A Tale of Two Disasters

The report to the U.S. president entitled The Federal Responseto Hurricane Katrina concludes that in the event of catastrophicdisasters the traditional intergovernmental response to disastershould give way to a more dominant role of the national government.This article considers whether it is possible to respond effectivelyto disaster in the traditional, intergovernmental mode by comparingthe response to Katrina with the response, which was widelyconsidered to be successful, to another disaster, in Grand Forks,North Dakota. The research suggests that an intergovernmentalresponse can be successful if those who respond to the disasterinteract in a collaborative network. The article considers whethersuch collaborative networks can be created and evaluates someof the recommendations from The Federal Response to HurricaneKatrina as potentially helping to create collaborative networks.