Case Study: Hurricane Katrina
Overview
On August 29, 2005 one of the harmful and most catastrophic Hurricanes that hit New
Orleans. The Hurricane Katrina not only devastated in New Orleans and turned to be one of the
costliest Hurricane in the history, but also demonstrated to the public the lack of leadership and
planning from local, national and federal state entities. These entities include Major [Ray
Nagin], Governor [Kathleen Blanco] and various entities such as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
[USACE], Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], New Orleans Police Department
[NOPD], and others.
This catastrophe has exposed and keeps exposing unthinkable matters from different
parties that had happened before the hit, after, and still happen now. These unknown matters
that have been exposed one by one have disappointed many people and have made up the
mind of others.
On August 23 The Hurricane Katrina was considered category 1; however, during the
week it increased its winds and power, making it Category 5 until it weakened before reaching
its second landfall as a massive Category 3 in New Orleans.
On August 26, the National Hurricane Center reported that the Hurricane has
strengthened and was shifting to Mississippi and Louisiana. Once it was confirmed, Kathleen
Blanco declared a state of emergency. Therefore, the director of Homeland Security and
Emergency Preparedness prepared an emergency support service.
Two days before the Hurricane Katrina hits, citizen from various parishes were told to
evacuate due to the magnitude of the Hurricane. However, not all of the citizens were well–
informed about it nor took any concern when this issue was declared as a State of emergency.
One day before the Hurricane hits, all citizens, were told to evacuate as soon as
possible, because it was not a simple Hurricane. Even though it was too late to aware the
people that it was a “must go”, the Major had to do it. Not only the Major tried to persuade
them to leave, but also the Governor, who told to the citizens about her conversation with
President Bush. Since there were citizens that stayed, The Major decided to use different areas
as shelter.
Issues:
There were many problems that took place before and after Hurricane Katrina hit. First,
the poorly planned actions contributed to the misleading communication that different
departments had before dealing with this catastrophe. Second, there was a delay on evacuating
citizens.
When the National Hurricane Center advised the Major and Governor about the
Hurricane Katrina, they decided to inform their citizens; however, several entities use different
words to let the citizens know that they have to evacuate. This lack of clarification and initiative
confused most of the citizens whether they had to leave or just stay. It was a major problem
than any other, because the public was aware of the Hurricane; however, none of them
listened to a particular word that clarifies an evacuation as a mandatory decision. Therefore,
most of the people weren’t taking it too serious. It was a lack of responsibility among the local
state, because a mandatory evacuation should have been told days before the Hurricane hits;
moreover, Ray Nagin wasn’t even sure if to demand a mandatory evacuation or just keeping it
as a voluntary evacuation.
Even if Ray Nagin didn’t want to demand a mandatory evacuation until several hours
before the expected landfall, most of the people were evacuating. Kathleen Blanco realized that
this wasn’t a Hurricane as any others; hence it has increased its Category and was going directly
to the coast of Louisiana. Therefore, Kathleen Blanco decided to discuss with Ray Nagin about
the magnitude of this Hurricane.
Kathleen Blanco decided to contact President Bush, who was at his ranch in Texas for
vacation. Once Kathleen contacted him, she sent a written and signed to declare a federal state
of emergency on Louisiana. However, there are sources that exposed President Bush to be
politicking instead of giving an immediate answer to this matter. At this point, President Bush
