![]() ![]() ![]() To those stuck in New Orleans, FEMA’s response was a tragedy to many witnessing the crisis on the nightly news, it was a “national embarrassment.” Those resources FEMA did allow into the city were often underutilized: a group of one thousand firefighters from Utah were asked to distribute FEMA flyers instead of attempting to save people. The German government sent a military aircraft filled with supplies to New Orleans, only to be turned away. FEMA refused to authorize the entry of multiple aid organizations, from airboat captains anxious to rescue people from the floods to firefighters across the country to the Red Cross, an organization developed specifically to quickly respond to emergencies. The USS Bataan, a large marine vessel just offshore New Orleans with food, water, hospital beds, and helicopters waited for approval to begin relief efforts that never came. In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, the agency failed to mobilize a myriad of resources that could have quickly provided aid to those suffering. As local and state officials and relief organizations frantically sought to contact FEMA for direction and federal approval, they were met with automated phone messages or continuously redirected to various sub-contractors FEMA employed to outsource their services. Hurricane Katrina caught FEMA’s inexperienced leadership team unaware and unprepared. Bush, had little to no prior experience in emergency management. FEMA Director Michael Brown, who was appointed by George W. ![]() With this organizational change, many of the FEMA officials most experienced in disaster preparedness left the agency. After September 11th, 2001, the once-independent Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security, whose overriding focus was counter-terrorism rather than natural disaster preparedness. Even many who wished to leave found themselves unable to evacuate.Īs those stranded in the flooded city experienced, Hurricane Katrina’s force was compounded by a second tragedy: the federal government’s inefficient response to the crises. Due to traffic exiting the city, public busses tasked with evacuating people only made it as far as the Superdome before they too were submerged in the floodwaters. Still others simply had nowhere to go, no friends or relatives outside the state, and no money for a motel room. Many others were unable to leave due to having a disability or caring for a loved one with a disability. The pre-hurricane evacuation notices were of little use for the 9 percent of households in the city that lacked access to a vehicle. ![]() While the flood waters rose throughout New Orleans, it was the more disenfranchised citizens of the city that were the most affected, the majority of whom were persons of color. An estimated 1,400 people died as a result of the hurricane. The following day, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with thousands of citizens stranded on their roofs or in the leaking Superdome. On August 29, 2005, the Category 3 hurricane touched down on the Gulf Coast, breaching the New Orleans levees within hours and ripping the roof off of the Superdome stadium, which held 25 thousand residents taking shelter from the storm. Perhaps nowhere in recent history has this sense of injustice been more painfully revealed than during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. As these flood waters reside, we find that it is all too often the poor and destitute who suffer most–victims to both environmental disaster and centuries of economic neglect and isolation. But in more recent history, floods take on a different significance: rather than cleansing wickedness, they often uncover persisting instances of inequality and injustice. In ancient stories, floods often serve as a great equalizer, washing away one world to allow another to start fresh. (Note: this lesson contains some profanity. ![]()
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