Federalism Katrina and FEMA

Federalism and FEMA

Federalism and FEMA

by Hunter Iuliano -
Number of replies: 2
  1. In the local level, the responsibility was to evacuate the city as much as possible. The local government also needed to provide enough essentials and transportation to those people who could not afford to evacuate with everyone else, they had more than enough time to prepare. It was the states job to let the nation government know what was going on and what they needed. Also, the state needed to send in more help and rescue teams to get people out of the water safely. The national governments responsibility was to send as much troops and volunteers as possible to help the innocent people in New Orleans.
  2. From what I evaluated from the movie the main thing that the governments did together was just point the finger at one another, but they also did contribute some help in this rescue.
  • Local: I believe for the most part the local government did as much as they could. There is only so much a mayor could do to protect his citizens. The main people that couldn’t leave were the poverty level citizens who couldn’t afford the commute. What was mainly wrong with the planning was that they didn’t have a backup plan, or enough help to get the people out of danger.  There should have been resources that the victims could rely on.
  • State:  the state government should have had set up a series of back up plans that the local government could rely on if their own failed, and also made sure that the mayor had everything set up and ready for this storm. Obviously he didn’t. They should have told the city to evacuate earlier and made the mayor step up.
  • National: the national government shouldn’t have waited days to go out and retrieve citizens.  Many people died of starvation and dehydration. People were dying every day and the government decided the sixth day was okay to do something about it? That was a very poor decision on the national levels part.
  1. The federal government should have stepped up to the plate was sooner. The citizens of this country, including the people of New Orleans, don’t pay taxes for the government to sit around and do nothing. If FEMA was established for emergencies WHY DIDN’T THEY DO THEIR JOB?? There are no excuses for the way all of the governments acted during this crisis. Last time I checked they were all grown men and women, it’s time to take responsibility for your actions.
In reply to Hunter Iuliano

Re: Federalism and FEMA

by Marisa Tavolacci -

I agree with Hunter 100% but i would like to add a little:

I agree that the local government did as much as they could but I don't believe they tried hard enough to get help.  It wasn't like Hurricane Katrina was a shock.  They knew that a hurricane was coming i just believe that they did not know the impact of it.

I agree that the state should have told the city to evacuate earlier as well.  I would also like to add that there needed to be more federal intervention.  The only thing that they did i believe was they sent out FEMA and a couple troops.  the United States has a whole army or navy that could have helped.  I just think that was a little unfair that there were not that many troops out there to help.

I think Hunter did a great job of telling the story of the governments and how they were involved with aiding the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Marisa Tavolacci