Summary: A Failure Of Initiative

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Nature is sometimes a cruel teacher. When Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29th 2005, the American people and government were faced with an extraordinary challenge. Hurricane Katrina tested the limits of our government’s ability to respond to catastrophic disaster. As the storm subsided, the results were grim. Nearly 1,100 individuals had died, and 3,000 people were unaccounted for (citation). About 60% of the state, almost 28,000 square miles, was damaged from the storm and had to be declared as disaster areas (citation). 200,000 individuals and families were displaced (citation). In the media and in the public there was outrage at what many perceived to be an overwhelming failure by the government to respond. In return the government offered a variety of explanations, none which seemed satisfactory. …show more content…
An official report titled A Failure of Initiative: Final Report of the Select Bipartisan Committee to investigate the preparation and Response to Hurricane Katrina, containing the investigations findings, was released on February 15th 2006. It tried to address the underlying question being asked by the public and government officials: what exactly had happened? Was the response effort (which many at this point had concluded as being insufficient) a failure of leadership or a result of inadequate strategy? The report’s findings revealed that a combination of poor planning, response, lack of communication and inability for information to flow across different levels of government contributed to the chaos. It supported the conclusion that the overall emergency response effort of the storm was a failure of both leadership and