Communication Failures During Hurricane Katrina - 913 Words

Late August, 2005 one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes ever, bombarded the Louisiana and Mississippi Boarder causing mass destruction (Zimmermann, 2012). Communication failures during Hurricane Katrina caused undue death and destruction in the areas affected, while creating more challenges for the first responders. Millions of people who lived along the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans were left homeless and approximately 1, 836 people died in the hurricane and the flooding that occurred afterwards (Zimmermann, 2012). Hurricane Katrina destroyed the majority of the core communications infrastructure throughout the Gulf Coast region; disabling 911 emergency call centers and disrupting local emergency services (The White House, 2005). Communication amongst federal, regional, local, and state relief agencies were extremely poor, resulting in catastrophic damage to the human population (Piper Ramos, 2006). Communications infrastructure was destroyed; nearly all available means of communications were inoperable, as a result of, the floodwaters and extended power outages (Yoes, n.d.). Communications centers were evacuated due to the flooding and approximately fifty-two 9-1-1 Communications Networks were disabled, as a result of, the damages caused during Hurricane Katrina (Yoes, n.d.). The majority of the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina had no regular landline service or wireless service. Many switches and cell phone towers were either destroyed,Show MoreRelatedKatrina: What Went Wrong?1726 Words   |  7 PagesMonday morning, 29 August 2005, this is a day most New Orleans residents will never forget. This was the day a category 5 hurricane named Katrina made its catastrophic debut to the Gulf Coast region a nd killed over 1,300 people. 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