Sociology

INTRODUCTION
In this section I will discuss the goal and purpose of this paper  the fact that economical and racial discrimination hampered the relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina and that public policy changes are needed and better emergency preparedness plans should be in place in order to ensure a more effective response to natural disasters.  This section will be approximately one page in length.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Three pages will be dedicated to the review of books and articles that I have found that support my above claim.  I will also look at government articles that depict what has been done and what needs to be done in the aftermath of the hurricane.  These will provide groundwork for a proposal that will be discussed in the next section.

NEEDS ANALYSIS
In this section I will propose a plan of emergency preparedness involving natural disasters.  I will support this plan with data that I have gathered in my analysis of Hurricane Katrina and the efforts that were put forth.  Approximately four pages will be dedicated to this section.

CONCLUSION
I will summarize my findings and wrap up this examination of a social problem by discussing whats in store for the future of public policy regarding natural disasters.

INTRODUCTION
Hurricane Katrina was labeled by some to be one of the worst unnatural disasters that has ever taken place in this worlds modern history.  It wasnt just the hurricane that caused all of the problems, in fact, it was the relief efforts, or lack there of, by FEMA that plagued the citizens affected.  The poor emergency plan that was in place by the city of New Orleans and the lack of preparedness by the people of the city only made a bad situation a lot worse.  FEMA was not prepared to handle a major disaster

In this paper I will look at the economical and racial discrimination that took place in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Much would be made of how Katrina tore the veil away to reveal the persistence of poverty and race-based disadvantage in America.  I will also attempt to answer such questions as why was the response from the Bush Administration so slow  Why was there such an apparent lack of empathy for those stuck in such a horrible situation  Also, how could this great country of ours, allow itself to look virtually like a third world country for so long

I will then propose some public policy changes and emergency preparedness plans that need to be in place in order to prevent another catastrophe such as Hurricane Katrina from happening again.

In case anyone has forgotten, Hurricane Katrina was merely a Category 3 hurricane by the time it reached shore.  It wasnt rain or wind that caused the worst damage when Katrina hit New Orleans.  It was the failure of the levees.  With sufficient armoring of the levees, it is likely that New Orleans could survive another Katrina without the sort of disaster everyone now fears.

LITERATURE REVIEW
For those not caught in the maelstrom, it could be difficult to grasp just how uniquely appalling that first week was in New Orleans.  I think this statement is more than just true.  I believe that for anyone who had to suffer from the mass destruction, filth, floods, looting and death that followed this storm it must have been like living in hell.  And then to be waiting for disaster relief from FEMA and to not get it, must have felt like a billion nails in your coffin.  A day after Katrina, four-fifths of New Orleans was underwateran area seven times as big as all of Manhattan

People were looting just to try to survive.  People were stuffed into the Superdome and the convention center.  People didnt know what to expect.  FEMA was trying to give answers they knew they didnt have.  The truth was that the levees werent built to withstand even a Category 3 hurricane.  Millions of the poor lived near the levees and some chose not to leave their homes out of shear stubbornness.  Some who left, chose to go back and try to rebuild.  In an interview with a resident from New Orleans after Katrina, photojournalist Chris Jordan asked him about coming back to his home

I asked him what he was going to do.  Same thing Ive always done, he said, sit on my front steps.  I dont belong anywhere else.  Im not going to rot away in some motel.  This is where I am from and this is what I do  I sit on my front steps  so here I am sitting on my front steps.  

So what has the Federal Government done about this  If you were to take a look at the Department of Homeland Security website they would tell you all of the astounding things they have done since the hurricane to repair New Orleans.  They talk about how the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) built new homes, about rebuilding the infrastructure, putting people back to work, providing mortgages and foreclosure relief, and rebuilding industry.  They cite that billions of dollars were put into rebuilding efforts.  Jed Horne writes in his book Breach of Faith, the homeless, meanwhile, had been eased out of emergency hotel accommodations.  FEMA continued to provide rental assistance to those with the skills and the patience to pick their way through the agencys labyrinthine bureaucracy.

So while the government was doing all they could to help those in need, not a whole lot was being done to help people.  More than 800,000 citizens were forced to live outside their homes  the largest displacement of people since the great Dust Bowl of the 1930s.  After looking at all the evidence, one thing seemed clear  the American government wanted to make it look as if they were doing all they could to help these people, all the while, the ones who needed the most help werent being helped at all.

Many of the readings tried to answer the why question.  Why were relief efforts so delayed and why was there so much red tape and deliberation for those that just needed help  Some speculate that the Bush Administration had never needed the black vote, therefore, why should they help those people

From the perspective of black New Orleans, much about America was racist, and so surely a Republican administration elected with scarcely a nod to the black vote it didnt need was not going to have the interests of a black city like New Orleans at the top of its agenda.

Was it that there was just nothing for the Bush Administration to gain from helping them
Others point to the fact that the destruction was just too great and that cleanup efforts seemed futile.  Looking at pictures from the book In Katrinas Wake Portraits of Loss From an Unnatural Disaster really help to tell the story of the destruction.  There are many displaced articles of clothing, appliances, furniture, tree branches and boats.  The landscape is a mangled mess of twisted metal, trees and homes that looked like a third world country.  No doubt the cleanup efforts would seem daunting to even the largest armies.  However, it was the redundant in-action that angered and confused so many.

Perhaps the most unsettling element to the Hurricane Katrina disaster is the way it happened  not as a silver shadow streaking across the sky but as a massive, lumbering tempest that signaled its intentions days before following through.

The government officials of New Orleans knew that the levees wouldnt hold if hit by a hurricane, however, they all neglected to take action.  It had been years since New Orleans was really affected by a hurricane because all of the threats seemed to steer away from the city.  No one was really interested in spending the time and capital necessary to fix the glaring problem that New Orleans was not ready for a hurricane.  Was it the idea that the ones that would be most affected if the levees were to break would be the black and the poor and that it wasnt as big of a deal  One man did take it seriously.  In August of 2000, Colonel Michael L. Brown

had written a twenty-page letter to James Lee Witt, the FEMA director at the time, requesting money for a plan that would simulate the effects of a massive hurricane hitting New Orleans and would help locals develop a post-devastation schematic for rescuing survivors and cleaning up.

Unfortunately, there was no response from the Federal Government.  In fact, they didnt even have a plan of their own in place, to this pointthe federal government had no plan on hand that specifically focused on dealing with the aftereffects of a catastrophic hurricane.  

911 happened and any focus on hurricane relief was put on the shelf.  Had there at least been some type of plan in place, some type of protocol, how many lives wouldve been saved in New Orleans

NEEDS ANALYSIS
It is obviously no mystery to anyone that the City of New Orleans was not prepared to withstand a hurricane, especially one that was a Category 3 like Katrina.  A sad statement for a city located on the Gulf of Mexico where hurricanes are abundant.  Hindsight is always 2020, however, in this case, even hindsight seems a bit muddy.

What should have been done to prevent such damage  If the levees in New Orleans had not broken, Hurricane Katrina would be a very different story.  A very obvious and simple statement but ultimately, it is so true.  The levees shouldve been built stronger to prevent the flooding.

What else could have been done  The city itself was relatively built on a marsh, one that had eroded over time and offered less protection from a hurricane.  Also, New Orleans is situated below sea level with only the man-made levees protecting it from floods.  The levees were built 16 feet high, however, the most intense hurricanes can push ashore surges as high as 30 feet.  Katrinas surge reached 27 feet high, well over the 16 feet of protection the levees provided.

So what needs to be done
I feel that two solid plans need to be in place one regarding hurricane disaster prevention and the other addressing post-hurricane disaster response.

In the first plan, there needs to be funding for the proper construction of levees.  These levees need to be built to withstand waves of 30 feet above sea level and must be built strong enough to hold up to the pounding they take from the wind and water.  A federal standard should be put in place based upon studies that have been done depicting what the proper height and thickness a levee needs to be in any particular area.

Simplified emergency plans should be put in place for those cities that would possibly be in a path of a hurricane.  A key step in disaster planning is risk assessment, meaning that any potential problems should be looked at regarding a catastrophic hurricane.

Every household should have their own plan in case of a hurricane, one outlined by the government declaring where they should go before andor after the storm to be safe.  This could be called an Individual Family Hurricane Response Plan.   This would give detailed instructions as what people should do when a hurricane is about to hit, based upon their proximity.

Backup generators and water supplies need to be checked regularly to ensure adequate power and water in the event of a catastrophe.  Moreover, these resources need to be placed in a location so as not to be affected by the storms.

Restoration of the wetlands around New Orleans needs to take place.  More and more of that natural barrier is lost every year due to erosion and, certainly, Hurricane Katrina helped to speed that process.
And, most importantly, medical teams should be pre-assembled with locations for medical outposts designated in safe areas.

Usually hurricanes come with warning.  With modern meteorological technology we are given a number of days to prepare for one.  Katrina took all of six days from its conception as Tropical Storm Katrina headed for Florida to its evolution to the Hurricane Katrina that destroyed the city of New Orleans.

However, even with all of the preparations in place theres never a guarantee that a hurricane wont cause destruction to a city.  Therefore, a competent emergency response plan should be in place in every city that potentially could be affected by a hurricane.  Furthermore, the Federal Government needs to pay attention to the weather reports and take a proactive role in the relief efforts by being prepared themselves.

Pre-assembled medical teams need to be competent and ready to provide emergency medicine during a catastrophe.  Top government officials should be proficient in the area of disaster relief, especially those governing cities that are prone to hurricane strikes.

Lines of communication between local, city and federal government regarding hurricane response need to be established beforehand in order to provide for efficiency in relief efforts.

Finally, there needs to be a watchdog in place to make sure that relief efforts are not tapered due to race or economic status.  Whether it would be good to have this watchdog be Federally appointed or not, accountability needs to be in place to ensure that all Americans are given the same amount of help.

One area that I have not exposed yet in regards to hurricanes are the theories around Global Warming and its affects on the severity of hurricanes.  Scientists have found conclusive evidence that the oceans are warming due to increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere.  Since hurricanes basically draw all there energy fromthe warm surface waters of the ocean, increased ocean temps would only cause the effects of hurricanes to be more severe in the future.

The following table shows just how rapidly C02 emissions are growing.  The measurement is in gigatons and currently we are around 8.0 gigatons with the number growing each year.  Just as a reference, todays coal plants actually produce some 2 million tons of carbon a year.  Even though coal plants and other industry alike today are going green by taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint, the wheels have already been set in motion and it is inevitable that CO2 emissions will continue to rise  in turn, raising ocean temperatures and therefore increasing the severity of hurricanes in the future.

20002010202020302040205020606.5 gigatonsyr8.09.510.012.013.514.0It is clear that without efficient, smart plans in place, we are just asking for failure.  FEMA could use an overhaul to put people in place that are experts in the field of emergency preparedness.  Eliminate the incompetent political cronies of the Bush Administration and have real experts in the field who know what they are doing in times of disaster.  Makes sense doesnt it  If only the Federal Government could see it this way.

CONCLUSION
Being that the response to this natural disaster was so poor, and millions of people still are suffering from the effects, it is the responsibility of the American government to see to it that changes are made in regards to relief efforts for massive disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

I have put forth a proposal that, although may not be perfect, I feel that it would at least provide a better plan than what is already in place.

On the other hand, there is never any excuse for economic and racial discrimination when it comes to natural disaster relief efforts.  An American citizen is an American citizen regardless of color or economic status and this is something that the U.S. government needs to be conscious of if we are to become a better nation.

Only by remembering, and holding city, state, and federal government officials responsible for their actions, can a true Gulf South rebuild commence in the appropriate fashion.

In summary, careful analysis needs to be done about what took place, what went wrong and what can be done to make things go better in the future.

I will end with a poem entitled New Orleans Prayer by Victoria Sloan Jordan that gives you a sense of what the people of New Orleans were feeling
There is no answer for this,
Her face, her arms
Struggle to hold the words
In the swamped air,
Mired in the enormity
Like the cement Marys
In the backyards, blue-cloaked arms
Gesturing stiffly over sagging debris
Of muddied linens, soaked
Mattresses, moldering couches,
Everything collected
In the creation of a home
Sinking in the creation of a home
Sinking into a brown pile
On the drowned lawn.
I thought Id die here.
I wont die here.
At curfew, she departs
To a shiny, white trailer
Across the border
In a Mississippi state park.
Late into the night,
On a thin platform bed
She dreams
And her body heaves
With the mud
Through her old front door.