Disaster, Inc.: Privatization and Post-Katrina Rebuilding in New Orleans

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 633-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Fox Gotham
Keyword(s):  
Emergency Management ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
City Government ◽  
Private Firms ◽  
Disaster Victims ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Management Functions

This paper examines the problems and limitations of the privatization of federal and local disaster recovery policies and services following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The paper discusses the significance of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 in accelerating efforts to devolve and privatize emergency management functions; the reorganization of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as a service purchaser and arranger; and the efforts by the New Orleans city government to contract out disaster recovery activities to private firms. I situate and explain these three developments in the context of recent trends toward the neoliberalization of state activities, including the privatization and devolution of policy implementation to private firms and non-governmental organizations. On both the federal and local levels, inadequate contract oversight and lack of cost controls provided opportunities for private contractors to siphon public resources and exploit government agencies to further their profiteering interests and accumulation agendas. This article demonstrates how the privatization of emergency management services and policy constitutes a new regulatory project in which the state's role has shifted away from providing aid to disaster victims and toward the management and coordination of services delivered by private contractors.

BI and Analytics for Effective Disaster Recovery Management Lessons From the Bayou

2022 ◽  
pp. 197-217
Author(s):  
Gregory Smith ◽  
Thilini Ariyachandra
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Quality Of Data ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Recovery Management ◽  
The City

Disaster recovery management requires agile decision making and action that can be supported through business intelligence (BI) and analytics. Yet, fundamental data issues such as challenges in data quality have continued to plague disaster recovery efforts leading to delays and high costs in disaster support. This chapter presents an example of these issues from the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, where Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc upon the city of New Orleans forcing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to begin an unprecedented cleanup effort. The chapter brings to light the failings in record keeping during this disaster and highlight how a simple BI application can improve the accuracy and quality of data and save costs. It also highlights the ongoing data driven issues in disaster recovery management that FEMA continues to confront and the need for integrated centralized BI and analytics solutions extending to the supply chain that FEMA needs to become more nimble and effective when dealing with disasters.

New Orleans' Recovery Following Hurricane Katrina: Observations on Local Catastrophe Recovery Management

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 517-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie A. Johnson ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Local Management ◽  
Management Capacity ◽  
Local Recovery ◽  
Recovery Management ◽  
The U.S

Few local governments in the U.S. have faced the difficult task of managing catastrophic disaster recovery and there are equally few training guides geared toward improving local government's recovery management capacity. Our limited "toolkit"for local recovery management mostly reflects the learning from more moderate disasters. This paper reports on New Orleans' experiences in managing recovery from a truly catastrophic disaster. In particular, it describes two efforts: the 5-month Unified New Orleans Plan process, initiated in September 2006, and the city's Office of Recovery Management (now Office of Recovery Development and Administration), established in December 2006. It analyzes New Orleans' use of seven strategic recovery management practices that are proposed to enhance local management capacity and effectiveness following a disastrous event. Given the scale, complexity and multiple agencies involved in New Orleans recovery, this analysis is by no means exhaustive. It does, however, illustrate some of the areas where New Orleans' recovery management efforts have been effective as well as areas that could be strengthened.

Open source disaster recovery: Case studies of networked collaboration

First Monday ◽  
2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Calvert Jones ◽  
Sarai Mitnick
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
East Asian ◽  
The South ◽  
Disaster Victims ◽  
The World ◽  
Source Models ◽  
State Actors

Volunteers eager to help disaster victims have begun to draw on open source models of organization to mobilize and coordinate vast resources from around the world. This paper investigates two such groundbreaking efforts, involving responses to Hurricane Katrina and to the South East Asian tsunami. The study sheds light on how these organizations evolve so rapidly, how leaders emerge and confront challenges, and how interactions with traditional, more hierarchical disaster recovery efforts unfold. Lessons from these early efforts show how they can be improved, and also point to the need for more research on networked non–state actors that are playing increasingly prominent roles.

Public Sector Agencies and Their Formal Legal and Administrative Responsibilities

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley D. Ross
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Emergency Management ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Hazard Management ◽  
Public Agency ◽  
Administrative Guidance ◽  
National Preparedness

Public sector agencies at all levels of government work to mitigate risk, prepare for and respond to emergencies and disasters, and recover from catastrophic events. This action is guided by a national emergency management system that has evolved over time and was most recently reformed post-Hurricane Katrina. There is an extensive set of federal guidelines by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency that serve to structure the national system of hazard management. These include: the National Preparedness Goal; the National Preparedness System; National Planning Frameworks and accompanying Federal Interagency Operational Plans (FIOPs); the National Preparedness Report; and the Campaign to Build and Sustain Preparedness. Despite the considerable institutional and administrative guidance, there remain critical gaps in public-agency natural hazard management. These include lack of quality planning on the subnational level, insufficient local fiscal and human capital, and inconsistent regulation of the recovery process. While stricter implementation of federal mandates may partly address some of these issues, others will require greater political will in order to enact zoning regulations, create a shift in the acceptance of risk, and ensure that solutions are afforded by partnerships between civil, economic, and public entities.

Community organizing for post-disaster social development

2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loretta Pyles
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Community Organizing ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Community Revitalization ◽  
Travail Social ◽  
Post Disaster

English Community revitalization is a neglected element in disaster recovery. The literature on disaster and community practice is reviewed and some community development and organizing endeavors in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are described. Social work's lack of emphasis on community organizing is a barrier to social development in post-disaster situations. French La revitalisation communautaire est un facteur né gligé dans la relè ve de catastrophe. L'auteur passe en revue la documentation sur les pratiques communautaires en situations de catastrophe et dé crit quelques initiatives de dé veloppement et d'organisation communautaires à la Nouvelle-Orlé ans aprè s le passage de l'ouragan Katerina. L'auteur conclut que le manque d'insistance du travail social sur l'organisation communautaire est un frein au dé veloppement social dans des situations post-catastrophe. Spanish Un elemento descuidado en el trabajo de recuperació n despué s de un desastre es la revitalizació n comunitaria. Hago una revisió n de lo publicado sobre desastres y práctica comunitaria, y describo algunos trabajos comunitarios de desarrollo y organizació n en Nueva Orleáns despué s del huracán Katrina. Concluyo que el no dar más importancia al trabajo comunitario es un impedimento al desarrollo social despué s de un desastre.

Consuming Katrina

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Parker Horigan
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
New Orleans ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
Disaster Victims ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Innovative Solution

When survivors are seen as agents in their own stories, they will be seen as agents in their own recovery. A better grasp on the processes of narration and memory is critical for improved disaster response because stories that are widely shared about disaster determine how communities recover. This book shows how the public understands and remembers large-scale disasters like Hurricane Katrina, discussing unique contexts in which personal narratives about the storm are shared: interviews with survivors, Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun, Josh Neufeld’s A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Trouble the Water, and public commemoration during the storm’s 10th anniversary in New Orleans. In each case, survivors initially present themselves in specific ways, counteracting negative stereotypes that characterize their communities. However, when adapted for public presentation, their stories get reduced back to stereotypes. As a result, people affected by Katrina continue to be seen in limited terms, as either undeserving of or incapable of managing recovery. This project is rooted in the author’s own experiences living in New Orleans before and after Katrina. But this is also a case study illustrating an ongoing problem and an innovative solution: survivors’ stories should be shared in a way that includes their own engagement with the processes of narrative production, circulation, and reception. In other words, we should know—when we hear the dramatic tale of disaster victims—what they think about how their story is being told to us.

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