In Katrina's wake: America comes to grips with Katrina's long-term impact, and asks if we're prepared for the next disaster--natural or man-made.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: Cover Story

LESSON PLAN 1: NATIONAL

Hurricane Katrina's aftermath

BACKGROUND

Hurricane Katrina did more than destroy property and kilt people; it also raised questions about government responsibility for coming to the aid of victims of natural disasters and about inequities in American society--specifically whether the victims were disproportionately poor and black.

CRITICAL THINKING

* Some critics of the slow response to Katrina ask if the tack of quick action signals that the U.S. may also be unprepared to respond quickly to another terrorist attack. Is this a fair question? Are the two threats analogous?

* Have students assume they are members of a commission investigating Katrina. President Bush says he takes responsibility for federal failures. Should the President be held personally responsible for the failure of the federal government to quickly aid the victims of Katrina?

WRITING PROMPTS

* Have students write a 100 word e-mail to a teen in another country in which they explain how Americans came to the aid of Katrina victims and their reaction to the criticism being leveled at the federal government.

* Design and write a poster appealing for aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* If you could meet with President Bush, what would you ask him about Katrina's devastation?

* Should those who were trapped by the storm and left homeless be allowed to seek financial compensation from federal, state, and local government?

FAST FACTS

* In 1998, Louisiana and federal officials developed "Coast 2050," a plan to prevent flooding in New Orleans. But funding for the $14 billion project was never approved.

* "Hurricane" comes from the Carib Indian word huracan, for God of Death.

WEB WATCH

www.fema.gov The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides information on aid to Katrina victims.

www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastall. shtmt The National Weather Service provides details about hurricanes.

http://hurricanehelpfor schools.gov/The U.S. Department of Education provides useful sites.

Across the street from Louisiana's State Capitol in Baton Rouge, New Orleans business leaders have begun to plot the rebirth of their city. They're concocting big plans--holding a scaled-down Mardi Gras at the end of February and lobbying for one of the 2008 presidential nominating conventions, and perhaps the next available Super Bowl.

"We're thinking strategically," says J. Stephen Perry, the chief executive of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Gulf Coast is going to need all the strategic thinking the nation can muster. With hundreds, maybe thousands, dead, at least $200 billion in damage spread across some 90,000 square miles, and a major city devastated, Hurricane Katrina is perhaps the most deadly natural disaster to have ever struck the United States. It was not just the storm (a Category 4 hurricane when it hit the Gulf Coast on August 29), but also the failure of New Orleans's levees, which flooded the city, and the government's slow response in the immediate aftermath, that have made Katrina such a catastrophe for so many people.

The enormity of the impact can be felt everywhere. When Congress returned to Washington the week after the storm, it found its entire agenda--and the political landscape--totally changed. The country's economy will likely be affected for months, maybe years. As the cleanup moves forward, concerns about damage to the environment are increasing. And then there's the big question of whether the government's focus on terrorism has detracted from its planning for natural disasters.

WE PREPARED?

Members of the 9/11 Commission expressed shock at what they described as the federal government's disastrous performance in response to Katrina, saying it suggested that Washington was also ill-prepared to deal with another catastrophic terrorist strike.

Others agree. "If our system did such a poor...