Criticism of Government Response to Hurricane Katrina
The hurricane, Katrina, affected New Orleans in the month of August 2005. The heavy criticism of the government over its handling of the aftermath of Katrina is also known as Katrina gate. It heavily condemned and criticized government’s lack of preparation and its mismanagement in providing the relief effort to those affected by the hurricane. The failure of Federal Flood Protection in New Orleans was specifically criticized. Inadequate planning and poor back up communication systems between various levels of county, state and federal government was blamed as the major cause of the problem.
The National Response Plan in the US clearly delineates the share of responsibility and plan of action in the event of a natural crisis. It states that the first and the foremost local government responsibility is planning and a prompt response if such a situation arises. The specific additional resources are to be called upon from the county and then the state level or federal level only when resources at each preceding levels are exhausted.
The failure to manage the disaster in an efficient manner from a, EOC, Emergency Operations Center (it was actually done from ballroom of a hotel which had inadequate communication back up plan) resulted in difficulties in communicating the needs to the EOC at the higher level.
The criticism of the government began soon within days of the storm. Residents of New Orleans were stranded without food, water and shelter resulting in the deaths of several citizens. The Bush administration was at the receiving end of the harshest criticism initially before the local and the state government also got heavily criticized.
Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans was also heavily criticized for delaying the evacuation order which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people who were left stranded in the landfalls.
The damage done by the storm was continued with lawlessness state and violence for days after the storm had passed.
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