The book Disaster: Hurricane Katrina and the Failure of Homeland Security can teach us many ways to prepare for a unexpected event. The chapter that we read gave us many examples of how the government tried to inform the people of New Orleans how to prepare themselves for Hurricane Katrina. The problem that many people have with communicating a problem is the proper method or the authority to inform people how to prepare themselves for the undesirable event. For example, the mayor of New Orleans, C. Ray Nagin, didn’t even know that he had the authority to issue a mandatory evacuation of the city. Not knowing your authority can cause serious problems for the public. It is important for the public to know when something is about to happen that could have adverse effects on them.

The main problem with Hurricane Katrina was that the authorities had already issued an evacuation plan for a previous hurricane. This delayed them from mandating the evacuation of New Orleans for this hurricane. People are constantly hearing about problems that could affect them. After a while, they get tired of preparing themselves for a problem that never happens. This same concept applies with coal use. The public is always hearing about how burning coal is harming the environment. Rarely do we ever hear that the coal supply will be depleted in the future. The United States is unaware of the adverse effects that the depletion of coal would have on our country.

The government did some things right in warning the people of New Orleans about the harmful effects of Hurricane Katrina. There was also some things that should have been done better. Many of the shelters were under supplied. We can use these methods of informing the public to make our methods better for future disasters. By using better methods, we could save lives and money for our country during future times of crisis.