Introduction
Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Sandy both were the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to have ever lashed upon the United States. Both surfaced in the US during the active hurricane seasons. Both were extremely devastating hurricanes followed by storm surge and flooding which led to a widespread damage across the affected areas, killing people, leaving people homeless and shutting down some of the big cities of US. Hurricane Katrina initiated on a westward path, moving on to Florida and then Gulf coast while hurricane Sandy took its pace on a northward path before landing on the eastern coast of USA. All the devastation caused by Katrina was contained within USA while Sandy affected 7 countries. Though Hurricane Katrina was far more destructive than Sandy there is no doubt that Sandy was not a normal cyclone too, having caused billions of dollars’ worth loss to the country. This paper would discuss in detail the specifics of both the hurricanes and the emergency response plan put into action to deal with the impact of the hurricanes and their aftermath along with a review of lessons learned and action report.
Specifics of Hurricane Katrina and Sandy, Damage and Loss
The massive destruction brought upon the affected areas by Hurricane Katrina, which not played the role of a powerful devastating hurricane but also of a catastrophic flood, far outrun that of any other big disasters that took place in the country such as the San Francisco Earthquake and fire of 1906, hurricane Sandy of 2012, the Chicago fire of 1871 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The lives lost in Katrina are recorded to be over 1,800. On other hand, hurricane Sandy is also one of the deadliest hurricanes that thrashed upon USA. It killed about 286 people in seven countries it struck. Sandy took its form in the western Caribbean Sea and soon became forceful enough to morph into a hurricane making its first landfall in Jamaica on 24th October 2012. It again came back into the Caribbean Sea and fortified itself into Category 2 hurricane. One day later it struck Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane, lost its strength and transmuted into Category 1 hurricane. It briefly moved through the Bahamas, lost its strength for a while and became a tropical storm but then again picked up enough force to become Category 1 hurricane. It struck the US on 29th October along the eastern seacoast impacting 24 states right from Florida to Maine and Midwest states including Michigan and Wisconsin, with extensive damage lashed out on New York and New Jersey.
In 2005 on 23rd August, Hurricane Katrina took shape over the Bahamas and moved across southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, causing devastation and flooding there while picking up strength in the Gulf of Mexico. Right from Category 1 it went into Category 5 strengthening itself over the warm water of Gulf but prior to making its second landfall its strength weakened and it fell upon southeast Louisiana as Category 3 hurricane on 29th August. Since 1851 a recorded 75 hurricanes of Katrina's might, a Category 3, have fallen upon the mainland of USA, once in every two years, but Katrina was one of the strongest. (Townsend, 2006).
Sandy killed one, ripped roofs off buildings, and left 70% inhabitants of Jamaica in power outage causing the country about $100 million. Sandy brought flooding in Haiti killing 54 people, leaving 200,000 homeless and causing food shortages. Cuba survived a flood and massive damage inland due to Sandy which blew off 15,000 homes, killed 11 people and incurred damage worth $2 billion. In the US, after Katrina Sandy is the second costliest hurricane costing the country $65 billion for all the damages wrecked by the storm and subsequent flooding. The storm surge of Sandy flooded tunnels, streets and subway lines for weeks, leaving a greater portion of the affected areas in power outage. About 100,000 people were displaced and became homeless.
The strong force wind of Katrina and a storm surge reaching up to the height of 27 feet struck a deadly blow to all that came its way; homes, properties, business along the coast and inland. The levees down the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain gave away, leading to a catastrophic flood that engulfed 80% of New Orleans city. New Orleans city which was one of the largest cities in the US and the heart of the Gulf coast was completely ravaged by the hurricane Katrina. Not only New Orleans, all the big and small cities Katrina passed by were left in utter wreckage with homes and businesses annihilated across Morgan city of Louisiana, Biloxi of Mississippi and Mobile of Alabama. A considerable portion of the coastal areas of the affected states were completely wrecked. Harley Barbour, the Mississippi Governor stated, "The 80 miles across the Mississippi Gulf Coast is largely destroyed. A town like Waveland, Mississippi, has no inhabitable structures—none "(Townsend, 2006). Altogether about 1,833 people lost their lives due to the hurricane and the ensuing floods, with 1,577 casualties reported in Louisiana, 14 in Florida, 230 in Mississippi, 2 in Alabama and 2 in Georgia (Knabb, Rhome & Brown, 2011). The number of casualties could be much more as several hundred people were reported missing in connection with Katrina. About 1,000,000 people were displaced and became homeless. In estimation of damage and casualties, hurricane Katrina stands as the third deadliest hurricanes to have struck the USA in 77 years, next to Galveston hurricane of 1900 and Okeechobee hurricane of 1928.
Sandy landfall took place in one of the most populated areas in the USA with powerful wind force and torrential rain posing the affected areas vulnerable environmental contamination. Nuclear power plants, superfund sites and oil refineries were all in danger. Water contamination had been the greatest environmental impact caused by hurricane Sandy. Sandy posed a big threat to public health due to water contamination by hitting the sewer system infrastructure in New York and New Jersey. Partially treated and untreated sewage discharged from 10 treatment plants of New York City mixed into local waterways. The toxins in the untreated sewage can lead to a widespread water contamination by diluting with the water of the local waterways. Spillage of contaminants, pesticides and bacteria from Superfund sites and sewage plants can impact the quality of water in the affected areas. About 630 oil spills took place across New York. New Jersey, however, took the greatest blow in terms of oil contamination with a reported 336,000 gallons of diesel fuel having spilled into the Arthur Kill waterway when the storm surge ruptured a storage tank (Blaszczak, 2012). Oil spills of such massive proportion posed a threat to killing a large number of fishes that reside in the salt marshes in the waterway.
Katrina also attributes to economic and environmental damages with thousands of people losing their jobs, loss of tax revenues in millions of dollars, shortage of workers, beach erosions across the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama and disruption of oil refining capacity of the US, totaling up to a loss of $108 billion. Dauphin Islands in Alabama and the Chandeleur Islands were extensively damaged. The Chandeleur Islands along the Gulf coast was almost obliterated with huge storm surge and large waves generated by Katrina. A large portion of the island went under water with very few identifiable landmasses left on the island chain (USGS, 2013). 16 National Wildlife Refuges were closed down due to the extensive damage incurred during Katrina. Oil spills took place from 44 storage depots, industrial plants, and other facilities across Louisiana resulting in the leakage of over 7 million gallons of oil. Some leaked oil penetrated the ecosystem resulting in the flooding with a mix of water and oil in the town of Meraux in Louisiana (Llanos, 2005).
Emergency Response Plan: Hurricane Katrina and Sandy
For hurricane Katrina, the states and localities across Gulf Coast started taking preparation before Katrina made its first landfall in Florida, by putting into action the emergency response elements, giving emergency warnings, putting in place response assets and making plans for evacuation and sheltering. As preparation for Florida landfall, 100 truckloads of ice, 35 truckloads of food and 70 trucks of water were delivered by FEMA to Georgia. In anticipation of a second landfall along Gulf Coast, more than 400 trucks full of ice, over 500 trucks of water and about 200 trucks full of food were prepositioned at logistics centers in Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Texas and South Carolina. Around this time, FEMA alerted Rapid Needs Assessment and Emergency Response Teams (ERT-A) which is the first group sent in response to a disaster incident for staying poised. FEMA also held video teleconferences to help Federal, State and local responders work in sync coordinating their assistance and support (Townsend, 2006). Preparatory actions were undertaken by a slew of private sector entities as well. For instance, Norfolk Southern Railroad recognizing the adverse impact of the loss of key bridges prepositioned repair barges to make fast movement to make repair work after the landfall of Katrina.
Joint Task Force Katrina was established on 28th August with 58,000 National Guard personnel dispatched to deal with the aftermath of the storm. Volunteer members of Civil Air Patrol were pre-staged by the Department of Defense. FEMA gave housing assistance including trailers, rental assistance and hotel fares to over 700,000 families and individuals. However, the trailers provided didn't meet the demands leading to a housing shortage in New Orleans city. FEMA also bore the hotel fare of 12,000 families who were displaced by hurricane Katrina. As of March, 2010, there were at least 260 families still living in trailers provided by FEMA in Mississippi and Louisiana (Showers, 2010).
However, despite making the best efforts, the arrangements made for disaster recovery and emergency action plans were not adequate enough to address the needs of all the affected people. The Bush government faced a lot of criticism due to its mismanagement and lack of leadership in the relief efforts in response to the hurricane and its subsequent impact. Debates were galore about the roles of local, state and federal government in taking preparation for the emergency response to the hurricane. There were a lot of people left stranded by flooding without food, water and shelter. Days after the hurricane's passing, a good many people died of exhaustion, thirst and violence. According to many, racism attributed to the delayed response as is evident in the words of a New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black" (Sanders, 2005).
Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans city and Kathleen Blanco, Louisiana Governor were severely criticized for their failure to implement the evacuation plan of New Orleans effectively with orders given to residents for a last minute evacuation to a shelter that didn't have provisions for water, food, security or sanitary conditions. Nagin was held responsible for delaying the emergency evacuation order till 19 hours prior to the landfall due to which many people died as by that time they didn't have any chance to move out of the city (Davis et al, 2006).
Unlike the delayed evacuation order made in times of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans by Mayor Nagin, Mayor Bloomberg in New York issued the evacuation notice on 28th October making 375,000 New Yorkers take shelter on time before the storm approached. 17 shelters were opened to accommodate evacuees on 28th October, more than a full day in hand to evacuate homes and take refuge in shelters. There are three evacuation zones put in place by CSP or the Coastal Storm Plan. Zone A is the low-lying zones across the coastal line most vulnerable to Category 1 coastal storm and therefore, zone A was ordered to be evacuated by the Mayor in advance of Sandy. Many people paid heed to the evacuation order and took shelter but despite warnings, many residents living in zone A areas didn't leave their homes, leading to the death of 43 New Yorkers due to Sandy. With the approach of Sandy in order to prepare healthcare facilities to deal with the storm impacts, patients who could be safely discharged were discharged from the hospital and those who couldn't be discharged safely were ordered take shelter that was in place in the hospitals. But due to the weeks of power outage after Sandy many hospitals and residential healthcare facilities were unable to operate and hence patients and residents were shifted to alternate locations for a lengthy period of time.
Power outage posed a big threat to public safety. A broad range of areas starting from lower east side of Manhattan to 34th Street south to world trade center, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Coney Island, Gerritsen Beach, Howard Beach and other neighborhoods along the coast line suffered a massive power outage for weeks (Gibbs and Holloway, 2013). There was a shortage of light towers which posed a big challenge to neighborhood safety. Through the joint efforts of the New York State Emergency Management Office and FEMA, 500 light towers were provided to the affected communities and the light towers not only helped deter crimes and continue rescue operations after sunset, these towers also helped residents charge electronic devices. Further, 230 generators were deployed to hospitals, large multi-family buildings and nursing homes in order to keep the most needed facilities and buildings operational. With about 423 buildings and 80,000 residents being affected due to power outage, NYCHA entered into emergency agreement with electrical contractors to establish temporary switch boxes and restore electricity to the power grids of Con Edison and LIPA (Gibbs and Holloway, 2013). Within 15 days after the storm, 150 electricians restored power supply to about 400 buildings.
Lessons Learned and Action Report
- Lack of Effective Catastrophic Management and Recommendations
Whenever catastrophic disasters like Sandy or Katrina hit us, we feel helpless and often the sheer power of the hurricane numbs our ability to react in a coordinated way. There are several things that could have been done in a much better way that would have saved many lives and reduced billions of dollars’ worth of assets. During Katrina, it was observed that an overall effective catastrophic management plan is missing in the US. The plan was there on paper which required coordination between federal, state and local government which was lacking at that time. Federal Government in case of catastrophic national disaster often only responds to the needs of the state and local government. In many cases federal government is more equipped and knowledgeable than the state government to handle such situations but it cannot command and coordinate its plan in conjunction with the state government. Even within the federal government during national disasters the command and control authority hierarchy is not very clear and it creates unnecessary delay in response. After Katrina, efforts have gone into involving homeland security in revising plans and current structures. Homeland security is responsible for ensuring the training, organization and implementation of National Preparedness goal. Therefore, an effective catastrophic management plan has to be brought into practice with proper synergy established between the Federal, state and local governments.
- Proper Infrastructure for Local Police and Rescue System
During both Katrina and Sandy it was observed that local police and rescue system do not have sufficient capability and infrastructure to handle catastrophic events. During both the disasters it was observed that the people who are training to work in such extreme conditions are the defense forces. They have the communications infrastructure, logistics and operational capabilities to work in such extreme conditions. This does not mean that the nation should only take military help during disaster but it should look at the military capabilities and try to incorporate some of those in the National Recovery Plan to ensure there are more capable people available to help during disasters.
- Improvement of Communication
Communications is a big challenge during this kind of disasters. Sandy and Katrina showed us how important communication capability is and how easily they can be broken. Katrina destroyed 911 services in large part of Gulf Coast region. Sandy did the same in New Jersey coast. Along with communication loss power made the matter worse. Federal, local and State had assets available in those region during that time but due to less coordination and lack of integration knowledge they were never used. This is one area which probably still requires a comprehensive back-up communication continuity plan during disasters.
- Action Plan for Power Outage
During Sandy one of the biggest problems faced was the power outage. Sandy was predicted days before it actually hit the coast but still portions of New York City was without power for almost 3 weeks after Sandy. Boiler and power stations were completely devastated by Sandy which was surprising as they knew well in advance what was going to come. Many parts of the city got back power and heat within few days of Sandy because of efforts from military engineers, private company contractors and relentless work from the workers of electrical department of New York. It was exposed after Sandy that there is no plan for recovery against a mass power outage during and after a catastrophic disaster. In future a comprehensive power restoration plan should be chalked out. How to dewater and start the generators quickly, how to restore power in a coordinated fashion as per priority after the disaster and how to develop offsite power generator facilities during and after the catastrophe should be an integral part of the plan.
Conclusion
Hurricane Katrina and hurricane Sandy both were the deadliest and costliest hurricanes to have ever struck the United States. The massive destruction brought by both the hurricanes were enormous in proportions, with 1,800 lives lost and a loss worth $103 billion due to Katrina and 286 lives lost and a loss of $ 65 billion owing to Sandy. The emergency action plan taken at the time of hurricane Katrina was faulty in nature with delayed evacuation order given to the residents and delayed rescue operation taking place due to which a lot many people died of starvation and exhaustion. Further, reports of racism was there during Katrina, but though no reports of racism surfaced during the rescue operation during Sandy aftermath, there were a lot of suffering due to power outage for weeks. It is hurricane of such massive destructive capability that put into question about the efficacy of the current emergency response plan. In order to deal with future hurricanes, having an effective catastrophic management plan is not enough, a perfect synergy between the local, state and federal government has to be established with proper infrastructure built for the local police and rescue teams. Communication channels have to be improved and the problem of power outage should be addressed effectively. Hopefully, if the recommended steps, based on the lessons learned while dealing with the aftermaths of the hurricanes, could be properly implemented then the country will remain best equipped to face the next hurricane.
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