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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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February
2006
Volume
10 - Number 1 |
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Hurricane Katrina: After-Action Reports
By Juan Gonzalez The unprecedented and devastating effects of Hurricane
Katrina left an enormous trail of speculations throughout the government in
terms of response and crisis management. Various agencies have been accounted
for more than $100 billion in property and infrastructure damage along the
Golf Coast. It is roughly estimated that over 160,000 buildings in Louisiana
alone were severely damaged. Katrina flooded more than 130,000 houses that
were home to more than 350,000 people in New Orleans. According to a Senate
Homeland Security Committee hearing some of the failures that caused 80% of
New Orleans to flood were human errors in the design of the levees as stated
by the National Science Foundation and the American Society of Engineers in
a preliminary report. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)
issued its preliminary statement on February 1, 2006 remarking Homeland Security
Michael Chertoff’s decision of declaring Hurricane Katrina as “an incident
of national significant” on August 30th a day after its land fall, exacerbating
the consequences of non-evacuees.
In contrast, charities played an important role during the aftermath and recovery process attenuating the government’s upsetting lack of leadership and response. According to Rep. Jim Ramstad Chairman of the Subcommittee on Ways and Means it is estimated that Americans pledged donations of over $2 billion giving great credit to the American Red Cross for its leadership in handling the donations and distributing the aid throughout the coast. According to Red Cross Senior Vice President of Preparedness and Response Joe Becker by September 23, 2005 the organization had raised some $850 million having already displaced nearly 90% around the same date just days after Hurricane Katrina. The organization released its response report on January 19, 2006 addressing its assistance to survivors with nearly 3.40 million overnight stays in more than a 1,000 shelters across the nation including Washington D.C. The Washington Post discredits the Red Cross on January 28 by providing an article conveying its lack of performance and poor housing conditions for evacuees in response to the catastrophe, stating that “…a shocking amount of money never ends up helping the people it was intended for.” Congressman Richard Baker (R-La) reacted to the future conditions of evacuees proposing the administration a reform to buy back the mortgages of severely damaged homes around New Orleans, instead the administration only approved half of the proposal. Louisiana’s Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco responded expressing the inability of the state to resolve a $12 billion problem with $6 billion. In addition, it is certain that the citizen’s welfare is paramount during a post-disaster condition yet there are unscrupulous people that react different benefiting from the high demand of greatly needed commodities such as gasoline. According to the State of Louisiana Department of Natural Resources the state hosts about 80% of the nation’s oil-gas production and distribution facilities offshore. Right after Katrina a massive 58% of oil production was shut down elevating gas prices across the nation; according to MSNBC News a Chevron gas station in Atlanta, GA reported a price of $3.78 a gallon. Alarming prices across the nation made Rep. Jim Gerlach to launch the Anti-Gauging Legislation creating “…a federal law that would protect consumers from disreputable businesses who unjustifiably raise prices during emergency situation solely to profit.” The hunger of opportunists to profit from people in need during a crisis went a step further when FEMA workers were accused of bribery for accepting $10,000 each in exchange for letting contractors submit exaggerated contract information. In conclusion, every single one of these actions were carried out through a sequence of embarrassing, unacceptable and deplorable performance by various agencies resulting in the resignation of FEMA’s director Michael Brown and the doubtful future of the agency. As acknowledged by the GAO in its report regarding preparedness and response to hurricanes, there should be critical leadership, strong planning, training and exercise programs as well as the right equipment and infrastructure for major disasters. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06365r.pdf http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=printfriendly&id=4682 http://www.redcross.org/article/0,1072,0_507_4658,00.html http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/hurricanes/katrina_facts.html http://www.gov.state.la.us/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=1624 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020100712_pf.html http://dnr.louisiana.gov/sec/execdiv/pubinfo/newsr/2005/0906sec-house-energy-oral-testimony.pdf http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9146363/ http://www.latimes.com/business/careers/work/la-na-bribe3feb03,1,5824946.story?coll=la-headlines-business-careers http://hsgac.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&Affiliation=R&PressRelease_id=1130&Month=11&Year=2005 http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/12/brown.resigns/index.html |