SEC450 Humanitarian Aid as a Strategic Response Paper

Humanitarian Aid 4

Humanitarian Aid as a Strategic Response Paper

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Humanitarian Aid as a Strategic Response Paper

Hurricane Katrina was the third most devastating natural disaster to ever occur in the United State. This category three hurricane caused over eighty billion dollars in damages and resulted in 1,836 people losing their lives. There are still over seven hundred people still unaccounted for and in total the live of fifteen million citizens were affected from five different states. Louisiana was the hardest impacted in the loss of life but the state of Mississippi suffered the most property damage. As a result over 90,000 square miles of land and property was affected causing the need for the largest emergency response and clean up in American history.

Hurricane Katrina was economically devastating but this disaster resulted in people all over America and across the globe pledging their help and providing assistance to the thousands upon thousands of citizens that were left absolutely devastated by this natural disaster (Jorgenson, 2012). There are many hurricanes in and around America every year but it had been close to forty years since a hurricane made landfall that just absolutely wiped out cities and created a destructive path that crossed three states and affecting millions of people. Instead of a small area being affected there were hundreds of thousands of people without shelter, food, clothing or any other basic need.

Hurricane Katrina sweep into country as a category five and then was reduced to a category three but despite this reduction the ferocity of the storm was horrendous. After the hurricane, over 70 countries pledged monetary donations or other assistance after the hurricane with the largest donation of $500 million coming from Kuwait (Zimmerman, 2012). Other countries such as, Qatar, India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh were responsible for making very large donations as well. Churches from all over the country began gathering clothes food, toys, and other items and having them shipped to Katrina survivors while the military flew in water and food supplies.

Humanitarian aid was one of the important themes of Katrina. Not only did people all over the nation and the world donate money and good to aid citizens they also created an outcry for the hurricane victims trapped in inhumane living conditions due to the failure of the Louisiana and federal government to employ an appropriate response to the disaster. Instead of the citizens of Louisiana affected by Katrina receiving aid from the government it was the support of other states politicians, churches, foreign countries, and individuals that stepped up and aided Katrina victims in their recovery.

Government agencies, such as FEMA, failed to provide a sufficient or effective response to the disaster and instead due to their inadequacies extended the suffering of the Katrina victim. Due to the inadequacies of FEMA and other federal and state agencies the humanitarian effort went into the hands of the community programs, churches, volunteers, and first responders. Local and state government agencies were focused on restoring power and water to citizens and restoring access to oil products especially gasoline after the search and rescue effort was exhausted. When Katrina hit hundreds of thousands of citizens lost power, access to fresh water, and many were left homeless.

When humanitarian aid workers flooded into cities damaged by Katrina they were surprised at the lack of accommodations, food, or even gasoline in the area which resulted in these aid workers making their home in parking lots which became large tent cities as well as on the coastal beaches were there was some relief from the oppressive heat. Humanitarian aid workers did not have a place to stay when rendering assistance to the Katrina victim and many did not comprehend the extent of the devastation or the hardships associated with an area that could no longer offer citizens even the most basic of needs.

Humanitarian aid workers also faced the dangers of disease and exposure to chemicals or substances that are harmful to a person health. For example many Hurricane Katrina survivors and humanitarian aid workers ended up with debris coughs due to their exposure to particles in the air which was the result of the destruction of buildings and property. Health consequences are a large concern for anyone entering a situation where there has been a major natural disaster. In some cases humanitarian workers die (Sheik, 2000). Humanitarian workers did not have access to clean water, proper restroom facilities, or any other essential to ensure there is no spread of disease or other potential health consequences.

The health consequences associated with humanitarian aid work include death, physical illness and psychological distress (McFarlane, 2004). Not only did humanitarian workers that came to the aid of Katrina victims face potential physical illness some of these volunteers also suffered psychological harm from being exposed to the extreme death and destruction associated with Katrina. The large death tool and destruction of property can create psychological distress that affects the volunteer well after their experience.

Research has shown that as in many other disasters the poor were the most greatly impacted during the storm because unlike the middle and upper class household they had no means of leaving before the storm hit. Many poverty stricken citizens had no choice but to buckle down or seek shelter at a local facility. When the levees broke in New Orleans the storm had already passed and citizens came out to assess any potential damage and left the safety of the shelter. Citizens that had a way to evacuate New Orleans had not yet returned to the city so when the levees broke and the entire city flooded it was the poor, destitute, elderly, and homeless left to suffer as well as the terminally ill.

In the case of Katrina the value of multinational economic cooperation in a strategic response through humanitarian aid is a means of mitigating the risk factors because it ensures the needs of the victims are immediately addressed limiting the damage and potential loss of life. If it was not for the efforts of humanitarian aid worker there would have been far greater casualties in Hurricane Katrina and the spread of disease would have been far more expansive. Recovering form Hurricane Katrina was not as simple as restoring power and shipping in supplies. Once Katrina left a city it took everything with it from power lines to water towers. Roads no longer existed and in many cases there was no way in or out a particular geographic area.

The failure of FEMA and other government agencies to provide an adequate response to the disaster only extended the suffering of the Katrina victim. The event at the Superdome in New Orleans is a good example of this failure. Because governmental agencies did not have an adequate emergency response plan in place people starved to death or died of thirst because there were no resources available to render assistance to thousands of citizens trapped in what was supposed to be a place to provide shelter and render assistance. The value of multinational economic cooperation in the strategic response in a natural disaster is the saving of lives and the reliving of suffering.

When events like Hurricane Katrina occur where the disaster affects five states and millions of citizens they are at their most vulnerable. The most significant society risk involved with Katrina was the extreme looting and the failure of first responder to do their duty. It was not until the military stepped in and declared Marshall law that the criminal behavior that occurred after the storm was halted. An effective response would ensure first responders are available to assist citizens in need and reduce the security risks. Global trade is impacted when areas in the south are unable to provide the products dependent on trade with other countries. Many of the states affected by Katrina are responsible for a large percentage of the agriculture products provided to the nation and even the world.

Hurricane Katrina was a major disaster that resulted in a lot of death and destruction but if it were not for the assistance provided by people that rushed to provide Katrina victims with assistance the suffering would have been a lot worse and it would have taken even longer for the Katrina victim to sufficiently recover. Without the efforts of volunteers and the donation of financial assistance form states and their citizens as well as the global community there would have been a larger death toll and more suffering. Humanitarian workers came to the rescue of the storm victim and provided them with an opportunity to successfully recover their lives.

References

Jorgensen, E. (2011). Hurricane Katrina: Humanitarian Obligations and Lessons Learned.

Retrieved April 20, 2013 from

http://www.du.edu/korbel/criic/humanitarianbriefs/ellenjorgenson.pdf

McFarlane, C. (2004). Risks Associated with the Psychological Adjustment of Humanitarian Aid

Workers. The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies, 7(4): pp. 1174-1207

Sheik, M., Gutierrez, M. I., Bolton, P., Spiegel, P., Thieren, M., & Burnham, G. (2000). Deaths

Among humanitarian workers. British Medical Journal, 321, 166-168.

Zimmerman, K. (2012). Hurricane Katrina: Facts, Damage & Aftermath. Retrieved April 20,

2013 from http://www.livescience.com/22522-hurricane-katrina-facts.html