What Is FEMA?

FEMA was established after a number of serious natural disasters that took place, but after that there were very few disasters so FEMA has not been in practice. Secondly FEMA has a history of poor planning, people with skill sets not suited for emergency response, FEMA was therefore not considered to be a priority agency when Hurricane Katrina

Over the years of Hurricane Katrina, Fema faced many criticisms. Back in 9/11, They acted fast and accordingly to the disaster. During hurricane Katrina, they were slow and had false promises that the locals of New orleans believed (Maestri, “The

Even though it is the responsibility of the federal and state governments to aid citizens during times of disaster, the people devastated by Hurricane Katrina were not effectively facilitated as according to their rights as citizens of the United States. The government’s failures to deliver assistance to citizens stem from inadequate protection systems in place before the storm even struck. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security were the two largest incumbents in the wake of the storm. The failure of these agencies rests on the shoulders of those chosen to head the agency. These directors, appointed by then president George W. Bush, were not capable of leading large government agencies through a

The primary response or nonexistence thereof, as a result of Hurricane Katrina, showed great levels of inability and inefficiency by government leaders. The failures experienced by the government is a lot of blame to go around before and after Hurricane Katrina hit in New Orleans, Louisiana taking a lot of lives and making hundreds of thousands more homeless. The federal government were not ready or unprepared for the disaster that took place. The Federal Emergency Management also known as FEMA took several day to launch operations in New Orleans, Louisiana, and as they tried to establish their operation for the disaster they did not have an effective plan in place for the situation they had of their hands. According to Chris McGreal, "Bush

Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Joplin, Missouri tornado are easily two of the most devastating recent weather disasters for the United States. The death toll, property damage and loss, and rebuilding and recovery costs were monumental for both events. FEMA was criticised for the lack of coordination and response to Hurricane Katrina, in which case many private and volunteer sectors stepped up (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2011). However, in the Joplin tornado, FEMA and city officials allowed the private and voluntary sector to control the response and recovery efforts and supplemented them as needed. New Orleans has done well to improve the higher education and employment rates and decreasing violent crimes, but has neglected

In the integration of FEMA into the DHS, FEMA had to contribute to the start-up costs of the new department, but unfortunately evidence suggests that the agency may have been made to pay a disproportionately higher amount than larger agencies. FEMA officials say this directly affected their levels of service in 2004 and 2005 (14). In the integration, FEMA lost some programs, but lost major ones as well (14). In 2005, plans continued to reduce FEMA. Director at the time, Michael Brown, wrote a memo in June expressing his concern about the agency’s future if the cuts continued (13). Perhaps the most ironic cut was the disaster planning exercise “Hurricane Pam.” This exercise, in which outlines a scenario where a disastrous hurricane hits New Orleans, leaving more than 100,000 people in the city, began a year before Katrina. The exercise was never finished because the Bush Administration cut funding (13).

There is no doubt that the government at all levels was unprepared for Hurricane Katrina’s disastrous impact. Some government officials blame each other for the slow response to Katrina. For instance, James Loy, Deputy Secretary of the department of Homeland Security from 2003 to 2005, argued that it was the state responsibility to have address the importance of evacuating in a timely-manner when Hurricane Katrina struck (The Storm, 2005). Michael Brown, director of FEMA from 2003-2005, claimed that it was Congress and the president’s administration fault for not giving them enough equipment on better communication services (The Storm, 2005). Four days later after Katrina had struck, many army troops went out to help citizens that were in trouble

Hurricane Katrina was one of the biggest catastrophe the struck the state of New Orleans. Fema did not do the best jobs in distribution resources

While there have been many papers and articles written on the organizations most at fault for the recovery efforts of hurricane Katrina, most of the blame is wrongfully pointed towards FEMA. In fact, most experts in the hurricane field knew a storm the size of Katrina would absolutely decimate the city of New Orleans. The levee system was the primary failure point as mention by The Times-Picayune (2002), “another scenario is that some part of the levee would fail”. These levees, combined with the geographical properties of the city itself, are faults, which clearly were out of FEMAs control. Yet FEMA is still the blame winner, and the reasoning, is actually not FEMAs fault either.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most popular disaster’s that devastated the area in which it affected. Many lives were lost in the storm itself and in the after math. Said to blame by many is FEMA and the U.S government. The two were blamed for their lack of response time, pure carelessness, and the inability to properly communicate.

There were other disaster that happen in New Orleans it wasn’t the first hurricane. “During the past century, hurricanes have flooded New Orleans six times: in 1915, 1940, 1947, 1965, 1969 and 2005.”(“Hurricane Katrina.") Like Hurricane Betsy, it strike Louisianan in 1965, half of the state was flooded. FEMA performed well after 9/11, they set up a destructor field office and communication. Allbaugh said “The FEMA you seen in 9/11 is not the same you see today” What we had learn during 9/11 was not apply during the Hurricane.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck the state of Florida, and FEMA was evidently not prepared to handle such an event. It was clear that FEMA’s partners at the State level were also not prepared to handle such an event. Across the United States, news stations were showing and documenting the failures of the State and FEMA. The

The Federal Emergency Management Agency can be traced back to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act was the result of an extensive fire in a New Hampshire town needing assistance, and is generally considered to be the first piece of disaster legislation (About the Agency, 2014). Over the next century or so, disaster legislation was put to use in response to natural disasters including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, etc. approximately 100 times. The Disaster Relief Act of 1950 gave the President authority to issue disaster declarations that allowed Federal agencies to provide direct assistance to State and local governments (IS-230, 2014).

Federal agencies failed to respond to multiple attempts by both private and public institutions to warn of the possibility of a large scale disaster spurred by a land falling hurricane. An independent study financed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and completed more than a year before Katrina, found that New Orleans was the U.S. city most susceptible to hurricane damage. FEMA elected to take no further action than to circulate the results of the report to the organization. Some think this may have been worsened by the decision to place FEMA under Department of Homeland Security, which decreased funding and restricted natural disaster response resources.

New Orleans, Louisiana was known for its culture around the world. Often time’s people would go to visit just to experience everything that Louisiana had to offer. However, on Monday August 29th 2005 all would change. Louisiana was viciously attacked by an opponent that no one was ready for, an opponent that almost has a perfect winning record, an opponent that could simply not been stop, that opponent was Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina affected from Morgan City all the way down to Alabama, Hurricane Katrina passed through ruining homes and people along its path. Hurricane Katrina produced and sustained violent winds of up to 115 mph and gust as high as 130 mph. Furthermore Katrina not only ruing infrastructure but the hurricane itself claimed at least 1330 lives, and injuring thousands. In addition tens and thousands of people were left homeless. This was the biggest natural disasters that happened in Louisiana since Hurricane Harvey. Consequently President Bush described Hurricane Katrina as “one of the worst natural disasters in our nation’s history”. (Davlasheridze, 2017) One of the only good things about Hurricane Katrina is that America is now paying attention to all emergency plans. We can use Katrina and find out ways to make our emergency plans rock solid! The people that are responsible for creating and maintaining an emergency plan are the city and states representative. FEMA however, is supposed to make sure that the plans are efficient to handle natural