PBS Frontline Documentary, The Storm Research Paper

PBS Frontline Documentary, The Storm - Research Paper Example It is clear from the film that the natural disaster was broadly predicted and thus the government was provided with enough time to facilitate a timely and effective response. However, that was not the case as the highly bureaucratic structure of the government made it hard for decisions to be made. The author also reviews the changes that have taken place within the government response system since the occurrence of the disaster. It is important to note that Hurricane Katrina took place four years after the 9/11 attacks, and three years after the government created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This was also just a year after a National Response Plan was created by the DHS. Regardless of the increased attention that was directed towards homeland security after the 9/11 attacks, the government failed in its response towards Hurricane Katrina (Moynihan 14). The film by Marti Smith focused on the failures that were experienced on the side of the government after occurrence of the disaster. Nevertheless, it is important to note that as much as the film merely mentions them, the major failure of the government was lack of response to the risk factors of the storm prior its occurrence (Cooper and Block 89). Case in point, the risk of occurrence of a major hurricane in New Orleans had been established and various avenues of warnings were exploited, which even led to emergency declarations days before the landfall. However, the responders did not convert such information into the preparation level that is appropriate for the impending disaster’s scope. The weakened response of the intergovernmental response system in the US could also be attributed to the authority’s dispersed nature. As such, this led to poor recognition among the federal responders of the need to engage more actively in combating the disaster. The capacities of most of the major institutions in the management of the response at different levels of