In terms of risk likelihood reduction, levees are built to reduce the likelihood of a body of water flooding an area (Coppola, 2011). In New Orleans, levees were constructed around the city to protect against flooding. During Katrina, a large number of those levees were breached and topped over pouring billions of gallons of water into New Orleans from the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Borgne, and Lake Pontchartrain (American Society of Civil Engineers Hurricane Katrina External Review Panel, 2007). The American Society of Civil Engineers Hurricane Katrina External Review Panel (2007) stated “there were two direct causes of the levee breaches: collapse of several levees with concrete floodwalls (called I-walls) because of the way they were designed,
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305). While this statement may be simple enough, the execution is anything but. One of the challenges of the response effort during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was the breakdown key infrastructure, namely the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). The law at the time of Hurricane Katrina mandated that members of the NOPD were required to live in city limits. As a result almost 80% of the NOPD member’s homes were destroyed, leaving many officers stranded and forcing others to focus their attention on their own families and situations. Moreover, police stations and police vehicles were also destroyed leaving the force short of any supplies, ammunition, or transportation (Sims, 2007). The inability of the NOPD to carry out simple policing functions left much of the community vulnerable to violence and theft. Looting became a serious problem in the aftermath of Katrina and is likely the result of a diminished police force. Assaults against responders and victims occurred, this drastically affected search and rescue operations. At one point rescue efforts were called off due to snipers firing upon ground and air rescuers (Coppola, 2011). Unlike the NOPD that relied heavily on local infrastructure to respond, the US Coast Guard was able to respond quickly and efficiently despite the breakdown of critical infrastructure (Sims, …show more content…
In an effort to expedite the recovery process and to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the damage of the hurricane, several agencies deployed damage assessment teams. FEMA, for example, deployed a Mitigation Assessment Team (MAT) on September 26 to conduct aerial and ground observations (Hurricane Katrina Mitigation Assessment Team, 2006). Based on what was observed and reported, preliminary estimates report that Katrina had caused approximately $5.5 billion in damage to infrastructure, roads, and bridges, up to 350,000 damaged vehicles and 2,400 damaged ships, and 450,000 displaced people. Additionally, the report states that some 800,000 Louisiana residents requested assistance from various State and Federal relief agencies (Hurricane Katrina Mitigation Assessment Team,
305). While this statement may be simple enough, the execution is anything but. One of the challenges of the response effort during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina was the breakdown key infrastructure, namely the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). The law at the time of Hurricane Katrina mandated that members of the NOPD were required to live in city limits. As a result almost 80% of the NOPD member’s homes were destroyed, leaving many officers stranded and forcing others to focus their attention on their own families and situations. Moreover, police stations and police vehicles were also destroyed leaving the force short of any supplies, ammunition, or transportation (Sims, 2007). The inability of the NOPD to carry out simple policing functions left much of the community vulnerable to violence and theft. Looting became a serious problem in the aftermath of Katrina and is likely the result of a diminished police force. Assaults against responders and victims occurred, this drastically affected search and rescue operations. At one point rescue efforts were called off due to snipers firing upon ground and air rescuers (Coppola, 2011). Unlike the NOPD that relied heavily on local infrastructure to respond, the US Coast Guard was able to respond quickly and efficiently despite the breakdown of critical infrastructure (Sims, …show more content…
In an effort to expedite the recovery process and to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the damage of the hurricane, several agencies deployed damage assessment teams. FEMA, for example, deployed a Mitigation Assessment Team (MAT) on September 26 to conduct aerial and ground observations (Hurricane Katrina Mitigation Assessment Team, 2006). Based on what was observed and reported, preliminary estimates report that Katrina had caused approximately $5.5 billion in damage to infrastructure, roads, and bridges, up to 350,000 damaged vehicles and 2,400 damaged ships, and 450,000 displaced people. Additionally, the report states that some 800,000 Louisiana residents requested assistance from various State and Federal relief agencies (Hurricane Katrina Mitigation Assessment Team,