The existing framework for homeland security (HS) never offered the required system to handle issues posed by Hurricane Katrina. Even though homeland security designed a response framework, which ably manages the requirements of a catastrophic threats, wildfires, as well as artificial calamities, the framework had structural drawbacks for managing Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina had significant effect on homeland security (HS) environment because of some flaws within national preparedness. These flaws were apparent in the processes for sound or unified control of the national disaster response, knowledge of the plan for preparedness, control or command structures in the Federal administration, as well as regional coordination or planning (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2012). The paper discusses these flaws, which made Hurricane Katrina to have a significant effect on homeland security (HS) environment.
Unified Control of National Disaster Response
It is prudent to effectively coordinate many activities as well as organization to manage a disaster. Under the response framework of homeland security during Hurricane Katrina, the national government just coordinated available resources to address the requirements of the state as well as local administrations dependent on their calls for help. Based on national disaster management framework as well as response plan, State or national agencies design coordination and command arrangements to help the local coordination or command structures in disaster. Nevertheless, such a system does not manage situations of disaster having extensive competing needs, the absence of running local administrations, as well as inadequate resources. These challenges hindered quick as well as proper marshaling of local, State, and national resources to address Hurricane Katrina.
Following landfall caused by Hurricane Katrina, local as well as state authorities fathomed the adverse effects of the disaster; nevertheless, because of damages to response abilities and infrastructure, they lacked the capacity to communicate or coordinate the response. National or Federal authorities made efforts to carry out duties normally done by local or state officials. For example, rescuing citizens locked by floodwaters, evacuation of people, as well as offering law enforcement, all without the advantage of earlier planning or effective local and state disaster command center to control their efforts (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 2012).
Flaws existed in command as well as control in Federal government. Concerning the organization of Federal disaster response, homeland security architecture of control, as well as command strategies and available arrangements of plans, failed. The command centers or points in DHS or elsewhere within federal administration experienced obscured and frequently overlapped duties and roles. The secretary of HS experienced challenges in coordination unrelated activities of national agencies and departments. The secretary of HS never had real-time, precise situational understanding of facts and on-going response actions from incident areas of the local, state, and Federal players (Ramsay & Kiltz, 2014).
Knowledge as well as practice within the plans had challenges that made the impact of Hurricane Katrina on homeland security environment significant. Key or significant decision-makers were unfamiliar with these plans. The Federal response plan was new to authorities at the local, Federal, or state levels prior to the disaster. The lack of knowledge or awareness of national or Federal plan led to ineffective management of the state, local, and Federal disaster response (The United States, 2006). The integrating standard operating procedures, in most cases, were underdeveloped or non-existent when the disaster hit. For that reason, some of the definite processes as well as procedures of the national response plan were inappropriately executed. Besides, Federal partners or agencies had to function without some prescribed chains and guidelines of command.
References
Bullock, J. A., Haddow, G. D., & Coppola, D. P. (2012). Introduction to Homeland Security: Principles of all-hazards risk management. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Ramsay, J. D., & Kiltz, L. A. (2014). Critical issues in homeland security: A casebook. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
The United States. (2006). Hurricane Katrina: a nation still unprepared: Special report of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate together with additional views. Washington, DC: US Gov. Print. Off.
