Hurricane Katrina and The Levee System

Individuals connected with the environment around them, and their behavior is a reflection to the environment variables. In these papers I’ll illustrate how the person’s behavior impacted under critical circumstances. I’ll concentrate on Hurricane Katrina, and what is the side effect on workforce, and organizational behavior. The social behavior, and labor market showed stress and emotional issues as side effects prior and after the Hurricane. By discussing these issues I’ll demonstrate how these factors affect the organization productivity, and suggesting a potential solution depending on variety of reliable references. Keywords: Hurricane Katrina, Organizational behavior, social behavior, emotional issues.

Hurricane Katrina And The Levee System And
How Affect The Organizational Behavior

Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest Hurricane since 1900, when a Hurricane hit Galveston, Texas, and it was the costliest natural disaster on record in the United States. The Hurricane made landfall near Buras, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005, as a strong Category Hurricane (Knabb , Rhome & Brown, 2005). The 100-140 mile-per-hour winds and storm surge virtually obliterated entire coastal communities in its wake. More than 1,300 people died as a direct result of the storm and floods, 700,000 were displaced, and 273,000 people were evacuated (Jacob, Mawson, & Guignard, 2008). While the storm itself was very powerful the damage wasn’t caused by the Hurricane but by the failure in the levee system.

In spit of demolition in infrastructure, and environment the people experienced emotional issues and stress prior and
after the Hurricane especially the workforce, the unemployment widespread because of the business loss and destruction. In this paper I’ll discuss how the social behavior impacted after the Hurricane, the labor market as well, what is the self-employment role in economic recovery. What type of stress the workforce faced especially in New Orleans, I’ll state first what is the recommendation for the best evacuation process and what are the best factors for recovering. I’ll suggest a potential solution for the problems that faced the workforce during the Hurricane and after. Best way of recovering.

Can Hurricane Katrina Affect The Social Behavior?
Despite of the disaster and the high risk, it’s been noticed during the evacuation, some of the residents refused to leave their homes, studies have consistently shown that those who have lived through previous hurricanes without major harm are less likely to evacuate, as are those who believe that his home is not in a high-risk location for hurricane damage or that the Storm is not hard enough to warrant evacuation. According to Baker EJ (1991) “ most residents who feel unsafe staying where they are during a storm tend to leave, and those who feel safe tend to stay,” (P293). The safety is not the only consideration that influences the people decision to evacuate. Some people decide to stay behind because of the property. In the other hand, the limited access to transportation, fuel, food, and supplies prevent the individual to evacuate (Baker, 1991). The workforce faced long term and stressful evacuation process. Recommendation

Robert & Latham (2005), recommend a strategy for better evacuation starting from the regional plans, involving the government agencies, providing information, and sheltering. Establishing regional plans. For mass evacuation, state, local officials, and federal agencies should develop these plans. Provide shelter, fuel, food, and supplies (Robert & Latham, 2005). Transportation. Transportation agencies should be effectively involved during the evaluation. As an important key, any failure in this process will delay the evacuation especially the people who need assistance (Robert & Latham, 2005). Information. The State and the local agencies should improve systems to provide information to evacuees and the responsible managers during the evacuations regarding the traffic status, shelters, and fuel and keep updating the information during the evacuation process (Robert & Latham, 2005). Sheltering. Sheltering requirements for all populations and evacuees should take into consideration during the evacuation planning process. There are some issues regarding the shelters for the pets need solutions (Robert & Latham, 2005). How Does Labor Market Affected By Hurricane Katrina?

According to Greene, J., & Polivka, A., (2008), and the data that used to find the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the labor market. The estimation based on a difference-in-differences strategy that compares evacuees to all residents of Katrina-affected areas prior to Katrina. Katrina had great effects on the labor market outcomes of evacuees over the 13-month period immediately following Katrina. The estimation suggests that the effects of Katrina diminished substantially over time as evacuees recovered from the hurricane and adjusted to new economic and social conditions.

Labor Market Recovery
There are many factors that lead the labor market to recovering such as self-employment, supporting small business, and recovery workforce training program Self –employment. This factor played an effective role in the labor market and economic recovery after the Hurricane. The Hurricane directs the workers into self-employment by offering new business opportunities as a second best option for the workers who don’t have constant wages or salary. The self-employment rates had been raised in Louisiana and Mississippi after the Hurricane than before, but after one year, the rate decreased and became somewhat above for non-evacuees (Zissimopoulos & Karoly, 2010).

Supporting small business. The by government for small business is another factor that played a strong role for business and economic recovering after the Hurricane. By providing the low interest disaster loans for all business profit, non-profit, homeowners, and renters. According to The U.S. Small Business Administration (1999), the loans can be used to repair the damage property, business, and there are three types of loans, physical disaster home loans, physical disaster business loans, and economic injury business loans (Sec.123.5). Recovery workforce training program. This program has been established to train the workforce to fill the demand after the Hurricane in many aspects, construction, transportation, manufacturing, electricity, gas and oil. $38 million dollars spend on this program (Rouge, 2006). Does Hurricane Katrina Generate Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)?

The mental health problems increased after the Hurricane Katrina, in a survey conducted six months following the Hurricane Katrina approximately 50% of parents reported emotional problems in their children that were not present before the disaster (Abramson & Garfield, 2008).

Home Health Service
According to Moses, Kleboni, & Simons, (2014), the children with SED need special treatment, supporting, and home health service. Care coordination. The children with SED have especial needs and health care, and different type of coordination. We should concentrate on the behavioral health condition more than a medical condition. Health home care is very important to establish good communications between primary care and behavioral health (Moses, Kleboni, & Simons, 2014). Individual and family support. The family engagement are very important for the children with SED, strong family communication can positively influence service delivery for children with SED. The good parents’ involvement with their child can generate positive results (Moses, Kleboni, & Simons, 2014). Community and social supports. The social support has strong impact on the children with SED, the coordinators need to establish affective relationship between the child, family and the society. A special education should provide to the children with SED (Moses, Kleboni, & Simons, 2014). What Kind of Stress The Workforce Faced in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina?

New Orleans was demolished by flooding first from Hurricane Katrina, and then again a month later from Hurricane Rita. New Orleans residents faced long-term evacuation as well as flood damage to housing, businesses, infrastructure, jobs, facilities, business relationships, and production were destroyed (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006). All these factors affect the workforce negatively. The workforce has challenges in many aspects, the banks have no enough employees to fill the gaps, the post office lack to employee as well, and sometimes the mailman doesn’t show, the lack of professional employees is widespread in New Orleans (Guillot, 2007). According to Louisiana workforce commission there are more than 60,000 position need to be filled in the metropolitan area. There is another issue facing the workforce, the workers are not ready physically and emotionally to come back to New Orleans. Most of the graduate students abandon the city because of the poor jobs, and low payment (Guillot, 2007) The Workforce Recovery In New Orleans

The workforce in New Orleans showed recovering and the investment played as a strong factor in recovering, and the training programs that provided by the government contributed in recovering the workforce.

Investment. The investment is on of the important factor for recovering especially to the workforce by providing job opportunities and constant payment. According to public/private economic development group, the city expects $100 billion in the next two years in the investment sector (Guillot, 2007). Training. The training is another factor to recover the workforce. Workers with high skills have a positive impact on the economy recovering. The Louisiana workforce commission used $38 million grant for training, recruitment, and retention. Shell oil offered a training program as well in the petrochemical industry. The Louisiana technical college offered free training in shipbuilding, welding, pipefitting, and construction. By providing training programs, Ochsner health system had success in developing their employees (Guillot, 2007). Solutions

The best solutions for recovering after the Hurricane is rebuild the infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, publicly owned utilities, schools, police and fire departments, and healthcare facilities (FEMA, 2013), housing assistance and supporting the programs that designed to protect properties from the Hurricane. Rebuild the infrastructure help to engorge the evacuators to return and reestablish business. Supporting small business by the government playing strong role to recover the economic. The government provided physical disaster business loans to support small business and physical disaster home loans, and economic injury business loans as well (U.S. Small business administration, 1999). According to HRMA Pyburn, the progress is slow but it’s constant, the labor market is stabilizing, the living cost is start coming down especially the rent, living condition improving but slowly, and the privet investment have positive result.

On the other hand, some believe that the recovering in New Orleans lack to equity, according to Brand & Seidman (2012), there is inequity in the rebuilding and they state the following: 1-The competition between organizations on the limited resources has increased the fractures between neighborhoods. 2-The city government, private organizations, and non-profits left most of the rebuilding decisions to individual resident. 3-The city did not establish policies or systems to deliver service and resources between neighborhoods. 4- Housing process was not organized.

5-The recovery process has lack in communication and responsiveness, especially between city hall and neighborhoods. 6-The limited capacity is another issue faced the community and neighborhood there is no enough resources to achieve their goals. The funding system that we fined it in another cities it’s not exist in New Orleans. 7- The investment and the coordinated planning concentrate on the large projects, and supporting small projects to some extent absent. For equitable rebuilding, Brand & Seidman (2012), suggest recommendations. Recommendations

1-Concentrate on equitable rebuilding between neighborhoods
2-Supporting planning and targeting the investment to the areas of need
3-Improve the communication between neighborhood organizations and city government.
4-Insure basic quality of life by directing the investment and concentrate on the small business
5-The city needs help from the federal government because no city can recover from it’s self from such a disaster

Conclusion

Hurricane Katrina impact the person’s life in many aspects, despite the environmental destruction and infrastructure, the people faced mental problems, many studies shown that the people who exposed the Hurricane report that, their children have a mental issue after six months from the Hurricane. The workforce examines a stressful circumstance prior and after the Hurricane, because of the business demolition. The labor market affected because of the long evacuation process. The recovering from the Hurricane has very slow improvement especially on the workforce, life condition, and life cost.

References

Abramson D., & Garfield, R. (2006-2008). On the edge: children & families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina & Rita faces a looming medical & mental health crisis. New York: Columbia University Mailman school of public
health. Baker, E. (1991). Hurricane evacuation behavior, international journal of mass emergencies & disasters. 9 (2): 287–310. Retrieved from http://currents.plos.or Brand, A., & Seidman, K. (2012). Assessing post-Katrina recovery in new Orleans, recommendations for equitable rebuilding, community innovators lab department of Urban studies & planning Massachusetts institute of technology. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/colab/pdf/papers/assessing_postKatrina_recovery.pdf Bureau of labor statistics, (2006). Quarterly census of employment & wages. retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2006/08/art1full.pdf FEMA, (2013). Louisiana recovery: eight years after Hurricanes Katrina & Rita. release number dr-1603/07–994. http://www.fema.gov/news-release/2013/08/28/louisiana-recovery-eight-years-after-hurricanes-katrina-and-rita Groen, J., & Polivka, A. (2008). “The effect of Hurricane Katrina on the labor market outcomes of evacuees”, retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ore/abstract/ec/ec080010.htm Guillot, (Nov. 13, 2007). Rebuilding the workforce in New Orleans. retrieved from http://www.workforce.com/articles/rebuilding-the-workforce-in-new-orleans Jacob, B., Mawson, A., & Guignard, J. (2008). Disaster mythology & fact, Hurricane Katrina & social attachment, public health Rep, 123(5): 555­­­­­­­­­–566. retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2496928/ Knabb RD., Rhome JR., & Brown DP. (2005). Tropical cyclone report: Hurricane Katrina 2005. Miami: U.S. Department of Commerce, national oceanic & atmospheric administration, national weather service. Moses, K., Klebonis, J., & Simons, D. (2014). Center for health care strategies. retrieved from http://www.chcs.org/media/developing_health_homes_for_SED_02_24_14.pdf Robert, R., & Latham, Jr. (2005). Mississippi emergency management agency. retrieved from https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/hurricanevacuation/execsumm.htm) Rouge, (2006). Governor Blanco, LRA & workforce commission launch $38 million workforce training program focused on sectors with highest demand. retrieved from http://www.lra.louisiana.gov/index.cfm?md=newsroom&tmp=detail&articleID=294 U.S. Small business administration (1999). Disaster loan program code of federal regulations title 13, volume 1, part 123. retrieved from