DISASTER RESPONSE IN THE USA: HURRICANE KATRINA

Abstract

The author presents Hurricane Katrina, which affected American federal states beside the Bay of Mexico on 29 August 2005, above all Louisiana and Mississipi, and analyses the response of the American authorities to the crisis that the hurricane caused. He briefly describes the American system of crisis management and leadership and draws attention to some key deficiencies and difficulties in responding to Hurricane Katrina, in which he highlights ineffective leadership, poor coordination, a lack of planning, a communication gap, slow and passive response to the crisis and avoidance of responsibility. The author also presents some essential proposals which American professionals and politicians, having analysed the crisis, offer as solutions for improving the system of crisis management and leadership and, in this context, disaster response. The proposals are mainly directed at greater centralisation of the system and a more highly stressed role of the armed forces in it, but this gives rise to serious constitutional and legal considerations, so radical and fast reforms in this area cannot be expected. In the conclusion, the author identiifies some interfaces between Hurrican Katrina and the American »war on terror«and finds that the latter to a large extent negatively influences an effective response of the American authorities to other sources of threat, including natural disatsters.