1) What role did the National, State and Local Governments have in preventing, mitigating and reacting to Hurricane Katrina?
They were supposed to set up a plan and work together to save people. But they never finished the plan they started so no one knew who was supposed to do what. The local government’s jobs were to set up transportation to evacuate the city, make sure that the shelters are stocked with food and water, and to contact the state government to let them know of the storm and the damages. The state had responsibilities to contact the national government to let them know a specific and detailed list of areas that need help and things that need to be addressed and to let surrounding areas know of the storm. The federal government had the biggest role they had to send in troops for rescues, help with transportation and health issues, know and be aware of the situation before it hit, make sure that the levies were working properly to prevent the hurricane’s damage. They should have been helping with evacuation procedures and getting everyone out safely.
2) Evaluate how each level of government performed its duties. Be specific and back up your points with facts and logic.
The local, state, and national governments all failed miserably in their tasks. They mayor (local government) had no transportation set up to evacuate, the shelters were not stocked, so people were starving and becoming dehydrated, and he did not get in contact until it was happening. The state government did their job fairly well, but they failed because they were not notified in time. They still should have been watching the news and weather channel and get an idea of what was coming. FEMA (national government) failed, they were notified and failed to do anything about it. They lied about not receiving the lists; they “misspoke” the same thing at least 3 times. They did not get there in time to save as many as they should have been able to. They failed to communicate and instead of doing anything they just wanted to play the blame game.
3) After reading the "FEMA and federalism" article, take a stand about the role of the federal government in natural disasters.
I feel as though the federal government needs to do a lot of work with FEMA because it’s not helpful. They are involved in the wrong things; they go to help out minor disasters that can be managed locally. They waste their time, money and resources on every little disaster they happen. Therefore they have no way to prepare for catastrophic disasters; they can’t create a plan of action to prevent another incident like Katrina. If FEMA doesn’t establish a plan then they will fail again and again. FEMA should only interfere in natural disasters IF they cannot be handled at the local and state levels.