Natural Disaster

The hurricane of 2005 and the tornado of 2007 affected two different cities in two different states that caused disasters. The disasters affected over a thousand plus residents in the two year span. In my paper I will examine the differences, similarities, responses, and the rebuilding process of the two cities and how efforts to aid the victims. The two cities affected were Greensburg, Kansas and New Orleans, Louisiana. The residents of both cities suffered a great deal through there loss of family and priceless possessions. The response to the families in need after hurricane Katrina was a slow process. The federal government took there time getting aid to residents in New Orleans. The response in Greensburg was much different. Volunteers and the federal government had a much quicker response time. FEMA was slow at giving relief funds to hurricane Katrina victims and they demanded to be repaid for the relief they were receiving. Greensburg was not given a hard time about repayment. The Red Cross and FEMA were major allies for both Greensburg and New Orleans. Katrina was a much larger and complex disaster than the tornado. To this day the federal government is looked down on for the slow response to help fellow American's in there time of need when they needed the most with no questions asked. I believe the government has learned from this public disaster to not let history repeat itself to always come to our fellow citizens aid at a much quicker response from this time going forward. The rebuilding process in New Orleans did get off to a slow start, many people were being McClish 2

rescued slowly before aid arrived to help no one could think about rebuilding or even start to clean up until the residents with no place to call home had sufficient shelter to go to. New Orleans residents had to be taken one to two states away for proper shelter, some did not know if other family members had survived. This was very depressing to here about or to witness in person or on your television set.
The residents of both towns suffered a great deal of loss. Americas responds to each disaster was different and disturbing. There were questions brought up about families getting help did not even deserve it from the Katrina disaster and not Greensburg residents. The area of Louisiana had more poor families than greenburg. This is no comparison being Greensburg was a small town in Kansas not a big city. The volunteers made a big difference in Greensburg to help them rebuild a town they once admired, that was gone in a blink of an eye. The disaster brought this town of people together to rebuild its town. New Orleans on the other hand a much bigger city did rebuild and brought some people together not as close as Kansas but is a start, we all can learn from. The one thing that has brought