Hurricane Katrina: Examining Disaster Planning and Mismanagement

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Hurricane Katrina, a devastating natural disaster that struck the US Gulf Coast in 2005. It examines the disaster management preparations, highlighting the delayed responses and infrastructural failures, particularly the levee breaches in New Orleans. The essay critiques the mismanagement of the crisis, focusing on communication breakdowns, improper planning by FEMA, and resource mismanagement, including unused relief supplies and bureaucratic red tape. It emphasizes the critical lessons learned from the disaster, such as the need for comprehensive disaster drills, robust communication systems, and streamlined protocols to ensure effective emergency response. The essay concludes that a shift in focus towards pre-disaster planning and management is essential to mitigate the impact of future natural disasters, while also stressing the importance of citizen preparedness and mutual aid.

HURRICANE KATRINA – THE DISASTER AND ITS MISMANAGEMENT

HURRICANE KATRINA – THE DISASTER AND ITS MISMANAGEMENT
Introduction
One of the deadliest natural disasters to have occurred in recent times is Hurricane
Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast of the US, and ravaged excessive damage for almost 10
days, in late August 2005 (Brinkley & Brewer, 2006). The damages caused by the hurricane
are said to be exacerbated by the failure of the federal structures in providing proper relief
measures. In this essay, a detailed analysis about the hurricane, the failures of planning and
disaster management, and the lessons ought to be learnt is made.
A brief timeline of Hurricane Katrina
August 23rd - Tropical depression formed over Bahamas
August 24th – Intensifies into Tropical storm Katrina, and then Hurricane Katrina
August 25th – Landfall at Florida
August 27th – Formation of Category 3 Hurricane
August 28th – Category 5 Hurricane
August 29th – Second Landfall at Louisiana after weakening
August 31st – Downgraded to tropical depression and moved to Canada
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Analysis of the disaster management preparations
Even as the depression was formed early on August 23rd, it was only two days later
that the local people were made aware of it and warnings were issued. The United States
Coast Guard had mandated evacuation of all the citizens around the impact zone. The
National Hurricane Centre and the Louisiana Weather Forecast office issued numerous
warnings of flood, cyclone by issuing bulletins. When the hurricane attained Stage 3 level,
the President announced Emergency in the affected states (President George W Bush, The
White House, 2006). Roadways and railways were gradually taken off service, to enable
minimal damage from the disaster. There has been wide criticism that the entities that were
responsible for emergency response in New Orleans and Gulf Coast were not deployed on
time, and that this delay and gross mismanagement leading to the cities being the worst hit by
the hurricane. Also, widespread damages occurred due to breaches of levees across New
Orleans due to the impact of the hurricane.
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, even though there were numerous natural disasters that
have hit the United States coast, there was no proper plan devised for hurricane management.
Thus, a flood relief plan was implemented, which failed, as its blueprint vastly differed from
the ground situation. Overhead helicopters were sparse, due to poor planning, thus affecting
rescue and rehabilitation measures (Brevard, Weintraub, Aiken, Halton, & Duchesne, 2008).
Warnings and alerts were issued by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) continuously, yet
many people did not receive any warning until after the cyclone hit Florida. Preparation of
levees were planned, but were allegedly not implemented. The general public was issued
several warnings to evacuate in three phases – 50, 40, and 30 hours before the start of the
cyclone. However, due to poor planning the evacuation process was not completely possible
before the cyclone ravaged the city.
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Analysis of the disaster mismanagement
The impact of Hurricane Katrina has left us a lot of lessons to be learnt, so as to be
prepared in the future. The first failure was improper communication. All the efforts of the
NHC in issuing warnings and bulletins were not properly conveyed to the public, who were
the ones most affected. Even though the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
had deployed personnel for relief measures, there was a lack of communication between the
NHC and the FEMA due to inoperability of transmission systems, leading to insufficiency of
personnel. The next major failure was improper planning. The FEMA is heavily criticized as
even after the disaster struck, a decision was not made and many were left stranded, due to
the indecisiveness and improper planning of the officials (Sobel & Leeson, 2006).
Resource mismanagement was another failure, as the damage was too high, and the
existing resources were insufficient to meet the needs. The dispersal of relief material was
also hampered by time delays and communication failures. After the hurricane, it was
revealed that most of the relief material went unused, due to unwanted red-tape, frauds, and
redundant policies. The mismanagement of relief and rehabilitation of Hurricane Katrina was
reported to be one of the most extraordinary displays of scams in modern history.
25000 mobile homes were ordered by the FEMA for relief and rehabilitation of the
hurricane victims, but could not be used as it’s the agency’s own policies prevented it from
using the mobile homes on flood plains. The ice that was procured for the victims ended up
being unused, costing millions of dollars. The FEMA is also reported to have rejected the
relief measures provided by the volunteers, due to red-tape. Many trucks carrying supplies
were also stalled, causing a massive delay and unavailability of relief for the affected people
(Schneider, 2005).
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Take-home lessons from the disaster mismanagement
Every natural disaster teaches us many lessons, but we seldom learn from it. The
management of Hurricane Pam, which had occurred just a year before Hurricane Katrina
could have been used as a mock drill and training for the future, but unfortunately that was
not to be. The executive summary of the government post Hurricane Katrina stated that the
disaster mismanagement was a “failure of initiative”, and that the government was not fully
prepared to handle such grave disasters even after the latter being forecast in advance (U.S
House of Representatives, 2006). A few of the lessons that can be learnt from Hurricane
Katrina and its aftermath, in order to improve emergency planning in the US are (The Federal
Financial Institutions Examination Council , 2006)
 All functional areas must be included in disaster drills
 One must be prepared for communication outages that might occur in disasters
 Back-up is necessary, for either resources or data management.
 Red tape must be minimized, and protocols must be bent if necessary, to aid disaster
management.
Conclusion
Hurricane Katrina was one of the gravest disasters that occurred in the United States,
which had completely destroyed the affected areas and the lives of the people. One of the
major criticisms to its poor response is that the government focused on post-disaster
rehabilitation, rather than on pre-disaster planning and management, which could have
averted much of the damage (Gutmann, 2011). Disasters bring in the humans within us, we,
as citizens, must be prepared to face the wrath of nature at any given time, by taking enough
precautions, by keeping essential supplies in stock, and lending a helping hand to those in
need.
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REFERENCES
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response plans and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: lessons learned from a level I
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the Mississippi gulf coast. New York: Morrow.
Gutmann, A. (2011). On risk and disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. University of
Pennsylvania Press.
President George W Bush, The White House. (2006, February 15). The Federal Response to
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Sobel, R., & Leeson, P. (2006). Government's response to Hurricane Katrina: A public choice
analysis. Public Choice , 55-73.
The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council . (2006). Lessons learnt from
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