“It could have been prevented. A lot of lives would have been saved.”
- Pearl Ellis, Hurricane Katrina victim
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina swallowed New Orleans, Louisiana, and over 80% of the city was flooded by water. This catastrophe killed more than 1,400 Louisianans and damaged more than 100,000 houses and properties, so most of the area was uninhabitable for weeks. After the disaster, people started to ask “Where was national guard and army? (Frontline)” and “What went wrong and to whom we should blame for it?” The important fact is that it was the human disaster not the natural and the most of victims were poor and black. In addition, emergency preparedness was not settled properly against the disaster and victims didn’t get enough help for days even after the emergency situation.
Before Hurricane Katrina attacked New Orleans, there were many warnings about vulnerability of the levee system and costal erosion since 1976. According to many academic experts, the levee in New Orleans could not protect the city in strong hurricane situation and the U.S General Accounting Office reported that the greatest natural threat to the New Orleans area is posed by flooding from sea surges, waves, and rainfall. Moreover, after hurricane protection project was approved by Congress of President Lyndon B. Johnson, New Orleans still hasn’t the hurricane protection for 17 years after Hurricane Betsy in 1965.
One of the huge mistake in preparedness for the disaster was FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)’s failure in response during Katrina. Two years after 9/11, FEMA was merged into the Department of Homeland Security. According to former chief of staff, FEMA, Jane Bullock, it was the largest re-organization in 40years and FEMA became an office (sub department of Homeland Security) and very small. Therefore, cities and local government have been having lack of communication system in emergency situation and this prevent first responders’ take adequate action immediately in the emergency. In emergency situation such as a disaster, FEMA should response and make federal help within 48 to 60 hours following the disaster; it didn’t do anything before or during Katrina.
Furthermore, thousands of people were strand at superdome for days until securers came to help them. For days, the victims were not given even waters and in very dangerous place. Also, dozens of school buses which were usually have been used for rescue were under water, so couldn’t be used after Katrina. Therefore, this failure of evacuation led to preventable death and delay in relief.
As mentioned in “Flirting with Disaster: Why Accidents are Rarely Accidental(2008)” by Marc Gerstein, lots of accidents were not unpreventable random occurrences. Hurricane Katrina also was not the unpreventable natural disaster but the result of inaction of men. That’s why we regret about this catastrophe because so many people’s life could be saved and could prevent physical damages if we hear more carefully about the warnings before it happened.
