The ability to predict precisely when and where the next natural disaster, industrial accident, or terrorist attack will strike is limited. And, given the circumstances and difficulty of predicting which adversary will strike and how it will strike, DHS did the best they could. When it came to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina. A main circumstances of DHS leadership failing was the inability to understand Katrina as an incident of national significance on par with September 11 2001 (9/11). Instead, they responded to the disaster as if it was a routine natural disaster until it was too late.…
In Katrina’s Wake: Rethinking the Military’s Role in Domestic Emergencies Regional Commands SFC Karissa M. Maradol 17 April 2018 In Katrina’s Wake: Rethinking the Military’s Role in Domestic Emergencies Regional Commands Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history, amplified by human error. There are National Response Plans for every possible disaster whether it is homeland security or natural disasters. During Katrina, the mass confusion was a result of gross underestimation of the potential threat and a poor understanding of the different levels of responsibility. Currently, Regional Command and North Command only oversee portions of the relief effort and only provide assistance…
On January 17th 1994, at 4:31am, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, killing more than 60, injuring more than 9,000, and causing widespread damage (Taylor, 2014). With the vast amount of damage, loss of life, and injuries it is easy to understand how the local and state responders would have quickly been overwhelmed in their response measures. This is the exact sort of emergency that the Stafford Act was developed for. According to (Hunter, 2009), “its stated goal is to provide an orderly and continuing means of assistance by the Federal Government to State and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to alleviate suffering and damage which may result from such disasters” (pg.…
As measured by FEVS, DHS has been on a steady decline since 2010 and is now ranked last in the area of leadership scores when compared to other Federal agencies. To make matters worse, though DHS has an understanding of the problem, the department actively hides recommendations (Markon, 2015, p. 3). With the continued lack of implementation of recommendations, employees have little if any assurance that things will change anytime soon. The only solution to this ongoing problem is for DHS to facilitate sustained leadership which can then implement lasting change across he multitude of agencies. Change in strategy…
In a federal system like America where there three levels of government, the major problem is coordination of government agencies which manifests largely during crisis like Katrina or the Boston Marathon bombing. These two crises differed in terms of response rate, coordination of concerned government agencies and Katrina was used as a lesson for future crises. The United States creates more government agencies to respond to the demand of a growing population. However, the government experiences the mammoth task of coordinating these agencies on a daily basis, let alone during the crisis periods like Katrina and Boston Marathon bombing.…
Federalism and Hurricane Katrina: Hurricane Katrina, one of the biggest National disasters we have see in twenty years was an ordeal that exposed some of the problems with our federal system of response to national disasters. The idea of federalism in the United States is that the power is shared and divided into many different branches and governments. This system provides democracy and makes a totalitarian takeover almost impossible. However, this system also so has downfalls, the system of federalism makes sharing powers quite difficult because when one division of the government isn’t doing its job the constitution almost makes it impossible for any other division or branch to intervene. During Hurricane Katrina the federalism in America…
In the reflections of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the unsteady response associated with dealing with the historic disaster that his New Orleans gives way to thorough discussion the levels of responsibilities and role of the federal, state, and local authorities in times of disaster and emergency response to such disasters like Katrina. Under the systems or practice where more power is pushed to the federal government to spearhead and to always play the lead role is not a good idea and Katrina exposed the truth in that. In as much as federalism exist, Homeland security and the disaster management organization should operate or response to national disasters and not just act on federal missions. Before, Hurricane Katrina made a land…
The United States Department of Homeland Security is the third largest cabinet within the United States Federal Government, founded by former president George W. Bush in 2002. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has headquarters located in Washington D.C, and currently has a total of BLANK offices located throughout the United States, as well as international offices. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for several functions within the United States that ultimately ensure the safety and security of the United States from terrorist actions, as well as other hazards. The Department of Homeland Security currently employees a total of 229,000 employees from a total of (NUMBER) agencies under the Secretary of Homeland Security,…
According to GAO 187 report of (2011), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assessed that as of the year 2009 the mixture alien population within the United States was around 25.3 million, as well as around 14.5 million aliens with legal immigration status and around 10.8 million aliens with no legal immigration status (p. 1). This is consistent with Rosenblum & McCabe (2014) report, that the United States formally deported or (“expelled”) in more than 4.6 million non-citizens since Congress toughened the country's immigration control framework in 1996 which has amounted 3.7 million of these expulsions from the U.S. since the formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003( pp.1-2). In fact, both George W. Bush and Barack…
The Office of Homeland Security (OHS) was created eleven days after the events of September 11, 2001 with the purpose to oversee and coordinate a national strategy to protect the United States against terrorism and act as a responder to any future attacks. In November 2002, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 which resulted in the largest government reorganization in the history of the US with- the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Some of the functions DHS focuses on includes border security, transportation security, cyber security, critical infrastructure, and emergency management with a primary focus on preventing terrorist attacks. The idea behind DHS was to bring 22 different agencies under one roof to…
The Federal response process to a disaster can be started in three different ways. One way is for the governor of the affected state to present a formal request for federal assistance. Another way for federal response if a federal entity was damaged which the president can declare a presidential emergency. The third one is the newest form for federal assistance to be request, which the president can start the pre-deployment process of resources for in anticipation of disaster. In this situation to pre-deploy resources doesn't require a formal declaration sign by the president.…
The Federal government says it has plans if there is ever a disaster in the country, When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans it was a massive disaster that caused $180 million dollars in damages, displaced 777,000 residents, and killed 1,836 people. The federal government failed to help New Orleans when the hurricane struck, until days later when The President sent 7,200 active duty troops to help. According to the Constitution the government’s job is "To lay and Collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the Common defence and general welfare" a part of the government's job is to promote the general welfare of the people. When disaster struck the government was ill-prepared and coordination of the…
The Department of Defense (DoD) decided to get out of their comfort zone by taking an opposite approach to software development with the utilization of open-source software (OSS) (O’Brien & Marakas, 2011). The DoD considered that OSS is nearly equivalent to most other commercial software and should be used throughout the entire DoD. The DoD is drawn to the open-source software’s positive ability to be easily used and quickly modified. The creation of new developments and decreased expenses for maintenance and ownership are other assets to OSS. The publicly available software continues to improve through the daily review of wide range of peers who searches for deficiencies.…
Crisis Cleanup Volunteering Opportunities “The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you” -Brian Tracy. This quote from Brian Tracy shows by doing good things,good things will happen to you. Natural Disasters are very big problems in all of the United States, and even in the world. Many people lose their homes and even family members.…
Terrorism is a very serious and extremely common crime in the world today. The evolution of terrorism is very complex, however in the beginning of the twentieth century the most often used method was assasination. Since then, terrorists have displayed much more significant threats and acts of terrorism on different parts of the world. Terrorism is generally defined as the unlawful use of force against persons or property in order to intimidate the government, frighten the civilian population, or coerce a segment of the public to surrender to political and social demands. (Karmen, A.)…