Hurricane Katrina

1- Medical care facility

• No electricity - medical equipment

• No AC or sanitation

• Evacuation = difficult

• Many deaths

  • Emmette Everett: paraplegic + heavy. He had to be carried to the roof but died → evidence of toxic drugs

• Dr. Anna Pou: charged with homicide for euthanizing patients

2- Example of organizational failure

• Communication = inadequate. Population was not properly informed

• Failure to provide resources necessary for evacuation (buses, gasoline, lists of contacts for those who couldn't evacuate)

• Personnel management issues: First responders didn’t show up for work (families to take care of)

  • Solution: provide resources for first responders’ families and monitor where they are going

• Failure to use federal resources (National Guard): they must be requested by the state but Louisiana was slow to request their help

3- Michael Brown

• Chief executive of FEMA

• Didn’t manage FEMA’s role very well in the aftermath of the hurricane

• Not qualified so no effective leadership

4- Lessons

Organization matters!

• Michael Brown: importance of recruitment and matching talents to jobs

• Importance of communication

• Importance of resource provision

• Hierarchy needs to be effective

• Importance of assigning responsibilities before tasks need performing

→ Poor organization killed people and it could have been avoided