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Hurricane Katrina: a severe natural disaster in North America in 2005: A natural disaster is an external environmental factor. The area where a natural disaster occurs has many effects and influences on different aspects of human lives. A hurricane is one of the external environmental factors of natural disasters. The hurricane is a storm formed over tropical oceans. It can spread over hundreds of thousands of square miles. The factors involved for generating a hurricane are ocean (warm surface water), rain (high humidity), winds from the same direction at a constant speed, and gravitational forces. Heat is extracted from the ocean and warm, moist air begins to rise. The moist air forms clouds and instability in the upper atmosphere and begins to spiral. The sea becomes turbulent because of the spiraling movement. Then a large amount of sea water is captured and suspended in the air. This situation increases the rate of evaporation and helps fuel the storm (Bradford and Carmichael, 2009, pp.167-168). A severe hurricane has a wind with a speed greater than 64 knots (74 miles per hour), according to the Beaufort scale. Generally, a hurricane originates in the tropical parts of the Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea. (thefreedictionary.com) Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in North America There were some fatal hurricanes in the past. One of the notable fatal hurricanes was hurricane Katrina. It happened from August 25 though September 2, 2005 in North America. The most affected areas were south Florida, the Florida Panhandle, coastal Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, particularly New Orleans. It was the second fatal disaster because of the hurricane after the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the costliest one in the U.S. history. About 2,000 people died and estimated property damaged was $75 billion in the event of hurricane Katrina (Shuman, 2007, p.265) whereas about 8000 people died in the event of 1900 Galveston hurricane (Larson, 1999, p.265). There are 5 categories of hurricane according to their storm intensity. The 5th category storm is a devastating, sustaining wind greater than 155 miles per hour. Hurricane Katrina was assessed as category 4 at landfall and the intensity of the storm reached category 5 level. Hurricane Katrina affected different aspects of lives in those affected areas and the USA as a whole (Bradford and Carmichael, 2007, P.175, volume 1). Hurricane Katrina affected many aspects which included economic, social, political, and governmental aspects of the USA. General economic effects during the year 2005 Employees generally get their payment at the end of every month for their services. When hurricane Katrina occurred, many people were about to receive their payment at the end of the month from their employer. The storm struck at the end of August. They could not get their payment before the hurricane Katrina hit them. Therefore, most of them did not have enough money to arrange the rescue activities. They were compelled to live in their own places. In the hurricane Katrina event, most of the helpless people lost their lives (Shuman, 2007). Almost all of the industries, factories, farms, forests, roads, electricity, and businesses were either badly affected or destroyed entirely. During the year 2005 after the event, hundreds of thousands of local residents lost their jobs. Many insurance companies did not provide insurance in that area and some of the insurance companies raised their insurance premiums for houses, business activities and so on because of the high risk of fatal hurricane. Many people could not afford for the insurance premium. Therefore, people could not get insurance for the future risk. The economic activities became very slow. Because of the unemployment and destruction of industries, the financial activities were reduced sharply. As a result the government could not collect adequate taxes. Therefore, local government would not able to rebuild the infrastructure facilities in the state and the effected areas. The development activities in those areas in the year of the event were almost none. The priorities of the government were the rehabilitation of the affected people. The then government had sought for help billions of dollars for repairs and reconstruction in the region. The figure in terms of dollars of loss because of damages to the economy caused by destruction of infrastructure facilities was huge. The property damaged was about $ 89 billion (Burton and Hicks, 2005). Thus, the destruction of property and loss of lives burdened the state and federal government in many ways. The extra burdens were to generate the employments, to rebuild the infrastructure facilities, to keep proper law and an ordered situation, and to develop the state(s) in all respects. General economic effects after 2005 The economic factor plays a vital role in human lives. Political stability, health care issues, job market, industry growth, business growth, education and other societal aspects are greatly influenced by the economy of a country. We have seen many problems in the countries where the economic situation is not good enough. The root of the problems in other aspect of life is an economic factor. The natural disaster first affects the economic sector. The hurricane Katrina badly affected the economic sector as well as took the lives of many people. Therefore, there were many problems after the Katrina event. Many obstacles emerged in rebuilding the economy of the disaster area. Hurricane Katrina caused short as well as long term economic impacts to the federal and state governments. Federal government had to allocate extra budget for rebuilding and developing those areas. For that purpose, the government needed extra funds. The government had to raise funds either increasing its debt capital (issuing government bonds), or increasing the taxes. It was extra burden to the people and government. Therefore, financial activities were not satisfactory in the areas where major destructions occurred. As a result of slow financial activities, development activities could not accelerate. This situation created many problems in the people’s lives and corporate operations. It will take a long time for the recovery of the wounds because of the fatal destruction of property and life. Moreover, the recent financial market crash added another problem to people and corporations who were severely affected because of the natural disaster. Therefore, hurricane Katrina will have the negative impacts in many years’ in future in finance, infrastructure and development sectors. Internal politics Hurricanes can not be prevented. Therefore, necessary steps need to be taken to avoid the loss of life and property. The state government of Louisiana declared a state of emergency on August 26. The then Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana requested federal government to provide National Guard troops to help meet the emergency. Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Governor Bob Riley of Alabama also declared a state of emergency. The governor of Louisiana asked then President George W. Bush to declare a federal state of emergency in his state. However, The White House gave the authority to the department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to respond on the emergencies due to hurricane. After the event, local and state agencies responded in an efficient manner as compare to federal government (Shuman, 2007). The state and federal governments were not well prepared for the emergency management, environmental policy, poverty and unemployment. The storms’ devastation prompted the political reactions. The ruling party lost its popularity. Federal government’s ruling Republican Party reached at the lowest point of popularity. Then President George W. Bush was blamed for lack of leadership. The delayed response to the fatal disaster of federal government and lack of emergency management raised the issue of racism. The majority of victims of hurricane Katrina were African-American. They were low income people. These victims spent more time in temporary shelters and were more vulnerable to permanent displacement as compared to middle-income and white people (Bullard and Wright, 2009, p.4). Because of this reason, the issue of race immerged quickly. African American people perceived that the federal government did not response immediately with the purpose because the disaster area was the black dominated area. Such thinking was extremely bad for the harmony of the society. As we mentioned earlier, the government was not prepared for such of huge destruction. Because of that reason, rescue operation after the terrible destruction was not efficient and got the criticism from different angles. Politicians tried to grab political gain taking the advantage of the vulnerable situation. It resulted on the loss for the ruling party and a huge gain for the opposition party. This became a permanent reputation loss of then administration and the republican. The opposition did not get the criticism. The then opposition party gained the political arena because of the political image loss of the ruling party. This has been a short term as well as a long term gain to the then opposition party. It needed extra time and efforts to understand the reality. However, this factor contributed to the greater political impact to the politicians and people in general. External politics Hurricane Katrina drew the attention of the politicians at the world wide level because of the rescue operation and crisis management after the tragic event. The minority community and economically marginalized people of the affected area were worried for their future settlement since they could not do anything without proper help. Many issues were raised because of the vulnerable situation and its settlement. Because of the mismanagement of the prices of goods, services and reconstruction activities skyrocketed. Ehrlich Howard J. in his book “Hate Crimes and Ethnoviolence” quoted that “Americans spent $ 10 billion more over the week on energy than they did a year ago in the same week”(Ehrlich, 2009). People could hardly afford for the price of goods and service. Another issue was about the external help. For the immediate response to the hurricane Katrina victims, Cuban President Fidel Castro proposed for the help to US 1,586 disaster-trained physicians and 26 tons of medical supplies and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez proposed for cheap gasoline and humanitarian supplies (Ehrlich, 2009, P. 131). Because of the proximity, they could provide their assistance within few hours and lives of hundreds of injured people could be saved. But, White House rejected the humanitarian assistance. Many human lives could be saved and many peoples in trouble would get help. Because of the White House decision, general people perceived that then government ignored the sensitivity of the injured people because of its own political reasons” (Ehrlich, 2009). Without change in our behavior and thinking, we can not survive in this changing world. History has proved that without change according to the need of time, level of thinking of people and environment, nobody, no system and no civilization can survive in this changing world. Everything is possible but it is the matter of time and the environment. Socio-psychological The badly affected area because of hurricane Katrina was New Orleans of Louisiana. The majority of residents in the New Orleans were African Americans. The majority of victims were black people. Moreover, people who were old, with ill health, children and poor who did not have vehicles to leave their places were the victims of the storms and floods. People surviving from the disaster were waiting for the food and water for five days. The rescue operation was delayed because of the lack of proper planning and management of rescue operations. The survivors were surrounded by dead bodies and sewage. The police protection, help and rescue operation were not implemented in time (Bassett, 2009). The government’s slow response raised the question of its intention. That horrifying situation helped to raise the issue of race. The psychological impact was that the rescue operations were not enough and were bias because of race. The delay rescue operation had been another subject matter to carry out the truth before the public to maintain the harmonize relationship among the different groups in the society. Many people believe there was a need to harmonize the relationship but not fuel the issue of race which emerged during that period (Bullard and Wright, 2009). Social security The security situation in the New Orleans aftermath was very poor. People started looting in the stores after the hurricane moved away. Many helpless people were searching for food and water. Reports in the flood news were carjacking, murders, thefts and rapes. Some news was inaccurate because of confusion. To handle the situations, thousands of troops were deployed in the affected areas. Many arrests were made in the suspicion of improper activities in those areas. Criminal background checks on the refugees were conducted. Some people were sent to jail to maintain the law and order situation in that area (Shuman, 2007). In short, government was able to keep the law and order situation in the area despite the discrepancies on its rescue operation and emergency management.

Government’s efforts

There were controversies on the news. Government had arranged to give immediate relief to the victims at its own pace. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) issued debit cards so that holders could purchase their daily needs without delay. Some of the debit cards were procured with fraudulently by the people. They were using false social security numbers who have died or they knew by any other means, false identifications to obtain the debit cards. The cards were used to pay luxury vacations and other illegal payment (Bradford and Carmichael, 2007, p.960). Further, government responded for rebuilding the city and disaster area because of the political reason. It was criticized that rebuilding the city was not wise enough because many people lost their lives, a lot property was destroyed and there is still high risk of Natural disasters in future. The government has been facing continuing problems for settling houses, employment, developing corporations, poverty, environmental policy issues and emergency management in those areas (Shuman, 2007). Therefore, government should seek alternative ways to settle the people of high natural disaster risk areas. Conclusion The rescue operation after the hurricane Katrina raised many issues. Similarly, the disaster left many negative impacts on the lives of people, and in political, social, and economical aspects. However, the problems and issues rose during or after the disaster helped to think and behave in a particular ways. Right decisions in time, early preparation for crisis management, planning for future development, adequate precautions for security of people and property, political and social movement, mutual respect among different beliefs, harmonize relationship among different groups of society could be overlooked otherwise in future in the very situation. Therefore, post and pre hurricane Katrina situations will be a proper path for future precautions. In the given scenario of the hurricane Katrina, the government should take appropriate steps to settle the people, and corporations in the safe zone. Moreover, we need to behave with people according to the new spirit and knowledge of 21st century era. Government should use the natural resources in such a way so that the loss of human resources and corporate property would be minimal. For example, Louisiana can be used to raise the forest and forest Industry. People living in Louisiana should be transferred to other safe states or areas. We should develop the education, health, finance, farms, and other businesses activities in relatively safe areas from natural catastrophes. We should use our land, forest, water and other natural resources optimally for the human beings and for the best interest of the nation. We have to rethink about the reconstruction program and should take the appropriate decision for the welfare of the people now and in future.

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