Ryan Slivinski
1
During Hurricane Katrina, there was tons of damage across New Orleans. For example,
flooding was a big part of the damage in New Orleans. However, the winds and flooding wasn’t
the only thing that caused the damaged. Corrupt government and un-prepared natural disaster
groups caused many lives. They had late responses to the hurricane and un-smart decisions. I
strongly believe that Hurricane Katrina was a man-made disaster because FEMA wasn’t
prepared, New Orleans wasn’t ready for the disaster heading their way, and Bush did things he
shouldn’t have done first.
FEMA made plenty of mistakes during Hurricane Katrina. For example, when people
were suffering from starvation, dehydration, and sickness, FEMA didn’t respond to their needs.
Many people in the super dome were very hungry and thirsty. FEMA is supposed to help with
emergencies like Katrina. They never got to the people in time to help their needs. Also, people
in the super dome suffered from sickness. When you’re trapped in a big football stadium with
sick people, sickness spreads like wild fire. FEMA wasn’t there for all those sick people. After
the disaster, people were provided a FEMA trailer. These trailers are for people who lost their
homes and have no place to stay. People who called FEMA for a trailer got put on hold. Many
people did not get their trailer right away. Some have been on hold for many months and years.
This shows how FEMA was un-prepared and following that, many mistakes. It wasn’t all
FEMA’s fault though. Some poor mistakes were from the people within New Orleans.
New Orleans wasn’t as prepared as everyone thinks. Many people weren’t smart about
preparing for the hurricane. Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans at the time, announced to
evacuate the state a day before the hurricane. As a result, many people did not evacuate and
decided to ride out the storm. However, many people did try to evacuate. People did manage to
evacuate to a safe area, as for others, did not. At the time, almost every store was ransacked with
Ryan Slivinski
2
everything in it. When people went to make last minute preparing, it didn’t go out so well. They
were un-prepared with food and water. Above all, the levees were not built the way they should
be. The engineers did not anticipate the potential height of storm waters and underestimated the
strength required to hold them back. The levee failure caused most of the flooding in New
Orleans. With all the mistakes the people in New Orleans made, I would say George Bush made
the biggest one.
George Bush made a good amount of mistakes during Katrina. He didn’t deal with the
disaster like he should of. His response to the hurricane was slow. On Monday, when the
hurricane hit, President Bush flew to Arizona and California to discuss Medicare. On Tuesday,
the day the levee broke; Bush flew to San Diego to speak to World War II veterans. On
Wednesday, he flew over New Orleans on way to a speech at Rose Garden. On Thursday he
made comments on ABC's Good Morning America. On Friday, as the federal response reached
the Gulf Coast, so did Bush. Also, he told the director of FEMA, Michael Brown, that he was
doing a ‘heck of a job’. In reality, he didn’t do anything to help the people in New Orleans. In
fact, he got so overwhelmed that he broke down and started crying on a phone call. Bush got a
call about the hurricane but ignored it because he refused to let Katrina ruin his vacation. Bush
didn’t do a good job handling this disaster at all.
All in all, Hurricane Katrina caused a lot of damage. I strongly believe that Hurricane
Katrina was a man-made disaster because FEMA wasn’t prepared, New Orleans wasn’t ready for
the disaster heading their way, and Bush did things he shouldn’t have done first. FEMA made
mistakes like not getting supplies to the people of New Orleans. Also, New Orleans wasn’t all
pre pared like they should’ve. They were informed to evacuate a day before the hurricane. Bush
also made big mistakes. He did a whole bunch of things before handling the hurricane problem.
Ryan Slivinski
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In the future, I think the government should act fast on disasters and not hesitate to send troops to
help those in need.
Works Cited
Alpert, Bruce. "President Bush Concedes Mistakes during Katrina, but Says Fed Action Not Slow." New
LA Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - NOLA.com. Volunteers of America,
Orleans,
12 Jan. 2009. Web. 6 Nov.
2011. <http://www.nola.com>.
Greene, Nick. "George Bush's 20 Worst Moments." Telegraph Online Newspaper London. The Telegraph,
13 Jan.
2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2011. <http://www.telegraph.com>.
When The Levees Broke. Dir. Spike Lee. Prod. Samuel D. Pollard. 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, 2006.
DVD.