Question

#1 - Please write a brief summary about the Hertiage article: Learning from Disaster: The Role of Federalism and the Importance of Grassroots Response. In your own words please don't copy and paste

Answer 1

With hurricane Katrina and various other disasters and emergencies affecting the life of people and other beings raises the question as to how much and in what ways must the federal government be involved to respond to future disasters.

Though scientific research on disaster management argue that federalism is the right approach however, during emergencies, the best effort to save lives are by NGO's , individual and private institution initiatives. So, instead of just following what the government says, grass-root responses must be the crux of national support. The best way is for the federal government to create a foundation that helps to build a strong grass-root response.

The core assumption is that people who are the closest to the problem are capable of finding the best solution. These incidents are best managed at the lowest organizational and jurisdiction level. This assumption is supported because of the following reasons : every community is unique , local communities have the resources, time and priorities matter and encourages preparedness.

The best approach to be adopted by the federal government for disaster management for a diverse country like U.S.A is to have strong state and local governments and volunteerism.

Washington Plans offer a framework where in assistance to local communities in times of need is given through local and state government as well as national NGO's. These plans are designed to support grass-root responses rather than over-take them. As per researches conducted , community-centered preparedness in much more effective than Washington-centered.

During the hurricane katrina is when the importance of grass-root response was understood. At that time neither that federal government nor the national level NGO's such as Red Cross were able to deploy the necessary resources. This was mainly due to lack of awareness of local needs and lack of means to organize the right resources at the right time. However, on the other hand, local communities and ordinary people proved to be most effective.

So, to improve Washington support to enhance grass-root responses, The department of homeland must create regional outreach offices, de-empahsize on national preparedness programs and train the trainers.