Dr. Louise K. Comfort, Professor of Public and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh

Topic: Fragility in Disaster Response: Hurricane Katrina, 29 August 2005

Hurricane Katrina represented a major test of the policies and practice developed to protect the nation following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The collapse of the emergency response system at all four levels of jurisdiction - city, parish, state, and federal - revealed serious flaws in governmental capacity to act in response to threat. This article examines the initial conditions and dynamic exchange among governmental agencies that led to the catastrophe in New Orleans. It concludes with a set of recommendations for improving the capacity of governmental jurisdictions to manage risk through coordinated action and to increase community resilience to disaster.