The 2005 Hurricane Katrina response failure : Seeing preparedness for foreseeable complex problems through a neo-institutional lens

Abstract

Governmental organisations often fail to prepare themselves adequately for complex problems such as natural disasters. This is remarkable because these threats are usually studied intensively and governments do develop plans for such situations. Christer Brown demonstrates in his thesis that the complexity of governmental systems and the mutual interdependence of various government organisations hinder the preparations for something like a natural disaster. This particularly applies to government organisations which have to operate in a many-layered administrative system. Brown investigated the case of the American Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which appeared to be insufficiently prepared to respond adequately during the disaster caused by hurricane Katrina in Louisiana in 2005. This was apparently due to a shift in political attention from natural disasters to terrorism within the FEMA, and this forced the agency to establish different priorities for its policies.