Comparing and contrasting Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Sandy, numerous significant improvements were made, mainly because Katrina's response and recovery were deemed a failure. One of the benefits of failure is the lessons that organizations for future corrections may learn. During Katrina, one of the most significant issues that the response efforts faced was a lack of adequate planning. Each state impacted by Katrina prepared for the most common problems and storm strength and had no plan if a more significant hurricane hit. As a result, there was a lack of infrastructure, resources, and strategies to respond quickly to Hurricane Katrina. The reaction and recovery activities were hampered by a lack of communication among the government parties engaged. As soon as Hurricane Sandy started to form, government agencies used the Incident Command System (ICS) to communicate flawlessly (Mackillop, 2005). The successful use of ICS ensured adequate preparation for the oncoming hurricane and saved numerous lives that would have been lost if the disaster had not occurred.
The change in leadership was another reason why the Sandy response was more effective than the Katrina response. FEMA's former director had little knowledge of real-world emergency management, resulting in an underprepared organization. The blame cannot be placed just on FEMA, as all levels of government were woefully unprepared due to a lack of good leadership. Hurricane Sandy benefited directly from a change in FEMA leadership when W. Craig Fugate took over from Michael D. Brown (Young, 2009). Fugate had a lot more experience and developed it into a catastrophe management organization that was ready for future events. Fugate ensured that there was a well-defined plan in place so that everyone was on the same page and eliminated various techniques with contradictory courses of action.
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In terms of the National Incident Management System and Incident Command System's future, I feel we are moving towards a more technologically driven society. We are already deploying more advanced communication devices, such as base station radios with several encrypted frequencies, as well as tablets to keep track of the most up-to-date ICS forms. There will always be adjustments to deal with as we move forward. Still, we must have competent leadership conversant with the ground-level functions the are heading so that the changes are not redundant but somewhat counter-productive.
References
Mackillop, H. (2005). The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Anthropology News , 46 (9), 16-16. https://doi.org/10.1525/an.2005.46.9.16
Young, D. (2009). Hurricane Katrina. African American Studies Center . https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.45713
