Premium Essay

Covering Katrina

In:

Submitted By misstiffb
Words 690
Pages 3
Covering Katrina
“Let people know the facts and the country will be safe” - Abraham Lincoln. Hurricane Katrina was one of the worst natural and subsequently man-made disasters of the year 2005 Katrina and its aftermath has gone down in history as one of the governments worst response to a domestic emergency. As a way of giving understanding to the search and rescue aspect of Katrina, The Times- Picayune printed a guide to the spray painted markings on people’s homes. Each aspect of the X marking had a meaning. The top numbers represents the date that that home was searched, the left is for who searched it, the right is a warning or potential gas leaks or drowned wires, and the bottom represents the body count. This has to be the most gruesome part of the guide itself. It was a reminder that lives were lost due to the storm, human error, and plain neglect. The rescue markings are a haunting reminder of the wrath of Katrina. Journalist Chris Rose said at a elegy, “Who grieved over 1 dead in attic and who buried 1 dead in attic?” at a elegy. This sort of coverage changes the averages Americans mindset from one of apathy to one of empathy. It make you not think of the lost as nameless and faceless people, but instead of as some ones sister, brother or friend. One part of the exhibit that stuck out to me the most was the plywood from the Oriental Rugs store in New Orleans. The wooden board read “you know what it means to miss New Orleans y’all come back 4 carnival. I have my parade spot…” on one side, and the other warns looters that they will get shot. Looting was a big problem during the aftermath, but how the media portrayed it was one-sided, and downright racist. Another aspect that interested me was the use of the word refugee. The media brought up the question of ‘How can someone be a refugee in their own country’? Hurricane Katrina hit all of the Gulf

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Contrast the Styles of Two Athletes Who Play the Same Sports

...111 September 22, 2014 On August 29, 2005, there was a hurricane forming in the Gulf of Mexico. Her name was Katrina. It started as a small tropical storm, but as it entered the warm waters of the Gulf it grew to be a monstrous storm. So monstrous, that it would destroy anything in its path. Covering the coast lines of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. During this time, I contacted family members of their plans. We decided to head in different directions and hoped for the best. We all loaded the cars and proceeded towards the interstate. I must say traffic was really horrible. It seemed like everyone decided to leave the day before this monstrous storm hit. After driving over 6 hours, we decided to get a hotel room with no prior reservations. As we approached the entrance there was a line out the door. After speaking with the receptionist there were only two rooms available. We stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi. It was a nice hotel that was full of staff that served complimentary snacks and drinks. My husband and I were glued to the television and knew about what was going on. As the storm approached we waited downstairs it the dining area. The weather started to get worse. The winds rose and the rain falling down hard. After returning to the room water started leaking heavily from the ceiling. Then came the horror stories. Hurricane Katrina directly impacted families by disrupting and forcing family members to adjust to differing types of losses. This...

Words: 898 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina Failures

...9 RUNNING HEAD: LEADERSHIP FAILURES DURING KATRINA ​​​ Leadership Failures of Hurricane Katrina ​​​​ Mark L. Perkins ​​​ Webster University ​​​​​ MNGT 6000 ​​​​ Professor Lee Trovas ​​​​ February27th2014 ​​​​​​Abstract Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history, not only because of the severity of the storm, which couldn’t be prevented, but due to poor planning and the years it took to rebuild and allow the people of New Orleans to move on with their lives.Hurricane Katrina happened four (4) years after the September 11th terrorist attacks and three (3) years after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and one (1) year after the DHS had created a National Response Plan. With the world watching the Federal Government failed the people of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The government failed to show initiative and the ability to provide for the basic needs for the people of New Orleans on many levels, including planning, logistics and communication during the natural disaster and the aftermath of the storm. . Introduction I’m going to discuss several failures of leadership and not just on the federal government but on the city and state as well. There are too many to fault that are identified later in this disaster ranging from pre-planning,...

Words: 3104 - Pages: 13

Free Essay

Media Bias

...what story is getting 24- hour news coverage. Media bias is a term used to describe prejudice in news and media reports, in which is perceived as an imbalance or unfair presentation of facts or selective reporting of which events or facts reported. The main point here is when biases in media distorts certain stories, and other stories are spoken about entirely too much it hurts the democracy in America. The media, in that case, fails to focus on real issues that underlie the American culture, it has one-sided opinions, favoring a liberal’s point of view, and it caters to the majority, favoring the wealthy. Media biases causes American people to become misinformed or too well informed, often due to the tendency of the media covering unimportant stories about celebrities, while overlooking issues like war, poverty, disease, violence, and education. The media content and new coverage rarely display the underlying issues that the American people face. Rather, it...

Words: 1320 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans

...Running head: HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans Carlos F. Campos Introduction to Public Safety Administration 302 Professor Wertman February 7, 2016 1 HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 2 Abstract Hurricane Katrina hit the southern states of Louisiana and Missouri in late August of 2015 almost as a Category 3 hurricane leaving behind death, devastation, and displaced people. The Washington Times (2005) reported that “Louisiana officials have said there were more than 1 million evacuees from that state alone, and Mississippi officials have said the total number of people displaced there could be several hundred thousand.” This essay provides a brief history of the devastation left by Katrina: one the costliest and deadliest natural disasters ever to strike the United States in the last 10 years, and what the city of New Orleans learned from such disaster. HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 3 Hurricane Katrina and the City of New Orleans Introduction According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (2015), “Hurricane Katrina was responsible for 1,833 fatalities and caused $108 billion in damage.” making Hurricane Katrina one of the costliest and deadliest hurricanes ever to strike the United States. On August 25, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the southern counties of Florida as a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane...

Words: 2978 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Global Metldown

...John Finken February 29, 2012 Informative Essay – Draft 1 Humans Contribution to Climate Change Over the past 50 years scientific research has shown the ways in which human activity has caused or contributed to climate change. Research all over the world points to the ways humans have caused climate change: the emission of excessive greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide from human industrial, residential and transportation sources into the earth’s atmosphere, exploding population causing a greater need for ever scarcer resources, and finally producing deforestation, pollution and a catastrophic loss of biodiversity of plants and animals. “We are dumping so much carbon dioxide into the Earth’s environment that we have literally changed the relationship between the Earth and the Sun.” (Gore, p.10) Scientific studies measuring the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have been taken on a daily basis beginning in 1958 over the island of Hawaii. After a relatively short amount of time the scientists could see that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was going up at an alarming rate. The pattern has shown that the levels of CO2 have been steadily rising year after year for 50 years. “The pre-industrial concentration of CO2 was 280 parts per million. In 2005, that level, measured high above Mauna Loa, was 381 parts per million.” (Gore, p.37) The level of CO2 is higher than it has ever been in 650,000 years. Scientists have proven that the increased level...

Words: 2297 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Term

...attachment When the levees broke       Filled with the diabolical smell of dead bodies, feecies and sewage the air they were known to breathe was humid and sticky.  Over hundred miles away the characteristic of Death Valley were amongst them.  Having no shelter Food or drink the people of New Orleans were trapped like animals left to fend for themselves and revert back to age old hunting and gathering. But not the hunt to kill the hunt for survival, the gathering of what was left to make of their lives. What were once their homes was nothing more now than a swamp of Death, a gravesite of family, friends, and the death of their pride.         The Danger was no longer imminent the time on the clock expired; Katrina had hit the shore with a vengeance, and left with no intention on covering her tracks. She unleashed her fury on the morning of august 29, 2005 with no mercy insight. The time for evacuation had come and gone. For the thousands that heeded the warnings and stayed were now in a battle for their lives.  Whether it was the few thousand the filled the superdome or the brave few that stuck it out in their homes the outcome was the same. The carnage was real what were once streets, homes and landscape were now nothing more than mangled shards of wood and scraps of metal that was now underwater.           For days people lay stranded on their rooftops, screaming and crying in hopes of help.  Others laid face down in the water dead overwhelmed by the harsh conditions and scarce necessities...

Words: 710 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Paper1

...critical part after a natural disaster, in order for the word to get out nationally. Lastly, the duty of the community and how the community responds as a whole to the situation is the most important. The victims of natural disasters are often not given all the help and attention that is needed to restore their lives and communities. The federal, state and city governments aren’t doing all that they can do to help the people of these communities. They are not providing these communities with all the resources they need to help rebuild their lives. For example, in the article, ANARCHY, ANGER, DESPERATION, THE RESPONSE, written by Marc Sandalow, it states that, “The anger is aimed at the failure of the government to fortify levees before Katrina blew in, it’s inability to move residents out of the city, the wretched conditions inside the Superdome and the desperation on the streets that, on television, appears to border on anarchy.” This shows that the government did not take any precautions for the community or the people before the storm hit and the resources and shelter that they were providing these people with were in horrible conditions. It was said that everything was also very unorganized and there...

Words: 1021 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

100 Year Events

...six straight days and 17 inches of rain, more than five inches above the annual average for the area. More than 1,200 people were missing, 19,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, 12,000 people evacuated. Fatalities were still unknown, but expected to be numerous. Television images showed raging torrents in streams and creeks that rivaled the last few hundred yards of the Niagara River before the Falls. Colorado was experiencing not just a 100-year event; this was a 1,000-year event, a flood that even the National Weather Service characterized as not only historic, but biblical. That turns out to be a pretty good characterization of a 100-year event. They’re big, we know them when we see them, and we remember them: Hurricane Katrina in 2005; Super Storm Sandy in 2012; the tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma in 2013; the entire wildfire summer of 2012. And if one of them takes your loved ones, your home, or your possessions, it doesn’t really matter if it makes the record books. 26 ACTUARIAL REVIEW NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013 • WWW.CASACT.ORG Misleading Term percent annual probability of occurring at a given location. For The term “100-year event” (or whatever number you want to example, if Miami, Florida, is impacted by a 100-year hurri- attach to it) expresses a probability rather than a certainty. cane event in 2013, this doesn’t mean the next 100-year hur- Events this extreme are commonly measured by how likely...

Words: 3461 - Pages: 14

Free Essay

Natrual Dis

...Hurricane Katrina changed the way United States viewed floodplain management and flood risk management. The Great Mississippi River Flood of 1993 produced the highest economic damages of the century, killing over 130 people, costing over $20 billion dollars in flood damages. Hurricane Katrina caused over a million people to lose homes, jobs, and took over 1300 lives. It has been estimated the restoration of the communities and some level of flood protections will exceed over $100 billion dollars when it’s all done. Before the twin towers were hit on September 11, 2001, it seem like the United States was headed in the right directions with floodplain and risked management. Due to the terrorist attacks on that day, change the way America took their approach on homeland security. All the focus and money shifted to US Department of Defense, and the natural hazard management was kind of put on the back burner and basically forgot about until Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Hurricane Katrina changed the game for how America planned for flooding and risk management. When Hurricane Katrina hit, it was a slap in the face on the response to flooding that took place in New Orleans. Up to this point there was not a single inventory of levees and flood damage structures in United States. America became a reactive force instead of an active force. The Secretary of Defense got involved and requested the US National Academics to establish...

Words: 1084 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

My Life

... No, so I set up my alarm clock to 5 and wake up early in the morning to finish my reviewing of humanities. I learned that in life there will always be minor setbacks, weaknesses, and failures. I didn’t learn this just by waking up and have a bad day. It took an immense catastrophe to open my eyes that everything is bound to change sooner or later and there is nothing you can do, but pick yourself up and keep on moving. I was born in New Orleans, Louisiana with my four siblings and mother. I have an older sister, a younger sister, and two younger brothers. I am the second to the oldest. I was use to my hometown New Orleans and leaving it was never something I expected to do. I will always remember the date and time that Hurricane Katrina hit my hometown. It was August 29, 2005 around 6:00am. I remember vaguely my mother running into my room telling me to grab only a few clothes and hurry outside to the car. I was half asleep and slightly confused at the same time. Everything seemed to happen in a blur. The next thing I knew my...

Words: 380 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

American Red Cross: a Community Organization

...American Red Cross: A Community Organization The American Red Cross’s responsibility and involvement to the community involves care, compassion, assistance, and a plethora of other services. The American Red Cross has been providing disaster relief for well over 100 years and is well known as a humanitarian organization. The American Red Cross provides services in five key areas: blood drives, safety training (like CPR and First Aid), and community help for the poor, support services for military families, and various humanitarian programs (American Red Cross, 2013A). There are factors that influence social responsibility strategies of the American Red Cross. The American Red Cross must act ethically with sensitivity to the community and strive for positive effective contribution. The American Red Cross (2013) governing body is the Board of Governors. The Board has the necessary overseeing power to manage business affairs of the organization and maintains sequences of governing documents. The governing documents go through a review process to ensure safeguards are in place so that the needs of American Red Cross are met and reflect present-day industry best practices. There is a commitment with the Board of Governors to hold every member of the American Red Cross to the highest standards in reference to conduct and ethics. In addition, within the American Red Cross are corporate policies and regulations, which require compliance by employees and volunteers (American Red Cross...

Words: 687 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The American Red Cross

...commitment, investor loyalty, customer satisfaction, and bottom line). The American Red Cross (ARC), also identified as the “The Face of Recovery”, is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. The ARC is a non-profit organization that offers services in five areas of society. The community service sector helps citizens that are in need. In the communication sectors, the ARC provides comfort for military members and their families. The collection, processing and distribution of blood and blood products are also services provided by the ARC. There are also educational services on preparedness, health, and safety which are imperative for recovery acts. Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest and most destructive Atlantic Hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes. Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Louisiana and Texas only a month later and was even larger category 3 storm (Ferrell, Ferrell, Fraedrich 2011). The ARC raised more than 2 billion in private donations to fund massive relied efforts for both these disasters (Ferrell, Ferrell, Fraedrich 2011). Now let’s examine how this disaster impacted the ARC, benefits of business ethics. Business ethics’ is the application of ethical values, such as integrity, fairness, respect and openness, to business behavior. The American Red Cross was criticized for their operations...

Words: 1377 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Nickeled

...of crime and is very different from political white collar crime. In political white collar crime there is a person or business that gains or benefits from the act or omission. In state white collar crime there is never a person a not a person who benefits from the crime. It is usually either negligence on the part of the state or federal system. To declare a state crime, there must be three conditions met. First social audiences accept some rule or standard as legitimate. Second, audiences must maintain that a rule or standard has been violated, and lastly significant negative social reactions or sanctions are evident as a result. These terms were met in August of 2006 when the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Louisiana. In 2006, Hurricane Katrina ravished through the New Orleans area and destroyed 80,000 - 90,000 homes and businesses, and killed over 2,000 people. The entire city was flooded and sitting under water. Negligence began before the hurricane even reached the United States. About 5 days before the hurricane would eventually hit Louisiana, it was on radar as a level one hurricane which should have been reported to the citizens as an issue but never was reported. The storm reached the status of level 5 (highest possible level of a hurricane) about 48 hours before it reached the city and there still had been no report to the citizens of the city when in the correct procedure they would have been notified when it was first noticed. The citizens...

Words: 697 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Fdfs

... Sanaz Peykari Hcs/320 Dr. Baker Communication and Crisis Paper September 10, 2012 Communication and Crisis Paper 2 On August 28, 2005 a nuclear reactor that malfunctioned, in the Three Mile Island created a release of radiation into the environment which caused a crisis. However, it drew a lot of media and created concerns in the local area. There were traditional form of technology by which was used to notify the public, television networks and local radio stations were also used. Compared to the crisis that took place in 2005, Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the New Orleans area, immersing many parts of the city under water causing trauma to families, the strategy for communication that was used are the internet, which reached a greater number of the public. As a director of a regional Emergency Management office if I started receiving official reports that the public water supplies of several towns in the area have become exposed with a life-threatening biological agent, the strategy I would use to start a contingency plan that would address my organization and the public without creating panic would be to send an immediate email to all staff to attend an emergency, mandatory meeting. Employees who are unable to attend because of emergency situations will have access to...

Words: 1234 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Risk Management

...Discuss the risk management of natural hazards using a range of examples to support your answer. Natural hazard processes are an essential part of how Earth functions. These processes have been shaping the planet Earth for millions of years. In modern times risk management plans are a necessity because of the wide variety of natural disasters occurring all over the world. It is thought that because of the frequency and increase in severity of hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tornadoes that the United States alone experiences an average loss of one billion dollars every week. (C. McMillan, 1998) Therefore it is obvious why a procedure of disaster preparedness, mitigation, management, and prevention is highly important as a method of dealing with such events. Risk management involves addressing any phenomena that could potentially cause havoc in a community. (C. McMillan, 1998) It is significantly different from traditional preparedness and response activities. A traditional approach attempts to address existing problems, while hazard risk management “focuses more on anticipating problems by ensuring that growth and development address the likelihood of hazards and their interaction with environmental systems.” Whereas traditional preparedness and response mechanisms often focus on individual hazard events, risk management views hazard exposure as an ongoing process and aims at reducing the vulnerability of the society and the economy to natural disasters. Such...

Words: 1366 - Pages: 6