International Disasters, Research Paper Example

International disasters are significant to the lives of countless individuals during and after the event. These catastrophes are capable of striking in countries that are underdeveloped as well as highly industrialized areas. It is highly important to have an effective management team ready before and after the disaster to decrease costs associated with recovery as well as the negative emotions felt by the individuals involved. This paper focuses on the natural disaster, Hurricane Katrina, which struck the southern portion of the United States in September 2005.

Natural Disasters and the Communication Breakdown

Occurrences such as Hurricane Katrina will affect not only a large geographic radius, but a wide populous as well. This can range from an economic impact to an impact along the lines of human morbidity and mortality. It is quite difficult for private and public organizations to handle such catastrophes as they occur and ever more of a challenge to take care of those involved in the days to months ahead as everyone rebuilds and attempts to return to some form of normal life as they once knew (Schneider, 2005). During a natural disaster, most people are focused with survival and finding shelter, food and clothing for themselves and their loved ones. They are not focused on what the government is and is not doing to help them until after the situation has calmed and they have taken a moment to assess the complete picture. At least this is what happened during September 2005.

In the case of Katrina, there were massive problems and a continual breakdown in the communication efforts both inside the local camp of New Orleans, Louisiana, as well as outside from the state and federal levels. In a perfect scenario, an emergency management system administration will provide the needed aid immediately after the storm as soon as it is humanly possible to get outside and rescue individuals from houses or cars (Schneider, 2005). Also, they will ensure food delivery and proper shelter is provided to all who require this necessity. However, in the case of Hurricane Katrina, the consistent miscommunication of these agencies or entire lack of agency communication caused a problem of epic proportions from food delivery units to shelter to rescue efforts and there were multiple agencies involved in this (Schneider, 2005). Upon an initial assessment, it was found that government efforts were weak, at best and they were unable to respond quickly or effectively to the multiple problems occurring on an escalating scale.

According to Schneider (1995), there is an established process for responding to natural disasters and the government is supposed to follow this when assisting states and locales in their rescue and recovery efforts. The process resembles a ladder and essentially begins with the government at the local level. It then follows through the state emergency management agencies and finally to the federal emergency management organizations. However, in Katrina’s case, there was a breakdown and a complete lack of consistency with all levels of emergency management causing every branch to confuse the other branch (Schneider, 1995). This essentially led to a decrease in the amount of aid coming in to the victims and almost no rescue effort for days until media publicity scrutinized the government enough so they began taking action.

State of Louisiana

For starters, the state of Louisiana was not prepared for Hurricane Katrina and was overwhelmed with the sheer size of the storm. Therefore, they did not make the necessary preparations to evacuate citizens until the storm had reached a category much too large to get everyone out of the state in time, especially those in the poorest of neighborhoods (Coker, et al., 2006). Also, the levee system in New Orleans, because of the fact the city is below sea level, was extremely out of date and did not withstand the pressure of incoming water generated by this massive scale hurricane (Schneider, 2005). Once the levees began to break, chaos was the general feeling amongst those in New Orleans and all of its surrounding areas. Several areas in the city and outer wards flooded, thus causing further problems in addition to those already existing from the initial storm. Add this to the fact many civilians were losing their homes to the flooding and winds caused by the storm and there is a recipe for disaster that no person seemed to have an answer for (Schneider, 2005).

Because the governor of Louisiana was unwilling to allow National Guardsmen to be under the control of the federal government, even only for a short while, there was no ability to stabilize the situation from within due to scarce resources and the fact that the federal government was moving too slow to import additional resources into the area (Schneider, 2005). Although the official declaration for assistance was given three days after the storm, there was no concrete help available from the government until at least five days after the storm (Schneider, 2005).

During the five days while citizens were in the midst of chaos and waiting to be evacuated or rescued from rooftops, there was an even larger problem occurring inside the Superdome. This had been the official storm shelter before the hurricane and had quickly turned into mass chaos after part of the roof was blown away by the excessive winds and water damage incurred during the event (Schneider, 2005). There were riots, assaults, and other unspeakable events which captured the eye of national and international news media and most likely led to the aid of these citizens more quickly (Coker, et al., 2006).

Because of the strength of the category 3 storm making impact along the Gulf Coast region around Gulfport, Mississippi, and the breaching of levees causing floods in so many areas of the outer lying wards in the New Orleans area, millions of citizens were without housing, power, food, and clothing. This storm has actually been called the most massive hurricane to strike the nation in several generations (Eisenman, Cordasco, Asch, Golden, & Glik, 2007). The citizens who were able to be evacuated after the storm found shelter in a stadium for three weeks in Houston, Texas. These citizens faced a traumatic experience; one unprecedented in recent history.

It was evident many of the evacuees and victims of the hurricane were experiencing the first effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and experts believe due to the low socioeconomic conditions and the fact the victims faced conditions no human should have to ever live through, this only made manifestations for the conditions much worse than even normal with post-traumatic stress disorder victims (Coker, et al., 2006). Government officials did provide psychological and psychiatric help to those willing to speak with someone about their experiences during the storm and in the aftermath; however, with the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder often it is much later than immediately after an event when things begin to affect a person. This was, of course, true in many cases with the citizens of Louisiana (Coker, et al., 2006).

Why This Storm Was So Terrible

Obviously, the storm in itself was a catastrophe. Even in the best case scenarios and with the utmost preparations there will be problems and glitches causing issues with citizens and the evacuation of innocent people. However, the number one thing causing this storm to be so terrible was the miscommunication between local, state, and federal officials. There was almost a “political” agenda and the innocent victims got pushed to the side with no shelter, food, or way to take care of themselves (Coker, et al., 2006).

For example, there were several buses sitting in a parking lot ready to evacuate citizens of New Orleans before the storm was supposed to strike. All that was needed was the authorization from an official. That authorization never came. The buses sat there, filled with fuel, during the entire duration of the storm. These were buses that could have gone from ward to ward and helped poor individuals who had no other means of transportation evacuate out of the area and out of danger (Coker, et al., 2006). Unfortunately, everyone wants to point a finger at another person. There is no person willing to take responsibility and everyone says, “not me” when asked who is responsible for the miscommunication that led to countless lives being put at risk and injuring multiple rescue workers who were only attempting to help an already overworked and understaffed police force.

As a matter of fact, it is reported that many members of the police force actually resigned because they had no homes or belongings and they went with their families to other areas as soon as it was safe to do so (Schneider, 2005). Loitering became the issue in the streets and businesses actually began handing out all of the food left to anyone who would accept it so that starvation would not be such a widespread issue (Eisenman, Cordasco, Asch, Golden, & Glik, 2007). The situation was really a travesty.

How We May Learn

The question is, how can we learn from the mistakes made by our local and state as well as federal governments? How can we understand the problems that were had in the past so that the future does not repeat itself? Obviously, there will be another natural disaster of some sort and there will be horrible ramifications which occur along with the disaster. But these subsequent issues do not have to define the disaster. There are things we as a nation learn from the issues of today will help us face the problems of tomorrow.

On the level of emergency management, there is a need for consistent communication between the local, state, and federal agencies to ensure no further breakdown when a tragedy such as this one strikes again. Although things in this disaster would have happened to a certain extent, yes, there would have been other alternatives in place to ensure chaos could have been kept minimal and recovery costs would have been decreased. Perhaps a liaison between agencies could be more effective than having the government agencies contact one another and have bureaucratic red tape when time is of the essence (Eisenman, Cordasco, Asch, Golden, & Glik, 2007). This is not to say what works in one situation will necessarily work in the next. However, there will be a situation where procedures will help benefit victims involved in another future situation and policies enforced at this point in time will ultimately help all citizens.

As with our example of the buses and their lack of evacuation order to collect victims, this should have never happened. A policy instated by local or state officials to ensure this is not a problem would add a safety net to the transportation issue for citizens without other options and those citizens would be further comforted knowing they had a means out of the city when needed (Eisenman, Cordasco, Asch, Golden, & Glik, 2007). Also, with the levees and their breach, this should never have occurred. If monetary funds had been allocated as intended years ago, the levees would have been taken care of and perhaps the flooding would have been less of an impact on the citizens than when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Yes, we can go back and say ‘what if’ and explain how to change the situation. What remains, however, is the fact that until communication becomes a priority between officials on all levels of government, there will not be a better way to plan for disasters that threaten our citizens. This goes for natural or man-made disasters. Satellite phones are another thing that would prove useful during times of trouble in the aftermath of a storm (Eisenman, Cordasco, Asch, Golden, & Glik, 2007). Gas lines, electrical lines, and cellular towers were all but obliterated in much of the city of New Orleans and surrounding areas (Eisenman, Cordasco, Asch, Golden, & Glik, 2007). However, the satellite phones would have offered a better way of connected with officials to get help to those who needed it the most. These phones were used to some extent, but a larger deployment of these phones would provide beneficial to the needs of citizens all around.

This disaster was both a negative and positive one. It was negative because of the costs associated with it in terms of monetary costs, recovery efforts, and harm done to the environment. However, it was a positive disaster in the fact there will be more hurricanes in the near future. There was a hurricane just recently in the upper eastern United States and this hurricane also caused a massive amount of damage. The hope is that the storm of 2005 helped in a positive way and impacted lives on a positive level in regards to the communication efforts and management efforts with government agencies (state and federal) so that others afterward would have better experiences after the fact and not have to go through as much devastation while waiting for relief.

Hurricane Katrina was a small storm and we did not see this storm coming until it was a bit too late, but this is not an excuse to be prepared for whatever is in our path. Preparedness and communication are the keys to successful survival of a catastrophe and millions of citizens could possibly have prepared better had the government taken the time to take things a bit more seriously instead of brushing this particular storm off as “just another storm” (Schneider, 2005). In the years since, the areas have been rebuilding and the city is revitalizing itself (Schneider, 2005). Although it will never be the same as it once was, the levees are being made more modern and funds are being put into modernizing many aspects of the city’s pumping system for water distribution due to the fact it is below sea level (Schneider, 2005). There is nothing the city may do about the natural disaster occurrences. There is something the city may do about preparedness.

References

Coker, A., Hanks, J., Eggleston, K., Risser, J., Tee, P., Chronister, P., & Troisi, C. (2006). Social and mental needs assessment of Katrina evacuees. Disaster Management and Response, 4(3), 88-94.

Eisenman, D., Cordasco, K., Asch, S., Golden, J., & Glik, D. (2007). Disaster planning and risk communication with vulnerable communities: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. American Journal of Public Health, 97(S1), S109.

Schneider, Saundra K. 1995. Flirting with Disaster: Public Management in Crisis Situations. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

Schneider, S. (2005). Administrative breakdowns in the governmental response to Hurricane Katrina. Public Admistration Review, 65(5), 515-516.