Hurricane Katrina Reflection

This reflection paper is basically summarized how intergovernmental agencies failed to work together during the Hurricane Katrina. It was due to “federal, state and local officials did not have a clear understanding of their own roles and responsibilities or how the entire inter-governmental response system should operate” (Schneider, 2008). He also mentioned that it was the “mismatching of what various levels of government expected to do and what they actual do in any emergency situation” are the main contributors to this problem. As simplified by Walters and Kettl (2005), it was the problems of “poor coordination and communication” between levels of government were evident in the Hurricane Katrina events. Schneider mentioned that these “misunderstanding between levels of government can be very destructive”, in which no official is willing to take responsibility for his or her actions and they tend to blame each other. …show more content…
They are supposed to work together rather than federal and/or state government overrule or supersedes the activities of the local government. It should begin with local municipal and county government developed and have the capacity to implement its basic emergency preparedness and response procedures, informing citizens in their various jurisdictions on what they supposed to do if disaster of this magnitude strikes. Also, the roles and responsibilities of all local officials should be identified and clearly spelled out to them. The local government then, only may seek the assistance of the state and the federal government, if the disaster is beyond their capacity to manage alone in terms of technical advice, personnel and financial