A Failure of Initiative


Book Description




Hurricane Katrina


Book Description

This book presents the fullest account yet written of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in a wealth of oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty-five-thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities. James Patterson Smith takes us through life and death accounts of storm day, August 29, 2005, and the precarious days of food and water shortages that followed. Along the way the narrative treats us to inspiring episodes of neighborly compassion and creative responses to the greatest natural disaster in American history. The heroes of this saga are the local people and local officials. In often moving accounts, the book addresses the Mississippi Gulf Coast's long struggle to remove a record-setting volume of debris and get on with the rebuilding of homes, schools, jobs, and public infrastructure. Along the way readers are offered insights into the politics of recovery funding and the bureaucratic bungling and hubris that afflicted the storm response and complicated and delayed the work of recovery. Still, there are ample accounts of things done well, and a moving chapter gives us a feel for the psychological, spiritual, and material impact of the eight hundred thousand people from across the nation who gave of themselves as volunteers in the Mississippi recovery effort.




Army Support During the Hurricane Katrina Disaster


Book Description

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Hurricane Katrina, in Aug. 2005, was the costliest hurricane as well as one of the five deadliest storms in U.S. history. It caused extensive destruction along the Gulf coast from central Florida to Texas. Some 22,000 Active-Duty Army personnel assisted with relief-and-recovery operations in Mississippi and Louisiana. At the same time, all 50 states sent approx. 50,000 National Guard personnel to deal with the storm¿s aftermath. Because the media coverage of this disaster tended toward the sensational more than the analytical, many important stories remain to be told in a dispassionate manner. This study offers a dispassionate analysis of the Army¿s response to the natural disaster by providing a detailed account of the operations in Louisiana and Mississippi.




Managing Hurricane Katrina


Book Description

The government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, one of the most devastating natural disasters in U.S. history, suffered numerous criticisms. Nearly every assessment pointed to failure, from evaluations of President George W. Bush, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security to the state of Louisiana and the city administration of New Orleans. In Managing Hurricane Katrina: Lessons from a Megacrisis, Arjen Boin, Christer Brown, and James A. Richardson deliver a more nuanced examination of the storm’s aftermath than the ones anchored in public memory, and identify aspects of management that offer more positive examples of leadership than bureaucratic and media reports indicated. Katrina may be the most extensively studied disaster to date, but the authors argue that many academic conclusions are inaccurate or contradictory when examined in concert. Drawing on insights from crisis and disaster management studies, Boin, Brown, and Richardson apply a clear framework to objectively analyze the actions of various officials and organizations during and after Katrina. They specify critical factors that determine the successes and failures of a societal response to catastrophes and demonstrate how to utilize their framework in future superdisasters. Going beyond previous assessments, Managing Hurricane Katrina reconsiders the role of government in both preparing for a megacrisis and building an effective response network at a time when citizens need it most.




Critical Issues in Homeland Security


Book Description

Critical Issues in Homeland Security: A Casebook encourages analytical and careful examination of practical homeland security problems through the presentation of contemporary cases involving major state or national events. Case studies demonstrate the complexity of challenges within the domain of homeland security policy and administration. Editors James D. Ramsay and Linda Kiltz carefully curated fourteen cases, all from top scholars and practitioners, to cover a broad range of legal, policy, and operational challenges within the field of homeland security. Timely and interesting cases on such issues as arctic security, the use of drones in targeted killings, cyber security, and the emergency management lessons of the 2010 Haiti earthquake give students a deeper understanding of the relationship between the theories and the practices of homeland security. Discussion questions at the end of each case and an online instructor's manual make Critical Issues in Homeland Security an even more effective learning tool for any homeland security program.




The Urban Rehabilitation of Post-Disaster Scapes


Book Description

This book provides the first extensive examination and analysis of the use of the urbanscape during the disaster process, by connecting its elements throughout disaster phases: the pre-disaster phase, consisting of reduction in form of prevention and mitigation; the disaster event phase, consisting of the disaster impact followed by the disaster effects; and the post-disaster phase, consisting of the post-disaster recovery. This work includes the analysis of 18 disaster case studies worldwide, of which 12 case studies are within the natural and 6 case studies within the man-made disaster category. The criteria for choosing these examples is based on the division into natural and man-made disaster subcategories and the period of their occurrence, from 1991 to 2021. The main purpose of this comparative analysis is to reveal the use of the urbanscape during the disaster process, through the role of its open public spaces during each disaster phase in both natural and man-made disaster categories. The book is a useful read for researchers and students of disaster management.




Being There When It Counts


Book Description

Will You Be There When it Counts? "Being There When It Counts" is what Disaster Mental Health Services (DMHS) teams try hardest to achieve before, during and following disasters, critical incidents, crises, and terrorist activities. Although a relatively new field, these teams have quickly become an integral part of disaster and critical incident preparedness, mitigation, response, and followup. DMHS began with Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and Critical Incident Stress Management. In order to continue to grow and meet identified needs, both continued development as well as focused research. Research will help identify how Mental Health Services can best be utilized as well as how relevant changes need to be made in practice. Networking and sharing experiences can also help develop resources. The 8th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference was held Nov. 79, 2009 in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This volume highlights key papers from presenters. Praise for "The Proceedings of the Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference" ..".A must have for first responders and mental health professionals. Addressing the needs of people who work in these fields is critical. The better trained they are to be emotionally equipped for disasters, the better they can help others. I think that the pages of information covered in this book will be some of the most important information needed by people in this field today." --Page Lovitt, Reader Views "This compilation of papers deals with people's reactions to a wide variety of disasters, including not only terror and Hurricane Katrina, but child abuse and the trauma suffered by families of service members. Taken together, the papers are fascinating. The "Proceedings of the 5th Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Conference" provides insight into the nature of the individual's response to terror and disaster. They should be interesting reading for everyone who either indirectly or directly has been affected." --Linda Benninghoff, author of "Departures" The Rocky Mountain Region Disaster Mental Health Institute Press "Learning from the past and planning for the future" http: //www.rmrinstitute.org An Imprint of Loving Healing Press. PSY022040 Psychology: Psychopathology - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder SOC040000 Social Science: Disasters & Disaster Relief MED003010 Medical: Allied Health Services - Emergency Medical Services




Dealing with Disaster


Book Description

Now updated with examples through 2010, this classic study examines the disruptive effects of disasters on patterns of human behavior and the operations of government, and the conditions under which even relatively minor crises can lead to system breakdown.