Homeland Security

Homeland Security

Introduction

Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was the costliest disaster in the history of the United States and one of the deadliest. Subsequent flooding from the hurricane caused massive destruction and loss of life in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Despite this massive destruction, a small minority of people remained entrenched in their homes. While the masses had fled, this tiny group of people bunkered down in what remained of their homes. Before this disaster this small group has been part of a typical American suburban neighborhood, they now had lived as holdouts in a nearly uncultivated state with portable toilets, bottled water, electrical generators, and none of the typical infrastructure of a developed country. In such situation there is always remain a chaos. In order to deal with this emergency situation perfect and quick management is often needed. The aim and objective of this paper is also to talk about various perspectives of emergency management in Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina

In case of emergencies like Hurricane Katrina or 9/11 people look towards governments to come to their rescue. Here, Hurricane Katrina has become very crucial for public as emergency response and its management failed. Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region but the response to this devastation by the world's most developed nation was exposed for the world to see. Response came in a very slow and disorganized manner. Poor planning has been one of the key reasons of poor response in the wake of Katrina. Apart from planning other complaints like widespread abuses in government emergency cash assistance programs for disaster victims also came to front. Later reports also found out that late warnings were issued by the officials for mandatory evacuations in the New Orleans area leading to deaths and prolonged suffering.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

In order to deal with the disasters and emergencies, an agency was formulated with the name of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This agency was formulated according to the provisions of the Stafford Act which was presented in the year 1988. To meet the needs of the disasters is the main objective of this agency and other such organizations. After its inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security, many criticized the move and called for its standing as an independent department. Bureaucracy became the major issue with the new organizational system as opposed to its previous structure. Under the new department the goals and missions changed to fighting terrorism rather than preparing for a natural disaster response. Since Homeland Security's primary focus is anti-terrorism their funding and budgetary allowances or endowment to state and local governments for the duration of past four years have been to focus on preventing and responding to terrorist attacks. So, when disaster struck, it resulted in a crisis in New Orleans.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the calls were made to fix FEMA with respect to FEMA's organization and funding. Myriad issues and problems have been identified. Budgeting that was previously done for disaster or emergency management ...