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Topic 1: Response to Hurricane Katrina The response to Hurricane Katrina, by all standards, was a major failure of the federal, state, and local government’s emergency management systems. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) proved ineffective. Why do you believe that DHS and FEMA proved to be so ineffective in this disaster? Discuss the changes that have occurred since then to improve the emergency response to such disasters, and state whether or not you believe these changes will be effective in similar disasters. NB: You can read my classmate assignment below to give you an understanding: Hurricane Katrina was a horrible natural disaster that took place in 2005. The Hurricane was considered to be a category 5 tropical storm, that destroyed roughly $120 billion dollars’ worth of damage and tragically killing close to 1,200 people. The state of Louisiana suffered roughly 57% of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina. A large portion of New Orleans was underwater for nearly two and a half weeks after the events from the Hurricane. Still to this day hurricane Katrina is considered to be one of the worst natural disasters that have occurred on American soil. Government Organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had a rather troublesome time trying to deal with the disasters. I believe that both DHS and FEMA struggled to deal with the events due to a lack of communication. According to Whitley et al. (2006). During the first few hours and days after landfall, we saw breakdowns in communication within and among every level of government: between federal, state, and local officials; and, perhaps most critically, between government and the citizens of the affected areas. We saw an inability to establish with any certainty what was actually happening and to deploy the appropriate resources to deal with each situation. Many citizens in the Gulf Coast region and elsewhere in the United States may have lost confidence in the government's ability to respond to a catastrophic event (p. 3). There are a lot of factors as to why there may have been a severe level of miscommunication. DHS was still relatively new at the time. I feel that with DHS being founded in 2002 and Hurricane Katrina happening just a few years later, DHS may have been a little inexperienced. FEMA was underfunded at the time and couldn’t adequately respond as they should. After Hurricane Katrina took place, FEMA was issued power to help plan and utilize resources before a storm or natural disaster takes place. Which could hopefully prevent anything like Hurricane Katrina from happening again. I believe that this will be beneficial to all states and their people because, it took the government days to respond to the people in New Orleans, being prepared by moving in supplies could help prevent infrastructure damage as well as cut down on casualties sustained from further natural disasters. REFERENCE: Whitley, J., Coddington, K., & Koenig, G. (2006). Homeland security after hurricane katrina: Where do we go from here. Natural Resources & Environment, 20(4), 3-9. Topic 2: Assessing Risks You are the director of emergency services for your community and you are responsible for developing an emergency response plan. First, you must identify areas of risk by identifying those natural and technological hazards within your community. Describe how you would go about identifying these natural and technological hazards. How would you assess the potential risk to the community that these hazards present? Discuss ways that you would use to ensure these hazards are updated regularly or whenever they change. NB:I do not think you need reference for Topic 2 because it your own idea.