public administration

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina is arguably the worst natural disaster in American history. “Katrina was an extraordinary powerful and deadly hurricane that carried a wide swath of catastrophic damage and inflected a large loss of life” (Knabb, Rhome, and Brown). The official death toll in August 2006 stood at 1,810, of which some 1,464 were dead in Louisiana, and there were 135 people still missing (Louisiana Department of Health), making Katrina rank as one of the deadliest hurricanes in the nation’s history (World Almanac). The property devastation estimate from Katrina topped $75 billion, the costliest in the nation’s history, nearly double that of the next costliest hurricane—Andrew, which hit south Florida in August 1992 (Knabb, Rhome, and Brown).

Katrina formed August 23, 2005, in the central Bahamas; it had become a Category 1 storm when it hit south Florida, moved into a Category 5 storm in the Gulf of Mexico, made landfall as a Category 3 storm in Louisiana with 127-mph winds (Pain), and finally dissipated August 31, 2005, over the eastern Great Lakes on its way into Canada. During its course, it wreaked havoc, destruction, and death through the Bahamas, south Florida, Cuba, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, the Florida Panhandle, and throughout eastern North America.

The greatest amount of damage and what the media captured most was the human suffering that resulted when levees breached and pumping stations stopped in the flood protection system for the “Crescent City,” New Orleans, which is primarily situated below sea level at a bend in the Mississippi River, with Lake Pontchartrain on the north and Lake Borgne on the east. Originally colonized by the French, New Orleans has a unique history and culture in the United States. It is the home of jazz, uniquely American music, and some of the best food in the world. It is one of the country’s major ports and has ranked as a key commercial and industrial center in the Southeast. It has been the headquarters for oil and chemical distribution and shipping, food processing, and shipbuilding and repairing. It has had many universities, and every year the city celebrates the legendary Mardi Gras.

The storm surges formed by Hurricane Katrina caused overtopping of floodwalls and the 18-foot-high levees, while erosion of the soil beneath the levees from the flooding led to more failures and breaches. Surge levels were measured as high as 18 to 25 feet (Seed, Nicholson, Dalrymple, et al. 1-5). Approximately 75 percent of the city was flooded (Seed, Nicholson, Dalrymple, et al. iv). Subsequently, Katrina moved inland and its high winds cut a diagonal path across Mississippi causing damage to almost the entire state and parts of Alabama.

More than 1.2 million people were under orders to evacuate before the hurricane’s landfall near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, at 6:10 A.M. CDT on Monday, August 29, 2005. By 11 A.M. that day the levees around New Orleans began to collapse. What unfolded was the worst-case scenario described in publications such as the 2002 Special Report series in the The Times-Picayune called “Washing Away,” and in an emergency hurricane drill that included local, state, and federal emergency personnel only a year before for a hypothetical hurricane named Pam (Federal Emergency Management Agency).

Not only did the water from the breaches rise to rooftops, it became a toxic nightmare stew of untreated sewage, decomposing human bodies, dead animals, and chemicals and oils. People who had not evacuated were left stuck on their house tops, trapped in their attics, or stranded in the Louisiana Superdome or the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, where the daily living conditions for thousands became horrific as supplies of food and water ran out, electricity and air conditioning failed, sanitary conditions deteriorated, and violence—or rumors of violence—ensued. Hospitals lost power and hospital staff took heroic measures to care for as many patients as they could. Many of the stranded were poor, African American, children, elderly, and the disabled. Some had not evacuated because they had no transportation and not enough money to leave. Some had gone through numerous hurricanes without major problems and decided to try to ride this one out too, and some stranded tourists did not have any way to evacuate once the transportation system in the city became overwhelmed and buckled.

Eventually, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the U.S. Coast Guard, other branches of the military, various organizations, and hundreds of volunteers began rescue efforts. The American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and many volunteers began relief efforts. Within a couple of months of Katrina’s landfall, evacuees were residing in all 50 states; some vowed to return to New Orleans and rebuild, and some vowed never to return. Ultimately, 1.5 million people were dislocated—the largest displacement of Americans because of a single incident since the 1927 flooding of the southern Mississippi River, which ultimately may have displaced as many as 700,000 (Von Drehle and Salmon). People had no homes, nowhere to work because businesses were lost, and nowhere to get funds because banks and government offices were closed. They had lost family, friends, community, and tradition (Mehren). Many people simply were left only with what they had on their backs.

Aside from the vast human suffering, the long-term economic impact to the region has been overwhelming. Tourism in the “Big Easy,” one of its lifebloods, has been irreparably damaged; oil production and distribution have been affected; transportation and regional infrastructure such as railroads require extensive repair.

Not only did Katrina spawn widespread disaster, it created serious controversies, particularly over the delay in getting help to the people of New Orleans, the surrounding parishes, and all of the Gulf Coast affected by the storm. Michael D. Brown, the former director of the Federal Management Agency (FEMA) came under national scrutiny and resigned his post. Race and class became an issue. The 2000 U.S. census shows that the city of New Orleans was 67% black or African American and 28% white. In addition, the census indicated that 23.7% of families were below the poverty level (U.S. Census). Surveys after Katrina indicated the majority of African Americans believed race was the factor in the slow response by officials to the disaster, and whites believed that race was not a factor (Saad).

In addition to the question of racial bias in the delay about responding to the crisis, among the many other issues raised were these:

· The responsibility of the military in national rescue efforts

· The lack of coordination between local, state, and federal officials

· The failure of communication systems—cell phone towers that fell, lack of satellite phones, the lack of Internet service, etc.

· The role—both positive and negative—of the New Orleans police in the event

· How the new Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA and has received billions in funding after 9-11, performed so inadequately

· The susceptibility of the elderly and the disabled in large-scale evacuations

· The vulnerability of the levees and how funding for shoring them up might have been used in the past for other projects

· How and why evacuation plans were not followed

· What to do about the tremendous amount of damaged or destroyed homes

· How to solve the hardship of families having to abandon pets because they were not allowed to evacuate with them

When Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s office handed over documents in December 2005 to Congressional committees investigating the government’s failure in preparing for and responding to Hurricane Katrina, among the 100,000 pages of documents were emails, police reports, weather reports, logs of calls to be rescued, public statements, and many other documents (Simpson).

Activities and Assignments

1 Individual or Group Activity: Case Study 1 focuses on some of the early key documents and images associated with the Katrina disaster as they relate to the principles and approaches described in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of Writing for the Government. For each of them here, consider these questions:

· Who is the audience (or stakeholders)?

· What might be the demographics of the audience? Their level of knowledge and expertise? Their personal and professional needs for the document’s information?

· Who wrote the document and/or what agency released it? Who might have contributed to its writing, editing, design, and release? How does who is involved with the writing, editing, design, and distribution affect its presentation, communication, and credibility?

· What is the tone and style of the language of the document? Are they appropriate for the audience?

· What is the cultural context—the historical, political, social, economic, technological, and ethical possibilities and constraints—surrounding the writing and distribution of the document?

· What are the characteristics of the genre for the document?

· What kinds of ethical issues might have had to be dealt with in writing this document?

· What technological factors contributed to the distribution of the document?

After you compose answers to these questions, summarize your responses, and analyze whether you think the document or image’s message was effective or not. Not every question may be relevant, but if you think a document or image is effective, provide evidence from the document to support your points. If you think it is not effective, describe what you think would make it communicate better. You may need to do some research about the document and the hurricane before making your decision. Included with the title for each of the documents are other questions to consider and address and/or to focus on as well as the questions above. After you have written your responses, share them with your classmates.

Document 1: “Hurricane Pam Exercise Concludes”

This document is a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) public relations piece released following an emergency preparedness exercise about a major hurricane hitting the New Orleans area. As you consider the previous questions, also consider these questions:

· When was this document released?

· Who was involved in this drill?

· How realistic were the parameters of the exercise?

· How is the document formatted to incorporate a lot of information?

(Please note that Col. Michael L. Brown, Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness, Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, is someone different from Michael D. Brown, the former Director of Federal Emergency Management (FEMA).)

Find examples of other emergency drill documents, and compare them in terms of audience, purpose, cultural context, language, and format. Then write a report about what you find, and share it with your classmates.

Documents 2 and 3: “Governor Blanco Declares State of Emergency”

This document is a Proclamation. A Proclamation is a genre.

· What is the format of this genre for the document? What are its characteristics?

· Is it a useful genre? Why or why not?

Compare this document to “Governor Blanco asks President to Declare an Emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina.” This document is the text of the official request for help from Governor Blanco to President Bush. Both of these documents were made available on the governor’s website.

· Why do you think these were posted on there?

· What do you make of the opening sentences of them?

· What about the specifics in them?

Research proclamations from officials on various levels of government—local, state, and federal. Compare them for format, audience, purpose, and cultural context. Share what you find with your classmates.

Create your own Proclamation for something or some event, possibly related to your class or campus. Compare yours with your classmates’ proclamations.

Document 4: “Memorandum to Michael Chertoff”

This memo from former FEMA Director, Michael D. Brown, to Michael Chertoff, the head of FEMA, created a great deal of controversy when it was released to the public.

· Can you tell why?

· What is the date of it, and what was happening at the time that could have sparked such controversy?

· What about the style and tone of it?

Compare it with the principles presented in Chapter 5 on writing memorandums. Write a research paper about what you find, and share it with your classmates.

Document 5: “Nagin tells Feds to Get off Their Asses”

This radio transcript is a different kind of document because it is an interview with Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, which was taped in a New Orleans radio station, on Thursday night, September 1, 2005, four days after the hurricane hit New Orleans. Because of the natural disaster and electrical crisis in the city, many radio stations pooled together to broadcast emergency information.

· What do you think about Nagin’s language?

· Considering the circumstances that New Orleans was in at the time, is Nagin’s style and tone effective?

· Why or why not?

Write a short report with your opinion about the situation, citing reasons for your opinion based on research and/or personal experience. Cite specific information and quote from the transcript in your report.

Document 6: “President Outlines Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts”

This document is an excerpt from the original on the White House webpage. Go online to view the full document. It is from the Office of the Press Secretary.

· What strikes you about the presentation of information and the language in it?

· How does it compare with President Bush’s weekly radio addresses, for instance?

· What about the photo that accompanies the statement?

Discuss your ideas with a group of your classmates and share them with the entire class.

Document 7: Photos and emails

These are a series of photos of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans and some email messages among FEMA employees to each other and to Michael Brown, then director of FEMA, during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The emails here, which are a few of the many that have been released, have created controversy in and of themselves. The photos and the emails are from a Senate committee investigation.

· What do you make of the emails from Monty Bahamonde, who was one of the FEMA employees in New Orleans and who spent days and nights in the Louisiana Superdome?

· What do you think about the language and tone of the exchanges?

· What about some of the responses or lack thereof by Brown to concerns expressed by employees?

Discuss your ideas with your classmates.

Document 8: Preliminary Report

This document is the cover, “Executive Summary,” is from a “Preliminary Report on the Performance of the New Orleans Levee System in Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.”

· Why is this document different from the previous ones?

· How many authors does it have? Does that matter? Why or why not?

· What about the language is different?

· What is the purpose of this document?

Find this report online and compare it with the information in Chapter 6 on Policy Report Writing. Write up what you find, and share it with your classmates.

2 Individual or Group Activity: Many parts of the United States have the potential for or experience natural disasters: tornados, wildfires, hot and cold weather–related deaths, floods, and earthquakes. Individual students or in groups can contact various emergency and first responders in your communities to find out what they do to assist citizens in disastrous situations. Write a research paper and make a presentation to your classmates about your findings.

Individual or Group Activity: Investigate documents and research the other controversial issues mentioned earlier in the bulleted list on page 210–213, analyze them in a similar manner, write what you find, and share it with your classmates