Introduction
Hurricane Katrina became a powerful natural disaster that claimed many lives and a national tragedy. Both the devastating hurricane itself and the lack of preparation by local and regional authorities led to significant losses among the population. A natural disaster destroyed many buildings and flooded New Orleans to restore the authorities allocated significant sums. However, proper measures were not taken to prevent the catastrophe at the very beginning.
Hurricane Katrina History
This is the most destructive hurricane in US history: the hurricane was assigned category 5 according to the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, the sixth most damaging hurricane in the Atlantic Basin on record. It happened at the end of August 2005. The most serious damage was caused to New Orleans in Louisiana, where “Katrina inundated the coast with a massive wall of water over thirty feet high in some areas” (Sloan, 2019, p. 178). About 80% of the city’s area was underwater (Sloan, 2019, p. 177). The hurricane began to form on August 23 in the Bahamas. Approximately 12 hours before the meeting with the coast, the storm weakened to the level of the 4th category. The wind speed during the hurricane reached 120 miles per hour.
On August 27, 2005, the hurricane crossed the Florida coast near Miami and turned towards the Gulf of Mexico (Boin, 2019). On August 29, the dams that protected New Orleans were torn and the city was flooded. The coast began, and “the torrent flattened structures from the shore to miles inland, leaving a mass of wreckage behind while sweeping thousands of tons of debris back out into Mississippi Sound” (Sloan, 2019, p.177). Thus, Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of approximately 230 Mississippi residents, and 49 of the 82 states were declared disaster areas. Ultimately, the hurricane killed about 2,000 people, forced 650,000 residents to relocate, and caused $ 125 billion damage (Raker et al., 2019).
Hurricane as a Physical Phenomenon
Hurricanes are winds with destructive force and long duration, with a speed of more than 30 m / s. The hurricane is a hazardous natural phenomenon that threatens human life and wildlife and causes great damage to residential and agricultural buildings. The hurricane wreaks havoc all over the place, destroying structures and breaking power lines. People caught in the hurricane zone are injured in air travel (throwing), impacts and bruises from flying objects, and collapsing structures. A hurricane striking the ocean creates huge clouds that cause heavy rainfall, which in turn causes flooding, mudflows, and landslides. Hurricanes are extremely fast and violent, often with great destructive force and significant air travel.
Hurricanes occur as cyclones in the intertropical zone over the oceans when the water temperature exceeds 26 degrees Celsius. A storm creates a disturbance (a sudden disruption in the flow of something) that occurs when warm, humid air in contact with the sea begins to rise. At high altitudes, it condenses and generates heat and causes other hot air masses to grow and shrink, creating a chain reaction.
Preparation
Personnel were evacuated from oil platforms as the hurricane approached the Gulf of Mexico. Aircraft were evacuated from military bases in Mississippi and Florida. US President George W. Bush has declared Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida a disaster zone. On Sunday, August 28, 2005, the mayor of New Orleans announced a forced evacuation (Boin, 2019). Mass evacuation led to massive traffic jams. Approximately 80% of the local population was evacuated, leaving the city and its surroundings. Long lines formed in front of shops and gas stations. However, not all residents were evacuated. Tens of thousands of city dwellers live below the poverty line and do not have money for roads and hotels. Public transport has stopped working, so it was difficult to get out of the city without car. There are about 150,000 people left in New Orleans, primarily poor counties and blacks.
Crimes and Aftermaths
On August 30, hundreds of people were breaking shop windows and taking away goods near Canal Street and on the border of the French Quarter. Economically, Katrina was unlike any other hurricane the United States had ever experienced. On September 1, there was a shooting in the city hospital. When loading the patients onto the transport, a shot was fired; earlier boats carrying patients were fired upon, one of which capsized. On September 1, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman announced the temporary suspension of rescue operations due to criminal assault (Raker et al, 2019).
On August 29, Hurricane Katrina damaged the southeast coast of US in Louisiana and Mississippi. It reached Louisiana, southern and central Mississippi, southern Alabama, western Georgia, western and south Florida. Louisiana: 70% of New Orleans was below sea level, and the city is surrounded on several sides by water: The Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi, and Lake Pontchartrain (Raker, 2019). In addition to New Orleans, communities in the coastal areas of Mississippi and Alabama have suffered significant damage. The American oil and gas complex was seriously damaged: this led to the destruction of many oil platforms and drilling rigs, which seriously damaged the economic situation.
Unfortunately, there are several issues following Hurricane Katrina that will take time to resolve. On the one hand, the hurricane caused millions of people to be unable to find their family members. Most of them are known to be stranded in the first couple of days after the disaster that caused chaos. Rescue teams waited until the entrance was deemed safe due to the danger lurking from the action of the hurricane. On August 29, dams protecting New Orleans were broken in several places. The flooding of the city and the coast began. Boats and helicopters were used to rescue people from flooded areas.
Criticism
After the American community recovered from the first shock after the hurricane, federal and local authorities were criticized. The late evacuation plan that the authorities attempted is also condemned. Since the order of the authorities on the evacuation of the flood zone by the hurricane was given only 19 hours before the collapse of Katrina, which did not allow many people to leave the city. Moreover, there were a number of questions about the issued decree on the state of emergency, which did not indicate some flooded coastal areas.
Louisiana Senator and Republican David Witter gave the Bush administration the lowest rating for the government’s efforts to combat the disaster, and “the performance of many response organizations and their leaders was widely and deeply criticized by politicians, pundits and the public” (Boin et al., 2019, p.2). In the fall of 2005, in an open letter, Michael Moore, an American director and political figure, blamed the US government for cuts in funding for the Corps of Engineers, with serious consequences. In New Orleans, the delay in evacuating the population from the disaster area led to numerous casualties, chaos, looting, and rampant crime, and the White House had to rush into the city with the National Guard and troops to restore order.
Responders perspective
Many believe that during Hurricane Katrina, the authorities did not take adequate measures to prevent such losses. People were abandoned in nursing homes and hospitals, and many were forced to seek refuge in The Superdome. Eventually, the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisiana, US President George W. Bush, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency director began to blame each other for the tragedy after a disaster and its consequences. According to Boin (2019), “long-term warnings went unheeded, and government officials neglected their duties to prepare for a forewarned catastrophe” (p.2). Thus, it was revealed that those responsible for health and safety were not prepared for a natural disaster of the scale of Hurricane Katrina.
However, it seems that the criticism is not always justified since the quick search and rescue operations saved many people’s lives after the sinking. In the end, “authorities warned one another and their constituents that a perilous storm was coming, and they acted accordingly” (Boin et al., 2019, p.7). In most cases, the harsh conditions in which the rescuers had to work in flooded New Orlean are not taken into account.
Boin says that for effectively respond to a disaster, the following tasks must be completed by responders: firstly, all actors at the state, local, and national level take action early when the first warning of a natural disaster is received, which helps to prevent more losses. Secondly, it is necessary to collect all the critical information to create an overall picture of the disaster. Thirdly, “collaborate across horizontal and vertical borders” to limit the damage the disaster can cause (Boin, 2019, p.3). Finally, responders should provide all the necessary information and describe the actions taken to minimize the crisis.
Emergency response
It took too long for the authorities to realize that New Orleans was flooded, leading to heavy losses. Nevertheless, at the start of the disaster, emergency response personnel were left without leadership and coordination. Thus, the rescuers themselves were in danger and could not take the necessary measures in time. National Guard and federal support provided more than 50,000 emergency response personnel. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) delivered over 90,000 liters of drinking water, 15,000 tarpaulins for the injured, and about 43,000 finished products to the Superdome stadium (Collier et al., 2019).
In the evacuation from New Orleans, little attention was paid to those without access to cars and people with special needs. In addition, when the mandatory evacuation order was issued from New Orleans, there were not enough buses to facilitate the evacuation of non-drivers. The authorities and rescue organizations had to draw up reports on the ongoing work, “while disaster plans often specify how critical information should travel through bureaucratic layers, this rarely happens as envisioned in practice” (Boin et al., 2019, p.8). While the New Orleans evacuation plan was ambitious, it did not include resources and contracts to increase the number of vehicles (buses and trains) that could allow more people to be evacuated.
Rescue operations were hampered by a complete lack of communication, which increased mortality. Since different organizations did not communicate with each other, they duplicated information to the rescuers several times, which threatened the lives of citizens and the respondents themselves. Regarding transportation and logistics to the affected regions, disaster management agencies faced challenges in communicating correctly with various organizations, which significantly influenced the coordination of response efforts in New Orleans. Since Katrina, the New Orleans government has identified several key projects that need to be completed.
However, several years after the hurricane, it was reported that all these projects were completed. The reason for this was the lack of budget funds for the implementation of projects and the lack of coordination between government agencies. Such incidents highlight a lack of understanding of the importance of administrative coordination of all rescue efforts during and after a disaster.
The danger for responders and citizens
Many people faced with a natural disaster feel anxiety and depression. Depression rates are higher among rescuers in most cases because of their duties and responsibilities during a disaster. Even though the state provides rescuers with psychological assistance, the percentage of people suffering from disorders after natural disasters is still high. Crucial protective factors such as social support and life satisfaction reduce these symptoms; these factors can still interact with each other to promote positive or negative outcomes.
As a result of rescuers working in harsh conditions and with little or no contact with colleagues, many employees experienced posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Among the rescuers, the factors that increase the risk of psychological consequences for a person are the lack of contact with the family and the injury of a colleague or family member during hurricane. In the course of rescue operations, responders were exposed not only to psychological but also to physical risks.
Due to the fact that the government did not provide proper preparation to the regions before the hurricane, the rescuers did not have the proper equipment (special equipment, etc.). Thus, many rescuers were injured in the first hours of the work, receiving serious injuries. However, during Hurricane Katrina, the rescuers suffered, and the population of the flooded regions. Residents were left without shelter, food, water, and electricity, and also received serious injuries due to flooding.
Lessons learned
Based on a tragedy like Hurricane Katrina, the US government has been able to improve its emergency response. In the aftermath of the hurricane, railroad officials began placing repair equipment on major bridges along the railroad lines, helping to prevent the tragedy from spreading. These measures are carried out for all infrastructure systems, which helps restore failed infrastructure systems and accelerates the response of these systems during and after natural disasters.
During Hurricane, FEMA responded promptly and quickly deployed the necessary emergency supplies. However, the main problem was that the organization did not have an internal fleet of vehicles necessary for evacuation to provide technical support to rescuers. FEMA relied on the support of other government agencies due to the lack of mobilization of essential resources and transportation of goods for rescuers and victims of the disaster.
Subsequently, the government began to reorganize rescue operations and introduced new enhancements (field integration teams) built into every emergency management at the state level. From a long-term perspective, “these teams are designed to provide subject matter expertise in emergency planning, logistics, operations, and mass care to state level emergency planners” (Collier et al., 2019, par.12). In recent years, there have been significant improvements in the disaster response system associated with changes in the rescue system and the introduction of new technologies to facilitate the impact of disasters on rescue operations. The technologies implemented and their effectiveness shows the mortality rate during Hurricane Karin and Hurricane Harvey, which is significantly lower than in 2005.
Recommendations
In my opinion, to improve the efficiency of the work of rescuers, their safety, and more effective response to emergencies, it is necessary to observe the following measures and reorganize the structures of the bodies responsible for responding to natural disasters. First of all, it is crucial to improve the planning and evacuation system of residents of the affected regions. The evacuation plan should prioritize vulnerable populations such as women, children, and the elderly, as they are the most frequent natural disaster victims. The evacuation plan should also include all necessary pieces of equipment with a reserve in case of emergency.
Organizations developing an evacuation plan must be sure that the personal vehicles of evacuated citizens will not interfere with special equipment. It is also essential to create a plan to mobilize all the resources needed to carry out search and rescue operations. The placement of fuel and technical materials along the evacuation route of residents should be placed in advance to avoid problems in future disasters.
Secondly, it is also necessary to draw up a plan to protect the restoration of vital infrastructure during a disaster. Finally, it seems that the government has to develop a system of information dissemination and follow-up in case of a disaster to minimize casualties. Along with plans for evacuation and mobilization, emergency organizations should develop quality communication with rescuers, and quickly inform local residents. In my opinion, for such cases, the introduction of special applications on the phone would be suitable, which will inform residents about the impending danger.
However, attention should be paid not only to victims with physical disabilities. It seems to me that the state should organize psychological support for the victims of the disaster and their relatives. This will help reduce the number of suicides and lower the level of victims psychologically after a disaster. Clear programs should be developed to help people with mental trauma after a hurricane.
The possible introduction of applications on the phone to immediately inform residents about the danger could reduce the number of casualties. For example, applications directly related to rescue organizations can inform residents about the danger, and provide information about the closest shelters and help centers. Also, such applications can be equipped with a function of transferring the location of the owner of the phone, which will facilitate search operations for rescuers. In my opinion, such recommendations can save local residents from the consequences of the disaster and reduce casualties, and make it easier for rescuers to work, which will also save more people
Conclusion
This paper discusses the preparation for Hurricane Katrina, the consequences, and possible recommendations for avoiding victims in future disasters. The study found that while the government did not take adequate measures to avoid such a large number of casualties during Hurricane Katrina, new technologies are being introduced to prevent disasters. The results of the analysis lead to the need for improvements in planning and preparing for a disaster, as well as in developing an evacuation plan, disseminating information to the public and organizing search, and rescue operations.
References
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Grossman, J. R. (2017). Hurricane Katrina and the chōric object of rhetorical studies. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 103(3), pp. 251–276. Web.
Raker, E. J., Lowe, S. R., Arcaya, M. C., Johnson, S. T., Rhodes, J., & Waters, M. C. (2019). Twelve years later: The long-term mental health consequences of Hurricane Katrina. Social Science & Medicine, 242, pp. 1-10.
Sloan, S. (2019). Oral History and Hurricane Katrina: Reflections on Shouts and Silences. Oral History Review, 35(2), pp. 176–186.
Collier J., Zhang Z., & Balakrishnan S. (Eds.). (2019). From Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Harvey: Actions and Lessons Learned in Transportation and Logistics Efforts for Emergency Response. Conference: 98th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board. Web.