Letter to FEMA

Annie Vassallo
4200 54th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33711

November 30, 2007

Federal Emergency Management Agency
500 C Street S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20472


To Whom It May Concern,

I am a nineteen year old female student at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. I was doing some research on Hurricane Katrina and its response efforts and read many criticisms about your organization. I am writing in regards to hopefully getting a straightforward answer as to why it took FEMA so long to respond to Katrina.

I have read through many books and websites regarding FEMA and found that you indeed knew about the weak levees since hurricanes George and Ivan, and chose to postpone to meetings concerning their repair. I also found that it took the people of New Orleans six days before they got any food or water from you, while the people in Indonesia after the tsunami received food and water after only two days. In addition, thousands of firefighters were recruited from Utah by your organization but were not trained as emergency workers, instead were told to stand by President Bush while he walked through the wreckage.

Above all things, I wish I knew why. Why did it take you so long to get to Louisiana? Why didn’t you spend the money to hold the meetings to repair the levees? And why were thousands of professionals trained to stand by President Bush’s side? As a student and an American, I just want to know what was going through all of your heads when this was all happening. What really made you make these decisions?

I know that it is over and done with now, and you cannot go back and change the past. However, if you have no already done so, I urge you to spend that money to hold conferences to repair all you can. It is crucial that you think of the wellbeing of Americans instead of how President Bush looks at the scene of the disaster.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Annie Vassallo

Letter to the National Guard

Annie Vassallo
4200 54th Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33711


November 30, 2007


The National Guard Bureau
1411 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202-3231


To Whom It May Concern:

I am a nineteen year old female student at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. I was doing some research on Hurricane Katrina and its response efforts and read many great things about your organization. I am writing in regards to how well you responded as an organization and how greatly appreciated that is.

It has come to my attention that the National Guard was at the scene of Katrina the day that it hit, August 29, 2005. I have also seen that you helped in assisting law enforcement agencies with traffic control and security; transporting and distributing food, water and ice, conducting searches and rescues; providing generator support; and carrying out other missions to protect life and property. The Air and Cost guard efforts were those which surpassed many other organizational efforts to help keep the victims of hurricane Katrina safe.

I am proud to know that if I were in such a situation, the National Guard would be there on the spot to help. As we all know there were many other organizations that did not respond accordingly, and the response that you gave touched the victims of hurricane Katrina greatly. You saved thousands of lives and that is definitely a reason to consider yourselves heroes.

Please continue with the great work that you have displayed you are capable of. America is confident in knowing that we can count on the National Guard in a crisis like this.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Annie Vassallo

Hurricane Katrina Response

Hurricane Katrina can be criticized through the government’s preparation, management and reaction to the disaster, can be analyzed through the inequality served while evacuating from the disaster and thereafter, and can be discussed through the concerns with the rescue efforts and the lack of planning made by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and many other cities and states on August 29, 2005, which is when the United States’ federal government disappointed many in the nation. The United States government, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Bush’s administration responded miserably to Hurricane Katrina. Although the response efforts to Hurricane Katrina cannot be changed, United States citizens should understand that the federal government did not fulfill their duties to their potential.

At the time, the federal government’s preparation, management and reaction to the Hurricane Katrina were lethargic and indifferent. The US had absolutely no excuse as to whether or not they knew about how tragic hurricane Katrina was going to be because “there were plenty of warnings that we were on a headlong path to disaster” (Flynn, 46). In 1992, Hurricane Andrew was headed for Florida but at the last minute veered to the left and hit Louisiana. Louisiana’s exposure to hurricanes should have been a big warning sign to start preparing for the worst and fixing New Orleans up (double checking the levees, etc). Max Mayfield stated in a conference call one day before hurricane Katrina hit, that he “[didn’t] think anyone could tell you with any confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but it is obviously a very great concern” (Lee, When the Levees Broke). FEMA knew, as did Bush, that New Orleans’s levees were not strong enough to withhold the strength of hurricane Katrina. The federal government decided to ignore this crucial information and let hundreds of thousands of people go homeless. Not only did the government ignore such vital information, but Bush’s management with Katrina was delayed and ill-prepared. When the tsunami hit Indonesia, the US’s 82^nd Airborne took only two days until they were dropping loads of food and water for the people who were left with nothing after such devastation as said by Calvin Mackie. When hurricane Katrina hit in the US, “it took six days for the 82^nd Airborne – a military unit that is on call to respond within 18 hours to any military contingency around the world – to be deployed to the Gulf Coast from its home base in Fort Bragg, NC” (Flynn, 41) to get to New Orleans, Louisiana to help people from their own nation. However, the government’s response was not only pathetic, but President Bush’s immediate reaction to hurricane Katrina was apathetic and unresponsive. Bush knew days ahead of time that Katrina was going to hit, and it was going to hit hard and “as the levees cracked open in New Orleans, ushering an American city into hell, [Bush] chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, to give a speech in California rather than lead a hands-on government response to Katrina” (Rich, 199). Overall, Bush’s administration did not react accordingly to hurricane Katrina, and let their arrogance of power distract them; subsequently, the people of New Orleans were not considered a national priority.

At the same time, the inequality served while evacuating from the disaster and thereafter was a blatant example of the discrimination that still occurs in the “perfect” country known as the United States. Shepard Smith, an news anchor, boldly stated that the city was evacuated both immediately before and after the disaster, “what he did not have to say, since it was visible to the entire world, was that it was the poor who were left behind to drown” (Rich, 201). Many people, such as Kanye West, went as far to say that Bush hates black people. Although that is an audacious statement to make, some agree, and others would not be able to make any other assumption because the majority of who were left behind were African Americans. The US government made it clear that deserving to live came down to whether one was rich or one was poor. According to Frank Rich, “Katrina played like a contemporary remake of Titanic. New Orleans’s first class passengers made it safely into lifeboats; for those in steerage, it was the horrifying spectacle of every man, woman, and child for himself”. New Orleans did not have a population that was luxurious or extravagant by any means; in fact, according to Daniels, Kettl, and Kunreuther (On Risk and Disaster), the emergency management professionals defined places like Louisiana as “special populations” where certain groups of people need specific attention in case of a disaster. These specific groups of people (severely poor, disabled, elderly, and others who have trouble functioning on their own) lack the ability to evacuate a city without special assistance in case of an emergency: attention the people of New Orleans did not receive (112). Nor did these people receive temporary shelter arrangements that accommodated their medical needs during hurricane Katrina. The poor, elderly, disabled people of Louisiana were treated in a way that for decades Americans, have been trying to diminish. The United States federal government acted in discriminating ways in a time of crisis, which eventually did not lead to anything positive.

The concerns with the rescue efforts and the lack of planning made by FEMA were very prevalent during the disaster. According to Flynn in The Edge of Disaster, Hurricane Katrina happened out of pure negligence. After two near-misses with Hurricanes George and Ivan, officials decided to do some planning on the possible strike of a category 3 hurricane on New Orleans. This conference was sponsored by FEMA. The officials developed models and gave FEMA numbers on how many people would be stranded if a category 3 were to hit. FEMA decided to ignore the follow-up meetings, for they were “too expensive”. FEMA did not realize the expenses they would have paid for those follow-up meetings would have saved them billions of dollars that the government will have to spend on rebuilding an entire city (Flynn, 50). FEMA’s concern with image rather than substance during hurricane Katrina ironically made them look worse. After the government fired the director of FEMA, Michael Brown, they recruited thousands of firefighters from Utah to train them for what one would think as emergency workers, but instead were trained as “community relations officers for FEMA”. Their first assignment was to “stand bedside President Bush” as he toured the wreckage. (Rich, 203). FEMA’s inconsistency continued by making promises that later they could not keep, which was devastating for the people who still could not afford housing and medical attention. “FEMA announced it would award 60,000 households the maximum allowable relief of $26,200.” (Daniels, Kettl, Kunreuther, 16) However, the agencies who offered these proposals backed down, so FEMA decided to let the people, they promised to take care of, know that they would stop covering the hotel costs of more than 50,000 households by January 7^th. FEMA’s efforts can be seen as uncaring because there was an immense amount of evidence that they ignored and resources of which they did not utilize to their advantage.

Hurricane Katrina can be criticized through the government’s groundwork, organization and reaction to the disaster, can be analyzed through the inequality served while evacuating from the disaster and thereafter, and can be discussed through the concerns with the rescue efforts and the planning (or lack there of) made by FEMA. The people of the United States must realize what happened to New Orleans, Louisiana and all of its people were mistreated during hurricane Katrina. Although Katrina was going to hit either way, Bush’s administration was ill prepared. The government’s preparation, management and reaction to Hurricane Katrina were indolent and apathetic. Moreover, Bush’s administration proved to the United States they were not prepared for such a disaster and gave off an impression of inconsideration. Bush would be able to explain why it took him two days of leaving the people of New Orleans with no food or shelter before he decided to come back from California, if the government did truly care about the citizens in New Orleans. The blatant inequality served while evacuating from the disaster and thereafter was shameful and unacceptable. The US has been trying for decades to eradicate discrimination and the government itself made it clear that it still exists in the United States today. Concerns with the rescue efforts and the lack of planning made by FEMA were very prevalent during the disaster. FEMA had every opportunity in the world to assist Louisiana from experiencing such devastating results of hurricane Katrina and decided not to utilize their resources because it would cost them too much money. Hurricane Katrina was devastating to the US, as were the federal government’s responses to the catastrophe. All in all, the United States should learn from this experience and take more action in the future.