Management to Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina 11th

¶ … management to Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina 11th named tropical storm by scientists, fourth hurricane, third major hurricane and first category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. On the day of August 5, 2005 hurricane Katrina made a land fall as a category 1 hurricane north of Miami, Florida, as a category 3 storm on August 29 along the central gulf coast near Buras-triumph then Louisiana. The storm surge of Katrina later destroyed the levee system that protected New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi river. (Stewart & Stacy, 2005)

As a consequence the city was subsequently flooded mainly by water from the lake. The coast of Mississippi and Alabama were heavily damaged resulting to Katrina being the most destructive and costly disaster in the history of the U.S.A., the damage estimated at $100 billion.

In the Gulf of Mexico approaching the morning of the 26 0f August Katrina had gained strength to a Category 3 storm. On realizing later that afternoon that Katrina had yet to make the turn towards Florida panhandle, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) ended up revising the predicted track of the storm from the panhandle to the Mississippi coast. The hurricane watch was issued by NHC for southeastern Louisiana, including the New Orleans area . That afternoon the NHC extended the watch to cover the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines as well as the Louisiana coast to Intracoastal city.

With more than 400 reservists the U.S.A. coast guards began preparing and putting in position resources in a ring around the expected impact zone. On August 27, the coast guard moved its personnel out of the New Orleans region in readiness for the mandatory evacuation.

Many air crews most of whom had lost their homes during the catastrophe began a round the clock rescue effort in new Orleans, and along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines, by the afternoon of August 29, all aircraft were returning towards the Gulf of Mexico by the afternoon of August 29. (Stephen Barr, 2005)

By August 26, the possibility of unexpected and highly volatile cataclysm was already being considered. The computer models had shifted the potential path of Katrina 150 miles (240 km) westward from the Florida Panhandle, putting the city of New Orleans directly in the center of their track probabilities raising the chances of a direct to 17% as were the forecast, with strike probability rising to 29% by August 28. This scenario was considered a potential catastrophe since some parts of New Orleans and the metro area are below sea level.

Since the storm surge produced by the hurricane's right-front quadrant (containing the strongest winds) was forecast to be 28 feet (8.5 m), emergency management officials in New Orleans feared that the storm surge could go over the tops of levees protecting the city, causing major flooding.(Amanda Ripley, 2005)

However, Americans were shaken not simply by the magnitude of the disaster but by how ill-prepared all levels of government were in its aftermath. Although New Orleans had performed a hurricane drill the previous year, the city and state governments had no transportation or crime prevention plans in place, and such negligence had devastating consequences.

It is worth noting that thought the aftermath of the disaster were finally handled albeit after a long period of time, there was uncoordinated chain of command without a clear definition of the central command post. The federal agencies declared that they were there to support the state and local government agencies, the National Guard gave the same sentiment forcing the NPR to declare that there was clearly no central command post and that people were not being made to know when they would be evacuated from New Orleans. However, once president Bush declared the catastrophe a national disaster, the superdome was opened and those who could not leave the city were allowed in, the Louisiana National Guard delivered a food supply that was enough for 1,500 people for 3 days, troops from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were all ready for operations.