Government Response To Hurricane Katrina

The articles have pointed some challenges that intergovernmental bodies were faced with in the wake of hurricane Katrina and the survey taken by the National League of Cities. Interestly, the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe have sparked arguments saying that those who were responsible failed to respond effectively to the situation. Besides, Hurricane Katrina the issue of the unfunded mandates was a great concern for the local governments in the 1990’s with a shrinking municipal financial resources that calls for congress to address urgently. These two circumstances significantly challenged the intergovernmental bodies to review some of their processes.

Hurricane Katrina catastrophe did spark some arguments and challenged federal government. One of the arguments was the perception of the growing federal role which has created bureaucratic process and levels. Because of the federalist system the process to respond a disaster has mandated to start with the local government where the designated area is to have a calculated disaster management plan. Hence in the event of any disaster the local officials will automatically know how to respond and alert the residents. Moreover, the state or local government ought to utilize the resources in their capacity to respond to any disaster and only when they exhaust these resources …show more content…
In this way it does not override the state’s responsibility to respond to disaster but step in as an overseer of nation’s affairs. On the other hand, the state government should closely monitor the situation and as soon as it was advised of its severity it should take immediate action to seek the assistance and declare the martial