As mentioned in class, there are two types of Disasters; human made and natural. Hurricane Katrina as highlighted was a natural disaster that created greater damage due to a lack of human made prevention strategies. The conspiracy theory that the New Orleans levees were intentionally weakened is definitely a questionable topic. Although the levees may not have been intentionally designed to wipe out the lower ninth ward, it is definitely questionable as to why they only designed prevention strategies for a level three hurricane. In an area that does not receive very many hurricane's and is set back off of the coast, this would seem acceptable. However, in an area that is right off the coast, and prone to getting hurricane's with a high chance of getting a level 5 hurricane, why were the levees not designed better. It is obvious, listening to the man at the end of the video crying, that there are a lot of people who knew there was a problem and didn't/couldn't do anything to change the situation. This event is definitely an emotional one.
There are so many upsetting stories from this disaster, but the one that really got me during the presentation was the retirement home that was unable to evacuate. This is another problem that I see with the system. Why when we have tornado drills and fire drills was there not practiced evacuation drills for events like this. We don't know when there's going to be a fire or tornado but we still prepare for them. Why when people there are likely to experience hurricane's were they not prepared for an evacuation. I feel that this is something that should have really been implemented and instead these people died.
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I think the Katrina New Orleans case study really poses a huge conflict, an issue of both having faith and reliance on the levees (a human technology) as well as living in areas that are physically vulnerable. I think in simply understanding that our technologies are not reliable or invincible can really change how and where people live. Part of the issue is the way in which the system portrays itself, by instilling that false hope and denying that there are dangers.
ReplyDeleteI think that more preventative measures could have been implemented to lower the risk factors associated with Hurricane Katrina. I think some sort of risk management strategies could have helped the city. But I think it is difficult to practice city wide evacuations, and rather than doing this I think there should be more emphasis on the likely hood that something bad could happen, rather than painting a picture of indestructibility.
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