It is no surprise that our country has faced much devastation due to severe weather. Hurricane Katrina is perhaps one of the most critiqued disasters due to the failure of rapid government response. In May 2011 a tornado hit the town of Joplin, MO and killed at least 140 people. In the previous month more than 100 tornadoes struck the southern states. Although tornadoes are terrible, they cannot be prevented. However, there are many measures that can be taken to reduce the number of casualties. President Obama said the federal government had pledged its assistance and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been mobilized throughout the devastated areas. Also, after a disaster hits, the community should come together in order to help locate and treat victims. Clean up efforts are also very important after a severe weather disaster.
I believe that more efforts should be made to warn citizens of oncoming severe weather. Preparation before severe weather can be as, if not more crucial than the response. If stronger efforts are made to warn, prepare, and evacuate citizens, more lives can be saved. Time is also one of the biggest obstacles. Time can be a challenge in evacuating people before a storm and time can also be a challenge in deciding the best and most effective way to respond after the disaster.
Do you believe that the United States have been more effective in responding to severe weather since the criticism of Hurricane Katrina? How can we better prepare and respond to severe weather disasters?
Tornadoes. June, 2011. "New York Times." <www.nytimes.com>
Interesting since extreme weather is the new normal as posted on Moodle. I found it troubling that "debt dealers" on the Senate used disaster relief as a chip in the debt reduction game. We will need to harness our resources as you write to assist others struck by disaster--but maybe we should also be thinking about building our communities in places and in ways that can withstand such disasters?
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Katherine!
ReplyDeleteI think the United States NEEDS to be doing a better job after its beginning falter with Katrina. I now think they are more prepared to handle these types of disasters, and like Grace brought up, I think we have put our selves in better positions to allow for these situations to become sustainable. We need to learn from the past disasters that we have had to better ourselves for the future disasters to come. They are going to happen, it is inevitable. And we have to be prepared. We can learn from our past mistakes and build our communities in areas that are better adept to these extreme weather conditions. We know what our infrastructures can withstand and cannot. And with our past experience, I am confident that we will succeed.
ReplyDeleteJust as Bryan does, I feel it is essential that the United States does a better job at managing our disaster relief. With disasterous weather seeming to become ever more of the norm throughout the entire country and throughout the world, it is important that we look at how we assemble our cities and towns, as well as government relief efforts to better handle these situations. I feel this topic can also have us take a look at our infrastracture and how it is built. We realize the need to repair our crumbling and out dated infrustructre, and I feel that if we do this, perhaps evacuation could be taken into account. Cities were built to handle large populations without looking at how disasters affect these populations.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that more can be done to provide better warnings when these natural disasters make themselves apparent, along the supplying relief to communities post experiencing natural disasters. The allocation and storing of resources for these times is something to be looked at. I also agree with what was mentioned earlier that communities in these areas where natural disasters are a highly likely and re-occurring threat, improvements can be made in construction and systems to better reduce potential loss, destruction and need for rebuild furthering requiring the use of even more resources.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do think that there has been a conscious effort to improve disaster response since hurricane Katrina, I still do not think we are quite where we need to be. I completely agree with Katherine that preparation can be as crucial as the response to the disaster. There needs to be a better system for getting the information out there before the disaster occurs and a better evacuation plan to ensure that as few people are injured as possible. While there are privacy issues with giving out phone numbers and emails, figuring out a system where emails or text messages are sent to each individual in the area of the disaster I think is the next step in preparation. Basically everyone has a cell phone now, if not a smart phone, so figuring out a way to warn people through email or text would ensure that everyone is aware of what is going on.
ReplyDeleteKatherine, I completely agree with you. It is crucial that attention be given to the preparation of natural disasters because like you said, if stronger efforts are made to warn and prepare citizens, more lives will be saved. I believe that after Hurricane Katrina, we have learned and reminded ourselves that preparation is important; however, we still have much work to do. As Eric stated, we need a better way of getting information out there to enable a quicker evacuation plan. Notifications should be sent via cell phone, email, etc to send warning to everyone.
ReplyDeleteI have lived in Springfield for my whole life and in 2006 two tornadoes came through and did a lot of damage. While it was not anywhere close to what happened in Joplin, you can still see signs of that tornado today. It is very hard to recover from a natural disaster quickly. It takes time and hard work. I believe that FEMA must take actions on natural disasters immediately after they happen.
ReplyDeleteProviding warning to people before a natural disaster is the best and only hope to maximize the number of survivors. Having plenty of warning time allows people to find shelter or other means to protect themselves and their families. However, as seen with what happened in Joplin, it is difficult for the government to establish ways of warning people when disasters like tornados happen so fast. I am not sure if the government has gotten any better with responding to disasters, but I feel like as a nation we are always ready to lend aid to people after a disaster. For example, during Katrina the churches around my neighborhood got people together to go to Louisiana and help lend aid. Right after the tornado in Joplin, many institutions around my house held drives where people would bring aid items somewhere and they would fill up a semi then drive it to Missouri. So even if the government is slow to lend aid there are still millions of people who are ready to lend a hand.
ReplyDeleteThe reaction of the country to Hurricane Katrina was awful so almost anything is better than that. However, I do think more could be done to better equip people to handle these sorts of things. If people are aware a natural disaster is coming they should give as much warning as possible to those it will affect. Also after it has happened, as much relief as possible should be sent to the area to help. Natural disasters are something that can't be prevented but working as a country to help them the most we can is something that should always be done.
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