Government

Hurricane Katrina was the costliest natural disaster in the history of the United States, causing an estimate $108 billion dollars in damage. In addition, the storm killed at least 1,833 people and left tens of thousands of people homeless. Such was the extent of the damage that portions of the devastated area were abandoned and residents forced to permanently relocate.

One of the major responders to this incident was the U.S. military, which provided security as well as tens of millions of dollars in relief supplies and assistant in the critical first weeks following the storm. On the civilian side, FEMA provided crucial command and control and oversaw the extensive, complex rescue and reconstruction efforts. These two major governmental bodies were greatly supplemented by DHS, other government organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

In the years since, a great deal of scrutiny from the public and private sector revealed myriad lessons learned, both positive and negative. Examining this major disaster provides an opportunity to understand how such an event can impact Homeland Security.

In this case, your task is to:

Discuss the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, both civilian and military, and where each agency succeeded and where each failed.

Be sure to properly cite your quotations that you use to support your statements. For more information, please consult the Purdue University OWL: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

***In addition to the Assignment Expectations provided in detail in Module 1 (Relevance, Precision, Depth, etc.), this assignment you will be expected to focus specifically on demonstrating your understanding of how natural disasters, especially when contrasted with the more common idea of threats to national security (e.g. terrorism), can quickly and unexpectedly become a major national security priority, and to what extent the U.S. is prepared, or unprepared, to deal with these very real, ongoing potential threats.