Hurricane Katrina: A Natural and Political Disaster

“Hurricane Katrina: A Natural and Political Disaster”

Four days after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the northern Gulf Coast, tired and angry people stranded at the convention center in New Orleans welcomed a supply convoy carrying food, water and medicine with cheers and tears of joy. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and the third-strongest land-falling U.S. hurricane on record. Within days of Katrina's August 29, 2005 landfall, public debate arose about the local, state and federal governments' role in the preparations for and response to the storm. Criticism was prompted largely by televised images of visibly shaken and frustrated political leaders, and of residents who remained in New Orleans without water, food or shelter, and the deaths of several citizens by thirst, exhaustion, and violence days after the storm itself had passed. The criticism of the government response to Hurricane Katrina primarily consisted of condemnations of mismanagement and lack of leadership in the relief effort in response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, specifically in the delayed response to the flooding of New Orleans. Although some people believe that the government was well-prepared for the natural disaster, when Hurricane Katrina swept the coast and destroyed what we know as New Orleans, many of these Americans suffered from the lack of the intervention of the U.S. government.

Since the storms hit, government, private and voluntary organizations have worked in concert to help rebuild the region. President Bush continues to follow through with the Federal commitment to do what it takes to help residents of the Gulf Coast rebuild their lives in the wake of this disaster. Nevertheless, the government failed to adequately respond to the hurricane immediately. Argument against this claim presents that Mayor Ray Nagin gave a mandatory evacuation order August 28th, before the storm hit to notify the citizens of Hurricane Katrina’s danger.

Many critics have noted that while the local government gave a mandatory evacuation order 19 hours before the storm hit, they did not make provisions to evacuate the large numbers of citizens unable to evacuate themselves. For example, Walter Maestri, head of emergency preparedness for Jefferson Parish, stated that this issue had been fully discussed with FEMA officials “who promised that within 48 hours of a hurricane, they would provide assistance with transporting evacuees from the city, but in practice evacuation was mainly left up to individuals to find their own way out of the city.” (Gilgoff, 2005) New Orleans has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States, at about 38%. These factors prevented many people from being able to evacuate on their own. Consequentially, most of those stranded in the city were the poor, the elderly, and the sick. The mandatory evacuation called on August 28 made no provisions to evacuate homeless or low-income and carless households, as well as large numbers of elderly and the infirm. Officials knew that many residents of New Orleans lack cars; a 2000 census revealed that 27% of New Orleans households, amounting to approximately 120,000 people, were without privately-owned transportation.