Table of ContentsProblem StatementResearch QuestionLiterature ReviewResearch MethodologyThesisAnalysisRecommendationsConclusionThe purpose of this article is to explore a specific aspect of the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the collective response ( governmental and other) to this situation. Due to the physical destruction of this natural disaster and the media coverage that followed, a wealth of information has been released analyzing Hurricane Katrina, what went wrong, and why it went wrong. So many studies and analyzes have been done on this topic that one would assume they are exhaustive. However, there are various unexplored areas, almost a decade old, that are worth investigating. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay The way this disaster was planned, responded to, and recovered from was very inadequate and resulted in a lot more damage than had been the case. absolutely necessary (Seidman, 2013). The actual wrongdoing carried out by various levels of government and various disaster response agencies has been discussed numerous times, both in terms of media coverage and academic publications. Hurricane Katrina was a prime example of how disaster should not be managed and will likely serve as a valuable case study in disaster management for decades to come (Shaw & Krishnamurthy, 2009). That being said, a key area in which research and analysis has largely failed to explore the actual gap in resources and human health that exists between the actual events of Hurricane Katrina (and its consequences) and the events of this scenario if the hurricane were treated in an ideal manner. While identifying the true scope and details of this gap between actual and ideal outcomes may be considered an exercise in futility, the truth is that such exploration has many benefits. First, identifying this gap provides clear information about how the outcomes of Hurricane Katrina would have been different if the government had been more proactive and adaptive. American legislators rely heavily on quantitative information using numbers, statistics, and other facts to write laws and regulations (Shaw and Krishnamurthy, 2009). Being able to quantify with certainty the number of lives lost and the number of millions of dollars wasted due to the inadequate response of government officials and various responding agencies provides a clear rationale for passing new laws to prevent similar results around the world. Furthermore, some parties, particularly within the government, continue to view Hurricane Katrina as an inevitable tragedy that would have resulted in immense damage and disaster regardless of government actions (Haubert, 2015). Analyzing the true disparity in the impact of this hurricane if the ideal actions and response had been taken brings home the full impact of poor disaster management. Such analysis also helps inform response and preparedness activities for future disasters, not just hurricanes. Many of the inadequacies in the response to Hurricane Katrina could easily occur in other disasters other than hurricanes (Shaw and Krishnamurthy, 2009). As this gap materializes, it allows the various parties involved in disaster response to realize the obvious benefit of avoiding the same mistakes thatwere hit by the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. It also helps to see how effective various techniques are in mitigating risks and potential harm. Studies have shown that one of the main reasons emergency management practitioners fail to use established techniques and strategies in a disaster is simply that they do not believe in the value or effectiveness of these techniques (Shaw and Krishnamurthy, 2009). Demonstrating the true value of these techniques through analyzing the gaps between actual and ideal results helps highlight their effectiveness and encourages alignment with established protocol during disaster scenarios. In short, addressing this gap can lead to legislative changes and more effective disaster management around the world. While it may seem pointless to analyze what might have happened, the truth is that such a practice has tangible benefits for the future of disaster response and preparedness, in the form of money, resources and human lives. Problem Statement Hurricane Katrina is unique among many others. natural disasters that have occurred in the history of this country for several different reasons. First, the hurricane acted in a very unpredictable manner compared to many similar storms of this type (Taylor et al, 2015). In the days leading up to the hurricane's arrival, there was much ambiguity about where it would move and how strong it would be once it arrived (Taylor et al, 2015). Additionally, the potential effects of the hurricane were largely underestimated (Seidman, 2013). As one can imagine, underestimating the true impact of a disaster can be extremely damaging. This lack of effective estimation led the city and the government as a whole to be woefully unprepared for the scale of this disaster. Hurricane Katrina officially made landfall in New Orleans on August 29, 2005 (Cook, 2015). As a Category 3 storm, the hurricane was certainly powerful enough to cause damage, but it lacked the severity of other hurricanes in history before and since. By incorrectly estimating the true durability of the levees, the government failed to predict that most of the city's levees would fail, causing more than three-quarters of the city to be completely flooded (Cook, 2015). In some areas, the water was deep enough to completely submerge the first floor of homes and buildings. The hurricane and its aftermath ultimately caused nearly 1,500 deaths and total damages of over $100 billion (Haubert, 2015). Not surprisingly, the first criticisms of the response to Hurricane Katrina came before the eye of the storm hit New Orleans. The city's mayor did not provide a mandatory evacuation notice until less than a day before the hurricane appeared (Ancelet, Gaudet, & Lindahl, 2013). Many people believe that the evacuation order was unnecessarily delayed and thus resulted in much additional and unnecessary harm to the city's residents. In fact, the order was so delayed that even some residents who wanted to evacuate (particularly those with special travel needs) were unable to do so due to time and resource constraints (Ancelet, Gaudet and Lindahl , 2013). Media coverage of the situation spread the information. effects of poor government planning and response. News helicopters showed stranded families huddled together on their roofs to avoid rising waters (Cook, 2015). Many channels broadcast the chaotic riots and looting that occurred in the absence ofany form of control or structure (Cook, 2015). As the country watched the disaster unfold, it was evident that serious mismanagement of the situation had allowed such conditions to occur. Criticism began to pour in from across the country and even around the world (Cook, 2015). The lack of resources and civilian control had attracted significant public attention. The first and main target of criticism was New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. Nagin's first misstep occurred during the evacuation phase, but he certainly didn't stop there. Nagin also failed to request federal assistance in a timely manner, resulting in extremely delayed deployment of much-needed federal resources, such as the National Guard (Ancelet, Gaudet, & Lindahl, 2013). However, even after the request was made, others blamed the federal government for insufficient federal resources, something the federal government would later blame Nagin for, saying he failed to communicate the severity of the situation.of the disaster (Haubert, 2015). This indictment, however, did not spare the federal government from criticism. Citizens and academic researchers would later claim that the federal government did not respond immediately, even though Nagin had requested help shortly after the event (Haubert, 2015). Additionally, this level of government failed to effectively coordinate its response with other related agencies that could have provided assistance in the form of manpower and resources. Inconsistent and incomplete communication has resulted in poor cooperation between the Federal Emergency Management Agency (or FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (or DHS) (Haubert, 2015). Without an established line of leadership, resources were underutilized and there was a clear gap between available resources and those used, despite the obvious need for these resources (Ancelet, Gaudet, & Lindahl, 2013). Almost every leader's clear position in the response to Hurricane Katrina has been criticized by the general public. President Bush and Vice President Cheney were not immune from criticism and were accused of protecting political interests rather than human life and well-being (Haubert, 2015). Although almost every published work on the subject is very quick to analyze what went wrong, there has been a distinct lack of discussion about what could have been different and how that would have compared to the actual response. The lack of coordination and communication between different agencies and levels of government ultimately led to widespread criticism, while attempting to evade responsibility for their own role. Given that the government had sufficient resources to respond to this situation, the problem clearly boils down to the inadequate actions of individuals during the disaster. It is therefore relevant and valuable to explore the impact of full cooperation and effective communication on this disaster and its effects. Research Question How would the impact of Hurricane Katrina have been different if the government and its relevant disaster management agencies had practiced better communication, cooperation, and established disaster management protocol? Literature ReviewIt There is a wealth of literature published on the topic of Hurricane Katrina, making gathering information about the disaster itself very simple and straightforward. Various sources analyze the disaster from different angles. Some examine the disaster from the perspective of a citizen of New Orleans having to weather the hurricane without government assistance, while others examine what is happening within the government duringthis same period. Others still take the position of an outside observer looking at the totality of the circumstances, primarily analyzing the media portrayal of the event and how it affected the overall perception of that country's disaster management capabilities. While information on the subject is abundant simply due to the number of times it has been written about and the number of angles taken in its exploration, there is a surprising lack of information regarding hypothetical scenarios of what would have happened if things had been done differently. This is not to say that the topic is completely devoid of exploration in the published literature, just that it is incomplete. Several authors included in the literature review make claims such as the following quote from one of the sources: “Better communication would have saved lives” (Ancelet, Gaudet & Lindahl, 2013). However, such claims lack specificity and do not lend themselves to critical analysis of the full extent of the difference between actual results and the results if the situation had been handled ideally. Due to this lack of specificity and supporting information, these statements can mostly be classified as conjecture and of no value in the context of any meaningful discussion on this topic. This is not to say, however, that the literature lacks information on this topic. Quite the contrary, the literature reviewed on this topic offers a lot of valuable information that can be used to draw conclusions about the specific impact of poor disaster management in this scenario. There have been numerous data and discussions in the literature that could be used to extrapolate meaningful conclusions on this topic. For example, even though the official death toll from Hurricane Katrina stands at 1,577, it is unrealistic to say that all of these deaths could have been avoided (Haubert, 2015). However, one source estimates the number of deaths following flooding (drowning or otherwise) to be around 250 (Tayler et al, 2015). If government preparedness and evacuation procedures had been more effective in protecting citizens and accurately predicting the extent of flood risk when the hurricane made landfall, these deaths could have been avoided (Taylor et al, 2015 ). Other similar sentiments appear in the literature, linking the severity and types of damage and destruction to various failures and inadequacies on the part of the government and FEMA (Shaw & Krishnamurthy, 2009; Seidman, 2013). Several important commonalities appear throughout the cited literature. which provide support and context to the ongoing discussion. The first and most notable theme is that the management of Hurricane Katrina was inadequate and that government (i.e. local and federal) is largely responsible for its role in the impacts of Hurricane Katrina. This not only concerns the actual disaster response phase, but also the preparedness phase. Much of the destruction and death caused by Hurricane Katrina was due to the failure to predict that the levees would break and flood the city of New Orleans. Another important topic that is at least alluded to throughout the literature is that government failures are the result of poor coordination and lack of communication, which ultimately translated into poor hierarchical structure and leadership. ineffective. All of the literature on Hurricane Katrina reviewed for this article has explored in varying degrees how insufficient information exchange and a lack of cooperation between different stakeholders resulted inmore significant damage following the hurricane. Various sources collected on the subject discuss specific aspects of the disaster. hurricane that offer additional value in their details. Cook's publication focuses on the media's role in Hurricane Katrina, not only in capturing and displaying the polarizing images that characterized the event, but also in shaping public opinion so that she places the blame on the government and various disaster management agencies (2015). The book by Taylor et al. analyzes the hurricane from a macro perspective and explains how it shaped the collective perception of disaster and catastrophe (2015). Haubert's writings focus on what can be learned from the recovery phase of disaster management after Hurricane Katrina (2015). In fact, some of the most significant government and FEMA failures occurred well after the flooding subsided and the city had to focus on rebuilding (Haubert, 2015). Although most of the literature reviewed was very academic in exploring the various facets of this topic, some authors were subject to bias. After review, each document was personally evaluated with a bias rating on a scale of zero to ten, with zero meaning no discernible bias and ten meaning the source is too biased to be of academic value. Sources with a single author had a higher average bias rate than sources with more than one author, probably because multiple authors allowed themselves to check and eliminate the biases of each in the writing. Only one source received a rating of zero, because the author intentionally did not include any analysis or interpretation of the data, but simply offered facts and statistics from primary sources to allow the reader to draw conclusions on their own. -even. Any source with a bias greater than six was not included in this article and any source with a bias greater than four was examined with increased rigor to determine whether there was any possible bias in the data presented. That being said, the determination of bias was itself subject to bias, as I was the one giving the rating based on my subjective interpretation of the source material. Research Methodology Quantitative and qualitative data were collected for the purpose of this article. Quantitative data was valuable in that it provided clear statistics and numerical information showing the full extent and magnitude of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. Qualitative data was also collected for its usefulness in drawing conclusions and providing meaningful interpretation of the events that unfolded. The two types of data also helped to inform and contextualize each other, leading to a more comprehensive synthesis of information. The sources collected for the synthesis were academic in tone and collected primarily by performing related keyword queries in a physical library. Specific keywords have been used in various combinations to help display all available results on the topic. For example, a search was performed for "Katrina Government New Orleans" as well as "Government Response Hurricane." Some sources were available at the physical library, and others required going through a request process to access books available at the library chain but not at the physical branch. The information collected from these sources has been divided into several different groups. The initial information has been broken down according to its value for the purposes of thisresearch. It has also been classified as qualitative or quantitative. Another category has been reserved to include suggestions and analyzes from different authors. After this categorization, the information was then categorized based on whether or not it was directly related to identifying the gap between the ideal and actual outcomes of Hurricane Katrina. Much of the information was useful, but was not directly related to this topic. Other information was more applicable to such a discussion, and it is the information in this category that will be primarily discussed in the analysis section. For the sake of rigor, others have been asked to review different categorizations of information to determine whether or not the information has been properly grouped for use in connection with this topic. Based on the recommendations of this peer review, slight modifications have been made to certain groupings. Specifically, information was moved from the category directly applicable to the discrepancy discussion to information that was secondarily related. Thesis Based on the information discussed so far, several variables have been identified in order to form a suitable thesis that can be compared against the information gathered. The independent variables for the purposes of this thesis are effective communication and appropriate coordination to ensure no unnecessary duplication of tasks and effective cooperation, drawing accordingly on the expertise and resources of various resource management agencies. EMERGENCIES. The dependent variable is the overall response to the hurricane, broken down into the monetary cost and the cost in human lives resulting from Hurricane Katrina. While there are undoubtedly other resource costs, besides money, that have been incurred due to poor planning, response and recovery, these are too abstract to be truly quantified on based on data collected from the available literature. This thesisBased on these variables, the thesis for this topic is: Poor communication and coordination within the government (and associated government response agencies) resulted in an additional cost of $80 billion and 500 lives lost.AnalysisThe The nature of this research question is one that requires exploration of established literature. Since the thesis and the analysis itself are largely based on the literature reviewed, it would be absurd if the analysis and comparison of the thesis with the literature review conflicted with what the established literature has stated . Additionally, due to the breadth of literature on the subject, anything stated in this article that conflicts with a serious theme or premise proposed by these sources would require considerable evidence to be based in logic . Despite the identified congruence between the literature and thesis, the analysis is nevertheless worth exploring in terms of how conclusions were drawn and what ideas were extrapolated. Before getting into the heart of the analysis, it is important to highlight one of the major themes expressed in the literature. In other words, all of the government's failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina were essentially caused by either poor communication or poor coordination between different agencies, individuals, or levels of government. For example, dike failure may be considered a construction problem. However, if there had been more thorough communication about the potential risks of the dike and coordination between the team analyzing the dikes and the government, the failure of the dikes could have been avoided(Haubert, 2015). This fact is best evidenced by the fact that all parties involved in the analysis and conclusion phase of the pre-hurricane levee analysis blamed each other for either failing to communicate the necessary information or not having followed up on the information communicated (Haubert, 2015). ).In terms of monetary cost, it is first important to analyze the costs that would have occurred if the government and its agencies had responded effectively. The biggest indicator of poor planning for this disaster was the failure of levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Sea walls in New Orleans and coastal Louisiana have recently been rebuilt to withstand future storms, although they are far more powerful than Hurricane Katrina. The cost of construction was approximately $14 billion (Haubert, 2015). While this seems like a high price, one must consider the potential harm they avoid, which was unceremoniously displayed during Katrina. Hurricane Katrina caused more than $100 billion in damages, most of which was concentrated in the city of New Orleans (Ancelet, Gaudet, & Lindahl, 2013). Although some of this cost was unavoidable, as the hurricane would have caused considerable damage even if the city had not flooded, the majority of this cost could have been avoided if the sea walls had withstood the hurricane (Ancelet , Guadet and Lindahl, 2013). So, if the government had recognized the structural flaws of the dykes, it could have strengthened them to prevent flooding. Although the cost of fortifying these levees would not have been comparable to rebuilding them, even with an assumed cost of $14 billion, the levees would have paid for themselves many times over in terms of the damage they would have avoided. Based on other data on monetary damages caused by similarly powerful and large-scale hurricanes in similarly structured areas of the country, it can be reasonably estimated that even considering a hypothetical cost of $14 billion for dike fortification, the disaster could have generated net savings of $40 billion (Taylor et al, 2015). Along the same lines, many sources analyzing New Orleans' recovery believe that the economic damage caused by Hurricane Katrina is still being felt to this day. Some sources estimate the total economic loss suffered by New Orleans over the past decade at well over $100 billion (Taylor et al, 2015; Cook, 2015). The main cause of this economic loss was flood damage to businesses and homes (Taylor et al, 2015). Of course, even if some economic losses were unavoidable, their magnitude due to the lasting damage caused by Hurricane Katrina flooding could have been reduced to less than $20 billion, according to a conservative estimate. The cost in human lives lost during this hurricane is far greater than the monetary costs incurred during and after the hurricane. situation. Deaths due to flooding (drowning, exposure and other causes) exceed 750 (Haubert, 2015). Even if the city had been flooded, this amount could have been significantly reduced if appropriate evacuation and emergency relief resources had been used in a timely manner. With good coordination of the National Guard and the transportation means available in the city, it is not unreasonable to say that this number could have been reduced to less than 100 (Ancelet, Gaudet and Lindahl, 2013). Furthermore, many other deaths, beyond those directly attributed to the floods, could have been avoided. It's about death.