REMINDER: TUESDAY SEPT 27TH MEET IN THE LIBRARY AT 11AM, ROOM L317 FOR OUR RESEARCH DAY MY FELLOW BLOGGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay now that you are all polished parlimentary debate gurus, let's turn to research...visit
http://www.itools.com/research/ and post a response to the following resolution, YOU MUST INCLUDE a proper citation with quotation marks and a date reference, source reference, ect. Also, please try to connect to other students responses or take issue with them...this is ARGUMENTATION class in case you forgot! See my example in color as you read below. The graded debate assignment will be focused on Hurricane Katrina, so be sure to save the research you do for this blog and use it in your graded parli debate!
THB: The Federal Government should significantly improve mobilization tactics to evacuate potential victims of natural disasters.
Definined: Potential victims includes primarlily those low income and otherwise challenged folks who were left behind in Katrina's evacuation, so under my plan, an emphasis would be put on reaching the public housing districts, hospitals and other locations where people may not have access to transportation or fully understand the danger of an ensuing storm.
Research citation: A profound example of the significant harm posed by the structural flaws in the current evacuation system can be seen in the ways large groups on senior citizens drowned in rest homes and minority residents were left stranded on rooftops and swimming in sewage. FEMA claims to have granted the money congress approved to prepare New Orleans for a Hurricane evacuation over the last couple of years, but according to the Associated Press at http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/17/katrina.evacuation.ap/, "that plan was designed for traffic management, not to provide transportation or contingencies for the infirm, elderly and poor who could not get out on their own, officials said," (September 22, 2004).
Okay, your turn...BRING IT ON!--The Blogging Queen
7 comments:
Research citation: An example of the significant harm posed by the structural flaws in the current evacuation system would be how the goverment didn't act as quickly was they should have. Many citizens went missing and some died before the government went in New Orleans and started helping the citizens to leave the city. They failed to protect their citizens and they were late, according to the Washington Transcript Service at http://www.highbeam.com/library, "The first obligation of government is to protect its citizens.
In its initial response to the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina, particularly
in Louisiana, governments at all levels failed in this obligation," (September 6,2005).
Reseach citation: An example of the significant harm caused by the United States' lack of an effective evacuation system is a direct result of Federal Emergancy Management Agency's (FEMA's) inexperienced director. Former director Michael Brown was removed from overseeing the disaster response after thousands of people were left stranded in New Orleans without adequate servival supplies and food. According to Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170512,00.html) Micheal Brown "was highly criticized for being a Bush administration political appointee without deep emergency management experience. He denied accusations that he padded his resume," (September 27, 2005).
Research citation: There was definitely a lack of organization during the rescue effort. I found an example of this an article in the September 12, 2005 publication of Newsweek. In part of the article an Air Force Reserve Command Rescue Wing Colonel explains how his squadron was unable provide a quick response due to logistical issues. He "got on the phone to call every agency he could to ask permission to take his three rescue helicopters into the disaster zone" but "wasn't able to cut through the red tape until...24 hours after the storm had passed." Why aren't the rescue teams able to just go out and help? Why all the "red tape"? In an emergency, groups such as these shouldn't have to wait to be granted permission to go save people. In these situations quick decisions need to be made and the current system doesn't allow for that. Reform is needed because, in this instance, a lack of continuity within the government probably cost many lives. Think of how many people must have died in that 24 hours.
Research citation: An example of significant harm due to structural flaws in the current system can be seen in the failure in the use of the Incident Command System. At all levels of government including city, county, and state levels must me trained and use the ICS system. The incident command system is a system used to manage emergency incidents and can expand and contract with the size of incidents. Firefighters, police, and emergency medical personnel use the ICS system everyday on incidents. The main goal of ICS is unified command, meaning all resources are all under a single leader. However, FEMA has failed by not incorporating the ICS system at the national level during the Gulf Coast disaster. According to Washington Technology at http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/26993-1.html Staff writer Alice Lipowicz says “’Hurricane Katrina demonstrates a major failure: the absence of unified command,’ the report states. It advises that the Oct. 1, 2006, deadline must not be missed for nationwide full compliance with the National Incident Command System, and suggests that compliance be made a condition for federal security funding.” (September 15, 2005).
Adriana Calderon
An example of the structural flaws in the current evacuation system is the blame game that officials have been playing. By not having one person on top to make decisions and taking the faults, they are all unbalanced. "In more than six hours of testimony, Brown said Mississippi and Alabama had evacuated properly but that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco were reluctant to order an evacuation," said former FEMA director Michael Brown, facing a pannel and answering questons. All in "Brown puts blame on Lousiana officials," September 28, 2005, by Ted Barrett. All in an aticle on CNN.com
The system for the deployment of support for a natural disaster is very much flawed. Many of the flaws were indeed exposed by Hurricane Katrina. But I think the flaws could have been compensated for. Two factors contributed to the stunted response to the Hurricane.
The first factor is the delayed response of the governor of Lousiana and the mayor of New Orleans.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Hurricane_Katrina
According to the timeline, the first voluntary evacuation was not announced until the morning of August 27th. Mandatory evacuation did not come until the day after, and the storm made landfall the next morning. Two days is nowhere near enough time for the evacuation of a city like New Orleans with its high number of minority residents and its infirmed. If the call to evacuate had been announced sooner, even if just a day, the results would have been vastly different. We saw how effective an early evacuation was a few days ago with Hurricane Rita; even though the cities were smaller and the storm weaker when it made landfall. In addition, the governor did not request the deployment of the national guard until August 31st. There should be no excuse for such a delayed response.
The second factor is the disorganized response of the federal government and FEMA. This is largely due to the fact that the President did not authorize the Stafford Act, which begins the execution and support of FEMA and its operations during a disaster, until the day before landfall. Late deployment, disorganized response, and a disfunctional chain of command led to delayed deployment of rescue assets after the storm, and of course, the non-deployment of assets before the storm that could have possibly evacuated those who couldn't. Reform needs to come to the system of response. The national guard can't deploy until the state governor requests it and FEMA can't move until the president declares a disaster. It could all be simplified if FEMA was allowed to act independently and freely when disaster is bearing down.
Alexander Pagan
Sorry, i forgot my user name and password!
Research citation: An example of significant harm due to structural flaws in FEMA's tactics of evacuation/rescue is the fact that people are still in very dangerous and life threatening situations because FEMA chooses not to act as fast or efficient as possible. Why would the U.S. have an organization that does not give full effort to rescue lives? This doesn't make sense! According to U.S. politics: Current Events at http://uspolitics.about.com/library/bl_katrina_timeline_4.htm, "Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis." FEMA has had the water, fuel, and extra resources necessary to help or rid of the situation much quicker, but they simply just say no, or that they do not need the supplies. An example of this is, "FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, 'Come get the fuel right away.' When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. 'FEMA says don't give you the fuel.'" (http://uspolitics.about.com/library/bl_katrina_timeline_4.htm)
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