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Case Study of Deep Water Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina
Case Study of Deep Water Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina
John Sprague
HLS876 Issues in Public Health and Emergency Planning
Dr. John Giduck
22 February 2017
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Case Study of Deep Water Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina
This document will discuss the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and Hurricane Katrina in order
to determine what leadership and management shortcomings at the local, state, and federal levels
were experienced. While also determining if a National Infrastructure Management Systems was
implemented during the response for these two disasters. The case study will begin with a brief
background on the disasters and their effects on the economy, loss of life and the required
response assets from the Government as well as local agencies.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also known as the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill or the BP Oil
Spill) is a large ongoing oil spill caused by an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil
platform 40 miles southeast of the Louisiana coast on April 20, 2010. Most of the 126 workers
on the platform were safely evacuated, and a search and rescue operation began for 11 missing
workers. The Deepwater Horizon sank in about 5,000 feet (1,500 m) of water. Although
estimated to be leaking 1,000 1,000 barrels of oil a day government officials said there were
three leaks and the well was spilling over 5,000 barrels of oil a day which is over 200,000
gallons of oil nearly a mile below sea level.
Hurricane Katrina killed an estimated 1,245 people died in the hurricane and subsequent
floods. The storm destroyed homes across the southern US causing property damage estimated at
$108 billion. Katrina also had a profound impact on the environment. The storm surge caused
substantial beach erosion, in some cases completely devastating coastal areas.
The damage from
Katrina forced the closure of 16 National Wildlife Refuges. Breton National Wildlife Refuge lost
half its area in the storm.As a result, the hurricane affected the habitats of sea turtles, Mississippi
sandhill cranes, Red-cockaded woodpeckers and Alabama Beach mice. Like the Deep Water Oil
spill hurricane Katrina caused extensive oil spills in its aftermath. The storm caused oil spills
from 44 facilities throughout southeastern Louisiana, which resulted in over 7 million US gallons
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Case Study of Deep Water Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina
(26,000 m3) of oil being leaked. Some spills were only a few hundred gallons and most were
contained on-site, though some oil entered the ecosystem and residential areas.
National Infrastructure Management Systems was not implemented in response to hurricane
Katrina as the system was not developed until 2006. Leadership and management shortcomings
at the local, state, and federal levels existed for both incidents. The U.S. government established
a “unified command” structure which was a concept they have learned after the failures during
Katrina to coordinate the response to the spill.
This brought agencies together under one unified command structure in order to make the
consensus decisions required to clean up and respond to the environmental damage. During
Hurricane Katrina this concept was nonexistent and the efforts were not managed properly until
later on in the response efforts. Local, federal and state agencies had little to no communication
or coordination.
The government and all other agencies involved in Katrina failed during the disaster because
of their inability for enforcement of standards and protocols and a centralized system control or
command. This absence of unity of command could have been predicted. It hardly can be called
surprising in a scenario in which government and private relief agencies meet for the first time,
during an unprecedented emergency, and with no agreed protocols for coordinating mutual
support. One could hardly expect unity of command in a management process that evolves from
the bottom up and relies on the skills of people and agencies functioning under different laws and
governed by different regulations. (
Alan
D. Campen, 2005)
The lack of management, unified command and the inexperience working with organizations
assisting in the responses made both Katrina and the Deep Water oil spill a failure from a
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Case Study of Deep Water Oil Spill and Hurricane Katrina
leadership position. However the oil spill was handled much differently than Katrina as the
government started their response with a unified command and a task force of agencies.
The
failure was the amount of time between the spill being identified and the response from the
government agencies to assist in not only clean up but in stopping the leak.
The government needs to develop task forces of agencies who are on standby ready for orders
to deploy and improve on the time it takes for their response.
Local, state and federal agencies
need to train together on a regular basis in order to better coordinate responses. Unified
Commands need to be determined before the response begins and the commander is given full
authority over the resources. Finally communication systems must be established for cross-
agency communication during disasters military, police, fire etc, all have to communicate
effectively on one net reporting to one command center.
References:
Col. Alan D. Campen, (2005). Hurricane Katrina Represents A Failure to Communicate
http://www.afcea.org/content/?q=hurricane-katrina-represents-failure-communicate
Partnering for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience 2013
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/National-Infrastructure-Protection-Plan-
2013-508.pdf
Cutler J. Cleveland (2010
).
National Research Council Report Deepwater Horizon oil spill
Retrieved from
http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill/
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