Crisis Preperation - The case of Katrina, New Orleans

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to understand the importance of crisis preparation for disaster management in New Orleans before hurricane Katrina, and why New Orleans was so badly prepared despite knowing for several years that a disaster of Katrina’s magnitude was much likely to struck at this time. The study is based on secondary literature in the form of articles, web documentaries and investigative reports. The studies theoretical ground is an application of Renn and Klinke’s theoretical approach to Risk Management Strategies. Terms used in the study are Disaster management, Crisis preparation and Natural Disasters. The study shows that Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been a blockage in the process of crisis preparation. The agency has been preventing development in crisis preparation for years causing unnecessary damage to the city and the citizens of New Orleans. Why the agency has been acting this way I can only speculate about but it is an interesting subject for further research. My study also shows that a general understanding of Crisis preparation in terms of dealing with Disaster management is important and in the case of Natural Disasters it can save lives.