Communication and coordination among service and government organizations in New Orleans immediately following Hurricane Katrina
Description
This study explores the events that occurred following Hurricane Katrina. The researcher aims to use this study to suggest ways of improving disaster response in the city of New Orleans and raise awareness of the vulnerability that still exists for certain populations following Hurricane Katrina. Communication, miscommunication and coordination are the 3 variables that are the focus of this investigation. This study lends itself readily to the theory of Social Network Analysis in that it attempts to illustrate the relationships that formed between various organizations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina Four hypotheses were tested through this study. The investigator expects the data to show that the occurrence and frequency of communication was low immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The data will show that the level of communication was not adequate in the response effort. The degree of communication will be positively correlated with degree of coordination immediately following Katrina. Miscommunication will be negatively correlated with coordination immediately following the storm's landfall Quantitative content analysis was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. All the data utilized in this study came from media reports. Ninety-one organizations were indicated as playing a part in the relief effort at some point during the two weeks following Hurricane Katrina. A Pearson correlation revealed a positive correlation between the summed interactions of all 3 primary variables (communication, coordination, and miscommunication) Three of the hypotheses were supported by the results. One hypothesis was not supported. The occurrence and frequency of communication was low immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The results support the hypothesis that coordination was not adequate in the days following Hurricane Katrina. The data showed that communication was positively correlated with coordination. However, miscommunication was positively correlated with coordination, which was not hypothesized. FEMA and the federal, state, and local levels of government were found to be the most central organizations to the relief effort. The results of this study suggest that increasing interorganizational communication and establishing clearly defined roles for organizations must be a high priority in revamping organizational protocol on disaster response if any new approaches are to be successful