...When disaster strikes and people are forced out of there neighborhood and homes, people want to know that when something like this happens, there is someone there to have their back; a piece of mind. In 1979, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was formed to help with state and local governments within the United States and the International Association of Emergency Managers was formed to help state, federal and governments ensure that their people have peace of mind. Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 II. Hurricane Katrina 4 III. Natural disasters in the United States 6 IV. Earthquake and tsunami in Japan 8 V. Natural disasters in the world 9 VI. Closing 11 VII. Reference 13 I. INTRODUCTIONS The environment is always changing and the people of the United States should always be aware of what could happen to them if they are not prepared for what Mother Nature do to their surroundings with no notice. There are several types of natural disasters that can maim and destroy communities and people lives. To name a few, they are hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes, mudslides, flooding wildfires, tsunamis and volcanoes. Hurricanes are usually formed in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico. According to the Webster Dictionary, “hurricanes are a violent, tropical, cyclonic storm of the western North Atlantic, having wind...
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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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...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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...Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans in 2005 Most of the population in the United States is known for living in coastal cities such as: Houston, New York, and Miami. Although these cities have significant landscaping, behind the landscaping is a hidden body of water. That body of water is mostly an ocean rather than a river. Since coastal cities are closer to a body of water – known as an ocean – the chances of floods increase through seasons. While living in the coastal planes, there is a higher chance of undergoing a hurricane or tornado due to the land being located by a big body of water. Unfortunately, in 2005, a hurricane known as Hurricane Katrina hit the most vulnerable city in the United States, New Orleans. New Orleans is located...
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... What happen in Louisiana, New Orleans long term and subsidence of the land had left a coastline without its natural buffers and city that was below the city sea level. Natural eco system services regulating water flow was replaced with machines levees and pumps that keep the water off the streets. This had lack of regard for natural ecosystems left the city of New Orleans, vulnerable to a catastrophic flooding during this Category 5 Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina had been listed one of the most horrible storms in history. The environmental consequence was devastating. New Orleans was vulnerable to wind and water, and over time a great deal has been done to help save this city from harm. Hurricanes Katrina storm course breached floodwalls and levees New Orleans, causing a widespread of damage along with the hampering rescue and improvement. The flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina was predicted, the degree of flooding was vague. Since much of the landscape of the city is underneath the sea level and lacking natural drainage precipitation frequently causes local flooding which is controlled by a system of canals and pumps (Cater 2005). New Orleans was faced with flooding threats from the Mississippi River, costal storms and severe precipitation. The levees as well as floodwalls around the city were intended to present a certain level of defense for such threat as Katrina. However the levees prevented the deposition of sediments that remain behind after the floodwater...
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...It is often in times of disaster that we find out peoples true nature. After Hurricane Katrina many people in New Orleans got scared and worried about what would happen to them, their families and their friends. When scared, people do things they would never dream of during normal times. In the novel Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers, this is shown to be true over and over again. If a natural disaster anywhere close to the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina hit my own small hometown of Yellville, Arkansas, there would be some similarities but many more differences. In the beginning of the novel, Abdulrahman Zeitoun is a hard working entrepreneur. He is very kind, always hiring people in need, taking on the most stressful of jobs and getting them done, in my opinion, he is very much like the southern gentlemen where I am from....
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...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...
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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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...Security and Privacy Kate Cann HCS/533 August 10 Michael Gaul Security and Privacy According to Robin Rudowitz (September 2006), “before Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005, New Orleans had a largely poor and African American population with one of the nation’s highest insurance rates, and many relied on the Charity Hospital system for care”. The safety net of New Orleans’s health care system was a distraught. A lot of people were left with no access to care for year after the Hurricane Katrina. On August 2005, the Hurricane destroyed a lot of homes and a lot of people were forced out of their homes leaving them homeless. Much of the city’s infrastructures were destroyed due to the Hurricane. The Hurricane did not only destroy people’s homes and the city’s infrastructures but also destroyed patient’s medical files that were stored in the basement of the hospital. The hospital had in place measure that allowed patients to obtain their medical records in order for them to be treated at a different hospital. Had the hospital not have prior measures in place, patients would have been stranded during the catastrophic event that took place in New Orleans Having the measures in place also helped them identify the people who lost their lives in the Hurricane Katrina. Management Plan A management plan is a blueprint for the way your organization is run, both day-to-day and over the long term. “It includes the standard methods for doing various...
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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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...In the world we live in emergencies happen all around us, the biggest question one can think of is are we prepared, and what are we ready to do in the situation? Far too often there are large incidents ranging from multi vehicle accidents, entrapment, wild fires, terrorist attacks, and sudden severe weather and so on that require a split second response from multiple agencies with hundreds of working personnel to save the lives of many. Any average person not working in a field relating to or participating in such volunteered practice events really doesn’t understand the time and effort it takes when a large incident takes place. Sadly during August 2005 there were four states hit by severe weather storm causing great tragedy. Due to the incidents that took place there were multiple agencies working around the clock across the states to save everyone they could, unfortunately not everyone was saved but there was an extreme effort to do so. Hurricane Katrina is now the eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Today Katrina is known as the costliest natural disaster, and one of the five deadliest hurricanes known in the history of the United States. August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States. This storm was given a Category 3 rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale due to the fact that it brought sustained winds of 100–140 miles per hour and stretched over 400 miles. This storm did a great deal...
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...Dr. Xiongya Gao English 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...
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...Housing market in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina Table of contents 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………3 2. Pre-Katrina situation ………………………..…………………………………..4 3. After-Katrina situation…………………………………………………………..6 4. Current situation New Orleans….………………………………………………8 5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...…9 6. References…………………………………………………………………….….10 Introduction It is August 29th of 2005 when the United States of America is badly affected by one of history’s most catastrophic nature disasters. Hurricane Katrina hits the south of New Orleans and causes severe damage to this city. This second biggest hurricane in the entire history of America left 80 percent of New Orleans flooded, approximately 80 billion dollars of damage and more than 1800 killed civilians. Due to this disaster, New Orleans was almost completely destroyed including the residences of thousands of families. Not only were there economic enormous problems but also political questions rose by that time. The president by then, president Bush, came in discredit because of cutting in the federal funding which was protecting New Orleans. Since then a lot of things have actually changed but unfortunately, too late. Complete neighborhoods were removed from the map, people became homeless and moved to different places. The effects on the housing market in New Orleans were immense. Because of the effect hurricane Katrina had on the housing market in New Orleans...
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...The focus of this report is to classify the understanding that can be made about hurricane Katrina and the 1995 Chicago heat wave through the concepts of natural and social frames, but before getting into any further detail we must stop and ask the question ‘what are natural and social frames? ’ According to The National Center of Biotechnology, it is defined as: "the sum of influences that the surroundings, opportunities, or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals or populations." (“Obesogenic environments: exploring the built and food environments”) With those definitions taken into account the natural frames of these two events can be understood by understanding what caused these events to happen from a meteorological standpoint. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hurricane Katrina developed through the interaction with the remnants of tropical depression ten and “an upper tropospheric trough.” A mid level tropospheric circulation that was the remainder of the dissipated tropical depression ten lingered of the Leeward Islands and eventually merged with a tropical wave that had came of the west coast of Africa. This large mass of showers and thunderstorms eventually formed into a tropical depression over the southeastern Bahamas, later strengthening to become hurricane Katrina. This all was possible due to the right conditions for hurricane formation which consists but not limited to low vertical wind shear, high relative...
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...will be on Communication Crisis plan of Hurricane Katrina. I will discuss how there was failure of communication and what went wrong during this crisis. The crisis communication and management was not planned out correctly. From the outcome of the disaster, you can tell it wasn’t rehearsed to perfection. There were evacuation plans, but it didn’t cover all the publics in the state. For example, there were ill people that wasn’t able to evacuate. There were people with no means of transportation or gas to evacuate the storm. There were 112,000 people with no cars. A great number of people doubted there storm. They felt it wasn’t necessary to evacuate due to previous times when it was suppose to be a hurricane and it never hit. The first stage of a crisis is called prodromes. Which are warning signs of a crisis before it actually happens. Those great number of people ignored the signs because they never been through it. It was always a false alarm. Joel K. Bourne Jr. predicted this crisis. National Geographic Magazine published his piece a year before this disaster happened. It has been predicted by geologists for some time now. The First step of the crisis plan was the levees and flood walls built to protect New Orleans from the flood waters from Mississippi. The levees that were built wasn’t strong enough for all the different categories of hurricanes. So again, there were prodromes. The engineers warned them that hurricanes would destroy those levees. Finances...
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