Criticisms Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina was a tropical cyclone that hit the southern coast of the United States in 2005. About 1,836 people lost their lives and another 700 people were missing. One of the deadliest recent natural disasters to occur in the United States, it cost about $81 billion in damage. The largest loss of life and damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, when the levee system designed to prevent floods in the city failed. Four years after the disaster, thousands of residents were still living in trailers. Many people believe that the way the United States government reacted to Hurricane Katrina was full of mismanagement and riddled with a lack of preparation to provide hurricane relief. There was also a major delay in the hurricane help response to the flooding. This has led many people to believe that it was due to the region’s large African American population, and the inadequate response was fueled by racism.

The Delayed Hurricane Relief Response:
One of the main claims in the hurricane help effort was the lack of assumed leadership. This was the biggest contributor to the delayed response that New Orleans experienced. Days after the levees broke and the flood waters raged through the city, visibly shaken politicians were shown on television as victims of the hurricane remained stranded without clean food and water. The lack of swiftness in the hurricane relief effort allowed deaths to continue to rise even after the hurricane passed, as people died from thirst and exhaustion. In addition, as tension within the city grew, so did the violence. Many people began looting homes and stores, and attacking each other in the process, adding to the death toll.

President George W. Bush assigned Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate a hurricane relief effort. Both the President and Chertoff came under fire for their slow effort to aid victims in the hurricane. As a result, many officials holding office in disaster relief operations resigned, such as Michael D. Brown resigning as director of FEMA.

Inadequate Shelter for Hurricane Victims:
As victims of the hurricane were left without homes and other forms of shelter, thousands of them were directed to large facilities, such as the Superdome (a football stadium designed to house 800 victims) and the New Orleans Civic Center. About 30,000 displaced victims were sent to the Superdome and 25,000 to the Civic Center, which is not designed to house victims of a disaster. This mismanagement was also deeply criticized in the hurricane relief effort.

International View:
On an international level, the criticized hurricane relief effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was widely reported. The United Kingdom expressed a great deal of concern over the racism claims and the UK Mirror stated that they believed that while there are many great things about the United States, the hurricane relief effort in Louisiana exposed a “vile underbelly [of the U.S.] which is usually kept well out of sight…”

Tsunami Relief

The tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004 was one of the most catastrophic disasters to happen in recent history. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake struck near the northwest coast of the Indonesian island, Sumatra. The earthquake was measured to be a 9.0 magnitude and resulted in a tsunami that damaged coasts along the rim of the Indian Ocean. The countries that were the most devastated by the tsunami were India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In total, 230,000 people lost their lives, with thousands of others injured. In addition, about 10 million people were left homeless as a result of the tsunami destruction.

Humanitarian Efforts for Tsunami Relief:
At the forefront of the tsunami help efforts was the Indian and Thailand governments providing mobilized tsunami relief to coastal areas directly effected by the tsunami. Civil Society Organizations were also quick to respond to provide aid and resources that were desperately needed. The Indian government also provided tsunami relief in the form of naval ships to countries that neighbored them and were among the countries most effected by the disaster. This was very important because Sri Lanka and Indonesia were not prepared to handle the disasterous effects of the tsunami.

The tsunami relief effort prioritized their efforts to make sure that first the essentials were given to people who needed it. The governments and humanitarian agencies that were first to respond gave food and clean water to refugees who were left homeless, without clean water and with little or no food. Also, medical care for injured persons was also provided in the tsunami help effort. This was especially important, because death tolls from the aftermath of the tsunami were in danger of rapidly rising due to unsanitary conditions causing preventable diseases.

Since all water was deemed undrinkable because of being contaminated with salt, corpses, and other unsafe substances, water purification systems were sent to the area surrounding the Indian Ocean rim. Another priority for tsunami help was to send medical personnel to help treat the wounded and sick and provide relief for overcrowded shelters and hospitals. Next, clean clothing, tents for shelter, and body bags for safe corpse disposal were shipped to the area.

Further Tsunami Relief:
The United States government added a total of $350 million in pledge support for the victims of the tsunami, while the U.S. Navy aided in search-and-rescue missions to find survivors. Many people criticized the relief effort though as being “competitive” and not as useful as intended. Also, while many nations pledged financial support, there were worries that they would not live up to them by actually paying.

Evaluation of the Tsunami Help Effort:
After the tsunami help effort was finished, an evaluation of the situation was conducted, showing that the initial needs for the locals was met, but agencies had room for improvement for the longer-term needs. The areas that needed better planning, coordination and execution were lines of communication, accountability to persons who needed tsunami relief, and transparency towards donors.

Facts on Tsunamis

Facts on Tsunamis: An Introduction

A tsunami is a large wave or a series of large waves that are created in the ocean or another large body of water. They are usually the result of a massive earthquake below the surface of the water, a landslide, or meteorite impact, causing such a large displacement of water, that the energy built up travels a great distance to the shoreline. Many people refer to tsunamis as “tidal waves” but since tsunamis are not created or effected by tide, this is not a proper term to use.

Tsunami Facts: Characteristics

Tsunami waves are different from a typical wave that are seen on the shoreline. Most normal waves are formed from wind that occurs offshore and are very small. Tsunamis, on the other hand, can be about 100 km wide while they are in the middle of the ocean. Tsunamis are very fast too, traveling at about 700 to 800 km an hour (about the speed of an airliner) and can be very hard to spot because in the open ocean, they are roughly just a meter high. When a tsunami approaches the shore in shallower water, it begins to rise and slow down. A tsunami can rise as high as ten stories when it reaches land and travels faster than the average person can run. Also, tsunamis usually come in groups, called a wave train, spreading across several hours and the first wave is not always the biggest.

The energy of a tsunami may be dissipated by structures underneath the ocean’s surface, such as reefs, river entrances and other undersea formations. In places with a great deal of similar obstacles, tsunamis may only cause the sea to rise a couple feet. Other places may be affected differently by tsunamis as they travel 100 feet above land.

The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Facts:
The tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean in 2004 was one of the most catastrophic disasters to happen in recent history. Below are several Indian Ocean tsunami facts that demonstrate how deadly tsunamis are.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami traveled well over 3,000 miles to the shoreline of Africa without much loss of energy, killing many people and causing a great deal of damage to the coastline. Waves from this tsunami reached 30 feet high in certain places. The amount of energy released by the Indian Ocean tsunami is estimated to have been equal to the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs. The force of the waves killed more than 150,000 people by the end of that day and left million of people homeless. Months later, the death tolls as a result of the tsunamis reached a total of more than 200,000 people.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was measured to have a 9.0 magnitude. The epicenter was estimated to be in the Indian Ocean, near the west coast Sumatra, an Indonesian island. The tectonic plates that were under pressure under the ocean released a great deal of energy that displaced a great amount of water and energy waves were sent in every direction. Due to the force of the tectonic plates giving way, trillions of tons of rock across hundreds of miles were shifted about 10 yards, causing one of the most powerful earthquakes in recorded history.

Disaster Relief Professionals

Disaster relief professionals (also known as emergency managers or emergency workers) are trained in a variety of disciplines in all aspects of emergency response, preparation, relief and mitigation. Disaster relief work encompasses the preparation of government and community officials so that they will be able to effectively respond to and act in the event of an emergency situation. Training for professional disaster relief is usually provided by local, state, federal and private groups. This training in the United States prepares individuals for disaster relief work following National Incident Management System (NIMS) guidelines, which were established in 2004 by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

What is NIMS?
NIMS is an emergency response system that is designed to improve preparation, coordination, and incident management in the event of a crisis requiring disaster relief. The system is designed to coordinate disaster relief work teams in the federal, state, and local agency levels. The NIMS is a system that was designed and implemented into the United States after the events of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001. It improves aspects of preparation, response, and prevention of a similar attack or an equally devastating disaster. Possible disaster relief work under the NIMS structure includes acts of terrorism, an urban fire, floods, nuclear disasters, earthquakes, power storms such as hurricanes and typhoons, war-related incidents, etc.

Emerging Field of Disaster Relief and Emergency Management:
Traditionally, disaster relief was primarily populated by members of the military whom are specifically trained to work in quick-response emergencies. The field of disaster relief has become much more diverse in recent years, with many people with many different specializations trained under the NIMS structure. There has also been an emergence of undergraduate and graduate degrees in disaster relief and emergency management. Professional certifications for disaster relief work include Certified Emergency Management (CEM) and Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP). These certifications are increasingly becoming more needed as standards for emergency response and disaster relief are raised all the time.

Professionals Helping Disaster Relief in other Ways:
Other professionals provide unconventional contributions to the disaster relief work field, such as memory institution workers. This includes employees at museums, historical societies, and libraries. They are dedicated at preserving cultural heritage and memories, preserving records of historical areas of history. Preserving these memories raises awareness of some of the worst disasters that have occurred in recorded history. This can greatly contribute to the effort of preparedness in the event of a disaster.

Some professionals focus on mitigation purposes. They ensure that building codes are up to standard if they reside in an area prone to hurricanes or earthquakes. Professionals make sure that buildings are retrofitted with safety and structural mechanisms. This includes having sprinklers installed or other safety measures. Professionals attend workshops to update their knowledge with valuable tools and resources that will minimize risk and in turn, help in the disaster relief process.

Hurricanes

A hurricane, also known as a tropical cyclone, is a severe storm system that has a low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that surround it, producing strong winds and heavy rainfall. Hurricanes occur when air with lots of moisture rises, causing condensation of water vapor and the release of heat. Since hurricanes use heat to fuel their destructive power, they are classified differently than nor’easters and European windstorms. Hurricanes usually originate at or near the equator, about 10 degrees from it (which is where the name ‘tropical cyclone’ comes from). They always develop and gain momentum over water and when they reach land, their power subsides. It is considered a cyclone because of the nature of the storm by which it always cycles in a counter-clockwise motion.

How Hurricanes Destroy While Helping at the Same Time:
Aside from containing high powered winds and heavy rainfall, hurricanes can also spawn other natural hazards, such as tornadoes and storm surges. The heavy rains can also lead to severe flooding in regions close to coasts that are hit by a hurricane. While hurricanes are dangerous and destructive to human and animal life, they are a natural part of the earth and actually aid in the atmospheric cycles that have been occurring over millions of years. Due to hurricanes, equilibrium in the earth’s troposphere is maintained, and in turn, assists in a generally warm and temperate climate all around the world.

Structure of a Hurricane:

The Eye and Eyewall:
At the center of a hurricane is what is referred to as the “eye” of the storm. This is an area of sinking air at the center of the circulating storm. The weather in this small region is generally calm and without clouds in the sky. The eye can be about 1 mile wide to 230 miles wide. Surrounding the eye is is the “eyewall”, a circular shaped set of thunderstorms, where the most powerful effects of a hurricane are found. It has extremely strong winds, high clouds, and high levels of precipitation. When the eyewall reaches land, this is the area of the hurricane that causes the largest natural disasters. The eyewall is also considered the heart of the hurricane because when it weakens, the rest of the tropical cyclone weakens as well.

Size:
Hurricanes are measured by determining the distance from the center of its rotation to the outermost “isobar”. If the distance is about 138 miles, it’s considered a very small hurricane; if the distance is 207 to 420 miles, it is average-sized; and if it is 552 miles or more it is considered very large.

When Hurricanes Occur:
Generally, the peak of “hurricane season” is usually during the summer time when the difference in temperature between air and the surface of the ocean is the greatest. But, each region on the earth has a different pattern of tropical cyclones. May is considered to be the most least active for hurricanes and September is the most active.

Natural Disasters Floods

A flood is defined as an overflow of water that submerges dry land. If the water reaches land that is populated by people, such as a village, it is considered to be a natural disaster. Floods usually occur near large bodies of water, such as a lake or river. When a storm causes the water levels to rise, the water may over flow the boundaries of the river and lake and spread to areas of land that are otherwise dry. Levees or dams may be built on rivers or lakes in order to prevent floods from happening, but occasionally, the levee or dam may break or fail, allowing water to freely flow to danger areas, causing a flood disaster.

Flood Disaster Types:

There are several types of floods that may result in a natural disaster. Floods can occur near lakes, rivers, or swampy land, creating different types of floods with different characteristics.

Riverine:
This type of flood occurs near rivers. A slow riverine flood disaster may be caused by rainfall runoff or the quick melting of snow. This type of flood disaster is usually caused by monsoons or other types of tropical storms. Fast riverine floods are usually referred to as “flash floods”, caused by convective precipitation such as thunderstorms.

Estuarine:
This type of flood disaster happens near the sea when sea tides rapidly rise due to storm winds. Tropical storms, such as cyclones cause estuarine floods.

Coastal:
A coastal flood is usually caused by severe storms at sea, such as a hurricane, but it can also be the result of a tsunami.

Catastrophic:
A wide-scale flood disaster caused by a freak event, such as a levee breakage or dam failure. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions may also cause a catastrophic flood to occur.

Muddy:
An accumulation of water runoff, usually occurring on cropland. The sediments collected from flowing water cause muddy water to rise.

Other:
A flood may happen if water is gathered by rainfall in an area where water cannot evaporate or dissipate fast enough.

Natural Disaster Floods and Their Effects:

Natural disaster floods can cause a great deal of destruction and property damage. Cars, bridges, sewer systems, buildings, homes, and roadways may be damaged seriously by floods. They also can be quite dangerous to human and animal life. Floods can cause human and livestock casualties by drowning and later by waterborne diseases that are carried by floods.

Further effects from a flood can be contaminated water supplies. After a flood, a scarce supply of water may become a problem because water usually used for drinking becomes contaminated. Furthermore, crops and other food supplies may be completely destroyed following a flood and countries that have scarce resources may enter into a famine if food supplies are widely effected. Trees in the surrounding area of a flood may also die from suffocation.

Long-term effects of floods can be economic hardship. Natural disaster floods can cause tourism to decline, can lead to food shortages, and a lot of money may need to be allocated to rebuild structures.

Tsunami Warning Systems

A tsunami is a large wave or series of large waves that are created in the ocean or other large body of water, usually caused by massive earthquakes on the ocean floor. Tsunami destruction can be massive along coastlines near where they originate. To minimize tsunami destruction and casualties, predicting them is very important. Tsunamis are extremely hard to predict, although there have been several ways researchers and scientists can give fair warning of an approaching tsunami for coastlines that may be affected. Tsunamis can travel very fast; about 700 km an hour, so any tsunami warning should be given quickly and timely.

Simple Way to Detect a Tsunami Warning:
One common tsunami warning is detecting drawback. Drawback may occur moments before a tsunami, in which case, anyone near the coast line should immediately seek higher ground. A drawback is when water recedes back far enough as to expose the ocean floor which is usually submerged. Drawbacks are not always a reliable tsunami warning because they may not occur at all if the tsunami moves downward from a fault line on the ocean floor.

Professional Predictions of Tsunamis:
When a powerful earthquake hits the ocean floor, that also does not mean that a tsunami will definitely occur. When geologists and oceanographers and seismologists detect an earthquake, they analyze it to see if a tsunami warning is necessary. Systems developed by scientists can detect an impending tsunamis. The most effective system is a instrument that has bottom pressure sensors that are attached to floating buoys on the surface. These buoy systems constantly measure and monitor the pressure of water columns that pass by, and they are set in place in areas that are at high-risk of a tsunami.

A tsunami warning system on the west coast of the United States is also in effect, where many residents are given warning and routes to take to avoid injury. The Pacific Tsunami Warning System is based in Honolulu, Hawaii and it measures seismic activity in the ocean. Any indications of earthquakes with a certain magnitude are immediately issued to the public with tsunami warnings. But, since not all large earthquakes cause tsunamis, the data is carefully analyzed first before issuing a needless tsunami warning.

As a result of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, governments and organizations are reevaluating their tsunami warning system. The United Nations Disaster Mitigation Committee is helping to install new tsunami warning systems in the Indian Ocean to prevent a repeat of the tsunami destruction seen in 2004. These systems being installed are able to measure the energy of an incoming tsunami and in turn, can predict the height of a tsunami, as well as when it will hit. These systems are fairly accurate and can predict the time of the impact within a few minutes.

Using Animals to Minimize Tsunami Destruction:
Some zoologists have theorized that certain animals can detect tsunamis moments before they hit by detecting subsonic Rayleigh waves caused by an earthquake or tsunami. If this is proven to be true, animals may be observed for early tsunami warning.

Hurricane Katrina

Natural disasters are the result of a natural hazard that comes in contact with a significant population of humans. Although many natural hazards occur all throughout the world, they are not considered a natural disaster until they effect a place that is inhabited by humans. There have been many natural disasters that have occurred throughout recorded history, and several others in more recent times that have had a large impact on the lives of many people. Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tsunamis are recent natural disasters that have effected millions of people within the last decade.

The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami:
In 2004, an undersea earthquake, classified as a megathrust earthquake, occurred on December 26. The epicenter of the earthquake was on the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, causing massive tsunamis to hit the surrounding coasts shortly afterward. The tsunamis hit landmasses that bordered the Indian Ocean and resulted in the death of about 230,000 people across fourteen countries. The tsunamis that hit were estimated to be about one hundred feet high causing one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

The earthquake itself had a magnitude between 9.1 and 9.3, the second largest earthquake ever recorded by a seismograph. The duration was between eight and ten minutes, the longest earthquake ever observed. The amount of force that was exerted by the earthquake caused many other parts of the world to be affected as well. It even caused several small earthquakes in areas as far away as Alaska.

The 2008 Sichuan Earthquake:
This earthquake was one of the deadliest recent natural disasters. Occurring in 2008, the earthquake reached a magnitude of 8.0 on May 12, 2008. The death toll reached about 68,000 people. The epicenter was estimated to be in Wenchuan County in the Sichuan province. It left between 4.8 and 11 million people homeless and was one of the deadliest recent natural disasters in recent memory since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake. Strong aftershocks continued to hit the area, reaching magnitudes of about 6.0.

Hurricane Katrina:
Hurricane Katrina was a tropical storm that hit the southern coast of the United States in 2005. About 1,836 people lost their lives and another 700 people were missing. One of the deadliest recent natural disasters to occur in the United States, it cost about $81 billion in damage. The largest loss of life and damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, when the levee system designed to prevent floods in the city failed. Four years after the disaster, thousands of residents were still living in trailers.

Haiti Earthquake of 2010:
On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti, with an epicenter reaching near Leogane, followed by several aftershocks averaging at about 4.5 magnitude or greater. It is estimated that about 3 million lives were affected by the earthquake. It is one of the worst current natural disasters to happen in recent memory, and has caused more than 150,000 deaths.

Emergency Management

Emergency management is a relatively new discipline that deals with the prevention of natural disasters and recovery from them. The discipline involves mitigation, which is the practice of preventing natural hazards from developing into natural disasters, preparation for the natural disasters occurring, response to them, and finally the recovery process. Emergency management is a term that replaced the term Civil defense after the Cold War, a term used to protect the public from a military attack. The ideas and principals are largely the same, but they have been refined and focused on natural disasters and man-made disasters.

Natural Disaster Preparation:
Natural disaster relief and recovery are smaller and less complicated jobs if the proper acts of preparation are done to minimize damage and casualties resulting from a natural disaster. Preparation in emergency management involves communication plans where information can be easily passed from one party to another and easily understandable. Proper maintenance and adequately-trained emergency services are essential to help prepare first-response teams in dealing with a natural disaster relief. Lines of communication to the general public are also important so that the population understands what actions will help in their survival in the event of natural disaster. Finally, inventory and supplies should be readily available if a natural disaster occurs. Preparation is not always a methodical process. It should be flexible enough to cater to the situation at hand. It should have a structure however, as to avoid confusion and weak communication.

Natural Disaster Response:
During natural disaster response, first teams are dispatched in emergency management. This usually includes firefighters, policemen, ambulance crews, and other emergency services. A response team organized by the military is usually referred to as a Disaster Relief Operation and a non-combatant evacuation operation may also be needed. Natural disaster response is aided greatly by the quality of the preparedness of the public and the emergency workers. Search and rescue teams may also be dispatched during a natural disaster response, although many victims that are affected by a disaster die within 72 hours.

Natural Disaster Recovery:
The natural disaster recovery phase occurs soon after the response phase. The aim of it is to return the area devastated by the disaster to its original state. The main difference between natural disaster recovery and relief is that recovery is all the decisions and actions done after immediate needs are met during the relief effort, such as saving lives and eliminating threats.

The most important part of the natural disaster recovery process is using windows of opportunity to recovery teams’ advantage. Recovery and mitigation usually overlap because lessons learned during the disaster can be applied to the recovery process so as to prevent a future incident from happening again. Mitigation changes to a region during natural disaster recovery is more likely to occur directly after an incident because it is still “fresh” in people’s minds. They realize that the disaster can happen again at any time and they do not want to go through the same pain and suffering.

Earthquakes

An earthquake is the shaking of the earth’s surface caused from a sudden release of energy usually from pressure built up in earth’s tectonic plates. Earthquakes can be recorded and measured using a seismograph. Seismographs use the Richter scale to measure the size of an earthquake, with a 3 or lower earthquake being minor and a 7 and above being a major earthquake that causes a great deal of damage. An earthquake can cause other disasters to occur as well, such as a tsunami, if the earthquake originates at sea, or a landslide if the earthquake occurs on a mountainous terrain.

Earthquake Disasters:
An earthquake itself is not usually responsible for causalities and injuries; rather, earthquakes can cause serious damage to buildings, man-made structures, and can even cause massive sea waves called tsunamis. These events are what make earthquakes so dangerous. Only major earthquakes can cause damage such as this, but compared to minor earthquakes, major ones rarely occur. Minor earthquakes happen all the time in places such as California and Alaska, but they are nearly all minor and hardly noticeable on the earth’s surface.

Ground Shaking:
Earthquakes cause the ground to shake for several seconds. Due to this, many buildings and other rigid structures are destroyed or damaged. The amount of damage that a given area receives from the shaking ground depends on the magnitude of the earthquake, the distance from the epicenter (the center of the earthquake on the earth’s surface) and geological conditions. Geological conditions may make the effects of an earthquake more severe.

During an earthquake, the ground may rupture as well, usually along faults (a fracture in a rock). Large structures, such as dams must be carefully built so that they are not on fault lines.

Landslides and Avalanches:
Due to the violent shaking during an earthquake, a landslide or avalanche may occur in mountainous areas with unstable, steep slopes. There is always the danger of a landslide in these areas for rescue crews attempting to provide relief to an area struck with an earthquake.

Fires:
Earthquakes cause fires as well because they damage electrical power and gas lines. To make matters worse, earthquakes can ruin water lines making it difficult to contain fires caused by earthquakes.

Tsunami:
When an earthquake occurs at sea, a massive amount of water may be displaced, causing towering waves that threaten coastlines in proximity of it. Tsunamis may even affect areas much further away because they can travel for great distances at about 600-800 kilometers an hour. Destructive tsunamis are usually only formed during earthquakes of 7.5 magnitude or higher.

Preparation:
Earthquakes are not easily predictable, but geologists and other scientists are finding new ways to help determine if an area is at risk. Measuring faults is a good way to determine if an earthquake is likely because scientists measure the amount of pressure that is present.

Today, earthquake preparedness is the best protection against earthquakes. It is a group of measures people take to prepare for a possible earthquake. They are most predominant in areas where earthquakes are most likely, such as California.