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Federalism is a division of power between local and state governments. Under global emergencies, the local and state governments are the first in-line responders to tackle the crisis.
Federalism expects the federal and state governments to respond to disasters such as floods, fires, earthquakes, or pandemics, for instance, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the 2020 COVID-19 in the United States. Federalism plays a vital role in U.S. public health; it oversees the response to the public and the state's spending during a disaster. During disasters, the Federal government reserves the power to declare a national emergency and create a standby temporary order just like the “Stay at home” order given during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The 2005 disaster, Hurricane Katrina, was the largest and most severe natural disaster to have fallen in the United States, precisely New Orleans. The severity of this disaster was measured by the degree of damage, the location of the impact zone, and the impact it had on people's lives. When Hurricane Katrina hit, many factors contributed to catastrophe such as incomplete evacuation in advance of the storm and poor communication. The government was not prepared to counter the disaster of Hurricane Katrina (Leonard, et, al. 2). While watching the Houston Public Media documentary on Hurricane Katrina, I learned that the local and state officials failed to plan before the storm hit, the U.S military waited too long to take actions during the storm, and the government differed to the poor and black American victims. According to the article, is federalism the reason for policy failure in Hurricane Katrina, “Katrina has been cast as a failure of federal initiative and organization, notwithstanding the inherently intergovernmental nature of disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation in the US,” which explains the flawed government in responding to the people during the emergencies (Birkland, et al).
However, the weather forecast warned federal government officials and everyone about Hurricane Katrina, yet the government failed the prepare for the disaster. Some of the federal failures are confusion about what to do, failure to be prepared, communication breakdown, supply failure, and indecision. The federal officials were not proactive when the storm hit, as they were not trained and there was confusion in the deployments and command structure; FEMA- the Federal Emergency Management Agency, had officials with little to no experience in handling disasters like Katrina. As a result of the storm, there was a complete communication breakdown; in the documentary, the Chief of the U.S National Guard, Legen Steven Blum, gave an excuse as to why people were not evacuated on time, he responded by saying people could not call 911 to ask for help as the flood caused a power outage.
The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease that affects both the respiratory and vascular systems of the body. On January 15, 2020, the United States first recorded its first victim of the coronavirus at the Province Regional Medical Center, according to a Houston public media documentary. The president and the state failed to control the spread of the virus; just after five days of confirming the first patient, 32 more people tested positive because of the lack of control; the government was too slow to act. The government failure started from the late availability of testing kits; the WHO provided some testing kits to the U.S. but the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) decided not to utilize them, instead, they ordered some bad test kits. When the first case of coronavirus was recorded, the Trump administration tried to downplay the severity of the virus and suspended the WHO; they assured the public that it was a minor issue and there was no cause to panic. If the president did not suspend the WHO, the cases that tested positive would not be a lot. According to the article, Challenges to Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations and Takeaways Amid the COVID-19 Experience, the major failure of the federal government was misinformation and lack of direction in dealing with COVID-19.
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