Introduction

Hurricanes Katrina was a category five tropical cyclone that occurred in 2005 august, which was detrimental since it caused $ 125 billion damage, particularly in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Also, it caused over 12000 deaths (Orr, 2017). It was the most destructive tropical cyclone on record. Hurricane Sandy was one of the deadliest and destructive and cost almost $70 billion in damage. bnbAlso, it was the second-costliest Hurricane on record in the United States. With the occurrence of the two hurricanes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency responded differently.

Comparison FEMA response between Hurricane Katrina and Sandy

Mobilization

Ideally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responded differently to hurricanes at the same time they responded similarly in some way. For the case of Katrina BeforeBefore hit by storm at Louisiana the governor at the time in Kathleen Blanco, put the state into a voluntary evacuation state (Orr, 2017). The day that followed Mayor of New Orleans started to give rules on voluntary evacuation but with time storms grows stronger which forced him to instruct for compulsory evacuation.

On the other hand FEMA response to Hurricane Sandy was quite different and the measures taken were more effective. Due to Post-Katrina Reform Act that allows FEMA to declare emergency before the storm allowed for preposition of people and supplies (Orr, 2017). This time sound FEMA’s preparation were leaning forward to assisting local and state partners responding to largest storm to but the nation’s biggest metropolitan area.

Command and Control

During Katrina’s case once the storms touched down in Orleans, FEMA deployed over 1000 homeland security workers and ask that no ambulance nor a firefighter was to be allowed without being mobilized by state and local authorities’ .The response above affected the impact of disaster during and after the Hurricane storms. Moreover, FEMA would not accept any non-government agencies for instance American Red Cross to provide any assistance during and after the storms (Parker, 2018). As a result many citizens were left homeless because they were destroyed with floods. The house known as superdome became overpopulated.

Hurricane Sandy evacuation was done effectively within 48 hours of landfall, over 1200 people had been evacuated and were already in the field (Parker, 2018). FEMA went on door to door of the affected neighborhoods. Over a million shelf-ready meals and million liters of water were put in place ready for distribution by voluntary agencies and National Guard.

Response and recovery

During Katrina FEMA’s response took three days without having an effective command and control (Parker, 2018). They did not made an easy way for donors to send relief items to the tsunami victims in New Orleans. Federal agencies had varied unfamiliarity with their responsibilities and roles therefore they took a very long time in responding to the disaster.

Moreover, FEMA refused trucks from Walmart loaded with water for New Orleans and prevented Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel. Also it refused Amtrak’s offers to evacuate victims and they wouldn’t return calls from American Bus Association. American Bus Station together with Motor coach Association could not reach FEMA to offer help for evacuations (Maly, Kondo, & Banba, 2017).

With Sandy case FEMA also allowed other private and voluntary persons to participate in preparedness against the Hurricanes. FEMA allowed for formation of FEMA Corps which consisted of young people between 18 to 24 years. The group was deployed in New York to participate in response. Merchant Marine training ships were provided to house FEMA forces to avoid taking available rooms from survivors.

Other charitable organizations were also allowed to assist in response against Hurricane. The American Red Cross set up shelters and feeding stations across the affected areas (Lewis, 2019). Catholic Charities, The Salvation Army and other nonprofit organizations immediately participated in working on relief efforts. They went from door to door proving clothes and handed out supplies.

Logistics

Furthermore, supplies were blocked for instance private medical air transport companies played a very crucial role in evacuation after Katrina. However FEMA officials could not help in coordination of its services and they actively blocked flights. Doctors volunteers were also turned a way for instance doctors sent to emergency facility at New Orleans Airport to offer their services were turned away because their names were not in government database (Lewis, 2019). FEMA also deliberately blocked delivery of emergency supplies ordered by Methodist Hospital.

Unlike Katrina’s case, in sandy before Sandy landed they had staged food, water and equipment in New Jersey to be ready to be used after storms. FEMA worked hand in hand with national Incident Management Assistance Teams. Direct relief was also supplied for example more than 89 shipments of medication and supplies worth over $ 2.2 million to more than 35 healthcare clinics and centers in the hardest-hit areas (Lewis, 2019).

Conclusion

Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy we disasters were two disasters that were more detrimental since it cost loses of billions of money and also cause thousand deaths. US have empowered Federal Emergency Management Agency team to respond to arising disasters. However, they responded differently whereby Sandy response was more effective than Sandy. Katrina’s response had no proper command and control. FEMA’s failed in response to Katrina because they blocked assistance from charitable organizations. In Sandy’s case was an improvement from Katrina’s case .Improvement was due to Post-Katrina Reform Act that allows FEMA to declare emergency from the impending danger.

References

Lewis, L. A. (2019). A Consideration of a National Approach: The US Planetary Impact Emergency Response Working Group (PIERWG); A Joint Effort between NASA and FEMA. In Planetary Defense (pp. 151-162). Springer, Cham.

Maly, E., Kondo, T., & Banba, M. (2017). Experience from the United States: Post-Katrina and Sandy. In Land Use Management in Disaster Risk Reduction (pp. 79-106). Springer, Tokyo.

Orr, T. B. (2017). Hurricane Katrina and America’s Response. Cherry Lake.

Parker, J. (2018). HURRICANE KATRINA: THE POSTERCHILD FOR MODERN NATRUAL DISASTERS.

Federal Emergency Management Agency Response to Hurricanes

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