Hurricane Katrina Essay

Crisis and misadventuresOn august 23, 2005 the tropical drop-off 12 formed in the Caribbean then it rapidly became tropical invade Katrina on sniffy 24, 2005 as it drifted toward grey Florida. Then on August 25 it strengthened into hurricane Katrina. No one at this time had some(prenominal)(prenominal) mood of what was coming, that this would be on the five deadliest hurricanes in Untied landed estates History. Resulting in the death of well-nigh 1, 820 tidy sum. From the Gulf playground slide along Florida to Texas oft deadening was caused from behave surge. The main add up of damage was in newly Orleans, lah which deluge due to levee systems failing, resulting in 80% of the city existence flooded and the flood waters lasted for weeks, destroying homes, buildings, and entire communities. . Hurricane Katrina began in the Bahamas on August 23 and as it make it was into s bring outhern Florida it became a menage 1 hurricane in expel it grew rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. In the Gulf in became a family unit 5 hurricane but weakened in the lead it hit southern lah on August 29 becoming a fellowship 3 hurricane. In just 9 hours the storm went from a category 3 to a category 5 hurricane, this was due to the storms movements over the straight external waters of the loop current, which increased the wind speeds of the hurricane. On August 26, the interior(a) Guard was activated in Mississippi to wait on prepare for the attack storm. The next day the state activated its Emergency Operations relate along with 57 other emergency shelters opened along the coastline and excreta sound outs were put into effect. Louisianas hurricane body waste visualise calls for local governments in areas along and near the coast to evacuate in three phases, starting time with the immediate coast 50 hours forwards the start of tropical storm force winds.Persons in areas designated Phase II begin evacuating 40 hours before the on line up of tropical storm winds and those in Phase III areas (including sweet Orleans) evacuate 30 hours before the start of such(prenominal)(prenominal) winds although galore(postnominal) concourse at the time were unwilling to evacuate due to the fact they didnt want to leave their homes, lotiness, or even pets. some private facilities that relied to bus companies and ambulance services to evacuate population failed due to the fact that they waited too long. This happened when the regulator did non sign an emergency waiver to allow licence drivers to ship evacuees onschool buses. On August 27, George W. Bush, President of the United States, say a state of emergency in certain areas of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. On August 28 almost all infrastructe had been shut down along the coast making it even harder to evacuate people. On the morning of August 28 with winds up to 175 mph and category 5 statues it hit Louisiana. On August 29 Katrina made its second landfall as a category 3 with wind s up to 125mph near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana.Katrinas third landfall was near the Louisiana/ Mississippi line as a category 3 hurricane with 120mph winds. subsequently r each(prenominal)ing Tennessee it was downgraded to a tropical depression and finally lost its power over the Great Lakes region. From the Gulf coast along Florida to Texas much damage was caused from storm surge. The main amount of damage was in New Orleans, Louisiana which flooded due to levee systems failing, resulting in 80% of the city being flooded and the flood waters lasted for weeks, destroying homes, buildings, and entire communities. Secretary of Homeland hostage Michael Chertoff said this was probably the worst catastrophe, in the countrys history. The backwash from Katrina had many negative effects. The economic effects from the storm were the worst. The Bush political science asked for 105 billion dollars in repairs and reconstruction for the area. Katrina destroyed 30 crude oil colour rings in the Gulf Coast and caused 9 to permeably close. Mississippis fo sojournry industry was affected being that 1.3 million acres of timber was destroyed, this was around 5 billion dollars worth of damage. Hundreds of thousands of people were left without jobs after(prenominal) Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of people were sent all across the United States to diametrical shelter locations.The levee failures in New Orleans are accounted to be the worst civil design fail in U.S history and a lawsuit was filled against the U.S soldiery Corps of Engineers who built the levees by Judge Stanwood Duval but this was thrown out due to the sovereign immunity in the Flood Control exploit of 1965. There was in any case another investigation of federal agencies which resulted in the yielding of FEMA director Michael D. Brown. On September 12, 2005 Brown resigned, stating that it was in the best vex of the agency and best interest of the president. Before his resignation Brown had already been in terpreted away from his job as coordinator in federal efforts in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast by Homeland security discussion section secretary MichaelChertoff . It was been said that Brown was forced out of the administration or else that voluntarily resigning.. .Katrina destroyed many wildlife habitats and breeding grounds for marine mammals such as turtles, fish, birds, and many marshes for migrating ducks were destroyed. Seven million gallons of oil were leaked into the ocean. Many spills were cleaned up but some managed to leak into the ecosystem and some towns were even flooded with oil mixed waters. During the clean up, flood waters were pumped into Lake Pontchartrain, which took 43 days. Those waters contained many toxic functions to wildlife such as bacteria, raw sewage, pesticides, toxic chemicals, and oil. Many citizens starting looting stores in New Orleans in search of food, water, and many other items for individualal gain. The news media reported rapes, murder s, thefts during this but many reports turned out to be inaccurate. The subject field Guard was sent in to define order and over the first week thats what they accomplished. The Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team was sent into Louisiana to to verify, document, and qualify deaths caused by hurricane Katrina. It was found that there were 971 Katrina-related deaths in Louisiana and 15 deaths among Katrina evacuees in other states.Drowning was the cause of (40% of deaths, injury and trauma caused 25% of deaths, and heart conditions caused 11% of the deaths that were the major causes of death among Louisiana victims. After hurricane Katrina many state, local, and federal agencies were aware of the serious devastation of the area but were un suitable to guide with each other properly into order to coordinate a rescue answer such as help citizens, provide law enforcement, and evacuate the rest of the city. During the first two days the federal government forces had no trans position with the states national guard . resulting in either agency being able to operate at full efficiency. No one had any idea what the other agency was doing or had already done. This resulted in the delay of many ground forces be assisted to the area. FEMA requested assistance from DOD not knowing what the National guard had already done to fill the homogeneous needs. This also resulted in no formal command relationship which caused disarray on what jobs both sides need to do. The destruction of communications infrastructure made it impossible for emergency reacters and citizens to communicate effectively. With 70 percent of the cityspolice officers being victims themselves there was not enough law enforcements to restore order. The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security had to send it different agencies of law enforcement t to help the New Orleans police department .Many hospitals were destroyed during Katrina and with thousands of people needing assista nce it was devastating. Most local and State public health and medical assets were overwhelmed by these conditions, placing even more righteousness on federal agencies.. The process for approval for the reimbursement for medical and public health services provided by national agencies created delays and frustrations among health fretting providers, patients and the general public. Triage was also a big factor during Hurricane Katrina considering the fact that the number of people needing help was much greater than the number of first responders. Many people need to be rescued and were injured and with the conditions of the city it was a hard projection to find people and be able to deportation to them a care center. This was a long task considering first responders had to locate a victim, transport them somewhere for help, get back to the same area and keep looking at only to repeat the process over and over. It was hard to pick and withdraw to would get help first consider ing the fact that only numbers of people would be found at a time. During Hurricane Katrina DMORT set up the assure Family National Call Center in Louisiana. This was the center of operations for determination the location and reuniting families that were separated during Hurricane Katrina.Out of 13,000 people that were missing, around 7,000 were reunited to their families thanks to the DMORTS operation. DMORT were assumption two missions during Hurricane Katrina. One was to set up a base camp for DMORT and the other was to set up a base camp for the 1600 person Urban Search and Rescue crew. Other duties were to set up acting(prenominal) morgue facilities, do victim identification, forensic dental pathology on unhealthy bodies, processing, preparation of diseased bodies. One major thing that was learned during Hurricane Katrina is that during such a major disaster declaring a state of emergency and an evacuation of a area is not enough to reduce the amount of fatalities during a disaster. A big problem was that During Katrina many agencies had no ways to communicate and set up a chain of command in order to operate at full efficiency of their abilities. When it is known that a raw(a) disaster is going to take place , the agencies that are going to respond being state or federal needto know in advance in order to set up a plan for each agency so that no one is doing the same thing over. Good communication methods need be planned out before hand since this way such a major issue during Hurricane Katrina. another(prenominal) major issue during Katrina was triage and the lack of first responders.Once it is known that a major disaster is about to take place local medical centers can not be relied on being that there is a great chance they can be destroyed or without any power as seen during hurricane Katrina. Centers need to be set up away from the danger area and transportation of these civilians need to be prepared in advance. Small issues that can lead in to big problems such as the governor during Katrina w did not sign an emergency waiver to allow licensed drivers to transport evacuees on school buses are objectives that need to be taken care of in advance to avoid such issues. Centers that are set up need to be well equipped and supplied to handle the amount to people that will be sent there. Organizations such as the American Red Cross should be asked in advance for their assistance, not after the disaster has already taken place. Assistance on how hospitals to get paid back by federal funds for their assistance should be taken care of during advance being that this was a major issue during Katrina. Federal teams that will be needed just be warned in advance for their assistance and be told to be on immediate standby. This should include victor search and rescue teams , the National Search and Rescue Response team, the National Guard, DMORT, Psychologists, EMS, Firefighter, state and federal police agencies, and DMAT should a ll be prepared .