Human Services Delivery System During Disasters Like Hurricane Katrina
This assignment asks you to analyze the response of an agency to the needs of residents of a target community (New Orleans) rather than to an individual. While the impact of hurricanes Harvey and Maria still rightly have national attention, it will be some time before we fully understand the span of their impact and how the federal, state, and local governments and other public and private agencies met Harvey's and Maria's challenges. In this assignment we take a look back at Hurricane Katrina and the American Red Cross (ARC) response. Like any agency providing services that meet human needs, the ARC has a formal mission statement and uses the same core tasks of case management, linking to the external environment and systems thinking that we have discussed in reference to your focal agencies. For this assignment, your task is to analyze the Red Cross, not to describe what they did.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the city of New Orleans on the morning of August 29, 2005. When the levees broke and almost 80 percent of the city flooded, at least 400,000 residents were displaced. Of those evacuated, many relocated to states near family or friends, while others only learned of their destination once their evacuation and relocation was underway.
Using the following links provided and any other sources you find, provide a brief overview of the events before, during and after Hurricane Katrina:
Lessons Learned: Hurricane Katrina Critical Challengesopens in a new window - The White House
10 Years After Katrina, Many New Orleans Residents Permanently Displacedopens in a new window, 2015 article
Population Displacement and Post-Katrina Politics: The New Orleans Mayoral Raceopens in a new window, 2006, by John R. Logan at Brown University (PDFopens in a new window)
A Failure of Initiative, Final Report to Investigate the Preparation and Response to Hurricane Katrinaopens in a new window, 2006 (PDFopens in a new window).
Reports Critique U.S. Red Cross's Katrina Response
American Red Cross: From Challenge to Action
Specific to shelter, housing, and relocation, in what ways did the Red Cross use the 6 Core Tasks of Case Management with clients during the Katrina Emergency? In what ways – if any – did they fail to follow those guidelines?
In what ways did the American Red Cross use a "systems thinking" perspective both in its efforts to provide immediate shelter and in its evacuation and relocation efforts? In what ways was "systems thinking" neglected?
In what ways did the target agency link effectively to external systems? In what ways was their linkage ineffective?
What changes would you suggest to improve the response of the American Red Cross in order to more effectively serve the needs of displaced residents?
Be sure to provide a definition of each concept and then provide examples of how the Red Cross successfully or unsuccessfully completed each of the core case management tasks, systems thinking and linkages to the external environment in regard to shelter, housing and relocation. The paper should be at least 7 pages in length and be sure to cite all sources from your research, the texts and the mini-lecture. Use APA style
Chapter 6 and 9 in Competency in Generalist Practice: A Guide to Theory and Evidence-Based Decision Making by Elizabeth More Plionis
Analyzing a Human Services Delivery System
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Analyzing a Human Services Delivery System
Introduction
Disasters such as Hurricane Katrina are bound to happen. More often, these catastrophes posies a substantial threat to human life, health, and property. As a result of eminent adversities associated with disasters, organizations, institutions, states, individuals must demonstrate adequate capacity in terms of preparation and response. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina, a Category 4 storm, hit the Gulf of Mexico near Buras, Louisiana, and headed north towards New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The post-Katrina times were marked by landfall and rising waters, leaving thousands of people stranded on rooftops in New Orleans. These harmful consequences demanded aggressive search and rescue operations. Various organizations took part in a concerted response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Red Cross is one of the organizations that took exceptional engagement in active response to Hurricane Katrina. This paper analyzes the Red Cross's response to the disaster, focusing on Hurricane Katrina of 2005. People's lives undergo dramatic change whenever disasters such as earthquakes, floods, fires, and accidents strike. Disasters are often accompanied by unprecedented outcomes, including loss of homes, lives, property, among other things. This paper is determining whether the efforts to mitigate the short and long-term effects of Hurricane Katrina were effective. The American Red Cross success is linked to it ability to work, create a partnership and deploy disaster case management strategy. Disaster case management makes a difference in victims recovery facilitates reliable access to resources.
Consequences of Hurricane Katrina of 2005 and Socio-demographic Aspect of it
Hurricane Katrina had devastating effects on people residing along the Gulf Coast, including the city of Orleans. Hurricane Katrina elicited moderate wind damage. However, it led to large-scale flood damage breaching levees, and floodwaters submerged 80% of the city. Levees were repaired after sometime weeks, and the floodwaters were drained, allowing displaced residents to return towards the end of September 2005. At initial phases, residents of un-flooded areas were permitted back, but as recovery efforts advanced, victims from areas that had a high impact were allowed to return. However, the majority found their homes adversely damaged by the floodwaters rendering them uninhabitable.
New Orleans had hurricane vulnerability due to eroded coastline along the Gulf of Mexico, where the levee system is fragile, and the social-economic features of residents. The New Orleans population had a high proportion of persons with low socio-economic status. A black population significantly inhabits New Orleans. The economic disparities witnessed amongst the blacks compared to whites reflect national patterns. When large-scale catastrophes such as tsunami, hurricanes, or earthquakes occur, there is far-reaching destruction, followed by evacuation migration and determination, whether the affected people can return.
Hurricane Katrina had far-reaching implications on socio-demographic factors. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on 29 August 2005, leading to the displacement of virtually the city's entire population (Logan, 2006). Black inhabitants returned to New Orleans at a slower pace than their white counterparts even after controlling for socio-economic status and demographic features (Logan, 2006). However, the racial disparity dwindles after controlling for housing damage, and thereby blacks appeared to live in areas that witnessed more adverse flooding. This rationale underpins their delayed return due to severed housing. Thus, issues related to socio-demographic factors could have long term effects on the return of the displaced population post-Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Response to disasters is an activity or a process that various stakeholders, including government authorities, agencies, and non-governmental organizations. These responders must always work in unity to champion efforts that promote effective long and short-term outcomes for populations and people affected by disasters. Although the government has a significant role in instituting tangible measures that mitigate the effects of a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina, the private sector responders, including the Red Cross, can immensely contribute by advising the government on practical ways of implementing solution’s that have overall positive impact and improvement. Thus, blame may not always be apportioned to one party.
Arguably, the post-Hurricane Katrina era has substantial positive change regarding people’s lives. According to Amnesty International USA (2015), government measures have shown a little positive impact on people's lives along the Gulf Coast. Amnesty International report shows that more than 1800 people died along the Gulf Coast while about 200,000 were displaced to other regions such as Florida, Washington D.C, Texa, and Florida (Amnesty International USA, 2015).
.Before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Gulf Coast populations had inadequate access to adequate housing. This situation was compromised further after this disaster because the Federal, state, and local governments did not demonstrate sufficient competency to amend the undesirable situation. In New Orleans, the measures pursued by local authorities aggravated the living conditions for the residents.
The disaster response was marked by inappropriate actions such as demolition of public housing, inability and inadequate commitment to rebuild affordable housing, and poor disbursement of money for homeworkers to re-develop their homes. Amnesty International USA (2015) cites these as the critical matters that caused the former Gulf Coast inhabitants to be unable to return, thereby eliciting prolonged displacement.
The unwanted situation observed in New Orleans is primarily due to inadequate government services characterized lack of proper planning and commitment. According to Amnesty International USA (2015), there are fewer low-income public units in New Orleans than in 2005. In 2015, the Housing Authority of New Orleans reported having 1925 total public housing units targeting low-income people (Amnesty International USA, 2015). This relatively less optimal performance because over 3000 less than what existed before the storm. This observation shows that thousands of people displaced from New Orleans may not return due to a lack of housing. The rising cost of housing aggravates the situation. Thus, the long-term response to Hurricane Katrina was marked by fragile measures that did not adequately gather for affected residents' needs.
Response by Red Cross to Hurricane Katrina
The contribution of the Red Cross to Hurricane response was immense. The Red Cross initiated well-concerted efforts to assist the victims of the floodwaters and wind damages. Over the years, the American Red Cross h...