HLS 6070 DF8 Assignment: Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned

Comment on these two post as if you were me with a 100 words each, and put 3 references for each post and please seperate the references
Brian Sullivan
Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned - Think Data Layers
I think one of the biggest lessons learned from the GIS team was preparedness. There was a constant demand for maps, information, situational awareness, personnel demands, The GIS team was unprepared, however, I do not blame them because federal, state, and local governments, especially state and local, did not call upon them until it was too late and did not include them into a woefully inadequate planning process. Everything the GIS teams(s) did was reactionary because at the point where Katrina hit and passed, Louisiana was unprepared, but other Gulf Coast states, such as Mississippi and Texas, were less reactionary and a little more prepared. In my opinion, if the GIS teams were incorporated into the pre-Hurricane planning process, many of the logistical, infrastructure, equipment, communication, and transportation issues would have been resolved. The incorporation of GIS resources from local colleges, such as LSU, were brought to bear too late in the planning process. These students and experts were an afterthought.
Some additional layers that the GIS team could include critical infrastructure such as hospitals, open evacuation sites, power generation, emergency response staging areas, food and water distribution sites,and temporary shelter areas. Some other sensors and imagery that could have been brought to bear on areas impacted by Hurricane Katrina were live feed imagery from UAV resources provided by the federal government, to assist in the response and recovery efforts.
Emanuella Vradis
Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned - Think Data Layers
Lessons learned:
Fostering relationships across the GIS community can be very advantageous for assistance during a large-scale disaster.
Establishing “volunteer pools” of GIS responders is a cost-effective way to have additional help with mapping during a disaster.
Thinking outside of the “software box” can be beneficial and save time.
Training non-GIS personnel can allow GIS analysts to focus solely on GIS mapping and have other personnel use tools such as Mapquest or Google Earth.
Katoaka discusses some of the problems that were faced during Katrina. There was no fluidity between different organizations and their GIS systems or datasets. This resulted in essentially chaos after Katrina hit because various federal agencies were scrambling to combine information. Additionally, equipment and access to data should have been thoroughly prepared for. There was a lack of printers, which resulted in the delay on maps being distributed and created a backlog. Equipment had to be borrowed from FEMA and the surrounding universities in Louisiana. Unreliable internet and power outages were also a problem, something that should have been prepared for much, much earlier. The GIS team was also very understaffed and overwhelmed. Knowing how devastating this storm could be, additional workers should have been called in prior to the storm's landfall. Furthermore, lack of base layers and aerial imagery provided an “immediate hindrance”.
Mobile technology should have been utilized during this disaster. Many responders relied on maps printed on paper. GIS maps also should have been synchronized prior to Katrina, this is a feature of GIS technology that helps provide very detailed and effective maps for first responders and recovery workers because of the combing of information.
GIS teams could have layered their debris maps with maps of population density to see what areas needed the most attention in recovery. Population density could also have been overlaid on GIS team mapping of estimated surge inundation. These maps could have been displayed to the public showing which areas were most at risk to severe devastation from the coastal flooding. I know there was a problem with many residents not evacuating because they did not think it was going to be as devastating as talked about. Seeing visually the potential destruction that was possible could have persuaded people to evacuate.