster. During hurricane Katrina it was two days before American Red Cross was allowed into the area.
I believe that our current disaster management policies are sufficient; however, only if they are followed and practiced on a regular basis so that every person know their role during the disaster.
Summary
To summarize, Hurricane Katrina became one of the most costly natural disasters for the United States because of the levees and flooding. During this time key leaders became a controversial issue that still today are talked about because of the slow response time to thousands of people that were stranded. The unpreparedness of all levels of the government lead to more deaths and emotional distraught people. This was a catastrophic event that will help us prepare for future events that could be similar, many emergency plans were written and have been practiced to help with future disasters of this magnitude.
Recommendation
Disasters can be a terrifying reality for many people around the world, it is hard to fully prepare for each different disaster. I don’t think that any leader can be prepared for a shattering event like Hurricane Katrina but having the emergency plans written and followed will help any individual in that position. I think that there were some positive events that occurred, as well as many opportunities to improve. I didn’t discuss much of the levee break because all the key leaders had discussed their concerns with this possibility so I felt that was not the governments error but an error on the United States Army Corps of Engineers and they even stated they were not built for a storm the size of Hurricane Katrina. We will only know in the future but I hope that they lessons learned from this disaster will help in future disasters so the same mistakes will not be made.
References
Hurricanes. (n.d.). National Geographic. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from
Hurricane Katrina. (n.d.). History.com. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from
United States Government Accountability Office (July 2006). Coast Guard: Observations on the Preparation, Response, and Recovery Missions Related to Hurricane Katrina
Zimmermann, K. (2012, August 20). Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Damage & Aftermath. LiveScience. Retrieved February 14, 2014, from
Kathleen Blanco (2005-08-28). "Governor Blanco asks President to Declare an Emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina". Government of the State of Louisiana.
Chapter Five: Lessons Learned. (n.d.). Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned -. Retrieved February 15, 2014, from http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned/chapter5.html
Volunteer Agencies Essential to Hurricane Response | FEMA.gov. (2012, July 12). Volunteer Agencies Essential to Hurricane Response | FEMA.gov. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2006/03/13/volunteer-agencies-essential-hurricane-response
Gibson, Y. (n.d.). The Role of State Government During Times of Natural Disasters. A Look at Hurricane Katrina. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from cas.illinoisstate.edu/pol/downloads/icsps_papers
IAFF: The Role of Government During Natural Disasters. (n.d.). AFL-CIO. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from