...Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was one of the worst devastating storms in U.S. history. The storm was unavoidable; the loss of life was. The Golf Coast was hit with category three winds from Louisiana to Alabama causing the water level to rise and flood over 80% of New Orleans and nearby neighborhoods (Raven, Berg, & Hassenzahl, p. 110, 2010). The levees simply could not hold the water and because New Orleans sits below sea level in most places, the city was submerged. Many people were asking how a tragedy like this could happen. This case study will attempt to review some of the key factors that contributed to the flooding. Factors to review will be the human factor, the destruction of the natural environment for anthropocentric reasons, and the technological mistakes. Each of the factors together had the power to weaken the natural environment unknowingly causing a vulnerability to the city and its inhabitants. Human population continues to grow and with this expansion comes the need for housing. The depletion of suitable land leads builders to begin to look at other options. In this case, many years ago it was decided to build levees and canals in the wetlands area of New Orleans. The initial purpose for the construction of the levees and canals was for commerce, but the city planners changed direction as the need for housing became more urgent, and the city was built. Humans through no fault of their own expanded into an area that was not suitable for construction and in the...
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...Trident University Module #1 – Case Assignment MHE 512 – Disaster Relief Objectives: For this case you are discuss the response by government, NGOs and volunteer groups to Hurricane Katrina. The question for you to answer is whether or not the organizational structure for disaster response for the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, and FEMA was adequate to effectively respond to a Cat. 3 - 5 hurricane on August 26th, 2005. As you respond to this question please complete the following: o Review the various reports concerning the Katrina response and relief efforts. Identify an example of a relief effort which was successful and one which was unsuccessful. o Discuss the reasons why the examples you cited above were or were not successful. Comment specifically on whether you believe that the organizational structure at the City of New Orleans, State of Louisiana, and the Federal government was adequate, including communications and command and control. (Please refer to the Organization Structure for incident management in the National Response Plan.) Focus on how coordinating structures, processes, and protocols were employed to manage the disaster response. Discuss the importance of social networks during the Katrina Disaster. Please review the following (referenced) article and comment on the importance of social networks during a disaster response. ~ 1 of 11 ~ MHE 512- MOD 1 - Case Introduction to Disaster Relief; Organizational Structure of Relief Organizations;...
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...Governmental Fumble: Hurricane Katrina Things that occur naturally such as tornadoes, earthquakes, and hurricanes are unpreventable and are considered to be natural disasters. However, when man knowingly aids in the destructive power of naturally occurring events to inflect more damage, it is unquestionably a manmade disaster. For many years, both in the past and present, the United States has experienced some of the most devastating natural and artificial catastrophes such as The Dust Bowl of the 1930’s and the September 11 terror attack by the Al-Qaida terror network among others. In the case of Hurricane Katrina, the human factor contributed to both the deadliest and costliest hurricane to impact the city of New Orleans. A city that is known to be the birth place of Jazz and the yearly celebration of Mardi Gras has unfortunately inherited a new chain of thought as the city that went underwater. Hurricane Katrina was the third strongest land hurricane and the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. The hurricane is approximated to have affected more than 1.5 million individuals in the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, which contributed to the loss of billions of dollars in damages and job losses caused by the hurricane. The city of New Orleans was the most affected because it stood directly in Katrina’s path and although it is impossible to stop a naturally occurring event from occurring, it is not impossible to limit the damage that it inflicts...
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...New Orleans was originally founded on high ground overlooking the Mississippi River, above sea level. Also surrounded by Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, New Orleans was susceptible to hurricanes that would come up the coast into the Gulf. Originally New Orleans was naturally protected by “coastal swamps that helped absorb the energy of storm surges before they reached dry land.” (Stillman 228) At this point Americans were more concerned with the floods that happened annually from the Mississippi River. In the early days, settlers built a mile long levee to block overflows from the mighty Mississippi while landowners constructed their own levees. “In 1879, Congress created the Mississippi River Commission” (Stillman 228) in which they hoped to train the river. Herein lay one of the earliest problems. Congress assigned the Army Corps of Engineers (the “Corps”) to head this newly created commission. The Corps believed they could control Mother Nature however as the video footage from The Lost City of New Orleans: A Case Study proved, “human kind cannot take on Mother Nature”. These engineers did not have the experience however they continued to increase the levees stating this would “confine the rivers for good”. However, “the more the levees constricted the Mississippi, the higher the waters rose”. (Stillman 228) As new plans and projects for the protecting New Orleans from Mississippi floodwaters were enacted, federal government financially backed all of them...
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...Global Warming and Hurricane Katrina INT 1- Task 1 What is Global Warming? — Global Warming is the rise in temperatures we are currently experiencing on this planet. It is projected to continue with devastating effects on the environment. — Since 1880 the average temperature around the world has risen 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. (NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies) — The 1980’s and 1990’s were the hottest decades in the last 400 according to a number of climate studies — The beginning of the Industrial Age marked the beginning of the phenomenon. — Fossil Fuels and other industrial bi-products are to blame (National Geographic News, 2007) What causes Global Warming? — The Greenhouse Effect is a natural process where the atmosphere traps the energy of the Sun in order to heat the earth to livable conditions. — Without this process the planet would be too cold to inhabit — The process has been amplified by the increase in Greenhouse gases — Greenhouse Gases — Greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and others — They are collecting in the troposphere (the layer of our atmosphere where weather occurs) due to: — The burning of fossil fuels such coal and oil in our homes, cars and industries — Deforestation is causing a decrease in oxygen which will increase carbon dioxide — Human made chlorofluorocarbons in aerosols make an impact as well because of the chlorine they release into the atmosphere ...
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...As the response to Hurricane Katrina and relevant recovery operations required ethical decision-making, due attention should be paid to assessment of the validity and effectiveness of ethical decisions. There are many resources, both videos and articles, that provide detailed description of the tragic situations created by the impact of the natural disaster and some ethical dilemmas faced by responders. In all cases, the concepts of ethics, justice, equity, equality, and professional competence played an important role in decision-making processes. The storm caused “more than 1,800 fatalities and more than $100 billion in damage” (American Society of Civil Engineers, 2015). Policy makers’ decisions caused harm and completely destroyed the...
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...Enron, Hurricane Katrina Examples of Leadership Gone Wrong Poor crisis leadership was on display after Hurricane Katrina and during the financial crisis The New Orleans masses who huddled in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Enron retirees who lost their life savings, and the laid-off workers buried under the economic ruin of financial companies all live with a simple truth. Just as spectacularly as great leadership can spark success, failed leadership can bring down cities, businesses, and economies. The collapse of major financial companies starting with Bear Stearns, the stunningly botched reaction to Katrina, the inept federal response to tips about Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, and the financial sleight of hand that brought down Enron are only the latest examples of leadership failure. "We keep making the same stupid mistakes, generation after generation," says William Baker, who holds a doctorate in industrial psychology and is the journalist in residence at Fordham University. Many of the most stunning leadership disasters have common ingredients, such as executives who lack integrity and build organizational cultures where dissent isn't heard. "Leadership is not position. It's moral authority. Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect," says Stephen Covey, author of several bestselling books on leadership and self-improvement, including The 7 Habits of Highly Effective...
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...A Gender Comparison of Resiliency among Older African American Katrina Survivors Name Institution Date A Gender Comparison of Resiliency among Older African American Katrina Survivors The hurricane Katrina is rated the fifth most deadly hurricane in the history of the United States. The period of the hurricane witnessed massive destruction of property besides lost of lives. In addition to thee various forms of loss that became manifested in the period of the menace, a number of cases of psychological torture were reported due to the fear of the unknown. The coast regions reported high number of these cases with the coast line extending from central Florida to Texas experiencing the highest cases of destruction and situations of general turmoil. In connection to the harsh situations experience in this period, the reaction strategy among persons affected was different (Lawson, 2010). The manner in which persons reacted to this calamity depended on a number of factors among the ethical group, gender, geographical region besides other aspects that became highly central in the nature of the reactions. In most instances, copying strategies were adopted in order to help persons effectively adapt to the situations that also involved designing possible measures for curbing the adverse effects of the hurricane. Among the group of persons that were highly affected by the calamity was the African American community. A key attribute to this was the large number of the ethnic...
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...There is an annual listing made of names for the upcoming year’s possible hurricanes (Hurricane Facts). In 2005 there were thirty hurricanes, the names were in alphabetical order from when they started (2005 Hurricane Season). This was also the year that Hurricane Katrina ripped through the south of the United States. After this disaster there were many people doing research on the effects and cause of extreme hurricanes. John Prescott, a British politician, sparked a controversy by linking the emission of greenhouse gases that causes global warming to affect the amount of hurricanes (Jowit, Temko). There has been a lot of speculation on if there is a connection between global warming and hurricanes Global warming has been causing many controversies, and the effect on hurricanes is just one of the many speculations. Global warming is the overall raise of the Earth’s temperature (Houghton). Human activities have caused a large emission of greenhouse gases that have created the “greenhouse effect”. The gases have been getting trapped in the earth's atmosphere and creating a pattern of raising temperatures (Houghton). The need for action has been urgent. Since 1995 there’s been an increase in the number of storms and high category hurricanes. Hurricanes in the Atlantic usually form over the ocean in regions where the sea surface is higher than a certain temperature (Pielke, Landsea, Mayfield, Laver, Pasch). The water needs to be over twenty-three degrees Celsius. This temperature...
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...Introduction Hurricane Katrina became the New Orleans¡¦ biggest nightmare in year 2005. Even though the city was spared the full impact of the hurricane, the city¡¦s levees were breached and flooded more than 80 percent of the city. At the end of the day, the total death toll has reached 1,836 as of May 2006, and the experts estimated the total cost of Hurricane Katrina at $81.2 billion or more. It was true that Katrina was a natural disaster; therefore, it was unpredictable and unavoidable. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) saw its approach to Katrina as a success story. However, many of the criticisms were directed toward the ill-prepared FEMA and the lack of coordination in the rescue operation, in which FEMA refuse volunteers¡¦ help including manpower and food. Some even suggested the abolishment of FEMA for good. The point at issue here is whether FEMA is effective in doing what it is suppose to do. We would identify the strength FEMA possesses, as well as the weaknesses the agency contained. Recommendations would be made in the end by using organizational behavior tools. What is FEMA? The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was established as an independent agency by presidential executive order on March 31, 1979. However, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th, FEMA became a part of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003. Basically, FEMA integrates the emergency-related programs of Nations and is the central agency within the Federal...
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...Hurricane Katrina? The communication systems broke down hours after hurricane Katrina because nobody had been prepared to handle disaster 0f such magnitude. Everyone went into shock and those responsible did not have a clear-cut plan or well-defined procedure to initiate proper rescue and recovery procedures. Due to the rapid winds and the flooding, millions of phone lines and cellular towers had been brought down. Most of the cities switchboards including the police’s later broke down too. What was the purpose of the Hurricane Pam exercise? Why was it unsuccessful? The Hurricane Pam exercise was meant to carry out mock studies with regards to emergencies such as hurricanes. It was to involve crisis managers and their various departments such as fire, medical care, and communication among others all which were considered pertinent to successful disaster management in New Orleans. However, these plans were halted and proper preparations towards disaster management were not made due to findings. As such when the hurricane hit, nobody was prepared to handle it and the people responsible were driven into a myriad of confusion....
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...Hurricane Katrina: Race and Class in America and the Failure of Its Government Carlus R. Townsend English 215 2/25/12 Introduction How hurricane Katrina exposed Racism in the US Hurricane Katrina that happened 7 years ago was a natural adversity. Few years following Hurricane Katrina, individuals are still feeling the repercussion and queries of racism. Katrina uncovered racism and division inequality in America, and the way the government failed the citizens in so many aspects. Many black people residing in New Orleans that were affected felt as if they considered themselves as genocide victims compared to what happened to them and the treatment they received after the hurricane. The majority of the affected people were blacks and this paper try to analyze how the victims of the hurricane were discriminated upon because of their race and face unbearable inequality because of their race ethnicity. Discrimination against Hurricane Katrina victims Various people, particularly the politicians, spoke out insisting that the comparison of the holocaust was inappropriate, as there was no use of any gas chambers utilization. This resulted to many people wondering if the act of racism was in existence without absolute violence. Communities residing in New Orleans insists that individuals died because of utter neglect. This took place because the affected persons were the black race, and so the government neglected them and was not concerned to what happened...
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...Christopher Roberts April 29, 2015 93174/Man 3583 Class Project The Disaster Relief Project of Post- Hurricane Katrina On August 29, 2005 the levees broke and started the flooding of the city with depths of more than 10 feet of water in some places. The category 4 storm had already taken its toll on the city. The head of DHS Michael Chertoff waited a total of 24 hours after receiving knowledge that the levees were breached to make the designation that hurricane Katrina was a "incident of national significance--requiring an extensive and well-coordinated response by federal, state, local tribal and nongovernmental authorities to save lives, minimize damage and provide the basis for long-term community and economic recovery." What followed this statement was a project management failure of catastrophic measures. I believe there are 4 major project management failures that could have been handled differently by local, state, and FEMA- communication, planning, leadership, and execution. FEMA, Local, and State officials failed to plan for events like this, they failed to communicate with each other during/after the event, they failed to show leadership, and they failed to execute any of the plans presented in a timely manner (one of which was to provide the trapped residents of the city basic needs of food and water). Given that New Orleans is essentially a bowl by being that about half of the city and surrounding areas are above sea level and the other half is up to 6 feet...
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...and corporations like HBO and LG for their collaborative work management solutions. It is a cloud based project management software that offers up-time and huge data backup with multi-OS and multi-database platform. Campen, Alan D. "Hurricane Katrina Represents A Failure to Communicate." Signal. N.p., Dec. 2005. Web. 23 Sept. 2015. The author...
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...Communication: Past and Present HCS/320 July 25, 2013 Sandra Alviso Communication: Past and Present Every country suffers from natual dissasters. In 1979 at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station there was a malfunction that Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton miss communicated to the public. (Rose, 2011). In 2005 Mother Nature brought Hurricane Katrina to the coast Lousiana and, she devastated the city of New Orleans. Today our community’s natural disaster is a life-threatening biological agent which has spread in the water supply of several towns. Technology has changed the way a community in a disaserous situation communicates after the Three Mile Island and Hurricane Katrina. Comparing the way an Emergency Management Office communicates with the public and the groups involved, the advantages and challenges that come with the past and present communication technology, and the media opportunities used in today’s world. Individuals and Groups With a life-threatening situation there are many individuals and groups internally and externally that need to be notified of the situation. Within the office the entire staff needs to be aware of the seriousness of the situation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Center for Disease Control Center (CDC) are a few federal agencies that need to be aware of the situation. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) was directed by Congress to develop the first National...
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