Research on Hurricane Katrina and Fema

Haylee Hedge – Failure to Execute Minimal Assistance

The issue that my assigned poster addresses is Hurricane Katrina and FEMA. FEMA stands for failure to execute minimum assistance. This is regarding the lack of assistance the government provided to help the victims associated with the hurricane.  In the first place, the Bush administration failed to upgrade the levee system. It also failed to send an emergency crew to victims and didn’t help with resources to restore their lives. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said, “I don’t know whether it’s the governor’s problem,” he said. “I don’t know whether it’s the president’s problem. But somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out.” New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the U.S. with a 23.2 percent poverty rate. The median income was about $28k. 35 percent of the cities African American’s don’t own a car and Louisiana’s economics ranked 48^th.  Its social welfare is one of the weakest in the country for the weakest and elderly. The Bush administration knew before it even happened that 100,000 NO citizens couldn’t escape on their own and the plan for evacuation was only 10 percent done. Their economics goals were essentially to “starve the beast,” which means to lower taxes a significant amount, and in turn the government wouldn’t­­ be able to function. The republicans in congress at the time felt funds for the Katrina victims – around $100 billion – should come from budgets cuts not tax increases. Also the National Weather Service correctly predicted the force of the storm, but the top officials in the Bush administration didn’t bring the matter to attention. In regards to resources according to The New York Times, “FEMA had planned to have 360,000 ready-to-eat meals delivered to the city and 15 trucks of water in advance of the storm. But only 40,000 meals and five trucks of water had arrived.” Six months after the storm, FEMA had provided only 3,000 of the 21,000 trailers requested by New Orleans residents to use as temporary shelter while they rebuild. After two months around 20,000 students, most from New Orleans, still weren’t in school. However, because of these issues, there is greater attention on class and race, and hopefully this doesn’t happen again in the future. 

http://nhi.org/online/issues/145/politicaldisaster.html