Command Relationship In Response To Hurricane Katrina Essay

There became an obvious need for immediate assistance from the National Guard and the Active Duty Army to stop looters, crime, and other chaos that ensued shortly after the flood. Gaining assistance from state controlled National Guard units was not overly difficult. Unfortunately, use of Federal soldiers comes with the stipulation that “the Governor of the affected state must request use of the resources of the DoD”. (Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance) The Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco and her staff were already failing to control and lead emergency efforts.

However, it particularly damaged New Orleans, due to its poor infrastructure and unfortunate geographical location. However, the main complication that had a negative influence on the effects of hurricane Katrina was the poor response of the government. The hurricane has been the cause for many economical, environmental and political problems and is affecting the city up until today.

Finally on this note, the Federal Response Plan (FRP) has been revised into the National Response Plan (NRP). Many of the positive features of the FRP have been retained in the NRP but the focus has been shifted dramatically to responding to a terrorist attack and in doing so, the role of the Federal government has been altered dramatically. The NRP places the lead role in responding to major disasters, terrorist attack or natural disaster, in the hands of Federal officials. In fact, the Federal government now has the authority to respond to an event in a State without a request by the Governor. This alters the traditional role of the Federal government, through the FRP, supporting the actions of State and local government.

The disaster of hurricane Katrina identified so many flaws in FEMA. Some of these flaws were due to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 deviated a lot of money from FEMA and weakened its ability to respond adequately to the disaster of Katrina. As you stated this bought on many changes to FEMA, which were now being addressed under the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (PKEMRA).

Emergency Management has definitely had many changes and challenges. Hurricane Katrina is a strong example of how some reprioritization when it came to FEMA can have bad outcomes. It 's important to consider all levels of preparation in the event of a disaster. It also important to take into consideration of both successful and failed protocols and tactics to help improve and create an efficient response system.

Reduce the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and key resources, essential leadership, and major events to terrorist attacks and other hazards. Provide grants, plans and training to our homeland security and law enforcement partners. We have taken significant steps to create a unified and integrated Department that will enhance our performance by focusing on accountability, efficiency, transparency and leadership development. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was the final weak link in the then-existing confusing chain of command. FEMA 's head, Wallace E. Stickney, had no apparent experience in emergency management or disaster response (Franklin, D. 1995).

Reconstructing New Orleans after the hurricane Katrina is one of the most involving city-rebuilding projects that have been taken on in US history. The challenges in reconstruction and recreation of what used to be is the aspect of having to decide and agree on which areas should be rebuild first. The federal and state government have received different opinions on what should be done on different areas. For example, suggestions to utilize a 150-acre piece of land in New Orleans for an amusement park or use it to create a retail mall are some of the conflicting suggestions that have come up. Much of the land has been controlled by the city since the rebuilding efforts in 2009.

The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 has taught many emergency managers to strive to correct deficiencies from focusing events from the past by valuing and protecting the people from communities from anticipated

More and more authorities continue to be taken away and have been spread across many agencies within DHS. “FEMA no longer manages a comprehensive emergency management program of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery and the agency function that President Carter and the Governors envisioned in 1979 no longer exists” (FEMA, 2013). The sole focus has turned to terrorism disaster preparedness and FEMA has become somewhat dismantled and lost its ability to provide the command and control that it had prior to the move to DHS. This will prove to be a major flaw and will again, show the failure of FEMA in the next occurrence of natural disaster the United States faces. There are other agencies within the DHS that need to be scrutinized as

New Orleans, a flourishing city sitting on the Gulf coast. The city thrived with life. But, on the morning of August 29th,2005 everything changed. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the gulf coast.

Hurricanes are massive storms that form of fronts of warm waters throughout the tropical oceans. The intensity of hurricanes can be categorized on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most severe. The damage that these storms can bring can be from ripping a tree out the ground, to destroying a whole city.

At their peak hurricane relief shelters housed 273,000 people. Later, approximately 114,000 households were housed in FEMA trailers” (“Hurricane Katrina”). Even the Governor of Louisiana projected the downfall of the safety camps. “The shelters will end up probably without electricity or with minimum electricity from generators in the end (United States et al.). Consequently, countless numbers of people needed to look for help elsewhere, whether it meant to uproot and settle down within another state, fend for themselves in a harsh and dangerous time or even wait it out and hope for

Current Reflective Essay Paper On August 25, 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall on the coast of Texas. It was originally set to be a category 1 hurricane and wasn 't supposed to be that bad of a natural disaster. Although a number of adding factors made Hurricane Harvey a catastrophic event, the hurricane increased levels as it reached land which was one of the biggest impacts. The main two factors that made Harvey one of the most destructive natural disasters to ever hit the United States was all the recorder rainfall over the city of Houston and the release of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs.

Uncertainty is what is left because it’s a long process of rebuilding, not only that but to see what used to be home now is gone and have to start from zero. After, the impact there is many rescues done as well as evacuations, the flooding caused massive destructions (“Federal report shows punch of last year 's Hurricane Harvey”, 2018). Another Hurricane that impacted U.S. was Hurricane Katrina which hit August 23, 2005 – August 31, 2005. The destruction was largely

FEMA’s mission and priorities were changed so that, “terrorism prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery became central to the emergency management mission” (Haddow 325). As a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11 the country’s focus shifted completely from natural disasters to an outright major assault on all things terrorism with no second glance at the potential emergency’s natural disasters presented. There might be a possibility that because of the nation’s extreme obsession with terrorists and terrorism that Hurricane Katrina was not given full priority nor given as much thought as it should have been because the whole focus of the government was on terrorism. When an agency and governmental structure, such as the defense agencies, undergoes an extreme shift within the course of a few years brought on so suddenly, there are bound to be weaknesses. Hurricane Katrina was the most challenging threat that tested the DHS as well as FEMA’s preparation and mitigation of natural disasters since the shift of focus.