U.S, Emergency Responses Following the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Disaster

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina, which struck the U.S. Gulf Coast with catastrophic loss of life and property, triggered a series of unprecedented social, economic and environmental disasters. It revealed great weaknesses in U.S. emergency management policy and program such as 1) Failure of disaster preparedness, response and relief coordination among state, local and federal agencies in the storm-affected areas; 2) Inadequate public information to support policy decisions and public response; 3) Chaotic movement and shelter operations including failure of basic human service delivery in shelters and inadequate contingency planning for relocating needed services; and 4) An unprecedented need for recovery and reconstruction resources with likely national security and policy reform implications.