Preparing for and Responding to Flood Disasters: A Tale of Two Floods

Major floods have occurred throughout geologic history and will continue to for centuries and millenia to come. Preparation and response strategies have been in place to various degrees. However, with more frequent and severe floods expected in many regions in the future, improving these strategies is a societal priority. In this thesis, I outline the strengths and weaknesses of these strategies in two case studies, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and The Great Mississippi Flood of 1993 in St. Louis. My research compares disaster preparedness and response of recent major flooding in the U.S. My objective is to learn from these cases and identify ways to improve future methods and strategies to protect from flood disasters. The most outstanding problems lie within the reliability in levees, the reluctance to evacuate, and the resources available post-disaster. The problems may be addressed through better engineering and distribution of levees, a participation of the community in federal insurance programs, and a better understanding of the populations that are most often adversely affected