The Disaster at New Orleans Essay Example for Free

The Disaster at New Orleans Essay The city of New Orleans is one of the most culturally diverse urban centers in North America. It was founded in southeastern Louisiana on the banks of the Mississippi River some 180 km away from the Gulf of Mexico. It was built in 1718 on the east bank of the river and south of Lake Pontchartrain. The city was named for Philippe II, Duc d’Orleans, the regent of France during the era of Louis XV. It soon became one of the most active commercial port centers of the country. Its diverse culture later turned it into an international tourist destination (Hass, 2006). Unfortunately, New Orleans was built on a strip of land on the Mississippi Delta that experiences constant sinking of the land. This coupled with rising seas presents a great danger to the city. Floods and storm surges are the most feared natural disasters that could occur. To prevent this, Billions of dollars worth of levees, sea walls, pumping systems and satellite hurricane tracking have been set in place to allow for the protection of the residents of New Orleans. However, it seems, the problem of New Orleans became even bigger with these remedies (McQuaid and Schleifstein, 2002). In 2002, New Orleans Times-Picayune released a five-part report on what could possibly happen if a major hurricane reached the city. As the world would see in 2005, all the speculations and predictions of this report became painfully true. The situation back then up to 2005 grew only worse. New Orleans was already 3 feet below sea level a century ago. This means the effect of storms is amplified against the city. Furthermore, coastal erosion of barrier islands and destruction of the marshes present a big threat because hurricane winds and flooding could go inland undeterred. The city is surrounded by water and has areas that are below sea level. The levee system built to protect the city made the city a huge bowl ready to receive water that reaches past the levee but unable to drain it somewhere else. The levees also prevent the continued growth of the delta through silt build-up coming from up the river. Huge structures built on the strip of land contributed to the sinking of the land (McQuaid and Schleifstein, 2002). Models way back in 2002 of the possible scenarios if a hurricane did hit the city were already grim at best. Most of the city would be underwater and the levee system that was built to protect New Orleans would be its own undoing. These pushed scientists to try to find ways to avert disaster. One proposed solution was to build a flood wall of up to 30 feet high bisecting New Orleans and Jefferson Parish to create a community haven on the river side of the wall where they could retreat and also protect buildings from invasion of floodwaters from the lake. In 2002, government agencies and other leaders supposedly mobilized themselves to try and address the rising risk from hurricane strikes. The Federal Emergency Management Agency prepared new responses to the flooding of the New Orleans bowl. Some of the findings were that the levees be raised and lost marshes and barrier islands be rebuilt but the efforts would have been worth at least $14 billion (McQuaid and Schleifstein, 2002). In August of 2005, the feared category 5 hurricane finally came. Hurricane Katrina began as a category 1 hurricane in August 25 when it passed southern Florida. It moved west on August 26 to straight to Louisiana. The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico strengthened it turning it into a category 5 hurricane by early Sunday, August 28. The National Hurricane Center had predicted the second landfall for August 29. By then, around a million people had already been evacuated from the affected areas of southeast Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had already ordered mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28. However, 100,000 of the 469,000 citizens of New Orleans did not leave either because they were too poor or were too sure that they would not be affected by the impending disaster (Drew, 2006). Katrina suddenly weakened to a category 3 storm just before making landfall and shifting a bit thus sparing New Orleans from the strongest winds. However, the disaster that had long been predicated came still came to pass. Tidal surges of six to eight m or 20 to 25 ft came in from the gulf and destroyed the 18-m or 11 mi long earthen levee system that protected St. Bernard Parish. The tide also surged further inland into the Industrial Canal destroying the concrete floodwalls and making large breaches that flooded one of the poorest neighborhoods, Lower Ninth Ward, by up to four m or 12 ft of water. The strong winds also pushed water from Lake Pontchartrain back up the drainage canals north of the city. Although the city was spared from the worst doomsday scenario predicted, damage that had long been predicated came to pass (Drew, 2006). As New Orleans found out later, the worst was yet to come. After the storm, only eastern sections of the city were flooded and the most obvious damage was to the glass panels of high rise buildings and rips on the skin of the roof of the Louisiana Superdome which also was used as the main evacuation center of the city. After the storm, floodwaters from Lake Pontchartrain poured through huge breaches in the walls of the 17th street and London Avenue drainage canals which were supposed to carry out rainwater from the city. These drainage canals, instead, brought more of the water into the dry center of the city (Drew, 2006). The wealthy and middle-class neighborhoods in the northern side of the city were flooded with the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by nightfall of August 29. Emergency communications that were supposed to be used for rescue and relief operations came down and looting became widespread across the city. The Superdome, that lost power during the storm, was surrounded by flood waters, trapping 25,000 evacuees in a dank sweatbox reaching temperatures of up to 100oF or 38oC by morning of August 30. Although the flood waters did not affect the historical French Quarter of the city, by evening of August 30, the city’s residential areas were inundated with 200,000 homes damaged 50,000 of which were severely damaged. The scenario developing was grim and terrible but much of it was predicted before the actual event. Corpses were trapped inside flooded homes but some floated out the water-filled streets. Thousands were stranded on the interstate, the only evacuation point for New Orleans residents, without food or water (Drew, 2006). Perhaps the most frustrating part of the experience was that the decision-makers were apparently unable to handle the situation properly. As in all disasters, when city and state officials become outmatched and overwhelmed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) must step in to address the problems. It was obvious that despite the early predictions given by scientists, the city did not have evacuation protocol for the 100,000 people who did not have cars and the preparation of the shelter that could hold the people for a day or two. The buses that could have been used for the evacuation should have been staged at the Superdome but were trapped in flooded garages. The police force that was supposed to respond after the storm was trimmed to only 249 instead of 1,600 further delaying the rescue operations (Drew, 2006). The decision-making structure included the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana and the head of FEMA and its ground commander. As was later seen, the structure was ineffective in delivering aid to the city and only resulted in bickering among the many officials. This led to more damage to life and property and made the situation even worse. The governor took two days to commandeer buses around the state to evacuate the city. FEMA did not even begin calling in other buses until two days after the storm. One third of the Louisiana National Guard was apparently in Iraq and it was not until September 1 and 2 that help from the Guard troops from other states came. Though FEMA and the Guard provided food and water to trapped evacuees at the Superdome, the 20,000 people inside the New Orleans Convention Center were given very little aid (Drew, 2006). He flooded areas of the city became infested with molds and water became murky from oily sludge and other chemicals. Months after the storm, only less than 100,000 people returned to New Orleans. Many did not leave the metropolitan areas of much safer cities where they decided to find new jobs and start new lives. All this made Hurricane Katrina the costliest natural disaster in American history and the third deadliest. The cost was estimated at around $125 billion and rebuilding of the levee systems to handle category 5 storms was estimated at $30 billion and would take up to five years (Drew, 2006). More than the hurricane itself that was inevitable, the decision-making structure was extremely flawed. FEMA was unprepared to handle the situation and differences between the state and city officials aggravated the situation. This obviously had huge effects on the private sector especially in New Orleans were everyone found themselves as victims and evacuees. Damage to the city was unprecedented and extensive and resident population declined drastically. The private sector except tourism was inevitably affected by the disaster. Some of the most important lessons include the fact that the levee system must be reexamined to become more effective in its function of preventing flooding inside the city. Decision-making must become more efficient and coordinated among city, state and federal officials to provide quick response to any disaster. It was a disaster made by both natural and man-made causes. It is imperative that the man-made part be solved before the next big hurricane hits the city. Bibliography Drew, Christopher. Hurricane Katrina Disaster. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Haas, Edward. New Orleans. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2006. Katrina Timeline (n. d. ) Retrieved 7 June 2007 from http://thinkprogress. org/katrina-timeline. McQuaid, J. and M. Schleifstein. (2002). Special Report: Washing Away. Retrieved 7 June 2007 from http://www. nola. com/hurricane/indexQS. ssf? /washingaway/index. html.

Interpretation Alternatives of Shakespeares The Tempest Essay

Interpretation Alternatives of The Tempest      Ã‚   A production of The Tempest should emphasize the idealized methods in which Prospero uses magic to solve the problem of revenge which is so prevalent throughout his tragedies, perhaps the production might be a direct allegory for the magic of the theatre itself.     In this conception of the play, the scattering and bringing together of the characters in the script is significant in that theatre also could be said to bring people together and allow them to share in an experience of emotion, magic, and finally, of resolution. In this way the production could be used as a vehicle for conveying the idealistic virtues of forgiveness, compassion, and of course knowledge. In his book, A Buddhist's Shakespeare, James Howe draws attention to Prospero's epilogue saying, "In his epilogue this master, Shakespeare, has the character Prospero ask us, the audience, to confirm our collusion with both the master and his creature. Indeed the two relationships are reciprocal. We are asked to release Prospero from our "spell" by "prayer." Becoming white magicians, offering a supplication to God, we reenact the righteousness of Prospero's power, and thus confirm it. This confirmation, in turn, acknowledge's the power of Shakespeare's play to transform us into Prospero's image. We are not only to be consciously complicit in Prospero's character and action, but also to be fully aware of their author." (191) It seems to me that this final transformation in the audience is a very worthy goal to strive for in a production of this play. While being entertained by the magic and splendor of the production itself, I think it is possible for an audience to also be aware of the inherent ideals in the s... ...d truth in the story. While this would clearly be the most problematic interpretation of the script, perhaps it would also be the most effective by far for a modern audience which does not enjoy being preached at or having their truth force-fed to them in a boring, easily-understood, linear manner. Works Cited Cahn, Victor L. Shakespeare, The Playwright Praeger Publishers. Westport CT. 1996 Charney, Maurice. "Bad" Shakespeare Associated Univeristy Press. London, England. 1996 Howe, James. A Buddhist's Shakespeare Associated University Press. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. 1994 Hylton, Jeremy. Complete Works of WilliamShakespeare, Oct 4, 1999. Massachusetts Institute of Technology <http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html> Kathman, Dave. Dating The Tempest Personal site <http://www.clark.net/pub/tross/ws/tempest.html>    Interpretation Alternatives of Shakespeare's The Tempest Essay Interpretation Alternatives of The Tempest      Ã‚   A production of The Tempest should emphasize the idealized methods in which Prospero uses magic to solve the problem of revenge which is so prevalent throughout his tragedies, perhaps the production might be a direct allegory for the magic of the theatre itself.     In this conception of the play, the scattering and bringing together of the characters in the script is significant in that theatre also could be said to bring people together and allow them to share in an experience of emotion, magic, and finally, of resolution. In this way the production could be used as a vehicle for conveying the idealistic virtues of forgiveness, compassion, and of course knowledge. In his book, A Buddhist's Shakespeare, James Howe draws attention to Prospero's epilogue saying, "In his epilogue this master, Shakespeare, has the character Prospero ask us, the audience, to confirm our collusion with both the master and his creature. Indeed the two relationships are reciprocal. We are asked to release Prospero from our "spell" by "prayer." Becoming white magicians, offering a supplication to God, we reenact the righteousness of Prospero's power, and thus confirm it. This confirmation, in turn, acknowledge's the power of Shakespeare's play to transform us into Prospero's image. We are not only to be consciously complicit in Prospero's character and action, but also to be fully aware of their author." (191) It seems to me that this final transformation in the audience is a very worthy goal to strive for in a production of this play. While being entertained by the magic and splendor of the production itself, I think it is possible for an audience to also be aware of the inherent ideals in the s... ...d truth in the story. While this would clearly be the most problematic interpretation of the script, perhaps it would also be the most effective by far for a modern audience which does not enjoy being preached at or having their truth force-fed to them in a boring, easily-understood, linear manner. Works Cited Cahn, Victor L. Shakespeare, The Playwright Praeger Publishers. Westport CT. 1996 Charney, Maurice. "Bad" Shakespeare Associated Univeristy Press. London, England. 1996 Howe, James. A Buddhist's Shakespeare Associated University Press. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. 1994 Hylton, Jeremy. Complete Works of WilliamShakespeare, Oct 4, 1999. Massachusetts Institute of Technology <http://tech-two.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html> Kathman, Dave. Dating The Tempest Personal site <http://www.clark.net/pub/tross/ws/tempest.html>   

Organising And Delegating In The Work Place Essay

AC.1.1 Explain the importance of making effective and efficient use of people’s skills while planning a team’s work to achieve an objectives. Organizing is a function of arranging people and resources to work towards goals. To achieve those goals in effective and efficient manner it is important to have a good knowledge of the team’s skills. Lack of motivation in the team, fear of undervaluation or poor attitude could fail the goals and on the other hand enthusiasm, motivation and given responsibility can bring successful results in reaching the goals. In other words the company’s objectives can be failed if the wrong person is chosen for the task. Manager is a person who chooses the right person, give the jobs that are suitable for their skills and proficiencies. To do so an objectives have to be clear and SMART Specific they are clearly understood and no misunderstanding is possible Measurable everyone knows whether they have hit them or not Achievable they are realistic with team’s capabilities Relevant they logically fit to the organizational needs Timed have a target date to be completed. AC.1.2 Explain how to identify the appropriate person for an activity in the workplace. It is very important to have right people on staff to the success of an organization using a skills matrix will confirm the skills, knowledge and interest of the team members. Skill matrix is a simple visual tool to control and monitoring of skills level. It displays all tasks and skills required at work. It also displays current team members and their current ability level for each task. Skill matrix is used to establish all skills required in an area, it quickly highlights available skills and future requirements. Skill matrix shows training needs, its effectiveness. It is a day to day planning tool to use skills where they are most needed also to organize adequate cover for holiday and sickness. This skill matrix shows the team members individually and as a whole team. It shows who needs training and what they need to learn but also who can  train them. The grid also shows that sharing and combining across team we can develop a deeper pool of resources. We can easily shift resources to help in other areas when work accumulates. Cross training and shifting provide individual to develop skills, gives job satisfaction. AC.1.3 Explain how human resource planning can be used to assure output and quality in the workplace Workforce planning in a process designed to integrate and anticipate human resources to an organization’s needs. It is a systematic process for identifying, acquiring and developing employees to meet the needs of the business. In my workplace. In my workplace human resources planning can be divided into weekly/daily planning and long planning. By long term planning I mean events that we have over the year rallies, gatherings, or Christmas parties. We know exactly when those events will take place, we know approx number of guests and this is how we plan our staff demand. We don’t take holidays those times, sometimes we employ some more staff to cover demand. By weekly planning I mean rotas that are created every week so everybody knows what days they are working but also I make sure that there is enough staff for the day. As morning are quiet we don’t need so many staff and then late afternoons and evenings are very busy we need more staff. I also use daily rotas as human resource planning. Every day I plan using section rota who is having what section e.g. desk-seating customer, who is doing till, who is serving in a bar also I plan what side jobs have to be done and who is going to do them. AC.2.1 Explain how to delegate tasks effectively. Delegation is one of the most important management skills. Delegation saves time, develops people and motivates. On the other hand poor delegating can cause frustration, de-motivates other staff and fails to achieve the tasks. How to delegate tasks effectively Define the task. Describe exactly what you want done. Pick the right person Match the requirements of the job to the abilities of the person. Explain the reason why the task needs to be done, its importance, and possible complications that can occur. Determinate standards. Agree on the standards that will be used to measure the success of task’s completion. Determinate  resources necessary to complete the task. It may require money, training, advice and other resources. Agree deadlines. Agree when to job must be finished and how it’s going to be checked and controlled. Support and communicate. Inform others what is going on, involve to talk about the job, to ask questions about the job and how much they understand it. Feedback on results. AC.2.2 Describe the benefits of empowerment in the workplace Employee empowerment is defined as giving employees a degree of autonomy and responsibility for decision-making. The benefits are reduced absenteeism. Absenteeism is a result of employee boredom with their job as they don’t feel personally connected to the company. Empowered employee feels valued and challenged which results in job satisfaction consequently absenteeism decreases. Reduced employee turnover. Employees often leave because they feel not valued. Empowerment increases employees value, understanding their role in company’s success. They are motivated to reach their personal and company’s goals, to develop their capabilities. In result empowering reduces desire to leave the job. Reduced turnover reduces company’s fund to find and train new employees. Employee satisfaction. In companies where employees are given power to identify problems, find solution, make important decisions have responsibilities they feel empowered. They rate their satisfaction as high that leads to higher level of loyalty. Satisfied employees brings better quality of the products or services. Increased productivity. Empowered employees bring their own ideas solutions or methods of work that company can benefit from. Companies can benefit saving money by allowing suggestions and making changes in procedures. Morale. Giving responsibilities, putting employees in charge of their own projects and results of their action increases their morale. Employees know that their ideas, concepts matters for the success of the company they put more effort in their tasks, work more efficiently. A.C. 2.3 Identify barriers to delegation and how these can be overcome Not enough time. Managers think about delegating jobs when the work overwhelmed them. They think its to late to delegate as they have to find appropriate person, train that person and explain the task. When the job is done they don’t feel that urgency. To overcome that problem managers should find time to find person, train and in  the long run when it gets busy again manager can delegate the job and focus on other higher tasks. Losing control. Managers can feel that by delegating they are loosing control. Good way to overcome that fear is to frequently communicate with the person to whom task was delegated check the progress, ask if any support is needed. it can help decrease that fear and give some sense of control. Lack of trust. Some managers don’t trust that the team or individual will do the task. Managers should let person/ team to do the job, make mistake and learn from it. Making mistakes is very good opportunity to learn improve productivity or finding new solution, ideas. AC.2.4 Explain a technique that can be used to monitor the outcomes of delegation in a workplace A manager after delegating needs to make sure that the delegated task is being done correctly and effectively before it’s accomplishment. He must review and monitor progress checking regularly, giving support. Manger should inform about deadlines and established checkpoints. By checking in manager can learn if the person needs any support, has everything needed to finish the task also can learn about the progress. Manager should not interfere too much to the work they delegated as this may imply lack of trust in the other person. There are number of methods used to monitor the outcomes e.g. observation, productivity/data output, feedback from other members, customers etc. The technique I use in my workplace (restaurant) is mostly observation/inspection and spot check. As working in a restaurant we have some hygiene standards that we have to follow. Coffee machines, glass washer, soft drinks dispensers have to be cleaned every day/shift. The only way I can monitor the progress/ accomplishment is by observing if the job is done according to those standards i.e. appropriate detergents are used, if the surfaces are wiped, removable parts washed. I also use a spot check as a method of monitoring. I check tables if they are clean (no stains) if the condiments are stocked up. There are also some side jobs, housekeeping jobs like dusting, spot sweeping and general cleaning which I can inspect later after they’re done. As we are restaurant our purpose is to serve customers when they arrive. If we get busy all of those side jobs/ housekeeping jobs have to be put aside and we are focusing on customers. This is why it is very hard to monitor those side jobs their progress, or accomplishment, sometimes they are not finished, or not being done at all. I have to be flexible when it comes to check the  progress. We won’t start day if some jobs won’t be done or done properly, but there are also jobs that can be skipped.

German Adverbs of Time - Temporaladverbien

Adverbs of time indicate when the action or event takes place. Adverbs of time answer the questions wann, wie oft, wie lange? Er kommt spà ¤ter. Wann kommt er? Spà ¤ter. allezeit bald bisher damals eben frà ¼her heute heutzutage immer jahrelang jemals jetzt morgen nachher neuerdings nie/niemals seitdem stets à ¼bermorgen vorher zuerst Adverbs with –s-Many nouns with time-related meanings can be transformed into adverbs by adding the letter –smontags, dienstags, etcsommers, winters but not Herbst or Frà ¼hling morgens, mittags, abendszeitlebens (all one’s life)anfangs Montags gehe ich zur Deutschklasse. Adverbs with two timeframes/points in timeeinst/ once, at one time: used to describe a timeframe/point in the future as well as the past. For example,Einst wollte er heiraten, aber jetzt nicht mehr. (At one time he wanted to get married, but not any more.)Einst wird der Tag kommen, wo ich Großmutter sein werde. (The day will come where Ill be a grandmother.)gerade: used to describe a timeframe/point in time in the present as well as the past that just occurred. For example,Mein Vater ist gerade bei der Arbeit. (My father is at work at present.)Sie ist gerade zur Kirche gegangen. (She just went to church.)