9/11 and Hurricane Katrina Disaster Evaluation While with help, the victims can overcome some of the psychological symptoms, however disasters can affect children different than adults. September 11th and hurricane Katrina caused psychological symptoms for the victims along with issues and elements because victims can experience PTSD symptomatology, acute stress disorders, generalized anxiety disorders and DESNOS, Many different types of disaster can cause chronic disturbance and illness.
The media can play a huge role in these symptoms due to the media replaying what happened over and over. Natural disasters and terrorism causes individuals to have short term and long term psychological symptoms due to the extreme impact of the event. Hurricane Katrina turned from a category 3 to a 5, because the winds were 287 miles/hr. Louisiana and Mississippi activated their emergency plan on 26, August, 2010, trying to evacuate everyone, but unfortunately not everyone could leave due to medical reason or had no access to transportation.
In Hurricane Katrina there were more than 1,800 people that died. In Louisiana more than 1,500 lost their lives and in Mississippi 230 people lost their lives. In Florida 14 people lost their lives (University of Rhode Island. 2010-2015). Prior to Hurricane Katrina’s arrival, the state, local and federal were responsible for emergency response to a hurricane striking New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Along with Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hurricanes on average come through there about every three years, so plans were always being implemented in order to keep everyone safe.
Information please Database, (2007) states that, “The Department of Homeland security had come out with a plan in early 2005, which states that vastly improved coordination among federal, state, local, and tribal organizations … by increasing the speed, effectiveness, and efficiency of incident management. ” However Michael Chertoff, the Department’s Secretary, waited until two days after the hurricane hit before putting the plan into effect by declaring it an “incident of national significance. (Information please Database, 2007).
FEMA does training sessions but when it came down to it FEMA was not prepared as they should have been. However the populace did not know what the emergency plan was prior to the arrival of Hurricane Katrina except for Louisiana. There was a video put out that told the public what to do in case of a flood. The video never made it to the other states. The plan was so poorly planned out, they no one had a set plan in place for the public to even be able to be aware of.
If the public would have knew the plan they could have took into consideration the ones with health problems and how to address that situation along with transportation to make sure everyone could have gotten out. The mayor knew 56 hours prior to the disaster, but waited to evacuate which lead to many deaths. President Bush gave out 16. 7 billion dollars to help rebuild housing and other infrastructure after the disaster happened. Many troops and National Guard were sent in to help aid and assist (SGT.
Orell, 2010). EMS, fire and police were sent in from surrounding states to help as well. These heroes were sent in first to help the victims in whatever was needed. After this disaster, there were many people and organizations finding ways to help. The American Red Cross along with nearly “250,000 Americans that volunteered to support disaster survivors” (American Red Cross 2010). American Red Cross provided shelter, food and provided emergency responses for diapers and clothing.
The Red Cross organization made plans not only for short term but long term for the victims and the people that were evacuated. This organization helped the victims to set up recovery plans and gain all the information they may need to help them in the long run. Behavioral health programs were set up for anyone of the victims that may of needed them, along with “community resilience programs” (American Red Cross 2010) for the community to help with any stress or psychological symptoms that they may experience. HHS was another organization that helped out the victims after Hurricane Katrina.
HHS was able to get medical supplies and personnel to the affected area. “HHS had delivered 100 tons of medical supplies from the SNS to Louisiana. HHS also deployed twenty-four public health teams that included epidemiology, food safety, sanitation, and toxicology experts” (Norwalk, 2007). The department of health and human services were able to help retain grants for the health care systems and to help rebuild the infrastructures. HHS went in to provide financial support and medical help for children, seniors and families.
According to Lister (2005) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) also stepped in to assist the victim’s mental health after the disaster. The provided a crisis concealing program, which brought in counselors to help with the victims mental state and to train local counselors on how to help the victims in the long run. Each of the organizations played a huge part in the recovery from the disaster, from the supply of food, shelter and physical and mental health.
The attacks on September 11, 2001 took place in New York City, Washington, D. C. and Pennsylvania. Al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center. A third plane hit the affected by September 11th” (World Trade Center Survivors’ Network, 2012). The different resources that are offered are offered to the victims, the family members, the workers who helped (police, emts, firefighters and ever the people that was sent in to clean up the affected area) or witnessed the attacks.
They offer ways to cope with what happened along with ways to help families deal with the loss of a loved one. This organization was created to help with the victims and anyone who was affected by the disaster with their mental state. World Trade Center Survivors’ Network offers long term and short term resources for free. This Disaster lead to many psychological symptoms for many people because it was such a huge disaster that caused so much chaos in many people’s lives. It impacted so many different states, and many more people includes ones that had family living in the area of the disaster.
