Government roles in disaster recovery

Government Roles in Disaster Recovery

Each branch of the government (local, state and federal) plays a role in emergency preparedness and disaster recovery. At all three levels, accurate knowledge of the emergency will aid each level of government in knowing their limits and whether or not a higher level of response is necessary. Planning is crucial at all levels of government and plans should be set in place for various types of disasters because some disasters are unforeseen (Perry and Lindell, 2003). Even though planning can be a smooth process and look good on paper, until an actual event happens no one actually knows how prepared they are until after the fact.

The United States has suffered through a few disasters in this decade alone. The two prominent ones that most of us immediately think of are 911 and Hurricane Katrina. Both of these disasters were criticized to some degree because of poor preparedness, poor emergency response or both. With 911, the nation was taken by surprise because we could not believe that our country was attacked by terrorists and it made us feel extremely vulnerable. As the events began to unfold, we learned that there was some inkling that some kind of terrorist attack would happen, but no one ever imagined it would be of this magnitude. President Bush and his cabinet took a lot of heat because many felt that this situation possibly could have been avoided.

Hurricane Katrina presents a different scenario because we couldn't watch the news without the weather forecasters predicting that the hurricane would hit the area soon. As we know, residents of New Orleans were encouraged to evacuate because Katrina was believed to be of a high or highest category. No one expected that the hurricane would wipe out the levees causing the destruction that it did. Unbelievable images were shown all over and Americans could not believe that the citizens of New Orleans were going through this ordeal with seemingly very little help in sight. It was inconceivable that a federal emergency was declared yet the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) response was so poor.

Because there was blame on each level of government in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this paper will examine the event and the three levels of government response to this disaster. The hurricane was predicted to hit the Gulf Coast at least a week before it actually struck. New Orleans is no stranger to hurricanes. Hurricanes and their destruction have been recorded since the 1700's. Some of these hurricanes did considerable damage and claimed lives and some were nothing more than slightly severe wind storms. However, who could have predicted the disaster and heavy death toll after Hurricane Katrina. This hurricane is the worst one in the history of hurricanes in New Orleans thus far.

Local Government Response

Ray Nagin, the mayor of the city at the time is considered by some to have dealt with the Hurricane Katrina situation admirable. Others tend to disagree. Many of Nagin's critics say that had he ordered a mandatory evacuation sooner and made use of the numerous amounts of school buses specifically reserved to shuttle citizens to the Superdome, the death toll would not have reached the high number that it did. Nagin suggested that citizens evacuate and he knew that many people in New Orleans are extremely poor and did not have the financial means to leave the city. He could have been basing his reluctance to order a mandatory evacuation during the earlier predictions of the hurricane's potential for devastation on the events that transpired during Hurricane Ivan.

Nagin did not issue a mandatory evacuation during Hurricane Ivan. He issued a voluntary one and it just so happened that the hurricane missed the city. He may have been seeking to avoid the traffic jams and complaints from citizens by not issuing the mandatory evacuation for Hurricane Katrina early on. He should have played it safe to avoid being sorry later on. Forecasters had been predicting for days that the Hurricane could drive a wall of water of the city's levees. They predicted that the storm surge could reach 28 feet and the levees are only as high as 18 feet. Nagin also knew that the levees were in need of repair, yet he did not heed the warnings of the weather forecasters soon enough.

While many of the citizens of New Orleans did manage to evacuate before the hurricane hit, many more were left behind and those in this group should have been shuttled to the Superdome on the buses reserved for such events as this. The mayor's biggest failure during Hurricane Katrina was not to make use of the school buses. Instead of taking ownership of his part in the loss of lives, he pointed the finger at the federal rescue efforts. While there is some credibility to his rants about FEMA and the slow response to the Hurricane victims, Nagin should admit that most of the devastation could have been avoided had he followed through with the plan that the city had already laid out.

State Level Response

Nagin is not the only one who has been blamed for the surrounding events that happened after hurricane Katrina. Governor Kathleen Blanco has had to take her share of complaints from critics also. Blanco did a lot of this correctly in the sight of many during this time, but she is still criticized on the way she handled other issues regarding Hurricane Katrina. It was clear in the aftermath of the hurricane that Nagin made a poor decision by not making use of the school buses to evacuate those who did not have the means or capability the leave on their own. The hurricane hit New Orleans on August 29th and during the first few days in September, residents were still being slowly, but surely evacuated.

In the meantime, Governor Blanco was in a battle with federal authorities over the relinquishment of control of the local and state National Guard. By this time, the city of New Orleans was in upheaval. There was mass looting, violence, shooting and on top of all this people were still not completely evacuated and those that were evacuated to the Superdome were dying of hunger and thirst. As many people watched the events unfold each day on the evening news, there was a strong level of disbelief that in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina people were suffering needlessly. Many could not believe that this was happening in our country because the relief efforts or lack of them seemed akin to a third world country.

Blanco failed in other areas as well. The hurricane hit the city on Monday, August 29, 2005. Yet, Blanco did not seek assistance through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) until the Wednesday after the hurricane. This assistance should have been requested immediately after the hurricane hit, not three days later. Just as Nagin did not follow the local disaster response plan already set in place, Blanco did not take advantage of the resources already laid out before her to assist the victims during this time.

Probably the worst mistake that Blanco made was to declare a state of emergency almost a week after the hurricane hit. By declaring a state of emergency sooner, FEMA would have been able to come in and take over the management of the devastation which was clearly beyond the scope and control of local and state government. What Blanco seemed most interested in was protecting the state of Louisiana from the control of the federal government. While she was in a tug of war with President Bush and the federal government, she failed to realize that the situation was getting worse instead of improving. This seemingly lack of concern and mismanagement of government left a bad taste in the mouths of many Americans and it gave the world the impression that America is still the racially divided country that it was fifty years ago.

Federal Response

Out of all three levels of government, the federal level seems to have received the most criticism in how it handled Hurricane Katrina. President Bush and FEMA were the scapegoats for many during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Where Bush failed miserably was not exercising his right to federalize the National Guard. Had he done this, the citizens of New Orleans would not have suffered needlessly. The city would not have suffered so many loss of lives had it been evacuated properly at the local level by Mayor Nagin. but, instead of playing the blame game, pointing fingers, and getting into power struggles with the governor, President Bush should have taken command of the situation. If he had done so, many lives could have and would have been saved. While the people of New Orleans were dying, he was in a senseless struggle for power with Blanco.

Former Acting Director of FEMA, R. David Paulison states that the organization was pre-prepared the disaster with excess equipment, manpower, food, water, etc. What they did not anticipate was the levees breaking nor were they aware of the level of immediate need of the people. He also says that with Hurricane Andrew, about two million residents were evacuated and only about 10% we left homeless whereas with Hurricane Katrina approximately the same number of residents were evacuated yet over 90% were left homeless (Halton, 2006). This was much more of a burden than FEMA had anticipated and it was a result of poor emergency response at lower levels of government.

Even still, FEMA should have been better prepared to handle the situation. They should have been called in earlier than they were and if this were the case they situation would have been easier to manage. Paulison says that FEMA was not fully aware of what was needed and where. This is a result of poor communication. By the time they were called in, the situation was the main story on all media outlets, especially television. FEMA should have had a strong sense of what was going on and what the immediate needs of the people were. There is no excuse for people going without food and water for days if FEMA had an abundant supply of these things.

Along with FEMA at the federal level of government, President Bush probably received the most criticism for the way that the situation was handled. He has been accused of everything from a slow response to Hurricane Katrina because the majority of the residents were African-American to the National Guard was short staffed because too many were service overseas in the war on Iraq. Many regard the fact that Bush remained on vacation two days after the hurricane hit as his lack of concern for the suffering citizens of New Orleans. The president even refused help from international governments saying that America can fend for itself. Even the president's wife, Barbara Bush came under fire for her flippant remarks about how the residents should be used to living in the conditions that were at the Superdome because, according to her, those conditions were probably much better than where they lived before.