Femas Response to Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster that had never been experience in the history of the United States. Therefore, we as Americans could only hope that we had efficiently plan for the worst, and expect the best outcome. As it turns out, August 29th, 2009 the worst did in fact happen, and America as a whole was less than prepared. A Category 5, Hurricane Katrina ultimately devastated the lives of millions of Americans, costing billions of dollars in damage and changing the way we viewed our reliability on our countries disaster relief forever.
I do not believe that it is possible to say that the problems that were being experienced were only occurring on one level. I think that it was a trickle effect that started from the top (the strategic level) and ultimately led to failure and error on the tactical and operational levels as well. Anderson Cooper stated it the best when he said “We are not as ready as we could be,” he was absolutely right. How could the lower levels know how to proper conduct themselves during this time of need if they were not being given proper instruction from the higher ups? The problem lied mainly in the poor and unethical leadership of FEMA’s chief Michael Brown. It was Mr. Brown’s duty to make sure that the planning that FEMA had put into preparing for disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, were properly executed in order to assure that the people were guided with the most adequate and appropriate care in order to assure their best possibility of safety. It is my opinion that Mr. Brown failed his country and failed his people out of a fair chance to “beat out” this storm. He joked around and ultimately did not take anything seriously, which lead to his resignation on September 12th, but by that time the damage was irreversible. I believe had the proper leadership been displayed during this horrific event, that while Hurricane Katrina would have been devastating on a grand scale, we as a national could have been more prepared, and the