Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

Crisis and Emergency Management

March 2008 Volume 14 - Number 2

Perspectives...

The Hurricane Katrina Disaster

By Robert Ulizio

The storm surge from Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall on August 29, 2005, caused catastrophic damage along the 350-mile coastlines of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Levees and floodwalls separating Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans were breached, ultimately flooding about 80% of the city. Additionally, major wind damage was reported as far as 200 miles inland.

Katrina is now considered the deadliest and costliest hurricane in the U.S. in over 80 years. In all, more than 1,400 people were killed and damages and recovery funds are estimated to have exceeded over $150 billion. (1)

When the images of despair and suffering were shown on news reports from New Orleans, you could only think to yourself that this could not be happening in the United States. The suffering of Americans portrayed in the images resembled those residing in a poor third world country. Of course, Americans have always been reassured that they are covered by a “blanket of security” and that their country would respond immediately to protect them from disasters. Media reports of the rescue and relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have been critical of the failures of the official infrastructure.

Among the failures, were that the local and state governments did not take the storm seriously before it made landfall. This resulted in the delinquency of the federal government’s highest level of response. Also, because of the delay to declare the catastrophe an incident of national significance, the broadest possible relief effort was not in effect.

Mayor Nagin started telling people to get out of New Orleans two days before Katrina made landfall. Although a large amount of people did depart safely, those that could not were told to go to the Superdome. Although the Superdome was a convenient place to send people, it was not in the New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. What’s the sense of having a plan that is not followed?

Another problem that occurred was that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco waited until after the storm hit to ask FEMA for buses. They did not begin to arrive until four days after landfall. Meanwhile approximately 200 school buses sat underwater in a parking lot unused. These buses could have at least evacuated approximately 13,000 people. Again, everyone took the storm for granted.

Another significant problem was the design capacity of the levee. Initially the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers insisted that it was not their faults and that the storm was just too massive for the levee, but after further review, investigators found major flaws in the design and the soil was weak. The initial construction of the levee should have been flawless and the inspections of the levee should have been conducted in a timely manner.

It has been an ongoing problem that lack of communication with use of radios and basic planning has been defective when dealing with disasters. First, emergency agencies rely on radio and satellite to communicate. However, there are limits to the number of people who can communicate by radio in a given area at one time. Cell phone messages were not getting thru, so communication breakdowns “paralyzed” effective response.

Second, it appeared that due to the lack of communication between emergency response agencies, people had to suffer even longer because no one was on the same page. In one instance, the Louisiana National Guard was going to airlift people out of the Superdome but was later told to stop because active duty troops were going to airlift the people out of the dome. This miscommunication resulted in an additional 24 hours that people had to stay in the Superdome. (2)

It has always been said that it is easy to be the “armchair quarterback” on Monday morning. Of course, the quarterback should have done this and that to win the game. But the quarterback has time to prepare for the following week so that he does not make the same mistakes.

Unlike the quarterback, New Orleans and FEMA did not learn from previous disasters such as 9/11 and the multiple hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast in previous years. The necessary adjustments were not predetermined and the officials that were in command failed the victims of Hurricane Katrina. These events have left Americans speculating about the emergency response of the next disaster.

Sources

(1) http://www.msnbc.com/id/9231926/

(2) http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060227/27wrong.htm