management activities would actually be worse. One main point to back up my ideology is that
local government is very important to the management of pre and post-disaster management. It is
important to understand that the federal government and in some cases the state government
simply does not have the knowledge of the city, it’s subdivisions, and zones that the local
government possesses. Secondly, only having the federal government oversee the management
can naturally cause confusion and may not be efficient in the role of using all of the resources
available. There is a reason that the use of federalism is so important. There is a point to having
state, local, and federal government and with proper communication between the three,
operations should be smooth. Lastly, we must discuss that technology has changed over the years
and that is more reason that the use of three governments is better in comparison to only one.
With more advanced preparedness tools, all three ranks of government should have plans ready
for multiple scenarios, as compared to when in Katrina no one thought the levees would fail, but
they did, and Four-fifths of the city laid submerged. Katrina all around was bad, but one small
glimmer of light is that it provides a precedent for how emergency response can fail, and what
should change over time.
