By: Mackenzie Champagne
Today our day started at 8:00 am. At this time we had a group breakfast and right after we got together for about an hour of lecture. At this time Dr. Montano and Dr. Cheek told us that today was “Hurricane Katrina Day”. We discussed topics of infrastructure, economics, and politics and how each of these things shaped the response and recovery of the catastrophe. This lecture helped segue us into the next activity of the day: Visiting City Hall.
We began our adventure today at the City Hall of New Orleans. We had the opportunity to talk to a real time emergency manager who balances a magnitude of responsibilities from engaging with the media to communicating with other important departments in the city.
While we were talking with the emergency management department we learned that a big fear of this department is that a copycat disaster similar to Hurricane Katrina will happen again. We discussed topics surrounding evacuation and sheltering in place and the major pros and cons of each procedure. We learned that the emergency management department actually prefers the idea of sheltering in place due to the fact that there are so many factors to consider when evacuating. Some other things we discussed include topics of handling civil disturbances and how the city looks at homeland security. A representative from Americorps Vista talked to us about her experience as a recent graduate from The University of Arizona and how she joined Americorps to gain a prestige that may someday help her get a high job in some place like D.C. As a souvenir we got a challenge coin which is a token that is collectible and able to be traded amongst anyone in the Emergency Management field.
Afterwards, we stopped at a restaurant called The Joint which serves all kinds of BBQ.
We then took a drive around the surrounding neighborhoods to see how the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how 19 years later it still left its mark on this place. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina some people never returned and houses were completely condemned and torn down due to mold and damages. Other people’s houses were rebuilt by non profits. We learned that Brad Pitt himself had a nonprofit organization to help rebuild these communities but he built odd shaped houses with the goal of energy efficiency. Unfortunately his philanthropy did not hold true because the average person living in these homes doesn’t have the time or expenses to maintain such high maintenance houses. If you drive through these neighborhoods you can see that what once was an effort to rebuild has turned into unmanageable and unmaintained homes.
After driving through these neighborhoods we stopped at two different examples of levees. The first was the more natural kind that had been created by thousands of years of sentiment building up. The next one we saw was the man made t-levee, which is the more structurally sound version of the i-levee which was the one built pre-Hurricane Katrina. Both of these levees provide valuable insight on what structures work best to protect the community.
It is not an uncommon fact that Hurricane Katrina was one, if not the most devastating disasters that happened to the city of New Orleans. A recurring theme discussed during lecture and while out and about touring the Lower Ninth Ward is that this disaster was arguably the most pivotal emergency this city has ever undergone. We had the opportunity to discuss politics and economics surrounding the disaster and how some of the decisions that people in power make in times of emergency becomes the difference between life and death.
It was most interesting to see how what we have learned in the previous days here surrounding culture influence the past, present and future of Emergency Management and the culture and Emergency management go hand in hand in a place like New Orleans.