ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE OF HURRICANE KATRINA
1
Analysis/Critique of Hurricane Katrina
Helms School of Government, Liberty University
HLSC 600-B01: Introduction to Disaster Management
Dr. Jimmy Johnson
June 19, 2022
ANALYSIS/CRITIQUE OF HURRICANE KATRINA
2
Analysis/Critique of Hurricane Katrina
Introduction
Disasters, by their nature, typically affect multiple cities, counties, and state boundaries
and tend to cause severe damages that far exceed a community’s ability to recover from them
single-handedly. Drabek and McEntire (2002), as cited by McGuire and Schneck (2010),
emphasized that “disasters, by their very disruptive and dynamic nature, create such significant
demands on the affected community that well-executed, multiorganizational responses become
not only necessary but essential […] and often require the assistance of outsiders and multiple
levels of government, thereby leading to multijurisdictional response operations” (S204). It is
also important to note that organizations tasked to respond to disasters, such as Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local emergency management agencies, have had
their fair share of failures, reforms, and successes. In addition, while emergency managers
embrace their successes in responding to disasters, studies have shown that failures expose the
weaknesses of emergency management organizations at all levels of government. Hence,
emergency management organizations may need to reevaluate their circumstances, and
management plans to ensure they can mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from
natural or man-made disasters. This paper will analyze the government’s response to Hurricane
Katrina by first providing an overview of the storm, the events that unfolded during all four
phases of the disaster management cycle, recommendations for improvement, and a biblical
