The Storm; Hurricane Katrina
There were several chains in the decision making in the US government that slowed down the federal responses of the New Orleans calamity of 2005 late summer- the hurricane Katrina. It killed over nine hundred people at the gulf coast. Every level of the government, federal, state and the local, was uncoordinated, overwhelmed and unprepared yet the disaster had long been predicted. The communities expect government agencies come up with mechanisms that support city and community based communication systems fore effective response to any disaster.
The New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, was being downgraded from the level of the cabinet agency to being a sub department of the Department of Homeland Security. Michele Brown the director of FEMA however disagreed with this claim stating that FEMA’s budget of almost $80 million had been allocated to areas of the department of homeland security.
The disaster response system of America became a subject of concern in the light of its inability to handle future events especially after the 9/11 event and the then present Hurricane Katrina. Its failures during this natural catastrophe showed the government’s lack of interoperable and resilient communication system in the metropolitan areas and cities to be used by the first responders. Both the local government and state officials opposed the idea of having communication systems that were mandated federally according to its standards as well as other equipments of the homeland security.
An expert on homeland security Richard Clark reinforced the claim by government officials by stating that there were no specific requirements and goals set in place for solving the problems of communication in cities. He presents the case of air conditioned garbage trucks that were bought using homeland security money that have never solved communication problems (Frontline, 2005).
The poor response of the government to the Hurricane Katrina disaster clearly showed the Bureaucracy that existed in America as presented by James Wilson in his article the ‘Rise of the Bureaucratic State’. The political authority has gathered power with the growth of administrative apparatus that is so large to be controlled by popular control. Power is placed through the government’s bureaucracy in private hands rather than in public hands. The lack of policies, requirements and goal to place communication system in cities shows this governmentally controlled power. If mechanisms of city based communication system were in place the effect of those affected could be minimal. Early preparation to the predicted natural catastrophe could be easily done on New Orleans than in Washington. The exercise of this power according to Wilson is not responsive to public good.
Reference
Frontline (2005), Report of the storm. Hurricane Katrina. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/storm/view/
On 22nd March, 2010
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