Emergency Operations Center Functions Management Research Paper

Analysis of the Local Emergency Operations Center of New Orleans, Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina
Your Name
Department, University
Course number: Course name, Section
Professor’s Name
Date
Introduction
The emergency response and operation of the United States was shaken when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the US soil. During this time, the National Response Plan (NPR) was the prevalent government action plan in responding to natural emergencies (Fagel & Krill, 2011, p. 14). The NRP was an emergency response to integrate the tribal, local, state, and federal resources to support and coordinate the assets to recover affected areas (Fagel & Krill, 2011, p. 17). The role and responsibilities of executing the NPR fall first on the Local Chief Executive Officer, which is the mayor or county manager, of the local government (National Response Plan, 2004, p. 8). The Local Chief Executive Officer is responsible for leadership, communication with the public, and facilitating resource-sharing from State or Federal government when the available resources of the Local Government were exhausted during the initial local response of the disaster (National Response Plan, 2004, p. 8).
On the day of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall, however, New Orleans sustained extensive damages to properties and loss of human lives because of the strength of the hurricane that breached the levee system, which almost immediately destroyed the communication structures and power connections (Neuman, 2006). Since the Local Government needs to communicate their needs to the next level of government before any resource allocation can be given, local officials struggled in acquiring support because of the broken communication networks. Additionally, the national guards and state-level emergency operations centers were reluctant in assisting due to the lack of official authorization from the chain of command in the NRP (Neuman, 2006).
Despite the advantages of having the NRP, this plan falls apart if the Local Government fails to communicate their situation to the State or Federal government. In this paper, the discussion will focus in analyzing (1) the modes of communication within the local EOC of New Orleans between the public and private sectors; (2) the vulnerable populations within the demographic area; and (3) the public stress management, to evaluate the emergency response problems when the Local EOC of New Orleans failed during Hurricane Katrina.
The Modes of Communication within EOC and Between Public and Private Sectors
Failure of Communication Structures
The primary mode of communication among the officers, commanders, and responders in New Orleans EOC are radios and landline phones (Davis & Robbin, 2015, p. 13). These modes of communication are also central in creating public management networks, communication of information to public and private sectors, and emergency response to vulnerable populations. However, the organization of these communication networks can be disrupted if the communication infrastructures, systems, and equipment are damaged, which can significantly handicap the government's disaster coordination and operation (Davis & Robbin, 2015, p. 9). During Hurricane Katrina, the strong wind...